The Image Capture Wizard will run in unattended mode when the WDSCapture.inf file exists in the same folder as the WDSCapture.exe file (that is, X:\Windows\System32 within the image), and Unattended=Yes is specified in the file. If unattended mode is set to No but WDSCapture.inf exists and has settings defined, those settings will be used to create the wizard's dialog boxes.

To automate this wizard, create a WDSCapture.inf file. Then create a capture image and save this file within the image. To do this, mount the image using ImageX, save this file as Windows\system32\Wdscapture.inf (overwrite the existing Wdscapture.inf), and then unmount the image. Lastly, add the capture image to the Windows Deployment Services server. When you boot a computer into this image, the UI screens will be automated and the image will be uploaded to the server with the settings you have specified.

WDSCapture.inf Unattend File Settings

This section explains the format for WDSCapture.inf files. To view a sample WDSCapture.inf, see Sample Unattend Files.

[Capture]

Contains all of the capture settings for the Image Capture Wizard, as described in the following table.

Setting Description

Unattended=Yes|No

Specifies whether the wizard should be in unattend mode.

  • Yes. Specifies that the wizard is in unattend mode, and suppresses all pop-ups and user interface elements. All unattend settings are read out of this file.

  • No. Specifies that the wizard is not in unattend mode, and uses values in the file to prepopulate the user interface.

VolumeToCapture

Specifies the volume that is holding the Windows installation to be captured. This setting must be in the following format: drive letter, colon, back slash. For example: c:\

ImageName

Specifies the value to be set as the image name within the image metadata. This will be the image name as displayed in the Windows Deployment Services management tools and the user interface of the Windows Deployment Services client. (The Windows Deployment Services client is basically Setup.exe and supporting files.)

ImageDescription

Specifies the value to be set as the description within the image metadata. This will be the image name as displayed in the Windows Deployment Services management tools and the user interface of the Windows Deployment Services client.

DestinationFile

Specifies the full path and name of the .wim file to which the image is to be captured.

SystemRoot

The name of the system root folder. If this setting is not specified, \Windows, \Winnt, and \i386 will be tried. The Image Capture Wizard must locate the system root to extract the data needed to form the metadata (for example, the version of the operating system and installed languages) that is added to the .wim during the capture.

Overwrite=Yes|No|Append

(Default=No)

Designates whether the file specified in DestinationFile should be overwritten if a file with that name already exists in the specified location.

  • Yes. Specifies to overwrite the existing file.

  • No. The process will cause an error if a file with the same name already exists in the specified location.

  • Append. If a .wim file with the same name already exists, the capture should be appended as a new image within the existing .wim file. This setting often produces a much faster capture because when files from the current capture operation already reside in the .wim file (for example, if file resources in another image already exist in the .wim file), the files are not copied into the .wim file again. The image name specified must be unique within the .wim file; otherwise, you will receive an error.

[ExclusionList]

Defines the files and folders to be excluded from the capture. By default, this section is populated with the following items: $ntfs.log, hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, System Volume Information, RECYCLER, winpepge.sys, and %SYSTEMROOT%\CSC. Note that the %SYSTEMROOT% variable is replaced by the value specified in SystemRoot in the [Capture] section.

[WDS]

Contains all of the Windows Deployment Services-specific unattend settings.

Setting Description

UploadToWDSServer=Yes|No

(Default=No) Specifies whether the resulting image should be added to a Windows Deployment Services server's image store. If this value is set to No, all other settings under the [WDS] section will be ignored.

WDSServerName

Specifies the name of the Windows Deployment Services server. This can be either a NetBIOS name or a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

WDSImageGroup

The name of the image group on the specified Windows Deployment Services server.

Username

The user name to use when connecting to the specified Windows Deployment Services server. This name can take either of the following forms: domain\username or username@domain.com.

Password

The password of the user account.

Note

We recommend that you enter credentials in the wizard user interface (UI). Credentials specified in WDSCapture.inf are stored in plain text within the capture image, and there is no way to secure these credentials.

DeleteLocalWIMOnSuccess=Yes|No

Specifies whether the local capture image (where the capture image was saved) will be deleted at the end of the process, assuming that the image is successfully uploaded to the Windows Deployment Services server. You should be careful when using this option with the Overwrite=append option because the entire image will be deleted (not just the new .wim that was appended to the existing image).