Chapter 14: Deploying with Answer Files

Chapter 14

Deploying with Answer Files

Users installing Microsoft Windows on their own computers don't often worry about automating the setup program. Instead, they drop the CD into the drive, the setup program starts, and they answer the setup program's prompts. But that won't work in a business because most business users don't know the answers to all the setup program's questions. Automating the setup program prevents users from having to fumble with the installation. Furthermore, as an IT professional, you want to ensure that users have a positive experience.

You should still consider automating Windows installations even if you are a power user. It makes installing Windows more convenient, and setup options are available to you through answer files that just aren't available through the setup program's user interface.

Microsoft provides several tools that help you to deploy automated and customized Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Windows) installations. Each tool has purposes, strengths, and weaknesses that are different from those of the other tools in various deployment scenarios. Examples of deployment tools include Microsoft Sysprep, for disk imaging, and Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS), both of which come with Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. Every deployment method and tool has unattended answer files, which you use to automate the setup program so that it runs with little or no user interaction. Rather than prompting users for information, the operating system's setup program uses the information contained in the answer files.

Answer files are text files that look like INI files. Answer files have many sections, and each section contains settings. Because this book is about the Windows registry and user settings rather than desktop deployment, I only introduce you to answer files. After you learn the basics, I'll describe two answer file features that specifically enable you to deploy user settings as part of the Windows setup process.

More Info
If you're interested in learning more about deploying Windows, see the following resources:

• Microsoft Windows Desktop Deployment Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2004). This book describes how to deploy Windows XP in detail. It covers answer files, disk imaging, Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE), and so on.

• Microsoft Windows Corporate Deployment Tools User's Guide. You find it in Deploy.chm, which is in the Deploy.cab cabinet file in the Support\Tools folder of your Windows CD.

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2005). The resource kit, of which this book is a part, contains a deployment kit for deploying Windows Server 2003 in enterprise environments.

You start this chapter by learning how to add files to Windows distribution files (the i386 folder).