When installing WES8, is there a way to shut down the computer after the WindowsPE step?

Question

I have to create a windows embedded 8 system install process that installs from a USB stick. The installation process should have as little user interaction as possible, and the people installing it should preferably use as little time as possible babysitting it.

To this end I need the computer to shut down after the WindowsPE step of the WES8 install. I have tried setting the Restart to “Shutdown” in the “WindowsPE” part of the Embedded Core configuration, but it still reboots the computer, and if the computer reboots, then the Windows installation will start over.

So my question is: Is there a way to make the installation of WES8 shut down the computer after the WindowsPE step?

We have looked into updating the BIOS so it requires manual intervention to boot from USB, but this would make the installation and upgrade process more complicated than I would prefer.

Here is the relevant portion of our unattended file:

<settings pass="windowsPE">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
        <UserData>
            <ProductKey>
                <Key></Key>
                <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI>
            </ProductKey>
            <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
            <Organization></Organization>
        </UserData>
        <ImageInstall>
            <OSImage>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                <InstallTo>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                </InstallTo>
            </OSImage>
        </ImageInstall>
        <DiskConfiguration>
            <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
            <Disk wcm:action="add">
                <CreatePartitions>
                    <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                        <Order>1</Order>
                        <Size>350</Size>
                        <Type>Primary</Type>
                        <Extend>false</Extend>
                    </CreatePartition>
                    <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                        <Extend>true</Extend>
                        <Order>2</Order>
                        <Type>Primary</Type>
                    </CreatePartition>
                </CreatePartitions>
                <ModifyPartitions>
                    <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                        <Order>1</Order>
                        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                        <Label>System</Label>
                        <Format>NTFS</Format>
                        <Active>true</Active>
                    </ModifyPartition>
                    <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                        <Order>2</Order>
                        <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        <Label>Windows</Label>
                        <Format>NTFS</Format>
                        <Letter>C</Letter>
                    </ModifyPartition>
                </ModifyPartitions>
                <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                <DiskID>0</DiskID>
            </Disk>
        </DiskConfiguration>
        <UseConfigurationSet>true</UseConfigurationSet>
        <Restart>Shutdown</Restart>
    </component>
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
        <SetupUILanguage>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI>
        </SetupUILanguage>
        <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>
        <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
        <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
        <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
        <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
    </component>
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-MMCSS" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
        <SystemResponsiveness>20</SystemResponsiveness>
        <Start>3</Start>
    </component>
</settings>

Answer 1

Actually, the installation starts over because when the computer reboots, it starts from USB stick again instead of starting from the fresh installed partition.

For this, you don't have many possibilities :

• Make the user remove the USB stick right before the reboot, so the computer will boot from the only available drive. This is kinda annoying because you have to be there when it will reboot.

• What we did : Configure the BIOS prior to install so it boots in the following order :

  1. Hard Drive
  2. USB Stick

So on very first startup, the computer will boot from the USB stick (since there is no OS on the Hard Drive) and on second boot, the OS installed in the Hard Drive will boot and Windows will continue its install process.

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of another option.