Oobe.xml Settings

Applies To: Windows 7

Note

This content applies to Windows 7. For Windows 8 content, see Windows Deployment with the Windows ADK.

This topic describes the settings that can be set in Oobe.xml. A sample of Oobe.xml is provided with the Windows® OEM Preinstallation Kit (Windows OPK) and the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) in the \Samples folder. This sample uses the fictitious company Fabrikam and Fabrikam graphics and offers.

To view the sample files in Windows Welcome

  • Copy the \Info folder to \Windows\System32\Oobe, and copy the \Fabrikam folder to the root of the C: drive, where C is the letter of the drive on which you have installed the Windows operating system.

To view Windows Welcome with the sample content

  1. On the Start menu, point to All Programs, and then click Accessories.

  2. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

  3. Accept the User Account Control dialog box.

  4. Navigate to \Windows\System32\Sysprep.

  5. Run sysprep /oobe.

  6. Start the computer.

Windows Welcome

Oobe.xml Settings

The following table shows the available settings in the Oobe.xml file, by section, along with the description and the value for each setting.

Section Setting Description Value

OEM

name

Name of the manufacturer.

String

logopath

Absolute path to the OEM logo.

Absolute path to the logo file, a 32-bit portable network graphics (.png) file. 240x100 pixels.

eulafilename

Language- and location-specific version of manufacturer end-user license agreement (EULA).

.rtf file.

OutOfBoxBackground

Specifies whether the OEM has placed a background image in the Windows\System32\Oobe\Info\Backgrounds directory.

True or False. If this is set to true, the background image must be located in the Windows\System32\Oobe\Info\Backgrounds directory and must be named Background<resolution>.jpg, where resolution = 800x600, 1280x1024, or whatever resolution the monitor on the target computer has. The file for the background must not exceed 250 kilobytes. You can also add a default file, BackgroundDefault.jpg, which is used when a background for the target computer’s monitor resolution is not present.

usertilepath

Absolute path to the OEM-specified user tile.

Absolute path to the 128x128 pixel bitmap (.bmp) file.

computername

Specifies the OEM name to append to the user-designated computer name. This replaces "-PC" that is otherwise appended to the user's name to create the computer name.

Five-byte string.

Computer names can be customized by OEMs and by corporate customers. They can append a string that is up to five bytes long to the customer-chosen computer name.

If they do not customize this string, "-PC" is appended to the customer-chosen computer name. In some languages, “-PC” is localized and the resulting string might be more than five bytes. When this occurs, the computer-name string is truncated and this truncation may result in a nonsense string appended to the computer name.

To avoid this situation, OEMs and corporate customers should provide an appending string in an Oobe.xml file.

title

Name of Internet service provider (ISP) offer.

String that names the offer of ISP service.

imagepath

Absolute path to a bitmap (.bmp) file.

Absolute path to the 32-bit bitmap (.bmp) file. 32x32 pixels. PNG files are not supported.

details

Longer description of the ISP offer.

String with a maximum of 128 characters.

shellexecute

Path to the executable file (.exe) for the ISP offer.

Absolute path to the Setup program for the ISP offer.

defaults

language

Decimal identifier for input locale.

Decimal identifier for input locale. These values can be found in the following topic, Default Input Locales.

location

The location is specified by using a GEOID value that is converted to its decimal value.

For a list of GEOIDs, see this MSDN Web site.

locale

The locale is specified by using a locale identifier (LCID) value.

For a full list of LCIDs, see this Microsoft Global Development Web site. For a list of LCIDs and the versions of Windows in which they are available, download "Windows Language Code Identifier (LCID) Reference" from MSDN. In this paper, in the left pane, go to "Appendix A: Windows Behavior" to see a table that shows the LCID and the Windows release in which it is available.

keyboard

Specifies the keyboard layout.

Use the keyboard value that is listed in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Keyboard Layouts.

timezone

Specifies the time zone of the computer's end user. The time zone is set by a string that specifies the time zone for the computer. The maximum length is 256 characters. New time zones might appear in future releases. To add support for a new time zone, you must enter the exact time zone string.

For a full list of time zones, refer to the values listed in the registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones on a computer running Windows® 7. On a computer running Windows 7 you can use the tzutil command-line tool to list the time zone for that computer. The tzutil tool is installed by default on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Warning
If the time zone is not specified, a default time zone value is used. The default time zone is based on the installed language and region specified in an answer file. If a region has more than one time zone, the time zone is set to the default time zone of that region. The default time zone for that region is specified by the location of the capital/major city. For example, if en-CA is specified, Eastern Standard Time is used as the default time zone because the Canadian capital, Ottawa, uses Eastern Standard Time. If en-US is specified as the UserLocale, the time zone of the Windows installation defaults to Pacific Standard Time.

adjustForDST

Specifies whether to adjust for Daylight Savings Time. This setting is effective only when used in combination with the timezone and hideTimeAndDate settings to specify the time settings for the end user.

True or False.

hideRegionalSettings

If this setting is not specified as True, then the Regional Settings page will be shown, even if all of the values for that page have been preconfigured.

True or False.

hideTimeAndDate

If this setting is not specified as aTrue, then the Time and Date page will be shown, even if all of the values for that page have been preconfigured.

True or False.

Note

The ISP offer that OEMs can include will not appear in Windows Welcome, but rather in the Connect to link on the Start menu.

Language

There are many more LCIDs than available languages. A few LCIDs map to languages that can be released with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. For more information about which languages are released with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, at what level of localization, and their decimal identifiers, see Understanding Language Packs. For a list of LCIDs and the versions of Windows in which they are available, download "Windows Language Code Identifier (LCID) Reference" from MSDN. In this paper, in the left pane, go to "Appendix A: Windows Behavior" to see a table that shows the LCID and the Windows release in which it is available.

Time Zones

For a full list of time zones, refer to the values listed in the registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones on a computer running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. On a computer running Windows 7 you can use the tzutil command-line tool to list the time zone for that computer. The tzutil tool is installed by default on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

See Also

Concepts

Oobe.xml Technical Reference