snowden

i was having problems getting WireShark to run (it requires WinPCap) but the winpcap.dll error kept popping up so i did this: dependancy walker worked a treat for me, i opened rcapd.exe in the WinpCap program folder, and found some missing files. so i opened up my windows cd and found them, the files i needed are compressed on the windows cd so just use expand -r *.* at a command prompt to expand them all when you have them together in a folder. The files, in case anyone is wondering what they are: INETCOMM.DL_ MOBSYNC.DL_ MOBSYNC.EX_ MOBSYNCS.CH_ MOBSYNCS.HL_ NETMON.EX_ NETMON.IN_ NETNM.IN_ NETNMTLS.IN_ NETPLWIZ.DL_ NPPAGENT.EX_ NPPTOOLS.DL_ UTILDLL.DL_ and all i did was expand them and then copy them to my windows\system32 folder. next, i follow the tutorial given here. Enjoy.

Nevermind, I solved it. I remade an nLited windows and now it works! I left Ports (COM & LPT) intact, and also had to make sure that Remote Access (Auto) Connection Manager was working. I should also mention that this time around I didn't get any INF file errors, it worked straight away! :)

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=107021

best thing would be to do a full install of your x64 os first, and build an nlited version of it from within.

hm, what os is it? what did you remove? please leave your last_session.ini here so we can read...

it's a bit different to xp pro though, i have had nightmares with it but it seems pretty stable for a while now. problem was i had to find out what not to remove, but i figured it out mostly.

Eric, I wouldn't mind helping you with this in detail, because i have more than one pc at home, and i want to use this pxe method but i just don't know how to start. i have nlited windows 2003 many many times myself and use it now always, and it works perfectly, i even install it from usb. could i chat to you on msn or something because i want to know how to get that pxe boot working for myself if possible! regarding the cd-rom seatch: there is a part of the winnt.sif that looks for the cd or a local source. if you copy over the i386 folder and manage to boot from it i don't see why you would need a cd-rom...problem is i haven't done a pxe install myself before (but i'd love to, sounds like it would save so much time!!). anyway, if you go into your winnt.sif file there is a string called [Data], it looks like this: [Data] Autopartition=0 FloppyLess=1 MsDosInitiated=0 UnattendedInstall="Yes" see where it says "MsDosInitiated=0", change that to 1 or 0, i can't remember which way around it is, one way means it will prompt for the cd, the other way means it uses the local source. if it still doesn't wotk, i'd have to know what happens during the pxe bootup then i'd more than likely understand why it asks for a cd.

just in nlite remove 'Internet Explorer', it's there somewhere!

using the default hide pages works for me, i think (ie you shouldn't have to put it to 'fully automated'?)

So I've been wrestling with installing the 3G Broadband Modem from Vodafone on windows 2003 (the os is nlited btw). i tried to narrow the problems down to me having left out something on nlite, and i think i might have solved all of this, i just need confirmation from someone who knows the job more than i do so i don't waste my time making a new nlited windows with 'Ports - COM and LPT' included, esp. if there is a much simpler solution! basically i had one problem to start with, and it was a 'required section not found in INF' error message after i had installed the modem in its first stage (when it installs the modem as a usb device itself). i found a blog that helped me solve this error message, couldn't believe how simple it was (because it is said how stupid can windows be that it isn't fixed by now?), see here: http://www.loosewireblog.com/2006/07/how_to_fix_a_br.html. anyway, that said, i fixed it, and the modem installed successfully. the next problem i have is when i look in device manager, there is a Port section, and in it is a HUAWEI Modem...etc port that has a yellow exclamation box in it. i right-clicked it to see what the problem is, and it says 'windows cannot load drivers for this device'. on looking around the windows setupapi.log, i find that the device could not be started (unknown reason). Now i am thinking to myself that the only reason it won't start (and can't load the drivers) is because it is a port that needs a COM port to work. i tried selecting one in properties, but the device fails to start (the vodafone gives error 'failed to connect to network, please check your wireless device settings'). so ll i am left with now is that the device won't work because i removed Ports: COM and LPT from windows when i nlited it... is this where the problem lies? or am i overlooking something? btw, i also have tried the modem on a 'TinyXP' version i have on my pc, and it worked fine there...when i checked the Last_session.ini for that version of windows i don't see ports com and lpt removed! and just to really check if it was windows 2003 that was the problem i nlited windows XP pro sp2 from scratch with the final nlite 1.4 (again, i removed ports from this version) and guess what? the modem didn't work - i got the same error as on windows 2003! so maybe i am right, the modem's data interface depends on Ports: COM and LPT?

you can try EasyWeb server, http://easywebserv.sourceforge.net/ (PHP+MYSQL) or go for a perl+mysql pack like XAMPP, or the devside.net which has php+mysql+perl+jsp.

