Dr_Jeff

The company where I work & take care of the computers, there are in excess of 20 pc's runnig windows xp pro, some of them are upgraded from win2k, most are new, all with individual licenses all from different points in time as new pc's were purchased, additionaly we keep an audit list in our department so I had access to several keys. The copy I was using came from a Microsoft Action Pack & the key number was the one provided by Microsoft in that package & it had always worked before. we have computers that get shipped to remote locations & the software is always messed up when they return, it is easier to have an automated installation, that wipes the drive, installs win xp pro, the additional apps we require, give us an audit session so that we can verify operation of all of the software & add any "special requests" & at the end run sysprep so that the key number can be removed. When the system is rebooted, the key number that is on the sticker that is on the machine is installed so that all is legitimate. People that try to "take things the wrong way" are usually guilty of something themselves, hence the suspicion on others. I thought this was a forum for help, not rudeness & acusations, as you can see I don't post here often & if this is the kind of help that is offered. I suppose I was incorrect about thinking people here wanted to help others. If this is an example of the help offered I suppose it is best I don't, because abuse is not what I was after, nor did I expect. regretfully jeff

sorry icehole, I am using a MS Genuine key. any other ideas genius so you loose your bet.

I had a working unattended installation disk & had sp1 & alot of hotfixes & apps working, I created a new disk after having slipstreaming sp2 into a fresh copy of xp pro & it will not take the previous key that I was using or any other that I tried. what gives ? jeff

Really what I would like is an installation that goes similar to that of win2k, it needs the cd for the text part, & then the disk can be removed & the machine will complete its setup so that the cd is only needed in the machine for 6-8 minutes for the text mode portion, & then after the first reboot it is no longer needed. completely unattended. is this possible ? jeff

so could I see an example of the cmd file that copies the cd contents to the hard disk should it be something like copycd.cmd Title=Copy CD to Hard Disk xcopy %cdrom%\i386 c: /s/v/e exit & then include it in cmdlines.txt - correct ? jeff

I was watching a MS webcast & the presenter mentioned the /makelocalsource switch makes the install copy all of the source disk files to the local drive, thus eliminating the need for the cd in the drive once the gui mode starts at t-39. I am using the instructions I found at unattended.msfn.org Now my question, since I am using the unattended install, there is not a bat file that starts the install, how & where do I implement the /makelocalsource switch ? thanks in advance, as always all help is appreciated. jeff