How to automate slipstream?

For Windows 7, I've broken this down into smaller chunks so that I have more control. This assumes that you have a directory structure like this and that you download the .msu updates from Microsoft to the updates folder:

c:\
 - Win7
 --- mount
 --- updates
 --- stagedupdates

You can obviously modify this to your liking. I also manually download the hotfixes that I'm slipstreaming so that I know exactly what's in my image.

PrepUpdates.bat

expand -F:* c:\win7\updates\* c:\win7\updates
copy updates\*.cab stagedUpdates
del stagedUpdates\WSUSSCAN.cab /s

MountWim.bat

cd \win7
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:c:\win7\install.wim /index:1 /mountdir:c:\win7\mount

InstallUpdates.bat

cd \win7
dism /image:c:\win7\mount /add-package /packagepath:C:\WIN7\stagedUpdates 

UnmountAndCommit.bat

dism /unmount-Wim  /MountDir:c:\win7\mount /commit

UnmountAndDiscard.bat

dism /unmount-Wim  /MountDir:c:\win7\mount /discard

You can obviously just cobble these together and script the deletion of the leftover updates after. I prefer to do that myself. This should give you a good framework to use, though.

For Windows XP

1 word nLite ... http://www.nliteos.com

Well, you don't, actually, not since XP. (For XP, you'd still use nLite.)

To achieve a similar effect on a newer OS, you'd have a number of options:

1. Editing the install image(s) with WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit).
2. Scripting up your own solution, which MDMarra covered nicely.
3. Third party tools, like nLite was for XP.
   • One I think is pretty decent for Windows 7 would be RTSe7enLite, but keep in mind that it's not a supported/official option, so you may encounter some oddness and/or issues.
4. MSDN license or Technet subscription to get downloadable, more up-to-date builds of the OS in question.
5. Virtualization
   • Most enterprise-grade virtualization suites these days allow you to clone or create a template from a VM, which is a quick way to create standardized, up-to-date VMs for deployment
     • Obviously, most useful with server OSes, rather than desktop ones, but since you weren't specific, I'm sneaking that option in.

Well, I haven't slipstreamed or built a new system lately, but the workflow I've used in the past is to slipstream the latest service pack for my 'base' install media and then run WSUS Offline Update to get it up to date. WSUS Offline Update is a little script that downloads the latest patches, keeps them in a repository, and applies them to a running system.

The nice thing is, of course, you can set things up to run the updates unattendedly as part of an unattended install script - perhaps using a 'baseline' install and just keeping the updates in a single location to have a system that's patched up to the latest patches.

You can also have Windows 7, XP, 2k8 and office updates handled off of the same location. For small scale systems deployment it works great.

I prefer not to slipstream with each install. Quite simply, after a while it becomes a pain in the rear to constantly keep a disk slipstreamed and tested. It would probably take a little longer, but I consider my semi automated installs something I'd run during lunch and finish up later.