Before you start designing an unattended installation, you
must determine whether the hardware and software on your destination computers
is compatible with the operating system you are deploying, and whether you have
the appropriate device drivers for an unatte 454s1810e nded installation. You can use your
hardware and software inventory to identify the hardware and software that
is installed on your destination computers. For more information about creating
a hardware or software inventory, see "Planning for
Deployment" in Planning,
Testing, and Piloting Deployment Projects of this kit.
Figure 2. shows the steps you need to follow to evaluate hardware and software for unattended installations.
Figure 2. Evaluating Hardware and Software
You must evaluate hardware and software compatibility before
you perform an unattended installation because incompatibilities can cause an
unattended installation to fail. For example,
if Setup attempts to install a device or an application that is incompatible
during an unattended installation, Setup cannot display a warning dialog box or
prompt a technician for alternative installation instructions. Instead, Setup
simply stops running, and the installation fails. Therefore, you must replace
or upgrade incompatible hardware and software before you perform an unattended
installation.
You can use several resources and tools to verify hardware compatibility.
The Windows Catalog contains a list of software and hardware products that are designed for, or are compatible with, Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003. You can search the catalog by manufacturer, product type, product name, or model. If you do not see a product in the Windows Catalog, it does not mean the product will not work with Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 - check with the product's manufacturer to determine whether the product works with these versions of Windows. For more information, see the Windows Catalog link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.
Windows Upgrade Advisor and Windows XP Upgrade Advisor
are tools that check your system hardware and software to see whether they are
ready to be upgraded to Windows XP Professional or Windows
Server 2003. Although the tools assume you are upgrading to
Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003, you also can use them
to identify software and hardware that are not compatible during a clean installation
of Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003. To download either
of the tools, see the Windows Upgrade Advisor link on the Web Resources page at
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources. You also
can run either tool by using the /checkupgradeonly
parameter with Winnt32.exe. Winnt32.exe
is included in the i386 folder on any Windows XP Professional or Windows
Server 2003 operating system CD.
In addition to Windows Catalog and Windows Upgrade Advisor,
you can use the Application Compatibility Toolkit to verify software
compatibility. The Application Compatibility Toolkit contains documents and
tools to help you diagnose and resolve application compatibility issues with
Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003. For
more information about application compatibility, see "Planning
and Testing for Application Deployment" in Planning, Testing, and Piloting Deployment Projects of this
kit. For more information about the Application Compatibility Toolkit,
see article Q294895, "Description of the Application
Compatibility Toolkit 2.0 for Windows XP," in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base. To find
this article, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base link on the Web Resources
page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.
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