Unattend.xml uses deprecated SkipMachineOOBE and SkipUserOOBE settings

[maxpain]

The bundled Unattend.xml in the MSI installer uses SkipMachineOOBE and SkipUserOOBE settings which have been deprecated by Microsoft since Windows 8 / Windows 10 1709.

From Microsoft's documentation:

Don't use the SkipMachineOOBE setting to automate OOBE.

Current Unattend.xml:

<OOBE>
  <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
  <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
  <ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
  <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
  <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
</OOBE>

Microsoft recommends using the Hide* settings instead to control individual OOBE pages:

<OOBE>
  <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
  <HideLocalAccountScreen>true</HideLocalAccountScreen>
  <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
  <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
  <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
  <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
  <ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
</OOBE>

These deprecated settings still work today, so this is not urgent. But they may be removed in a future Windows Server release. GCP and Kubernetes image-builder already use both deprecated + modern settings as a transition strategy.

References:

• SkipMachineOOBE deprecated
• SkipUserOOBE deprecated
• Automate OOBE (recommended approach)