Step reference
Install Windows 11
True bare-metal Windows 11 install with the right OEM driver pack injected automatically. Wipes the target disk; runs only on the USB entry point.
What it does
This is the step that puts an operating system on a blank disk. StageReady installs Windows 11 from bare metal using OSDCloud: it wipes the target disk, lays down a fresh Windows 11 image, and then auto-detects the manufacturer and model and injects the correct OEM driver pack (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Surface) before the machine ever boots into Windows. That last part is what saves you a driver headache: no golden image, no driver hunting.
It runs in WinPE, before Windows exists on the machine, so it's naturally one of the first steps in a template.
This wipes the disk, including a disk that already has Windows on it
Whether this step runs is decided by how you started the job, not by what's on the disk. Boot a machine from the StageReady USB and it does a bare-metal install: the target disk is wiped and reimaged, even if it had a working Windows and data on it. There is no prompt. Back up anything you need first.
When it doesn't run
There are two ways to start a job, and only one of them installs Windows:
- Booted from the StageReady USB — this step runs and reimages the disk.
- Run from inside an existing Windows (
Provision.cmdon a machine straight from the manufacturer, or one you're repurposing in place) — the job never boots WinPE, so this step is skipped, along with the rest of the WinPE phase, including BIOS configuration. Provisioning picks up from the installed OS: apps, updates, certificates, Autopilot and domain join all run as normal.
Skipped steps are shown as skipped on the job, with the reason, so you can see exactly what did and didn't happen.
Options
| Option | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Edition | Which Windows 11 edition to install: Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education, or the matching N variants. Defaults to Pro. |
Good to know
- Always the latest Windows 11 build available from Microsoft at install time, so you're never deploying a stale image.
- If the install fails, the setup stops by default. There's no point running later steps against a machine with no OS.
The image is always en-US, and that isn't the user's language
StageReady downloads the en-US image for the widest driver and tooling compatibility.
That's the OS install language only. Set what the user actually sees, meaning display
language, keyboard and timezone, with the
Language & region step.
Part of the step catalogue.
Related
OOBE configuration
Auto-answer the out-of-box screens (region, keyboard, device name, EULA, optional Wi-Fi) and optionally skip the account screen so the device lands ready, with no duplicate admin.
Language & region
Set the display language, keyboard layout, regional format, home location and timezone for the installed Windows and every new user. Autopilot-compatible.
Autopilot registration
Capture the hardware hash and register the device into the client's Windows Autopilot via Microsoft Graph, with no manual CSV imports.