I don't need to import any registry strings, the inf command works right away and prompts for some files on the 'cd' e.g. the one i nlited has the files needed, namely some .nls files. i don't really understand why they weren't copied in the first place (i.e. during setup)... Has anyone figured out what should work: does copying over the I386\LANG folder from the FULL untouched windows CD, to the nLited windows folder (before making an iso/install via winnt.exe) make all the languages available as normal? i don't need the headache of selecting which languages to remove, i prefer just leaving them all in myself... ?

Yeah, I wanted to do that too. Having used nLite for a while though, I know that there is a registry area called HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT that contains configuration settings that will be loaded automatically for every user that logs onto the machine, and/or for every new profile created, these registry settings will be applied. If you know what settings to insert (or just copy them to the relevant places from your own profile (HKEY_CURRENT_USER), then I'm sure it is possible to put on a setup cd. One way you could do it is just to export your settings from HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then change the path of all entries to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\ etc. and delete the entries you don't want (or that don't apply). Then have this registry entry run on startup. As far as I know there is a much easier way but I think it involves ini files, maybe somebody here who knows could tell us how!

I looked in the \i386 folder of older nlite rips of Windows 2003 i made (with nlite 1.3.5 final) and I was able to select the keyboard language I want (Irish), even though the agt* files are NOT present in the folder...btw I'm now using 1.4 beta. I suppose the weird thing is that I keep all the languages in the install (I don't select any languages for removal), but I did pre-select region and keyboard language in nlite. maybe that's where the bug is? The thing I'd really like to know is what are the files that constitute the locale and keyboard layouts - then I'd be able to see what files are 'missing' - be they physically missing, or just not listed in the txtsetup.sif. whatever!

@ilko_t - I see. But if you are running setup booting from a cdrom, how does the setupldr.bin enumerate this? How does it know the cdrom is the 'first hard drive'? I just have to say this again in case, and to ask: is the setupldr.bin looking for setup files on the first harddrive when running setup via winnt.exe, or via the method of setup that seems to boot straight to the text phase like when starting from cdrom? Because the latter is what I want to happen when booting setup from a usb stick...

The answer to this is 'yes'. But (as I think I already mentioned) they appear to lead back onto grub4dos and other methods. I would have thought that whoever came up with the idea of using grub to load the setupldr.bin would (and should!) probably have the technical know-how to hex the ntldr/make a bootsector for usbkeys, that allows to boot setup from a usb with just the i386 folder present (similar to a cdrom)! But as you say, they probably would have done it by now considering it is a whole lot easier a method (although probably not easier to code unless you know about MBRs and so on). For example, just take a look at this MBR help guide 'secrets revealed'; doesn't mean anything to me but might tip somebody in the right direction who knows! http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/m...R_in_detail.htm

jaclaz: not to be ungrateful, but i read this guide already. contrary to what impression you might have of me, i have read every single one of the links you have given me, even the ones that lead to other forums. But thank you, I do know now how to copy the files across to my hard drive first. But this still doesn't solve the problem; because I am using a usb stick, I might be waiting about 15 minutes before all of the files have copied across to the HD - kind of defeating the whole purpose. All the other links you have shown me don't seem to point to anything other than using BartPE or pe2usb, again thwarting any efforts to make windows setup any simpler. It seems to me everybody is pointing everyone else to a pile of links that all lead to the same BartPE or pe2usb methods, which in my opinion I would ditch any day for installing windows via the winnt.exe method (as long as I had the option of course)! It would take me about as long to copy windows install files across from my usb to my HD, as it would to just run winnt.exe from the usb key itself and put up with the ~BT folder being created on it[self]. This doesn't even include the time it takes just to copy the install files onto the usb iteslf within windows (before booting from it). This is the primary reason why I would like windows to 'begin' from the usb key in the same manner a cdrom installation does; i.e. NO 'initial' temporary file-copying procedure. In light of this, I read the post about changing the setupldr.bin to ntldr, http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61384 but it seems to lead me bak off to the BartPE/pe2usb methods. Could you please point me to a specific link if you can, because I keep being led astray with all the links everywhere! Thanks again for your help.

It seems a bit ridiculous to have to do all these things just to get windows installation started from a usb stick. Is there no way of just copying the \i386 folder from a cdrom (or even an nlite distribution) to the usb stick, and format (or probably 'hex') the ntldr or something to boot the setupldr.bin into the text-phase of setup that normally initializes when you boot from a cd-rom (ie not having to run the winnt.exe)? For me, using the winnt.exe to install from the usb stick is only a bit of a nuisance at the moment because I haven't found a way to stop it installing the ~BT folder onto the usb stick itself - even when i used the winnt.exe /t:<drive> command. The ~LS folder copies ok to the partition i designate. If the ~BT folder would only copy along with the ~LS folder (to the partition), everything would be fine! I know I could probably copy it across, but the winnt.exe program would already have tampered with the usb stick configuration anyway. It really would make life a lot easier, but as we all know, nothing is ever straightforward!

