Customizing and Automating Installations

In large organizations which support hundreds or even thousands of desktop computers, it is expensive and inefficient to install the operating system manually on each computer, and to answer every question Setup asks. In this environment, it is often necessary to automate the installation process. Different software and hardware configurations and varying user needs also make it necessary to customize installations.

An automated installation involves running Setup with minimal or no user interaction. Questions asked when Setup is running, are answered by an answer file. An answer file or script file is a text file with a specific format that contains predefined settings and information used by Setup. It can also contain optional information or instructions for running programs and applications.

A custom installation is a modification of a standard Windows 2000 Professional installation that supports specific hardware and software configurations and meets specific user needs. To customize an installation, modify the answer file to provide Setup with specific answers and instructions and add specific custom files, applications, and programs to the distribution folder.