Blank Screen during OOBE (Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024) when Custom Shell is enabled using Shell Launcher V2

Hello

From the information I found, there doesn't seem to be a direct solution to this specific issue. However, here are a few steps you might consider to troubleshoot and potentially resolve the problem:

Check Unattend.xml Configuration: Ensure that your unattend.xml file is correctly configured and does not have any settings that might be causing the issue when there is no network connection.

Review Logs: Check the setup logs located in C:\Windows\Panther and C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC for any errors or warnings that might give you more insight into what is causing the blank screen.

Network Dependencies: Verify if there are any network dependencies in your OOBE setup that might be causing the issue. Sometimes, certain configurations or scripts might require a network connection to proceed.

Update Drivers: Ensure that all drivers, especially network drivers, are up to date. Sometimes, outdated drivers can cause unexpected behavior during the OOBE process.

@Mark Bewley Per the comments-

If your application is not a UWP application, I recommend using Shell Launcher V1 rather than V2. The Shell Launcher APIs can be used to configure Shell Launcher. My Shell Launcher command line utility can help with the setup: https://annabooks.com/SW_SLUtility.html

The cause of my issue is the usage of group SID in my configuration xml. The account created by Windows for OOBE, defaultuser0, is falling into a group that would display the custom shell.

For OOBE to display correctly, I needed to ensure that, for defaultuser0, the default profile (explorer.exe) is loaded. I cannot directly specify defaultuser0 in the configuration xml, as it has not yet been created.

To be able to have the custom shell appear post-OOBE I needed to do the following:

• Create a user account in Audit Mode.
• Create an configuration xml, that uses the sid of that user account to display the custom shell and apply it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ShellLauncherConfiguration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ShellLauncher/2018/Configuration" xmlns:v2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ShellLauncher/2019/Configuration">
    <Profiles>
        <DefaultProfile>
            <Shell Shell="%systemroot%\explorer.exe">
                <DefaultAction Action="RestartShell"/>
            </Shell>
        </DefaultProfile>
        <Profile Id="{4B5F92B0-C10E-40AD-A25D-0F9C0224BAB2}">
            <Shell Shell="%windir%\OEM\CustomShell.exe">
                <ReturnCodeActions>
                    <ReturnCodeAction ReturnCode="0" Action="RestartShell"/>
                    <ReturnCodeAction ReturnCode="-1" Action="RestartDevice"/>
                    <ReturnCodeAction ReturnCode="255" Action="ShutdownDevice"/>
                    <ReturnCodeAction ReturnCode="1" Action="DoNothing"/>
                </ReturnCodeActions>
                <DefaultAction Action="RestartShell"/>
            </Shell>
        </Profile>
    </Profiles>
    <Configs>
        <Config>
            <!-- Sid can be user sid, local group sid, and AD group sid -->
            <Account Sid="..."/>
            <Profile Id="{4B5F92B0-C10E-40AD-A25D-0F9C0224BAB2}"/>
        </Config>
    </Configs>
</ShellLauncherConfiguration>

• Set auto logon to that user account.
• Run Sysprep to enter OOBE.

Now OOBE successfully completes and the custom shell is displayed. I can then run some post-OOBE tasks to deploy the original custom shell configuration and change the auto logon account.