Configuring CustomSettings.ini

CustomSettings.ini is the primary customization file for MDT 2010. The customizations you perform are specific to your organization. The names of the servers, default gateways for each subnet, media access control (MAC) addresses, and other details are unique to your organization, of course. The customization that you perform configures the deployment processes to run properly in your network environment. The examples in this section are provided as guides to help you in your customization. For more information on other configuration scenarios, see the MDT 2010 documentation.

The following listing shows a customized version of the CustomSettings.ini file after completing the New Deployment Share Wizard in Deployment Workbench. The initial contents of CustomSettings.ini depend on the answers given to the New Deployment Share Wizard, of course. The section titled "Customizing CustomSettings.ini" later in this tutorial describes in more detail how to customize these settings for different computers.

CustomSettings.ini Modified by Deployment Workbench

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]
OSInstall=Y
SkipAppsOnUpgrade=YES
SkipCapture=NO
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES

The CustomSettings.ini file in the listing contains the property values for all the target computers to be deployed using this version of the file. This version of the file contains no values that are unique to a specific target computer, because all of the settings are defined in the [Default] section. In this case, the target computer-specific configuration values are provided manually during the installation process by using the Windows Deployment Wizard. Table below explains the properties and corresponding values used in the listing.

Note In MDT 2010, the document Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Reference defines these and dozens of other settings that you can define in CustomSettings.ini. Of all the guides in MDT 2010, the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Reference is the most useful, particularly for IT professionals already familiar with the MDT 2010 basic concepts.

Explanation of CustomSettings.ini Properties for LTI

Line in Custom Settings.ini	Purpose
[Settings]	Indicates the start of the [Settings] section.
Priority=Default	Establishes the sequence in which the process parses subsections to locate values for the variables. In this example, the [Default] section is the only subsection that is parsed for variables.
Properties=MyCustomProperty	Indicates any additional properties to locate. The properties listed here are in addition to the properties listed in ZTIGather.xml. ZTIGather.wsf parses ZTIGather.xml to obtain a list of the properties. The property names defined here are added to them.
[Default]	Indicates the start of the [Default] section. The settings defined in this section apply to all computers.
OSInstall=Y	Indicates that the computer is supposed to perform an operating system deployment.
SkipAppsOnUpgrade=YES	Indicates whether the Windows Deployment Wizard prompts the user to install applications during an upgrade. If the property is set to YES, the wizard page is not displayed.
SkipCapture=NO	Indicates whether the Windows Deployment Wizard prompts to capture an image. If the property is set to YES, the wizard page is not displayed.
SkipAdminPassword=YES	Indicates whether the Windows Deployment Wizard prompts to set the local Administrator password. If the property is set to YES, the wizard page is skipped and not displayed.
SkipProductKey=YES	Indicates whether the Windows Deployment Wizard prompts for a product key. If the property is set to YES, the wizard page is skipped and not displayed.

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Configuring CustomSettings.ini

In this tutorial: