There are many custom settings available in Unattend.xml that can be used to add useful and practical touches to your Windows 7 image. We will be using the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_6.1.7601.17514_neutral configurations to add these custom settings to our Windows 7 image. I will be focusing on some of the recent customizations for my Windows 7 image applied during the OOBE configuration pass of Sysprep.
To add Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup to the OOBE configuration pass of the Unattend.xml, highlight Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup then Right Click > Select Add Setting to Pass 7 oobeSystem.
The Windows Image Manager lists the options of Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup for the oobeSystem configuration pass. You will notice that there are many image customizations that you can deploy out-of-the-box to your clients that will add really practical and kind of slick touches to Windows 7. Here are a few that I have used lately.
Set default Network location to “Work” and Disable Windows Update
Under the Answer file Component tree > Select OOBE > Under OOBE Properties use the NetworkLocation dropdown and select Work. This will set configure the Network settings to Work and not prompt the user at first log in.
Type 3 for ProtectYourPC. This setting will disable the default behavior to automatically go to Windows Update, (and since we always use a GPO or System Center for Microsoft updates we can set this without any worries).
Set the Taskbar Links
If you want to pin a program to the Taskbar in your image set it in the Unattend.xml using the TaskbarLinks node. Windows 7 will allow you to set 3 programs in the Taskbar using the .LNK shortcuts in the ProgramData directory.
Set the StartPanel Links
If you want to pin a program to the Start Menu in your image set it in the Unattend.xml using the StartPanel Links node. Windows 7 will allow you to set 5 programs in the Start Panel using the .LNK shortcuts in the ProgramData directory.
Display Settings
Click on Display and enter the Color Depth, Horizontal, Vertical and Refresh setting information.
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