Slipstreamed and Unattended Windows Installations

As a matter of fact, this article is the beginning segment of a two-part series. In this first part we will cover, as promised, the slipstreaming process, how to integrate service packs, security patches, and other extra drivers into the Windows installation. This does not help directly with the mass deployment, but it does eliminate the need to install the patches.

Additionally, not being there through the setup won't speed it up; it just eliminates user interaction. All in all, your presence won't be required (that much, anyway).

The upcoming segment of this series is going to provide a general overview and instructions concerning a powerful utility released by Microsoft called System Preparation Utility, abbreviated Sysprep. This tool is of great help because it aids us through the process of preparing an already-existing Windows installation for mass distribution. In short, SysPrep removes machine-specific information from the reference Windows OS.

Once that step is done, we can use third party disk-cloning utilities to prepare a disk (or partition) image. After that we can use mass-deploying tools that deploy the images throughout the network via multi-cast or just boot from CD/DVD media and launch the process by ourselves. Either way, our presence won't be required.

We're getting ahead of ourselves here-let's stick to this part for now. Click on the link below to get started.

Before we begin, we must define the term slipstreaming. It is a technique known since the release of Windows 2000 and XP. Slipstreaming means applying the technique to combine a source-legal Windows installation CD with the necessary extra security updates, patches, service packs, and if need be, additional drivers as well. The end result of slipstreaming is another legal Windows installation CD on steroids.

It should be noted that Microsoft sells slipstreamed editions that contain the latest updates every now and then. So this is a perfectly legal and native approach for the OS. Technically, all that happens is that the source image becomes "expanded" with the additional software updates. The installation CD may become a DVD quite easily (due to its large size), but that shouldn't cause problems nowadays.

During the installation process of slipstreamed editions, the additional software and updates are also installed. This is the number one reason why slipstreaming is so powerful. It is an extremely time-saving process. Just imagine being in the place of system administrators required to deploy tens of thousands of identical copies. Network bandwidth can also be conserved during the process. Thus, it saves time and money.

There are numerous step-by-step manuals and guides available on the Internet that lead the user through the slipstreaming process for the most common packages, such as the Service Pack 2, and lately, SP3-all of these, of course, referring to Windows XP. Walking the reader through the process of do-it-yourself manually via the command line ("cmd.exe") is not really the purpose of this article.

We won't focus on that. Instead, we'll just briefly present the process to help you grasp the concepts. On the next page, we will recommend some of the most popular free third-party utilities that do the slipstreaming process automatically. You download the application, launch the utility, a fancy GUI shows up, and you can walk through the entire process with a wizard-like interface. And yes, they do the job well.

However, as mentioned earlier, we want to actually understand what happens behind good-looking graphical user interfaces. Before you do anything else, you should copy the source legit version of Windows to a reference folder. Once this is done, we download to a separate folder, practically anywhere, the security hotfixes, service packs, and updates. Then we run each (or handle them via a script) with the /integrate:<path_to_install> tag.

In the above example, replace <path_to_install> with the accurate full path of the folder where the copied source Windows installation CD is located; by doing this, the patches are integrated into the installation image. After this step, you need a boot extractor utility to grab the boot loader from the original installation CD. A freeware utility to do this is IsoBuster.

You'll find "Microsoft Corporation.img" as the bootable image. Extract it. Then launch your favorite CD/DVD burning software suite (such as Nero Burning Rom), create a new bootable CD/DVD compilation, specify the source bootable image (the one we have just extracted earlier), then add the files and folders (by selecting everything) from the slipstreamed installation. As you can see, it isn't hard...but it is time-consuming.

Windows install CDs supplied by OEMs usually cannot be slipstreamed because they are proprietarily customized already. And you should pay attention to the burning options because the following two options must not be ignored: 1.) Number of loaded sectors: 4 (this can be set in most authoring suites); 2.) "Do not add the ";1" ISO file version extension." Without these, the CD won't boot.

Now let's also explain as briefly as possible the theory behind unattended installs. In short, Microsoft allows users to automate the installation process of their apps and operating systems via so-called answer files. These are basically text files that already contain the answers to the questions that pop up during installations. As you can see, you can edit the sample answer files only once, and then use that file thousands of times.

The structure of these files is composed of headers ("[name_of_the_header]"), and then keys and values ("key = value"). By default, each Windows installation comes with a sample unattended.txt that can be modified according to your requirements. For a complete walk-through of how to build an answer file on your own, check out this Microsoft documentation. To sum up, answer files script the installation process.

