Unattended Windows XP Professional Installation

In this post I’ll learn you about how to perform an unattended installation for Windows XP Professional. This installation is a hands-free way to install Windows XP, it supplies the setup with the information needed during the typical setup in a file called “Answer File”.

Browse to your Windows XP CD, open the “Support” folder then the “Tools” folder. Extract the file “DEPLOY.CAB” to a folder in your PC, double click on “setupmgr.exe”, this will open the Windows Setup Manager Wizard, click next.

New or Existing Answer File – select “Create a new answer file” then click next.
Product to install – select the “Windows Unattended Installation” option then click next.
Platform – select “Windows XP Professional” then click next.
User Interaction Level – Now select the “Fully automated” option in which we will fill in the information needed during the setup and click next.
Distribution Folder – select “No” to install windows from Windows XP Professional CD.
License Agreement – Accept.

Now it is your turn to input your information to customize you’re the installation. When you finish, the wizard will ask you to save this answer file, save it on a formatted disk with the name “winnt.sif”.

It is almost done, if you want to install Windows XP again, just insert the floppy disk in your floppy disk drive and Windows XP Professional CD in your CD-ROM drive, let the setup start and go to do whatever you want.