PaulIA

Follow taps advice. Sounds like a known bug.

I ran 4 tests on my VMWare instance and this is the result: :===========:=============:=============:=========:============: :-CMD from--:-Start Time--:-Finish Time-:-Desktop-:-CMD runs---: :===========:=============:=============:=========:============: :-1-LM-ROEX-:-12:29:46.46-:-------------:-NO------:-Alone------: :-1-LM-ROEX-:-------------:-12:30:13.64-:-NO------:-Alone------: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: :-2-CU-ROEX-:-12:30:15.34-:-------------:-NO------:-Alone------: :-2-CU-ROEX-:-------------:-12:30:44.67-:-NO------:-Alone------: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: :-3-LM-RO---:-12:30:46.87-:-------------:-NO------:-Alone------: :-3-LM-RO---:-------------:-12:31:17.31-:-NO------:-Alone------: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: :-4-LM-RUN--:-12:31:25.10-:-------------:-YES-----:-Alone------: :-4-LM-RUN--:-------------:-12:33:10.01-:-YES-----:-in company-: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: :-5-CU-RUN--:-12:31:29.73-:-------------:-YES-----:-in company-: :-5-CU-RUN--:-------------:-12:33:10.00-:-YES-----:-in company-: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: :-6-STRTP-A-:-12:31:36.96-:-------------:-YES-----:-in company-: :-6-STRTP-A-:-------------:-12:33:09.39-:-YES-----:-in company-: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: :-7-STRTP-U-:-12:31:38.03-:-------------:-YES-----:-in company-: :-7-STRTP-U-:-------------:-12:33:10.56-:-YES-----:-in company-: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: :-8-CU-RO---:-12:31:38.70-:-------------:-YES-----:-in company-: :-8-CU-RO---:-------------:-12:33:10.68-:-YES-----:-in company-: :-----------:-------------:-------------:---------:------------: I think that closely matches what you were getting.

Ack! Had to put on shades B) to read your post! Check Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices. Click on the "Sounds" tab. In the "Program Events" box at the bottom, scroll down and make sure you have sounds associated with the "Windows Logon" and "Windows Logoff" events. Hope this helps.

That's funny. I never realized that I had ProductID and not ProductKey. I started out using a WinNT.sif file from somebody else and just never realized that it was there. The Ref.chm file says to use ProductKey, but ProductID seems to work fine too. @mazin: Did you change yours to ProductID for a reason? Anywhere we can read up on this? Thanks, Paul

Modifying the registry bits was a thought (and a good one). I actually wanted to do this with a script so that I could control more than just the "Quick Launch" setting without any possible side effects. Also, with a few simple modifications, you could set any of other items on the Taskbar tab: - Lock the taskbar - Auto-hide the taskbar - Keep the taskbar on top of other windows - Group similar taskbar buttons - Show Quick Launch - Show the clock - Hide inactive icons Not to mention what's on the "Start Menu" tab (which I've already done to replace some other tweaks). Again, the whole purpose of doing this in the first place was simply to present an alternative to what we know already works. I am not stating that this script is any better or worse than using the registry, AutoIt, etc. It's just another way to do things. Boy, I think we've definitely beaten this one to death! I appreciate the feedback and suggestions. Please bear with me if I offer up other scripts like this. I've gotten so much help from here that I'm just trying to give back a little. Hopefully, we can all continue to learn new ways of doing things from each other.

From the script: There is an error in the comments section of the script. The default settings for a clean install are "Show Quick Launch" off and "Lock the taskbar" on. The comments in the script where I am turning the lock on/off are correct.From my first post: I think it is fairly clear that the script is meant to be run during unattended setup and from a clean install. Running it twice doesn't make any sense, but I put the toggle text in there just so people would know what would happen if they ran it back to back. My mistake for being too detailed.

@Gee: Glad your tweak works for you. This is just another approach and I can tell what every line of code does if there is every a problem. Can you explain to me what each of the 850+ bytes of registry tweaks you posted does? @ricktendo: I don't use nLite, so an nLite addon isn't going to do me any good. I started out using nLite then ran into problems with it, so now I only use things that I can fix when they're broken and modify to my specific needs. To the rest: Thank you for your positive comments.

RapidShare... ya gotta love it... Might want to look into EazyShare or something like it.

Do you have the WinNT.sif file set up correctly? Here's an example: [Branding] BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes [Data] AutomaticUpdates=Yes AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated=0 UnattendedInstall=Yes [Display] BitsPerPel=32 Vrefresh=72 Xresolution=1152 Yresolution=864 [GuiRunOnce] %systemdrive%\AutoIt\RunOnce.exe [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=********** AutoLogon=Yes OEMSkipRegional=1 OEMSkipWelcome=1 TimeZone=20 [Identification] JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes [Shell] DefaultStartPanelOff=Yes DefaultThemesOff=Yes [TapiLocation] CountryCode=1 Dialing=Tone AreaCode=319 [Unattended] DisableDynamicUpdates=No DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore Hibernation=1 OEMPreinstall=Yes OEMSkipEula=Yes Repartition=Yes TargetPath=\Windows UnattendMode=FullUnattended UnattendSwitch=Yes WaitForReboot=No [UserData] ProductID=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx FullName="John Doe" OrgName="Acme Corporation" ComputerName=ACME1 Hope this helps

I had searched the forum and come up with several registry tweaks for turning on the Quick Launch toolbar. Some of them didn't seem to work at all, while the others seemed to work, but messed up other settings on my computer. So after a few liquid refreshments , I remembered that I was a programmer: SetQuickLaunch.zip Just call this script in your cleanup command (or anywhere after the Desktop is loaded) to turn the Quick Launch toolbar on. Note that this is a toggle script, so if you call it twice it negates itself. Comments/suggestions are always welcome.

After doing some research, I ran across an article on this forum (sorry, didn't save the URL) that talked about migrating the NTUSER.DAT file by exporting HKCU via the reg command instead of having to log onto another profile to copy the file. Basically, if I remember right, the used something like this: reg save HKCU HKCU.reg on the machine they wanted to clone and then the loaded this (thereby replacing the current HKCU) during the UA install. Would this be any different than copying the NTUSER.DAT file?

I don't know if burning my drives out with VMWare is research, but it is keeping me busy. Based on the testing that I have done over the last couple of weeks, the execellent research by mazin and posts by others, I have cleaned up most of the installation problems that I had. Moving certain installations to the LM-RUN or CU-RUN (especially anything that needs the desktop or network) was a must for me. Unfortunately, I spent a couple of weeks of trial/error instead of having the brain matter to conduct a test as mazin did. @mazin: I think posting your testing batch files would be nice. It might come in handy somewhere down the road or be something that could be extended for other "when does this occur" testing.

Nice work. That explains the problem I was having trying to run something at RunOnceEx that needed to download files from the network. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of us newbies that will benefit from this information.

By "tab" are you referring to the [GuiRunOnce] section in the unattended file? If so, you might want to take a peek at this page in the unattended site to get you started: RunOnceEx Hope this helps. Let me know if I'm on the wrong track.

Ack! You're killing me! It took me a week to figure out that RunOnce/RunOnceEx ran before the desktop was loaded! Next time, do your research sooner. One question related to this that's been nagging me for awhile. I've been meaning to run some tests, but since you already have done such a good job with this, maybe you can tell me. When does the network get loaded in relationship to these installation points? I had trouble running the Symantec LiveUpdate during RunOnceEx, but it works fine using Run. Nice work!