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bj-kaiser

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Posts posted by bj-kaiser

  1. i think it works on linux because its a little more complicated to install software then on windows. I dont think there would be much demand to have something like that on windows.

    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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. 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

  7. ...

    Yea theres something i wud like to share... Once or twice i fiddled with the power supply connector to the MOBO . I mean the connector from the PSU to the motherboard which powers it up. After fiddling as i powered up the sytem the display did come up and the normal boot began. But the system crashed in the middle of the boot and restarted.

    Another time it started and there was this screeching noise ...the display showed a CHECKSUM ERROR...i hit reset and then it booted up fine..only to show a blue screen again during the movie and went into a reboot.

    Well then the reboot never went thru and i thought there was some problem with the board and got it replaced.

    The situation hasnt improved yet. Today i'll check my RAM and my GFX adapter as well on a friends PC to see if its dead.

    About the Onboard GFX support..yes its there and i dont think i need any jumper settings(ill check it out though). I was running the system on the ONboard GFX before i bought the card.

    ...

    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/

  8. you should get Microsofts WAIK, with that you get the documentation for Vista's unattended setup methods and (most important) Windows PE 2.0, and Microsofts diskimager 'imagex'.

    All you need to setup to boot a WinPE 2.0 image through PXE is a DHCP and TFTP server. For my experiments I use a Debian box as server (dnsmasq for dhcp and hpa's tftpd).

    To make building a PE image easier, you should have a look at Winbuilder and VistaPE (www.boot-land.net).

    So, now you got the platform from which you can do your installations.

    If you want to automate things, you can use Windows scripting (or basically everything that runs on Windows).

    For my part I decided to mix AutoIt (a freeware scripting tool for windows) with SQLite as database. Downside is, since we are at work still deploying XP with PQ DriveImage, I have not yet had the pressure to finish my ideas. But if there is enough interest, I can probably work out at least the imagex part of my script set.

    What I can get working in soon time is automated imagex, but software installation after the initial Windows installlation in unattended's style will still take some time to implement (but the idea is there).

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