This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
unattend.xml answers Windows Setup. The generator drafts XML. It does not start setup. A local administrator password does not belong in the file. prompt-for-this marks the gap. The real secret stays in the store.
The image is one you built, and the PCs are ones you administer. Do not include a product key you copied from a machine you do not own. One answer file. Do not start setup during the reading.
192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the image and the PC role.
- Draft the XML.
- Remove any password and any key you do not own.
- Do not start setup.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Unattended Windows Installs goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A password in the XML.
- A product key from a PC you do not own.
- Setup started during the reading.
- PCs you do not administer.
- Two roles in one file.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Unattended Windows Installs: No password is in the file. The image is yours. The PCs are yours. No foreign product key. And setup was not started.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The role is written. The image is written. No password is present. Nothing was installed. And the PCs are ones you administer. If one of those fails, stop.
# No password in unattend.xml.
# prompt-for-this is not an administrator password.
# Do not start setup during the reading.Before you leave the host
Unattended Windows Installs ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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