Unattend File Parse Problem -- Windows 7

Joe Gill

Well I decided to try my Universal Image out on a new pc and finally found one that my image failed on…

This is the message I get…

Any ideas on how to correct it or how I can make my image work on this newer machine?

Wayne Workman

When you say “finally”, it sounds like the image succeeded on many other models before this? If that’s the case, I would suspect drivers for this model to be the culprit.

Joe Gill

@Wayne-Workman

I’ve installed this Universal image on several models. I used Driver Packs DP_Install to inject drivers into the image. Basically it calls on DP_Install post sysprep from the SetupComplete script.

Wayne Workman

@Joe-Gill Well, maybe run some tests manually. Grab one of the problem models and just simply install windows 7 on it - nothing else, then try your drivers pack manually. See if it installs everything correctly or not.

Joe Gill

@Wayne-Workman That’s a great thought. I have a temporary work around to get things caught up for the new school year I may do, than take a problem model and make a new image using that method. Thanks for the advice!

Cheers,

Joe

Wayne Workman

@Joe-Gill There’s also nothing wrong with making an image just for this model only. It’ll allow you to more throughly fix the issue later when you’re not under a time crunch.

george1421

OK the $64,000 question is what is in your specialize\windows-shell-setup section of the unattend.xml? That would cause it to break on this model only?

Can you scramble any private data in that section and post it here?

Joe Gill

@george1421 I’ll take a look at it tomorrow! You’d be proud though George, I’m actually starting to gain headway on doing things properly sysprepping and adding to the domain correctly. We also setup a KMS server, but only after I pressed on the other Admin. Ugh! Sucks being the new guy! Ha!

Thanks for the help in advance! This forum has been VERY helpful!

Cheers,

Joe

Joe Gill

@george1421

I figured I was already remoted into the office so I might as well look. LOL!

<settings pass="specialize">
       <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="XXXXXX" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
           <ExtendOSPartition>
               <Extend>true</Extend>
           </ExtendOSPartition>
       </component>
       <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="XXXXXXX" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
           <ComputerName>*</ComputerName>
           <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
           <ShowWindowsLive>false</ShowWindowsLive>
           <TimeZone>Mountain Standard Time</TimeZone>
           <ProductKey>XXXXXXXXX</ProductKey>
       </component>
   </settings>

The X’d out stuff is the things I figured you were talking about. Thanks!

george1421

Well that section of the unattend.xml file is a bit unexciting isn’t it?

I did a little research on this and the error message above may be misleading. There is the potential that this is a driver issue and not related to this section of the oobe process. Which would kind of tie into why it happens on this one model and not the others.

"This resolution is based on the source of the error, to troubleshoot this issue, review the Microsoft Setup log setupact.log file.

Note: The Microsoft Setup log file is located at c:\Windows\Panther\unattendGC\setupact.log.

To view the log file from a computer currently displaying the error, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt and run this command: notepad c:\windows\panther\unattendGC\setupact.log "

ref: http://blog.vmpros.nl/2015/05/13/vmware-windows-could-not-parse-or-process-the-unattend-answer-file-for-pass-specialize/

I also found references to this file being in these locations:

%Windir%\Panther\Setupact.log
%Windir%\Panther\UnattendGC\Setupact.log

Please review these logs to see where the system is actually failing.

Joe Gill

@george1421 Thanks George! I’ll check that out. I’ve got bigger issues I’ve got to work on at the moment. LOL! I’m having KMS issues. I posted about it.

Cheers,

Joe

george1421

@Joe-Gill Only a comment: If you have KMS issues you probably will get a better response (and viability) if you post it on the Spiceworks Community forum. I work both of them, but don’t have any clue about KMS.

Joe Gill

@george1421 Indeed! I managed to get KMS going finally! Thanks with a little support and help from @Wayne-Workman !

Wayne Workman

@Joe-Gill How?

Joe Gill

@Wayne-Workman See post! I just updated it. Ha!

Unattend File Parse Problem -- Windows 7

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