Microsoft's answer was somewhat unexpected, but it made some sense: They agreed to include custom installation of Server because server operating systems are installed so infrequently. But Windows 2000 Professional was designed for widespread corporate rollouts, so the company expected administrators to script unattended installations anyway. And an unattended installation script is an obvious way to perform a custom install of Windows 2000 Professional.

Unless you're an individual user, of course. Despite Microsoft's best intentions and my clear warnings, many "normal" users are going to walk into a local retailer, purchase a copy of Windows 2000 Professional, and install it on their home PCs. And since most of these users aren't experienced enough to perform a custom installation, I exposed the hidden way that you can remove optional components after installation in my Technology Showcase, Removing Windows components after installation. But for many users, it would be nice to perform a true custom installation of Windows 2000 from the get-go. And such a thing is not only possible; it's actually pretty easy. But in typical fashion, it's also not very obvious, even though everything you need comes right on the Windows 2000 CDROM.

There are a couple of caveats, of course. I spent a weekend installing and reinstalling Windows 2000 in this manner, but there are some scenarios I didn't handle. These instructions assume that you'll be installing Windows 2000 as the only operating system, for example, so I don't deal with dual-booting issues. And some of the things I tried never worked, despite numerous attempts. I'll point out these pitfalls along the way.

Getting what you need
The first step is to get the tools you need, which are hidden on the Windows 2000 Professional CD-ROM. If you navigate to the /SUPPORT/TOOLS folder on the CD-ROM, you'll find a compressed file named DEPLOY.CAB. Extract the files contained in the CAB using a tool such as WinZip, and you'll find a number of useful files, including but not limited to:

• setupmgr.exe - The Windows 2000 Setup Manager Wizard, which is used to create an unattended installation file.
• unattend.doc - A Microsoft Word document containing information crucial to the creation of an unattended installation file (or "answer file").
• deptool.hlp - A help file for the Windows 2000 deployment tools, including the Setup Manager we'll be looking at in this showcase.
• readme.txt - Up-to-date information about the Windows 2000 deployment tools, including a few corrections to the unattend.doc file which may come in handy.

Using Setup Manager
The Windows 2000 Setup Manager Wizard (setupmgr.exe) helps you create an unattended installation file, though you'll have to manually tweak the file it generates before it's of any use. Unattended installation files take two forms, a unattend.txt file that you can place in a Windows 2000 installation distribution folder or a winnt.sif file that can be used with a CD-ROM-based install. Since this showcase is based on a single-user customized install, we'll create a winnt.sif file. But filenames not withstanding, unattend.txt and winnt.sif files are identical; only the way you use them is different.

When you run the Setup Manager Wizard, you'll be asked whether you want to create a new answer file, create an answer file that duplicates the current computer's configuration, or modify an existing answer file. We are creating a new file. In the next step, you identify what the answer file will be used for. In this case, we will be performing a Windows 2000 unattended installation. Then you choose whether this will be for Windows 2000 Professional or Server. I've only tried the Professional version, so Server doesn't apply to this showcase.