John456

In my unattended install, some dialog text is missing. This starts when the installing devices part is finished. I miss most text in the dialog itself, the progress bar is empty and the dialog title too. Anyone know what this means?

I made this XP SP2 cd using nLite. When I test it on a real pc, it hangs at the last step in the Performing Final Tasks page; "Removes any temporary files used". The progress bar is at around 50%. Some text in the screen has dissappeared btw, only text visible is "Performing Final Tasks", "Please wait while Setup:" and "Saves settings". I do see the checkmarks and the red arrow, pointing at the last task. Below is a screenshot from the internet of the screen I'm talking about, except that mine has some text missing and isn't at 100%

I'm familiar with that problem. nLite pops up a question asking whether you'd like to login for the first time with admin privileges. Whatever you choose, it always logs in as admin afaik, and it doesn't bother me really. I use scripts to re-logon to another account.

I'd suggest to use nLite to make your unattended cd. It has a GUI for setting autologon.

I'm starting to doubt my earlier claim. I think that the problem is that there cannot be a user with administrator rights that has the same name as the pc's name. I remember such a thing from installing XP manually few months ago, I usually trick it by adding a space behind it That trick doesn't work with nLite though. Anyway it would be worth to add such a check in nLite.

If you create users using the NET USER commands, what nLite probably does, the username must be 4 or more characters to be an administrator account. With 3 characters it can only be a limited account. Nuhi, you should add a check for this in nLite. This has been my problem for 2 weeks now and I finally figured it out.

This should really be added to nLite.

Seems they removed the guide or the subdomain pointing to the guide.. What a shame, let's hope it gets returned!

I figured out that Owner should be replaced with the user accounts name, but if I use that in a .reg file, nothing works! This is my current code: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Hints\Support] "PictureSource"="C:\\WINDOWS\\Company\\logo-support.bmp" Anyone got some tips? Edit: I got it. Don't tinker with the registry keys, just overwrite the bmp in this folder: "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\"

Is there a way to fix it without burning the Vista image to DVD?

I'm testing my config with an english XP Professional SP2 Dell cd. And I replace the $OEM$ folder with my own stuff ofcourse. After some rebuilding I can confirm this. It also seems to forget the passwords I set for the extra users. Could you help me fix this in my image? I don't have time to wait for the next release of nLite to have this fixed. It's the last thing before my install cd is ready.. Oh and to set your own account pictures, don't overwrite the rigstry key. It does not work. Best solution is to overwrite the bitmaps in "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\". Edit: Mind you I'm constantly working with the same local copy of the install cd, modified to my needs. Everytime I need to make a change to the $OEM$ folder I run through all nLite steps and rebuild the setup files and create the image. Last few times I removed the previously added user accounts, but in the last builds it created those accounts anyway...?!

Is it me, or does the account creation in nLite not work like it should? The account type is not set correctly. I set them to administrator, but they are set as normal users which gives me lots of troubles... Can someone confirm this? Other thing, nuhi, could you add a feature to set the user account pictures?

CMDLINES.txt

I had to reinstall XP few days ago due to some hardware problems. Now the Vista boot manager screen doesn't show up anymore, I can't boot into Vista anymore. How can I fix this?

Could you add Repartition and Autopartition to the user interface of nLite in the next release? It is kinda annoying to manually add those 2 lines everytime you rebuild an install..! Besides that, awesome tool!

Ok thanks, a bit late though, I already figured out how to install inf files. I use almost the same syntax as you, but without the START /WAIT. What is the difference? (I run it from cmdlines.txt) What questions me is your way of adding users. I use nLite to add users to my install and some of them are normal Users, the XP GUI names them Limited users. If I login on such an acount directly after the installation, I see some cmd windows and then an error stating the Inf could not be installed. I thought that was supposed to happen during setup...? I also got problems writing specific registry keys (UIhost for example) from a Limited account, so I'm switching those accounts to administrator anyway.

;-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;Change Account Picture [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Hints\Owner] "PictureSource"="C:\blahblahheressomepath\custom.bmp" The tweak to change a users' account picture seems kinda odd... It's in HKLM instead of HKCU, meaning that it's some picture for all users..? It doesn't work either if I try it, without even trying different pictures for each user.. Any help with this?

It does not work. Could you post your cmdlines.txt?

Ok that seems logical. Why do you have the shutdowns in the cmd file? When are the changes executed, before the explorer.exe shell is loaded? Edit: Ok I've tried it using Virtual PC; I got an error the .inf could not be installed. I checked out the MSKB on inf files and I think you forgot quotes around the Signature value. Here is my .inf: [Version] Signature = "$CHICAGO$" [DefaultInstall] AddReg = AddReg.CURO [AddReg.CURO] HKCU,%CURO%,"CURO",,"%10%\Company\regtweaks\CURO.cmd" [STRINGS] CURO="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce" Edit2: It first logs in as the Administrator. Then the .inf is not executed. If I then logoff and login as another user, I see some cmd boxes and get an error stating "INF Install failure. Reason: Access is denied." That account is member of the local group Users, and not Administrators. So that would clarify why it can't add the reg key. But why is the .inf executed at that logon? I thought it would be executed during setup...? This is my cmdlines.txt: [Commands] "rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection nLite.inf,U" "REGEDIT /s general.reg" "HDCURO.inf" "RunOnceEx.cmd" Oh and it also seems the general.reg tweaks are not executed...?

Isn't it possible to edit the keys in the HKEY_USERS tree? Is it possible to identify which one relates to which account?

Yep there is such a folder, it contains 2 hotfixes. I'll just download all post SP2 hotfixes and add them to my UA CD using nLite.

But that is not what I want. I'm working on an install cd for a kiosk system. It has several user accounts, each with their own privileges. Some accounts have a replacement Windows shell and restrictions in Windows, others have full access (support account). How would I accomplish this? Can't I edit the registry using RunOnceEx? The accounts are already created at that point..

How do I know which hotfixes are included in my XP cd and which are not? It is labeled as Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2. Would it do any harm if I slipstream a hotfix which is already in the installation?

For my unattended cd I want user specific registry tweaks such as disabling of the taskmanager. How do I do that?