bj-kaiser

Last thing I have heard is that WinPE 2.0 resets the USB bus somewhere in the boot process and thus breaks the access to the USB boot hdd itself. If you use the RAM-disk method you won't have that problem, but you will need more RAM in the PC to be booted.

search the forums of the two projects, the biggest difference are syntax and license (one's freeware, the other GPL). Some features of AutoHotKey are based on source code of AutoIt, as the acknowledgement in AHK's helpfile indicates.

My personal opinion is, that it's harder (on a private) Windows PC to install and keep you software up-to-date than with one of Linux package managers (given all your programs are available through repositories). What you have now is, you go through every program (as admin) and click the "Update" menu entry. What I want is to have one place, one button, to update (almost) everything you have software-wise. That should work by reading version information of the current installed software from the registry or a database and comparing this information to a database downloaded from a server. That's why I got this idea at first. For business use, there are enough deployment solutions like NetInstall, pushing software with ADS etc., but I didn't find something for the use at home.

"Hell, it's about time."

ok, either my first post doesn't make sense or there is no interest. Would someone care to enlighten me?

Since I'm using various Linux Distributions on quite a regular base, it has dawned to me what I really miss in Windows. A package manager similar to those used with Debian's APT or Redhat's RPM system. I just hate it (since I use Windows with a regular non-administrative account) having to log in as admin and either download every new update for the various programs I use by hand or click me through every application's update procedure. The question is, is there anything similar to the Linux package managers out there and freely available (= no $$) or would there be interest in such a thing if it doesn't exist already. If there isn't anything like that out there, would you trust a application downloading packages from a FTP server that's not under your control? With the Linux package systems that's all quite normal, but who would do that running Windows? EDIT: To clarify what I would like to know: Do you think there would be any interest in such a package manager and repository, even if it would be only for freeware and open source software? (looking at my system, there is a lot of that: Mozilla FF and TB, 7zip, PuTTY, OpenOffice.org, Notepad++, AutoIt, AutoHotKey, VLC, etc.) Now imagine you could manage and update that all in one place by pressing 2 buttons. That's what I would like to see and I would like to know what you think about it.

looks very interesting.

maybe this could be helpful even if it's for Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DisklessUbuntuHowto this could also be helpful: http://drbl.sourceforge.net/about/

http://www.uawiki.org/doku.php?id=silent_a...tchesdb:firefox But remember that only Admins can update global extensions.

system32\winpeshl.ini [LaunchApps] "App1.exe parameter1 parameter2 ..." "App2.exe parameter1 parameter2 ..." "App3.exe parameter1 parameter2 ..."

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...9b-beda3080e0f6

*d'oh* didn't ask what version of Windows you are using. I supposed latest stable version, so I looked in the Windows Deployment Tools Reference for XP SP2. So you are using Windows 2000 I suppose, after looking at the products that article applies to.

the documentation I just read says for sysprep it has to be in the sysprep folder.

If you dont use a terminal setup of any sort (be it MS RDP, Citrix, VNC, whatever), but a share or mapped drive, the application will be loaded from the share and executed on the workstation.

you didnt say, where you put your cmdlines.txt. Maybe in a wrong path?

what .sfx module did you use? There are 2 possibilities, one being for the regular user controlled extraction and the other one especially for setups (7zS/SD.sfx). The installer type modules support the "-y" switch to silently extract and run the setup. For totally silent/switchless operation, you will need customized modules. 7-zip does has no such modules included it's distribution at the moment. There are already some topics on MSFN about totally silent 7-zip self-extractors, use the search, please. Edit: have to correct myself here, the default 7zS/SD.sfx should do. It just depends on your config.txt then: ;!@Install@!UTF-8! Title="7-Zip 4.00" BeginPrompt="Do you want to install the 7-Zip 4.00?" RunProgram="setup.exe" ;!@InstallEnd@! this one shows the Yes/No question on startup and the unpacking progress. ;!@Install@!UTF-8! Title="7-Zip 4.00" Progress="no" RunProgram="setup.exe" ;!@InstallEnd@! This one neither shows a question on startup nor the progress.

Um, sorry but I would think that's how user profiles work. why not take another option and use the scripting language of your choice to copy the profile you set up to the other accounts? (so basically, you have your pre-defined profile on your unattended cd and copy it in ever users profile dir)

i think if you dont have one with a write-protect switch, you are probably out of luck.

that problem is solved now: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/winpeshlini-t1980.html For me that looks like someone f***ed up the Windows PE documentation.

hm, do you need a EXE that always runs a specified setup or can you supply commandline parameters? InnoSetup for example has the built-in ability in every Setup you create, to save and read answers to/from inf-files. The path to the answer file has to be given as a commandline parameter. Or you could use NSIS and use a custom header file and some macros, that allow to provide answers by either reading a ini-file from a specified path or if a specified file in the EXEs directory exists, from that one. However, for NSIS I only know the Eclipse-PlugIn as GUI. -- http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php http://www.istool.org http://nsis.sf.net http://eclipsensis.sf.net

You could try WixEdit, however it is not wizard-like, but more a GUI to the XML-Structure of Microsofts Windows Installer XML (WIX) toolset. So you really have to know what you want to archieve and how the MSI system works. -- http://wixedit.sourceforge.net/ edit: d'oh, I just read 'free' in your post. Well, WixEdit is free, but from my point of view not easy to use.

RTM RunWait ...

your usb-drive has no boot-sector. use "bootsect.exe /nt60 X:", where X: is the drive letter of your usb-drive.

depending on the installer system used, they offer methods to record settings. InnoSetup for example can write the settings to a INI-file, if called with the right switch. For MSIs, you can use Wise InstallTailor, there should still be a free copy float around on the net. I'd prefer that option to any sort of re-package program, as you never know what decisions the original installer does depending on the actual system. a good resource is also http://www.uawiki.org

you could check your RAM in the same system, given at least the on-board graphics works (should be activated as soon as there is no external graphics card plugged in). Get a copy of memtest and let it run. Your description of the problems sounds similar to a pc I have at work (and yet to call service for). That thing first crashed in the middle of use, then didn't boot windows (every time another defective file) and after that showed me a BIOS checksum error, only to boot up the next day I tried it. -- http://www.memtest.org/