Configuring and Using International Features of Windows

Installing MUI as part of base English Windows setup

Creating the installation share

Unattended installation of the Windows XP MUI requires all of the language resource files to be placed on a network install share. Copy all of the files from CDs to the install source. The files should be placed in a temporary directory below the top level directory. In this example, we use a server \\MUICORE. The directory for the MUI CD contents will be:

\\MUICORE
    \UNATTEND
        \$OEM$
            \MUIINST

Creating "cmdlines.txt" and putting it in \\muicore\UNATTEND\$OEM$

"cmdlines.txt" should include the following lines:

[Commands]
"muiinst\muisetup.exe [/i LangID1 LangID2 ...] [/d LangID] /r /s"

Note that you must specify " " in your cmdlines.txt file. Use the appropriate Language ID (LANGID)s, and the MUISetup command line parameters to ensure a quiet installation. Please check the previous section, or muisetup.hlp for a complete description of all the command line parameters for muisetup.exe (the command line help content is under "related topics" in help).

Creating the answer file

The answer file is a file containing answers to the questions normally asked of the user during Setup. In the case of the Windows XP/2000 MUI, there are two sections to which close attention should be paid: the [Unattended] section, and the [RegionalSettings] section.

[UNATTENDED]

This section header identifies that an unattended installation is being performed, and is required in the Unattend.txt file. Otherwise, the answer file is ignored.

[Unattended]
OemPreinstall=Yes
OemFilesPath=\\muicore\unattend
OemSkipEula=YES

[Regional Settings]

This section specifies values for the language group and locales (user locale, system locale and input locales) to be installed on the system. Values are specified through use of appropriate ID numbers, which you can find listed in the sidebar at right.

Bear in mind that the language group necessary for the locales you specify must be installed. For example, if the locales are set to Arabic, and Arabic is going to be the default language for menus and dialogs, the Arabic Language Group should be specified in the RegionalSettings section:

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup="5","8","13"
Language=0401

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Running winnt32.exe

The final part to installing the Windows XP/2000 MUI in unattended mode is to run winnt32.exe with the correct options specified.

If you require the installation of East Asian language and locale support, you must specify /copysource:lang or /rx:lang to copy the necessary language files. If you do not, and the [RegionalSettings] section of your answer file contains East Asian values, Setup will ignore everything in the [RegionalSettings] section:

winnt32.exe /unattend:"path to answer file" 
/copysource:"lang" /s:"path to install source" 

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You can find more information about these options in the OEM Preinstall Kit:

WinXP Pre-Install Reference
(CD, \support\tools\deploy.cab)
Win2000 Unattend.doc
(CD, \support\tools\deploy.cab)

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