On the next page we'll take a look at third party utilities that can lead the user through the slipstreaming and unattended setup-creating process in a wizard-like manner. The image will be in an .ISO ready-to-burn format. Then all you need is a blank CD/DVD media -- and of course, your favorite optical media authoring environment suite.

First and foremost, clearly the most state-of-art slipstreaming and deployment tool for unattended Windows installations is the so-called nLite. It is the most up-to-date freeware application in this area. The developer, Dino Nuhagic, nicknamed Nihu, is truly responsive to the need for bug-fixing and adding new support.

nLite is specifically designed for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003. There is a dedicated edition just for Vista, called vLite. But during this article our emphasis lies on nLite. We all know that Vista has not achieved the success of its predecessors. The application is freeware and allows a high level of customization.

The user is able to remove components that are technically "un-removable" under normal conditions; herein we include Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Movie Maker, and so forth. This grants the user permission to totally eliminate any traces of bloat-ware. For older machines this may improve performance, but regardless, it gives the user absolute control over his or her operating system, which is a definite plus.

The next amazing feature, which is the main reason we are talking about nLite, is its slipstreaming image creation specifically for unattended deployment. Moreover, advanced service configuration is also possible (a la services.msc) before slipstreaming!

Probably the most user-friendly function is its .ISO image creation (as export) feature. Usually, the most common frustrations concern the images, whether they don't boot anymore or the setup process simply halts, gives errors, or whatnot. So a good image creation process is especially important because it basically guarantees a working installation CD and there's nothing the user can do wrong (like forgetting to specify the 4 boot blocks).

Once the image is generated, all that is left to do is burn it on an optical media. Slipstreaming also solves the problems regarding those SATA hard drives and/or RAID arrays that require additional drivers, otherwise Windows won't recognize them. These can be slipstreamed and then right away everything will go smoothly.

As an extension to its list of features, there are numerous extra tweaks that come with its high level of user customization: themes, skins, wallpapers, desktop-related tweaks; other tweaks for managing the start-menu, all-around security, network, explorer, taskbar, and so forth. And finally, even the CD-key can be specified to speed things up.

We wholeheartedly suggest thoroughly reading the user guide that can be found on the official website. It's also a good idea to read the FAQ, and the numerous step-by-step walk-throughs available in various places on the Web. And, of course, the nLite Forums are a really active place where you can ask for clarification.

Nevertheless, nLite isn't the only utility handling Windows customization which does slipstreaming and unattended installations. Another alternative is TommyP's HFSLIP utility. It works along the same lines as nLite. For a detailed overview of its features and user manuals, just check out the website linked earlier.

We've come to the end of this article. By now you should be familiar enough with the process of slipstreaming to master the free third party utilities that aid us during these endeavors. While very few actually do slipstream their own Windows installations, it is helpful to know what happens behind the scenes of these tools. It gives a better understanding and makes us feel more confident when beginning the journey.

Furthermore, if we also know the structure of configurations files that alter the behavior of our installations, turning them into "unattended" setups, then sometimes we can apply various finishing touches, editing the answer-files ourselves. This again helps a great detail because it may save us time to not rely on the utility that generates the answer files, when an adequate computer isn't in our reach.

On top of everything, in those situations where we ought to deploy the image we have just slipstreamed via network, there are a few possibilities. Microsoft supplies RIS (Remote Install Server) to help administrators with this task. This official document explains the entire process in great detail. In a nutshell, you set up the RIS, and after that deployment can happen to remote-boot enabled computers.

A capable network card is required (PXE - Pre-Boot eXecution Environment) along with the necessary BIOS configurations to allow client computers to be booted up remotely via network shares. RIS boot disks can also be used when PXE capability isn't possible.

Another common alternative to network booting is making the content of the slipstreamed installation image available through a network share, and then  using any pre-made network-enabled bootable disk. A few recommendations for the TCP/IP network boot disks include the following: NetBootDisk, Nu2, and Google for more.

And finally, we can't really finish without inviting you to join our helpful community at DevHardware Forums. We've a strong base of resident professionals, enthusiasts, and tech experts. If you want to hear opinions on some service or ask some clarifications regarding some details just shoot us your questions. We'll do our best to help. And you may also want to pay a visit to the community of our sister site: DevShed Forums.