Welcome to the forum!

[Alanoll]

Welcome!

Congratulations for finding your way to this excellent forum. If you ever have trouble understanding the Unattended Guide feel free to post here.

The Unattended forums covers a broad area of topics, from the actual Unattended installs, to Application switches and Multibooting CD/DVDs. You'll also find in the forums directly below these an entire section of member created programs that you will find extremely useful and often exciting to start using.

Below you will find some posts that will assist you when trying to solve your problem. As you may find, a vast majority of problems have already been encountered and solved on this forum. Please use the search function of this board to help find these problems.

One final point before progressing, is that one you do make a change on your CD, document it. Don't make alot of changes at once, but instead take baby steps to insure everything works. If you do add everything at once and have a problem, it will be exponentially harder to find the problem.

If you have a problem that the search button does NOT fix, and can't find the problem on your own, post about it. When posting, ZIP or RAR your WINNT.SIF and any other files you're editing/working with. Attach it to your post, as this will just hasten a response that will fix your problem. In your post, be sure to describe where/when/how the error occurs, so if need be we can duplicate it.

• The top of the board
  
• Search Tips
  
• Posting Tips
  
• CODE, QUOTE and CODEBOX
  
• Important Threads
  
• Threads of Interest
  
• Forum Etiquette
  

again, Welcome to the Unattended forum.

Alanoll

Edited December 30, 2007 by tain
updated

[Alanoll]

Top of the Board

First thing to do, is familiarize yourself with the functions of this board.

Reading and understanding the forum rules will help you to avoid having little run ins with the Moderators and having your topic closed.

The link just to the right of the forum rules is a link to the Unattend site. This is a great reference for most problems and getting started on the path of Unattended installs.

Over on the right you'll find the SEARCH button. Use it wisely. There's alittle guide below on using it. If you fail to search, and it is blatantly obvious you haven't, don't be surprised when you're topic is suddenly closed or a forum member leave a NICE reply telling you to do a search. The most common issues will be documented with solutions in the FAQ section of the Unattend guide, so that may very well be the first place to look.

Now jump down to the very bottom of the page. There is a little image that looks like a page . Use this function if you want to save or print a topic. This will convert the topic into a printable format so you don't waste ink. It's also helpful for the EXTREMELY large topics for when the SEARCH brings you it. You can then use the browser's built in find ability to jump directly to what you want.

[Alanoll]

SEARCH - Tips and Tricks

Click for larger picture

Ah the search box, also known as you're BEST FRIEND! Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to find almost every post you want.

Keyword Box

This may be on of the most confusing parts. The words to search by.

Somtimes just entering what you're searching for what really get what you want. You may think it will, but sometimes it won't. It's kinda wierd.

The below symbols are VERY useful.

+ - "phrase"

Using the + will make sure that the words you're searching for are included in the topic.

The - will eleminate the word. Basically, if you search

+Drivers -ATI

You will search for everything containing the word Drivers, but NOT containing the word ATI. This especially useful when two things are extremely similar, but yet different.

The quotes ( " ) will make sure that the ENTIRE string is found without changing word order. The string will be found

"Windows XP"

Will search for Windows XP but won't search for Windows or pb]XP. It will ONLY return results containing the entire string as it's typed.

Time Span

The drop-down Search Posts From... will greatly affect your results, especially if the topic was covered long ago. Always make sure the select Any Date is made to ensure the maximum results.

Search Where?

If you came to this form from a specific forum, then it will be selected in the Search Where box. I usually have Unattended Forums selected to cover EVERYTHING, but if you know you're looking for a swtch, then select the Application Switches forum to narrow your search.

Result Type

Sometimes, you're looking for a specific post that's not at the very beginning of a topic. It may even be a few pages in. By selecting the Show results as post will result the actual post the search phrase was in. This could help you from reading page after page looking for what you were searching for in the first place.

Forum Search Box?

At the bottom of every forum page (not a topic page, but forum) there is a box:

This box will search ONLY the forum you're in. This could be helpful for quick searches.

Topic Search Box?

At the bottom of every topic page there is a box:

This box will search ONLY the topic you're in. This could be helpful for quick searches.

[Alanoll]

Posting Tips

When making a post, there are a number of things to remember.

• Don't use all Capital letters
  
• Don't demand an answer
  
• Be polite
  
• NO WAREZ!
  

If you were to use all Capital letters, it'd be considered shouting and as such turn AWAY many of the people that would be able to help you.

Being polite and not demanding an answer really do go together. If you're polite and wait patiently for someone to answer you will get an answer. If however you demand an answer or repeatedly post in your thread to get people's attention, you will most likely NEVER recieve your answer.

Above ALL else, NO WAREZ!. It's Rule #1 of this forum, and is grounds for an immediate and PERMANENT BAN from this forum. So don't do it.

Now on to the topic of titles.

Please use a descriptive title instead of "I need help" or "Please Help me!" The below is a list of titles to avoid using:

- Oh no!

- Help

- I'm mad

- Please help

- Question

- I need your help

- Hmmmm ....

Where as

- Strange problem with DirectX9b redist

- RunOnceEx install problem (double installation)

- Change Internet Explorer's Icon back to default

Is EXTREMELY helpful for others to know whether or not they'll be able to help. It's sorta of like advertising. You want to get others attentions by using a BRIEF description of your problem. Be aware that there is a limit to the topic title length, so BRIEF is a key.

[Alanoll]

Important Threads

The links below will link to threads that are either useful, or are various methods that will skip the step of searching.

As always, first step should ALWAYS be The Unattended Guide

Hotfixes

Probally one of the most frequently visited page on this forum. This thread is continually updated listing the latest hotfixes for Windows 2000 - Windows XP - and Windows 2003.

Registry Tweaks

This thread contains the collection of registry tweaks for use in your Unattended CD. The very first post of this thread, contains a collection of ALL the registry tweaks up to the point of it's creation.

Applicatioin Switches

This thread contains a collection of alot of switches to silence the installs of applications. Though it will soon be made obsolete with the new DB on th Unattended Website, it will still server a purpose till then.

AutoIT Script Collection

For those few applications where a switch just isn't enough, AutoIT steps in. It sends key strokes as if the user did it them selves. The scripts will automate the sending of the keys.

Unattended Tools

A compiled list of helpful utilities that have been uncovered from the depths of this forum. Some aren't even from this forum, but are just plain useful.

[Alanoll]

Threads of Interest

Numinous - Using HIVE files instead of registry tweaks

Gosh - How To: Put WinPE and Windows XP on the same CD

Gosh - Installing Registry Files

Gosh - Unattended Tips and Tricks

b0r3d & Westi - VBS Scripts

Gosh - Unattended Secret: Reducing Size Of Source

webmedic - How to do a 2 CD install

Gosh - Using Install INF instead of batch/reg files (Updated)

Other INFs by gosh: services.inf | mru.inf | options.inf

Gosh - How To: Install Win2K or XP from WinPE

gareththegod - List of Default Variables and Batch file commands

baliktad - Combining the MSJava 3809 Full Install and 3810 Update into one package (for those using SP1a)

Jotnar - How to rename/edit the Administrator Account

Office 2003 Source Shrink

serialzs' Guide For Compressed Drivers Unattended Install

SiMoNsAyS' How To: Install XP from CD1 and Office 2003 from CD2

[prathapml]

"topic moved" notifications, what to do? Where's my topic now?

if you get a notification in your PM like this:

Your topic - - - - - - has been <b>moved</b>..  This is an automatically generated message to you notify you of this action.  If you have any questions regarding this, please contact the moderator.

It does not say where it got moved to.

Then here's how you can track your topic:

1. Click on your username in the login bar at top, where it says "Logged in as: USERNAME ( Log Out )"

2. Now your user profile shows up. In the profile options section (uppermost), click this link: "Find member's topics"

3. That will show you all the topics you created (including the recently moved one), arranged with newest one on top.

Or you can search for a specific word from your own topic, which is most likely unique to it.

[tain]

CODE, QUOTE and CODEBOX

To help the formatting of this board, as well on easing the eyes a bit, there are three tags to use, [CODE], [QUOTE] and [CODEBOX]. There are also buttons on the board's text editor that accomplish the same goal. These are here to help faciliate posting snippets of code so it all just doesn't run together and people can distinguish easily between your post and your code.

CODE

Usage is simple:

[CODE]HELLO[/CODE] will display:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

Merged Alanoll's, mine and

Zxian's post into this one. Special thanks to Falcon4 for his formatting tips.