General Purpose CustomSettings.ini

One thing that seems to stump a number of people with BDD 2007 is using the CustomSettings.ini file (accessible via the Rules tab) to automate the deployment wizards. The usual issues are around differing language settings for Windows XP and Windows Vista, as well as turning off and on the relevant wizards.

The customsettings.ini file below is a general purpose one that I tend to use as the starting point for most engagements - it has most of the wizard entries (currently set to NO so that they all show) as well as the UK specific language settings for Windows XP and Windows Vista and UK time zone - for the languge settings, just comment out the ones not used (Windows Vista or Windows XP) and turn off the wizards you dont need - remember that any wizards turned off usually need additional parameters to be entered in customsettings.ini for the options they are requesting...

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]
OSInstall=Y

SkipApplications=NO
SkipAppsOnUpgrade=NO
SkipProductKey=NO
SkipDeploymentType=NO

SkipDomainMembership=YES
JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

SkipAdminPassword=NO
AdminPassword=P@ssw0rd

SkipLocaleSelection=YES

; VISTA LOCALE SETTINGS
KeyboardLocale=en-gb
UserLocale=en-gb
InputLocale=0809:00000809

; XP LOCALE SETTINGS
;InputLocale=0809:00000809
;UserLocale=0809:00000809

SkipTimeZone=YES
TimeZone=85
TimeZoneName=GMT Standard Time

SkipCapture=NO
DoCapture=NO

SkipUserData=NO
UserDataLocation=NONE

Addational information on these settings can be found in the Deployment Configuration Guide located in the documentation directory included with BDD 2007 (usually Program Files\BDD 2007\Documentation)