Topic: wsim

• Windows answer files (unattend.xml): configuration passes and where Setup looks for them

  An unattend.xml answer file supplies settings to specific configuration passes of Windows Setup — windowsPE, generalize, specialize and oobeSystem are the ones provisioning touches most. Setup finds the file through a fixed implicit search order and caches it in %WINDIR%\Panther, and Windows System Image Manager builds these files and can hide, but not encrypt, local-account passwords in them.

  article · en · reviewed · knowledge as of 2026-09-24

Machine-readable: JSON