I don't know if people are aware of it, but this problem is still occuring with nlited windows server 2003 sp2...

I've used this method myself before, successfully. But when you try to install via these same files onto another pc, you get hardware BSODS - so that's why I just use the winnt.exe from dos. You seem to be missing some crucial files in this method - when i did this, i just used the hp drivekey utility, and then do winnt32.exe and then copy the 2 folders over to my usb drive, along with ntldr (the pe2usb version, but it works with the normal version anyway as your usb key gets treated as a harddrive!), and a file called $LDR$, and boot.ini that points to bootsect.dat). Also you need txtsetup.sif in the root where $LDR$ is and so on otherwise setup wouldn't start for me! I might be forgetting some files here - oh yeah, you need ntdetect.com. (is that all?) To be honest, i find it much easier installing using winnt.exe.

jaclaz, thanx for these methods, i'm gonna look into them now! as for BootIt NG, it is not commercial if you use it only as a partition editor (ie you don't install it to your harddisk, you just boot into maintenance mode from a cdrom). also thanx for the FAT32 tip, i totally overlooked it because i'm so vexed with nlite not working the way i expect it to. Well i let windows setup do this anyway, just the resize part i overlooked! For some reason i thought FAT32 wasn't readable from DOS, but as you say, it is with recent dos versions.

I use a 1GB USB stick for windows installation all the time. I am currently trying to find a stable nlited version of windows server 2003 datacenter sp2 (and I have, with just a few autoplay problems which are being worked on by the nlite team afaik), so i find it invaluable to use a usb installation over burning cdroms all day. all i do is 1)format the usb key as dos-bootable using the HP Drive Key Utility 2)copy on some extra tools such as xcopy, smartdrv, etc 3)copy on the i386 folder 4)use BootIt NG to make a small fat-16 partition no larger than 2048MB (you will install windows to this and resize and convert it during the process), and MAKE IT ACTIVE. If you don't make it active you might end up with your system drive named as D:\ or G:\ or something. Setting it active makes sure this doesn't happen, and also makes sure the installer doesn't interfere with any other OSes you have installed. 5)boot to dos from the usb key 6)run "winnt /u:winnt.sif /s:c:\i386 /t:<driveletter you made with Bootit NG>:" from within the i386 folder. btw your usb drive's dos prompt is usually c:\ - it is for me anyway. this does not mean that windows won't turn out on a C:\ drive when installed, so don't worry! (the winnt.sif file is the one edited by nlite here.) 7)the installer will copy bootfiles to your usb stick and the main installation files to your drive you specified 8)boot from the usb stick again, and now it runs the setup part that normally happens first when you boot from cd-rom, and remember to select your drive to be converted to ntfs 9)boot up bootitng and edit the partition's boot.ini file and change rdisk(1) to rdisk(0) in (there are 2 of these to change) 10)now let the pc boot from the dos partition, and windows converts it to ntfs 11)now boot up bootitng again, and resize the 2048MB partition (which now appears as NTFS formatted) to whatever size you want 12)finally, allow the partition to boot normally and windows installs. hope this helps! :)

I use a 1GB USB stick for windows installation all the time. See here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=652806 Hope it is of some help to someone!

I hope this can be fixed! I would like to mention the following though: I usually port my nlite preset ini files from one version of nlite to another, and on double-checking, i noticed that the 'Shell Hardware Detection' service was missing in the services section of nlite (the last step for where you set their modes). So I said 'Hmmm...' and asked myself what could I have removed that made this disappear? I then reset nlite presets to 'Safe' and when I then checked the services section Shell HD was there. Thinking I had solved the problem, I then made a nlited Windows Server 2003 Datacenter SP2, only to find I had the same problem as before (and as everyone above is having). The weird thing is, SHD is there in windows, but it won't start; it says something failed to start it. Anyway, I hope this issue is resolved soon, because some weird stuff is happening with the cd/dvd icons and autoplay.

I have this problem where after I have made a nlite version of windows 2003 datacenter, i input my usb flash drive (and any other usb drives and so on) and i am subsequently prompted to install 'Generic Volume'. However, when I was using the full installation of windows 2003, I have never had to confirm any driver installation, because i would get a notification balloon in the taskbar saying the drive (or flashdrive) device has been recognised, and it would all install automatically. So therefore, having looked at your post above, i have come to the conclusion that somehow nlite breaks signed drivers or something along those lines. Is there something i could do in nlite to prevent this popup from appearing (which at one time asked me to continue, because the drivers weren't marked as signed!), or is there some other thing i am overlooking? Thanx in advance!