Hello,
Getting the below message during Apply Opeating System Step in a VM. Same Windows 10 WIM and Unattented file works in different task sequence.
Please help what could be the problem.
Windows could not parse or process unattend answer file. the answer file is invalid
Hi, @BoopathiSubramaniam-6294
Thank you for posting in Microsoft Q&A forum.
This error occurs if the product key entered in the task sequence is not valid. Verify the product key for the versions of Windows and the edition (Professional, Enterprise, etc) that the task sequence is installing.
This error also occurs if there is a space in the computer name when entering the value for OSDComputername, verify the computer name entered does not have a space. The computer name more than 15 characters will cause this issue too.
You may check your unattend.xml file with the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/unattend/microsoft-windows-shell-setup
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It seems there is no update for a couple of days. May we know the current status of the problem?
Hello @AllenLiu-MSFT
Thanks for your reply.
"Windows could not parse or process unattended answer file. the answer file is invalid" message appears in Hyper-V host.
It is not happening in Laptop/Desktop/vSphere VM Host.
Any drivers to be added for Hyper-V in Boot.wim
Please help.
How do you set the computer name? If the computer name is too long, it may cause this issue.
You may also try the steps:
1. Press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt
2. Type regedit
3. In registry editor navigate to:
HKLM/SYSTEM/Setup/Status/ChildCompletion
4. If setup.exe is 1, change it to 3.
5. Restart
I also have this issue just now with MDT not SCCM it could be a product key issue but I'm not sure I chose to not specify mine in MDT options because we get OEM keys or whatever they are. Dell installs windows on the machines and licenses them and then sends us the machine. So I figured doing an MDT deployment on them would just pick up the key like it would if I had to reinstall windows on it. Maybe that's a wrong assumption?
they sent us the machines with win10pro and im deploying a win11pro. I have had no issues with the product key not taking with a manual upgrade. My computer name rule is OSDComputername=UEA-#Left(%SerialNumber%",12)# so it just adds our company name and a dash in front of the serial number
apparently, the advice I found of organizing the computer name like this UEA-#Left(%SerialNumber%",12)# is bad so I just changed it to uea-%serialNumber% and it did what I want
I was getting the same error while doing a clean restore on a dell laptop. In my case it was just due to Secure Boot. Once that was disabled in BIOS the setup ran without issue. Secure Boot can be re-enabled after setup is complete.
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