Important!: It appears that if you make the slipstreaming in a Vista machine, an unattended setup of XP will stop at the Key Input screen and it won’t accept any kind of key.

I just read in the TechNet forums. I will make some research and i will posts my findings.

Meanwhile, please slipstream SP3 in a computer with XP if you plan to do an unattended setup.

As i posted yesterday, you can download Windows XP SP3 from torrent sites (and now from Microsoft as well) without waiting for Microsoft to publish it in their download center or via automatic updates.

I already slipstreamed it to my Windows XP SP2 media. Here’s a simple guide if you want to do it on your own. This way, you can have your own SP3 media in no time.

You need the following:

• Windows XP SP2 media or disc image. We will use the files in the disc/image and update them with SP3.

• An application to extract ISO files in case you are using the spanish release of SP3 or you have your Windows XP SP2 as an image file. You can use 7-Zip which is free and a great file archiver.

• nLite to make a bootable cd image from the updated SP3 files.

Note: At the end of the guide you will fin a link to download it as a PDF file if you want to print it or take it with you.

1.- Copy/Extract the contents of your SP2 disc/image to something like D:\XPSP2

If you are using a cd/dvd, just select all the files and copy them to a location of your choice.
If you have a Windows XP SP2 disc image file, use 7-Zip or other program to extract all the files to a location of your choice.

2.- Copy/Extract the files from the downloaded SP3 release to something like D:\XPSP3

If you are using the english release of SP3 you need to copy the installer to this location.
If you are using the spanish release, you need to use 7-Zip to extract the files to this location. Open the image file you downloaded and extract its contents.

3.- Run the SP3 installer with a command-line switch to update the files

I use Launch, my own program, to run files with switches. If you don’t want to use Launch, use the Run box in the start menu, but make sure you have administrator privileges.

The command-line switches are:

WINDOWSXP-KB936929-SP3-X86-ESN.EXE /integrate:D:\XPSP2
WINDOWSXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.EXE /integrate:D:\XPSP2

After you run it, the installer begins to update the files in the folder you specified. Wait until it finishes and you should see a dialog that tells you that everything went fine.

4.- Use nLite to make a bootable disc image with the updated files

Open nLite and point it to the folder where the updated files are and click Next.

In the Task Selection window select Create: Bootable ISO and click Next.

In the next window write a label for the disc image or leave it as it is. Click the Make ISO button and choose where to save the disc image nLite will generate. Wait until it finishes and click Next.

Then exit the program.

5.- We are done now

You can now burn the image file to a cd/dvd and use it to install Windows XP SP3 just like you did with earlier versions.

Download the guide as a PDF file. English/Spanish available.

I have everything working so far. The only thing i’m missing is the installation of drivers during Windows setup.

There is a way to do it but it involves enabling the built-in Administrator account and i don’t want to do it because the goal is to have one master installation for Windows and many people won’t need that account enabled (Vista have it disabled by default, unlike XP).

I’m going to try some things to enable-then-disable it to see if it works and i can finish my setup.

Another thing to have into account is the size of the disc because right now i have about 350mb left on the DVD for drivers and additional programs. I will look at microsoft site to see if there is way to remove useless components (like asian languages support, that take almost 1gb installed).

Meanwhile, i will hold the guide until everything is finished and working as i expect it to.

I almost finished my roundup of tests for installing Vista unattended. So far so good.

I’m thinking of making a tutorial of those of you who haven’t tried and want to make your own unattended installations. I encountered a guide but honestly it is a little confusing and the part that covers installation of programs and other applications just covered one way and Vista has many ways to achieve the same goal.

Also i’m thinking of this because i want to make an spanish guide for people that doesn’t speak (or at least have problems understanding technical words). This way, if i make an spanish guide, i will write it also in english.

Stay tuned if you are interested.