About the .subs

Caution: HPCA now enables you to specify the source of this information when you run the Publisher. See Publishing Operating System Images for more information.

Note: This topic does not apply to Windows XP or Windows 2003.

The HPCA Publisher is backward compatible. It supports publishing saved OS images that consist of a .WIM file, a .EDM file, a .XML file, and a .SUB file.

If you choose to manually pre-create *.SUBS and *.XML files, they must have the same prefix as the *.WIM file. For example: vista.WIM, vista.SUBS, and vista.XML. All three files must be stored in the same directory.

Note: When you run the HPCA Publisher, if it finds a *.SUBS and *.XML file in the same directory as the *.WIM file, it will not prompt you for an unattend.xml file.

HPCA provides samples of these files on the Image Capture media in subdirectories of the following folder:

\samples\unattend

If you choose to use the sample files, rename them and then modify them as needed—for example, setting the <TimeZone> and the <ProductKey>.

The *.XML file is an answer file that contains standard information as well as placeholders for information that will be included from *.SUBS. You can use the Microsoft Windows System Image Manager (SIM) tool to make additions to the *.XML file. If you do so, you must first open the corresponding *.WIM file before opening *.XML.

Caution: If you choose to use *.XML and *.SUBS files, you must specify your Windows installation product key in the *.XML file.

Do not delete any XML values from this file! If you modify the *.XML file incorrectly, you may cause your installation to fail.

If you see errors in the Messages section in the SIM tool similar to "…The value $$SUBSTR$$ is invalid…" you can ignore them.

When you save the file, you may also see a message similar to "There are validation errors in the answer file. Do you want to continue?" Click Yes to continue.

The *.SUBS file is the “substitutes” file that lists each XML item to be modified in *.XML and what its value should be. The lines in the *.SUBS file are known as XPATHs.

Note: Information entered in the *.SUBS file takes precedence over information in the *.XML file.


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