Forum Discussion
Let's discuss about Windows Setup (offline) - what would you wish for? - Panther 2.0
After more than 10 years the Windows Setup (offline) has not changed. And comparing to other OSes this becomes very obvious. We are all familiar with the Windows Setup. It appear very streamlined.
The UX is still in Windows Vista Design, not following any principles of design language, comparing to OOBE, this is so obvious.
Changing the UI and changing the workflow does not really need to change the tooling like unattend.xml etc. rather bringing more of these what you could automate back to the user and his choice.
If you happen to install the current Kubuntu / Ubuntu then you will notice a huge advantage of the setup process compared to Windows in offline phase:
- you can specify the login / account (Windows OOBE)
- specify the time zone and language (Windows OOBE)
- connect to WiFi (Windows OOBE)
- download updates and DRIVERS from the repository (Windows OOBE has a late feature for that but not consistent)
While setting things up the OS is already installing so you effectively save much of time compared to Windows Setup.
I understand the investments into Windows Setup are minimal since Windows Vista / WS 2008, yet it changed a lot in terms of speed, design and UX and especially technology like WIM, language independency.
Investing in to Windows Setup (panther) might not be feasible as many automations rely on this (ConfigMgr, MDT (no longer supported with W11), Intune Autopilot AND most device come predeployed.
It is about time for the Windows and Windows Server to reconsider what's technically possible.
Thanks for your feedback and participation on this here and please also in Feedback hub (Windows key + F). Here's my item feedback hub https://aka.ms/AAohace
Wishes, ideas?
Like the idea, give it a vote.
4 Replies
Great news! Starting with Windows Insider / Windows Server Insider build 26040, we can enjoy an revamed UX for Windows Setup, as announced in aka.ms/wip26040
So let's explore. Takeaway, it is not yet the revolutionary attempt we are discussing here in this thread, but overall I am excited to see we will receive some UX modifications in years.
Key facts:
- Win11 online setup design language
- consistent Win11 animations (rotating circle)
- UX improvements, especially on disk management
welcome screen / regional settingskeyboard method still automatically derives from former page's settings
All new UX for options that make the previous one more accessible
You can still revert to the old UX.licensing and key still required (except Azure Edition and Azure Stack HCI)
OS image selection
just for demo I am preferring Desktop Experience, as I would like to see the OOBE. Usually I would prefer the Core option without Desktop Experience for most scenarios.
consisten Windows 11 animations
The ineviteable fineprint. Still worth a read. There are interesting edge scenario CPU licensing terms for OEM and CPU as long not covered via SA.This is new one
Improved disk partitioning UX. Move or shrink isn't there still.
yet some features are new, like bring disk online without using Shift+F10 and diskpart.
another new window. All's set requesting to confirm what's going to happen.The installation progress now matches the UX like an inplace upgrade
new onboarding screen after first boot. Previously this was a "getting ready / install devices"
That's all folks! 🙂
Some ideas from Bronson Magnan, who reports from his view of automation of VM images and setup process as service provider and current challenges and possible improvements with a revamed Windows Setup.
1a. An official PowerShell module/system for generating unattend.xml files would be pretty nice
1b. OR replace (unattend).xml altogether using JSON file and tools to generate it (JSON is also used by Winget and other Microsoft products. If the output was json, I could convert directly from a class composition, instead of producing arrays of strings according to an ancient xml schema to write to disk
2. Panther Setup 2.0: Improvement for virtual machines: setup should be able to look for HyperVNetworkAdapterName registry keyword in the os netadapter advanced properties, and if there is a named defined in the value, to match the IP assignment by that name instead of by MAC address?
This way we can name the adapter during vm configuration using consistent device naming feature. Not having to mess with static mac allocations would be a win. (And go ahead and automatically rename the net adapter to match the registry keyword)- I could imagine that Windows is no longer directly installed on a partition but rather using something like FSLogix, a container that makes it easier to upgrade and replace versions in a modular way (long way to go I know). The idea of using VHDX under the hood while not noticeable for the applications, plus then using ReFS could bring performance benefits when applying updates, removing old Windows Versions etc. so the vdhx should just contain some basic parts and everything from the user / system installed should be a different container. like NTFS mounting into a folder.
we should consider that despite Autopilot and OEM which are the majority of installations, every now and then Windows Setup is still used from USB or ISO. Let it be
- fresh installations
- VMs
- custom built hardware
- start over (without Windows Reset),
- changed hardware (not technically necessary)
- modern and consistent Windows design language- due early internet connection select CU, drivers and firmware updates that could be integrated into the wim before deployment.
- UI scalability / readability (fonts)
- PowerShell 7 + .net (Core) integration if necessary
- Bluetooth device support for keyboard, mouse, and helper for people with disabilities, incl. high contrast schemes
