Creating Answer Files

An answer file contains the operating system settings that you want to configure during an unattended installation. Before you create an answer file, you need to design your answer file settings. For a worksheet to assist you in recording the settings, see "Answer File Settings Worksheet" (ACIUI_5.doc) on the Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit companion CD (or see "Answer File Settings Worksheet" on the Web at https://www.microsoft.com/reskit).

There are two ways to create an answer file:

You can use Setup Manager (Setupmgr.exe) to create a minimal answer file that contains critical sections and entries necessary for an unattended installation. Setup Manager is an interact 16116u2015q ive tool that prompts you for configuration settings, and then builds an answer file based on your responses.

You can use a text editor, such as Notepad, to manually build an answer file by adding sections and entries to a text file. Using a text editor to build an answer file is often faster and easier than using Setup Manager; however, text editors are more error prone because they do not check answer file syntax.

Typically, you use Setup Manager to build a new answer file, and then use Notepad to manually configure the answer file. You can use the "Answer File Settings Worksheet" (ACIUI_5.doc) to help you configure your answer file.

Creating an Answer File with Setup Manager

You can use Setup Manager to create an answer file, and configure a limited number of answer file settings. Setup Manager is included in the Deploy.cab file in the Support folder on the Windows Server 2003 operating system CD. You can run Setup Manager only on Windows XP Professional or on Windows Server 2003.

To create an answer file by installing and running Setup Manager

From the Deploy.cab file in the \Support\Tools folder of the Windows Server 2003 operating system CD, copy the Setupmgr.exe file to your hard disk.

At the command prompt, use the cd command to change your current folder to the folder that contains Setupmgr.exe, type setupmgr, and then press Enter.

Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.

Setup Manager prompts you for the configuration settings listed in Table 2. . To configure other settings, you must manually edit the answer file as a text file.

Table 2.    Answer File Settings That Can Be Configured with Setup Manager

(continued)

Table 2.5   Answer File Settings That Can Be Configured with Setup Manager (continued)

* The value for AdminPassword cannot begin with an asterisk (*). Using a password that begins with an asterisk can cause the password to be set to a null value.

For more information about Setup Manager, see "Using Setup Manager" and "Setup Manager Settings" in the Microsoft Windows Corporate Deployment Tools User's Guide (Deploy.chm). Deploy.chm is included in the Deploy.cab file in the Support folder on the Windows Server 2003 operating system CD.

You can create or modify an answer file manually by using a text editor, such as Notepad. If you created an answer file by using Setup Manager, the answer file already has several sections and entries. You can add more sections and entries by simply typing the section, entry, and value. However, you can use only valid sections, entries, and values. You cannot create sections, entries or values that are not listed in the "Answer File Settings Worksheet" (ACIUI_5.doc).

Use the following guidelines when you manually create or modify an answer file:

Sections are always enclosed in square brackets (for example, [Unattended]).

Sections and entries are not case sensitive.

Entries must have valid values. For example, "on" is not equivalent to "enable," and "off" is not equivalent to "disable." Invalid sections and entries can generate errors, or cause Setup to fail.

Each entry must have a value.

In addition, you do not need to add every section or entry to the answer file. Setup ignores missing sections and entries.