JPamplin

No, nobody has ever tuned their performance. Ever. Seriously, I think you need to rephrase your question. Tell us which switches are not working, and maybe someone can help you. Your post was (is) kind of vague. Thank you, drive thru. JP

Absolutely. Use AEFDisk in a DOS batch file to auto-partition your drives and format them prior to installation. Get the free app at http://www.aefdisk.com I think the commands would be something like this: AEFDISK /DELALL AEFDISK /PRI:50%:0B /EXT:50% /LOG:50%:0B AEFDISK /formatfat:1:HardDiskC AEFDISK /formatfat:5:HardDiskD /reboot That would delete all the partitions on the HD, recreate a 50% primary FAT32 C: drive and a FAT32 D: drive at 50%. You should then reboot after both volumes are quickformatted and you're ready to run your install script. That's how you can do it, but you'll have to double-check my code. Do a search on my recent posts for more info on AEFDisk. JP

Yes, yes, I need that too! I keep trying various commands to do it in my batch file, and that darn folder is still there. Please share the wealth! JP

XtremeMaC, I think it would be helpful to include all components in the installer, but then provide an external ini file that the user could turn off or on all the various components they want. That way, we won't have a hundred different combinations of Winamp 5.03 exe's floating around. JP

SpywareBlaster is becoming one of my favorite free apps to include in my setups since spyware has become such a rampant problem. This ranks right up there with Ad-Aaware as a must-have app. The cool thing about it is that it doesn't have to be running to protect you - it specifies which ActiveX controls should not be installed or run on the PC, so it basically just sets registry settings and then you can close it. A new version was released yesterday (3.0) and includes a totally new UI, an auto-update feature (which costs $10/yr), restricted sites protection, and Mozilla/Firefox support. Manually updating is still totally free. Get it: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html Now how would I install it silently? I checked the installer and it's an Inno package. The script I tried from Start...Run... was the old one I used to use for 2.6.1, and it seemed to work, but I didn't try to kill it afterwards: ECHO. ECHO Installing Spyware Blaster ... start /high /wait %A%\Spyware1\Spyware1.exe /verysilent /SP- taskkill /IM spywareblaster.exe /F xcopy %A%\Spyware1\*.dtb "%ProgramFiles%\SpywareBlaster\*.dtb" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y I think this will work, because 3.0 comes up with an intro screen so it would need to be killed during an unattended install. The XCOPY I do afterwards is to copy the latest definitions into the program folder so I don't have to download an update to it. Can anyone verify that this would be the correct way to install 3.0 (I haven't got the time at this moment to run another test install with it), or is there possibly a way to run an Inno package and not have to kill the process afterwards? NOTE: Don't try to run this script word for word - I rename the app for 8.3 DOS compatibility and have some variables stuck in there for folder names. Your mileage may vary, so you may want to modify this to suit your own environment. Just curious, thanks - by the way, support these guys, this is a nice app to have. JP

I forgot to include another helpful FDISK page here: http://bharucha.com/tp701/fdiskSecrets.html JP

Another way to do it is to include the following in your registry tweaks file (this one gets rid of a few items): ;Delete NeroCheck, QTTask & WinAmp Agent from startup group [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] "NeroFilterCheck"=- "QuickTime Task"=- "WinampAgent"=- "nwiz"=- That might suit you better. JP

