bj-kaiser

I so doubt that there is any good piece in my code. IT WORKS (well, almost), but thats about it.

BTW: not to make adverts for myself, but I'm working on a similar solution. However, I dont have a database/directory(ADS/LDAP) behind it (yet). Right now I'm trying to reproducing the way Vista setup works for XP. If you are interested, take a look at http://code.google.com/p/unixp. But mind you, it's not really the latest source there, not even well documented (working on it) and it has some minor issues I got to fix (static path names, etc). As of now, that thing is meant to run standalone. You throw a CD/DVD into your PC, it uses diskpart to partition the harddisk with a fixed script, loads a sysprepped XP image to C:, selects a driver folder by reading the serial and manufacturer through WMI and can do HDC driver injection (per peimage.exe) and HAL-swapping (which is not supported by MS the way I did it, however, it works).

you know what? just try scanning every barcode on the box you can find. I have yet to see a business pc box where the MAC is not on it. and about the stuff you can read with WMI: I noticed the same thing. I got one brand, where they seem to have the left the product name key to the default ... which is "product name". isnt that great?

http://www.grisoft.de/ww.support-technical#tba2 i think you should get the number there. (however, I'm not a AVG user)

I'd say try to mail grisoft support about ways to install AVG unattended. I searched a german unattended switch DB and found something about AVG free and a setup.ini file. Maybe there is a way to get the settings into AVG setup without AutoIt.

If its really locked per ATA security feature and you dont have at least the master/admin password to unlock the drive, you are out of luck I suppose. Depending how the drive is configured you may need to do a "security erase unit" first (which overwrites the whole disk).

Build a WinPE image from the Vista SP1 AIK and use the script language of your choice, like VBScript or AutoIt to query WMI. There are some WMI classes that hold information you can use, Win32_ComputerSystem, Win32_ComputerSystemProduct and Win32_Baseboard (not neccessarily correctly written, but its something like those 3). MS has a tool that helps you build WMI queries, its called Scriptomatic, on the AutoIt forum there exists a Scriptomatic for AutoIt too.

From the product description I found, you have 2 WAN ports. Can't you connect a Ethernet-DSL-Modem to one of them?

Install it from a network share or mapped drive. (given you have another PC and network connection between the 2 PCs)

You should just toy around with AutoIt a bit. Most important for you are the window and control functions, not the ones to construct your own GUI, just the ones to control other applications/installers. (for a small selection: Send(), WinWait....(), ControlClick(). those should be a good start for playing with installers.) And SciTE (AutoIT's default editor) makes your life a lot easier, I can only recommend you to download the full package, as that brings a lot of useful tools. However, you should see it as last or additional option, in case you can't archieve what you want with the applications installer and commandline options or answer files. (At least thats my take on it.)

The best source for info about AutoIt is its help file. I found it easy to do a little trial and error until you found what you need. about Opera: wasnt Opera an MSI installer? so the usual tricks should apply. edit: ok, opera uses a Installshield packed MSI. Use /? on the setup package to get told more.

For all I can say I'm quite happy with WinPE 2.1. Microsoft made it possible to boot it from any TFTP/DHCP combination, you dont need Windows server for it. All you need to PXE/net-boot is a DHCP-, TFTP- and SMB-Server and you got your basics. The OS for the server services is practically unimportant, as long as you get the services you need on that platform. I'm currently working on something similar like what you are about to. With the help of Sysprep, WinPE and AutoIt (I don't like VB sorry) I'm building my version of a universal xp. The license of the WAIK (from which you get the WinPE) is quite nice in the aspect, that it specifies "you are allowed to install and use this software only for the purpose of installing Windows operating system software". Anyone see whats the nice point there? It doesn't mention a specific version of Windows. Right now I'm putting the parts together, Sysprep to prepare for the hdd imaging, Imagex.exe for the imaging, peimg.exe to inject hdc drivers into the deployed image before the first boot on a new machine (thanks to 911cd.net/forum for that one). There are some other features I'll throw in, a driver directory scanner, so you dont have to add drivers to the image beforehand, as well as a (not MS supported) HAL-swap, that lets you switch your Windows XP image to the correct HAL which is detected by WinPE (I think this also came from 911cd). (I found that the sysprep.inf options for HAL switching dont seem to cover everything, especially when it comes to machines with and without APIC you'd have to have at least 2 different images, but that may be a fault in my experiments) (going totally OT: I may start a project on Google Code, but as of now I'm unsure about the license to choose.)

second that. I got my XP Pro with my ThinkPad, why should I "upgrade"? and at work, XP does the job, is supported until 2014 as of now and is paid. So why buy a new Windows version, work around new problems, if you know your running system good enough and your essential apps run on it?

The drivers are specific to the controller, not the drive. If you have the drivers for the SATA controller on your mainboard integrated into your cd you're all done.

You'd have to use imagex.exe /mount(rw) or GImageX. (you'll need the Windows AIK for both options, if I'm not mistaken.)

Microsoft has a tool for that, its called Sysprep and should be in the deployment tools archive on your setup CD. It has its limitations, but for the most things you want, it should do the job. There should already be a lot of topics about Sysprep and XP in the "Unattended Windows 2000/XP/2003" forum.

quick workaround IIRC: share the printer and map it to LPTx: with net use.

Give a ordinary Windows user unnecessary admin rights. Let him do whatever he pleases, like installing every application he finds on the internet, catching some Adware (to name the most harmless case) during the process. Look at the Windows installation after 1 year, Windows decay. Reinstall. It's as fast as ever. my 2 cents on that one

Is there any reason not to just rebuilt the image? Given you have a set of batch- or other script-files its just a matter of minutes. Personally I like to use WinBuilder, with my own set of scripts, which I based on the process described in the WAIK help files. Simply because VistaPE does way to much with the PE image for my liking.

I remember that problem. It was a driver IIRC. Are you integrating many drivers? BTW: i'd recommend you to get some VM like VMware, VirtualPC, VirtualBox or Parallels before burning more coasters.

Here is something for Flash. Found in Adobe's KB:

ImDisk http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html#ImDisk

What secrets? Look at ADS, its an implementation of LDAP, where the Windows file sharing is an implementation of CIFS/SMB. Neither of those protocols originated from Microsoft. They just "enhanced" them until other people (look at SAMBA) can only be compatible with it by re-engineering. And now someone took the big stick and hit them on their fingers to make them play fair. Which enables other participiants in the market to be compatible with Windows servers and clients. Oh and its not for free. If you had read the articles, you'd have seen that any commercial implementation needs to pay a bit of its revenue to MS. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/63623,eu-for...atent-dogs.aspx So, now Microsoft will get a bit more competition, and they still get money out of that, unless the competition thinks MS patents aren't wort anything. As customer you can choose what you like. If you use a 100% MS environment, you got one company to blame. Now if you choose some Linux distribution for the servers for example, worst case your Linux vendor and Microsoft keep blaming eachother if something acts up. But it will still be competition for MS and may have an influence on their price tags. Which should be good for customers. BTW: Here is the link to the protocol specs. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc203350.aspx

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/21/microsoft_api_open/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/21/microsoft_goes_open/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/21/mi...t_goes_api_mad/ Is the world ending already?

I'd guess you should try to use a PCAP file with sawmill. the TXT file isn't the raw data, since Ethereal is a protocol analyser and already has processed it when you save a report/dump to TXT. just my 2 cents.