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When you’re finished, Setup Manager prompts you to save your answers as a text file. The contents of the file will look something like this:

;SetupMgrTag

[Data]

AutoPartition=1

MsDosInitiated="0"

UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

OemSkipEula=Yes

OemPreinstall=No

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword=414c11f760b0064 ... [out to 64 characters]

EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes

OEMSkipRegional=1

TimeZone=85

OemSkipWelcome=1

AutoLogon=Yes

AutoLogonCount=1

[UserData]

ProductKey=FFFFF-FFFFF-FFFFF-FFFFF-FFFFF

FullName="Scott"

OrgName="Total Seminars"

ComputerName=*

[Identification]

JoinDomain=TOTAL

DomainAdmin=admin09

DomainAdminPassword=my-password

The list goes on for another hundred lines or so, and this is a fairly simple answer file. One thing to note is that if you provide a domain administrator’s user name and password for the purpose of automatically adding new PCs to your domain, that user name and password will be in the text file in clear text:

[Identification]

JoinDomain=TOTAL

DomainAdmin=admin09

DomainAdminPassword=my-password

In that case, you will want to be very careful about protecting your setup files.

Once you have your answer file created, you can start your installation with this command, and go enjoy a nice cup of coffee while the installation runs:

D:\i386\winnt32 /s:%SetupFiles% /unattend:%AnswerFile%

For %SetupFiles%, substitute the location of your setup files—either a local path (D:\i386 if you are installing from a CD) or a network path. If you use a network path, don’t forget to create a network boot disk so that the installation program can access the files. For %AnswerFile%, substitute the name of the text file you created with Setup Manager (usually unattend.txt).

Of course, you don’t have to use Setup Manager to create your answer file. Feel free to pull out your favorite text editor and write one from scratch. Most techs, however, find it much easier to use the provided tool than to wrestle with the answer file’s sometimes arcane syntax.

* * *

NOTE If you need help creating a network boot floppy or CD, check out www.netbootdisk.com/bootcd.htm.

Automating a Vista Installation with the Automated Installation Kit

As of Windows Vista, Setup Manager is history—as is any method of automating an installation that isn’t extremely complicated and intimidating. Microsoft has replaced Setup Manager with the Windows Vista Automated Install Kit (AIK), a set of tools which, although quite powerful, seem to have made something of a Faustian deal to obtain that power at the expense of usability (Figure 14-37).

Figure 14-37 The Automated Installation Kit

Writing a step-by-step guide to creating an answer file in the AIK would almost warrant its own chapter, and as the CompTIA A+ exams don’t cover it at all, I’m not going to go into too much gory detail. I will, however give a brief account of the process involved.

The basic idea behind the AIK is that a tech can create an answer file by using a tool called the Windows System Image Monitor, and then use that answer file to build a Master Installation file that can be burned to DVD. Vista’s answer files are no longer simple text documents but .XML files, and the process of creating one is much, much more complicated than it used to be. Gone are the days of simply running a wizard and modifying options as you see fit, replaced instead with a method of choosing components (which represent the things you want your automated installation to do, such as create a partition, enter a certain product key, and much, much more) out of a huge, often baffling list and then modifying their settings (Figure 14-38).

Once you’ve selected and modified all of the components you’re interested in, you have to save your answer file, copy it to either a floppy disk or a USB thumb drive, and plug that into a new computer that you’re going to install Vista on. When you boot a computer off of the Vista installation disc, it automatically searches all removable