Project information

Title : Automating Windows installation using scripts I programmed

Date : 2019 - ongoing

Description : I programmed two scripts which help in setting up Windows machines, these help save me time and moeny.

Problem : Setting up bulk lots of computers takes a long time, this costs in both time and also money.

Overview

Setting up Windows once or twice on occasion is no big issue however when it's an ongoing thing on dozens+ of devices it becomes a prime candidate for automation, in this project I display some of the basic operations of two scripts I have programmed, my 'PC Setup' script and my 'Drivers Export' script, these help greatly when setting up computers.

The PC Setup script performs various tasks after a machine has had Windows installed, some of the tasks that it does are :
- Installing a set of basic programs for users to get up and running.
- Removes some of the pre-installed bloatware that comes with stock Windows.
- Copies a folder of high quality wallpapers to the pictures directory.
- Applies a selection of registry tweaks to fix small issues such as defaulting to having a password expiry.
- Sets a some basic personalisation tweaks.
- Calls another script I have programmed called 'PC Info' which collects all the information I need for PC specs and inventory tracking.

In the first video I show the PC Setup script in action, this is actually the final step but I chose to put it first as the first step because the final step 'installing drivers' had to be recorded in lower quality due to OBS requiring drivers to be able to work.

The second and third videos show my drivers export script in action, both installing and exporting drivers, I also show some brief details about how it works without going into too much detail.

I enjoy automating and improving processes which have a tangible benefit at the end which can be measured, it's fun to know how much time, money and energy you will save but also sometimes automating and programming things simply makes it better or adds something you wouldn't have done before - it's a real buzz! ☺️