Skip language selection in Windows 10 Install

Question

I recently acquired a Lenovo laptop (the 100S-11IBY). It comes with Windows 10 32bit. I've upgraded the Windows version immediately using my Enterprise license, so I did run Windows 10 Enterprise Insider before everything went south.

I needed a linux build environment on the go, and since WSL is only available on 64bit Windows, I installed Debian 64bit. Now I want to re-install Windows.

I have

• a USB installer for Windows 10 Enterprise (release, not Insider), and
• a license for that.

One assumes that this is everything needed to setup Windows again. Wrong.

While I can boot into the setup, Windows Setup doesn't load any keyboard driver applicable to this laptop at this stage (remember, this is the prompt before the actual Setup loads). I had that same problem while setting up Debian, but that was solved by using a USB keyboard.

But not this time. So my next thought was an unattended install. I've spent many days trying to create an answer file that would install Windows on this machine. Eventually, I resolved all errors apart from an "unknown" disk error during "Copying Files". Using a Debian live system, I can see that Windows Setup erased and formatted the drive successfully.

Because there is no reference to the error in any MS documentation, I can't resolve it. But I noticed something curious: The moment that error occurs, a message box pops up. I can actually use my keyboard to navigate that message box! But other than cancel, and hard-reset the computer, there's nothing I can do.

So now I know that my keyboard would work in the setup. I just need a way to skip that initial "Choose language, formats and keyboard layout" prompt. Sadly, even when I use the single language edition of the installer, the prompt still pops up.

So, the question is: Is there a way - any way - I can configure the setup to skip that prompt, but then be interactive again? Even using a minimal answer file, interactivity can never be restored: If there's an error, it just errors and resets he PC. Instead of, you know, transferring control to the user.

Support: I actually contacted Lenovo about this. Maybe there is a keyboard driver I can put on the installer. They told me that yes, there is such a driver, but they can't give it to me. They said I have to buy a proprietary recovery USB drive. Which is, hold onto your seat, $50 shipped! At this point I'm inclined to disassemble the setup binary to patch it, but maybe you know an easier way.