Unlike previous Windows versions, re-installing Windows 10 operating system is relatively easy. With a few mouse clicks, one can easily reset or reinstall Windows 10 without touching the installation media.
That said, if you often need to perform a clean install of Windows 10 and prefer to create an unattended Windows 10 bootable DVD or Windows 10 USB, you have two choices. The first one is to use a third-party tool like NTLite for Windows 10. And the second option is using an unattend.xml file to easily automate the installation of Windows 10.
Automate Windows 10 install with unattend.xml
Since using a third-party tool takes a lot of time to prepare the unattended Windows 10 installation setup, using unattend.xml or autounattend.xml is a good idea and is much easier as well. All you need to do is generate an unattend.xml with the right values and place it in the root of your Windows 10 DVD or Windows 10 USB.
Sourcing a Windows 10 compatible unattend.xml answer file is not an easy task. And at times, your unattended installation might require your attention if you are using a wrongly configured or incompatible unattended answer file.
Generate and download Autounattend.xml for Windows 10
If you want to prepare unattended Windows 10 DVD or Windows 10 USB with the help of an unattend.xml file, you will be glad to know that the answer file for Windows 10 can now be generated using Windows Answer File Generator.
Windows Answer File Generator is a free online service to generate an unattend.xml file for all recent versions of Windows, including the latest Windows 10. Using this free service, one can create an answer file for Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB.
To prepare your unattend.xml or autounattend.xml file for an edition of Windows 10, visit this page and configure all settings that you want to pre-define to automate the installation and finally click Download File link located at the bottom of the page to download the Autounattend.xml file.
The Windows 10 answer file generator allows you to select or configure the following things:
General Settings
Product key
Accept the license agreement
Automatic activation
Setup language
License rearm
Computer name
Organization name
Regional Settings
Keyboard or input method
Currency and date format
Time zone
User interface language
Out Of Box Experience (OOBE)
Network location
Protect your computer
Hide EULA page
Disable auto daylight timeset
Hide wireless setup in OOBE
Control Panel View
Control Panel Icon Size
Skip machine OOBE
Skip user OOBe
Partition Settings
Wife disk
Install to disk
Main partition active
Main partition format
Main partition label
Main partition letter
Partition order
User account
User name
Group
Description
Password (optional)
Auto logon
UAC
Enable Firewall
CEIP
Under Partition Settings, you will see options to choose various settings. Please select all partition related settings carefully as selecting a wrong partition letter or configuring the answer file to wipe the disk might cause data loss.
Where to place the Autounattend.xml file in bootable media?
Once all settings are selected and configured, click the Download File button to download the Autounattend.xml file to your PC. Place this Autounattend.xml file in the root of your bootable Windows 10 USB to automate Windows 10 installation. For instance, if “E” is your bootable USB’s drive letter, then place the Autounattend.xml file in E:\ to make it unattended.
Good luck!