Folks, I've been honing my DOS-based installation CD for some time now, with MSFN's help. I've been wanting to automatically convert my C: drive to NTFS during the install process, but in order to redo the same script, the C: drive would have to start out as a FAT32 volume, so I've left out the auto-convert until now. Advantages of the DOS-based unattended install model: XP installs out of DOS very well All you need is a 1.44MB boot floppy image (not some large, slow WinPE CD) and CD burning apps support floppy images on bootable CDs. DOS batch commands are common and more familiar to most beginners. DOS allows you to create boot disks with many great DOS utilities and menu systems - other environments are harder to customize. Back to the topic: If you want to do an unattended XP install on your c: drive out of DOS, it has to be formatted as a volume that DOS can see, namely FAT32. But if you do an autoconvert to NTFS during an install cycle, you don't have that. How can you switch back easily, and still retain your install files and file backups on D:? And do it with tiny, DOS-based, free apps that fit on your floppy image? This approach is a combination of the standard FDISK and the free AEFDisk utility. Be sure to get the later version of FDISK which can handle big hard disks on Microsoft's Support Page in many languages (or do a google search). All you'll need is the FDISK.EXE program, the AEFDISK.exe app, and the batch file below, on a Win98 boot disk. First, I am assuming that you have manually converted your C: drive to NTFS or done it automatically during unattended setup (using the following code in your WINNT.SIF file): [Unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended Repartition=No FileSystem=ConvertNTFS <--- this is the key line you must include If you want to blow away the C: drive and redo your install out of DOS again, it wouldn't work, because the NTFS volume could not be used. But let's assume you have backed up your files and your install folders onto a D: FAT32 partition (it really does make things easier), and we can be rid of the NTFS volume. Here's the script to do it (just paste this into a text file and call it formatc.bat or whatever: @echo off CLS ECHO. ECHO Deleting primary partition and reformatting as FAT32 ... ECHO. ECHO This mode will keep all files on the D: drive intact. ECHO. AEFDisk.exe /DELACTIVE ECHO. ECHO Repartitioning free space, formatting as FAT32 (PC will reboot) ... AEFDisk.exe /freesize FDISK 1 /PRI:%FREESIZE% /ACTOK /Q AEFDisk.exe /formatfat:1:Hard_Disk AEFDisk.exe /reboot I'll walk you through what the script does: Step 1: you call AEFDisk with the /DELACTIVE switch to delete only the active partition (your NTFS C: drive - the extended partition [D: drive] is left alone). Step 2: You call AEFDisk again with the /FREESIZE switch to save the size of the now unallocated free space (the "hole" left by deleting your C: drive) to a variable (FREESIZE). Step 3: FDISK is called to re-create a primary partition of size %FREESIZE% (a good explanation of FDISK can be found here: http://fdisk.radified.com/fdisk_partition.htm ). This command skips extended testing of the partition and doesn't reboot when finished Step 4: call AEFDisk one more time to do a quick format of the new C: drive and assign it a name Hard_Disk (spaces are not allowed in the command, to my knowledge). AEFDisk then reboots the PC so that the new partition can be used by DOS. This script will work with any primary partition, but it's best suited for drives with both a primary and extended/logical partition. I've not tested it on every drive configuration, so you should test this on your own rigs to be sure. UPDATE: One thing you should watch - if you are working with Dell PCs, they typically have a 31MB diagnostic partition which is partition 1, so if you have such a thing, you just need to change the format command to AEFDisk.exe /formatfat:2:Hard_Disk since the primary partition will be #2 instead of #1. Happy formatting, JP

XtremeMaC, I just did a clean build with your Outlook tweak (using Office XP SP3), and it DID create an Outlook.pst file in the folder I specified. But unfortunately, Outlook also comes up with a dialog box at startup (but it DOES start up): IDENTITY SWITCH CANCELLED The current identity could not be changed because one of the applications was unable to switch. Close any open dialog boxes in other applications before trying again. Further, Outlook Express has the same message and won't even start. Any thoughts? Perhaps this is an Office 2003-only tweak? Thanks, JP UPDATE: Sorry, my bad. Your tweak works fine for Office XP. I had some other registry tweaks in there that was messing up the works.

Why 5.1 instead of 6? Well, I haven't tried 6.0 lately, but the first time I installed it, the right side of the toolbar has these continuously changing "mini-ads" promoting their full Acrobat product. I didn't like that, and couldn't figure out a way to turn it off. Plus, 6.0 is a larger install, and 5.1 does everything my users need AcroRead to do, frankly. Just open PDFs. Now, if that's changed, then please enlighten me on it. I'd also like to know where Reader stores it's settings (INI or registry) so I can set some settings on the front end. Thanks! JP

Outlook data folder! Finally! Mac, you da man! I'm incorporating the XP version and I'll tell you how it goes, but I'm also wondering - how to set up a default Outlook profile (with just the PST file in your custom folder). Perhaps it doesn't matter, as it will be created the first time the user opens Outlook, but I'd still like to know. Thanks again! JP

Thanks, Big_gie - I've been thinking of using 7-ZIP on the whole CD, but I don't believe it runs under DOS, does it? That's why you're running within XP setup? It works there? Oh, also, can you have multiple Detached Programs, run one after another? Thanks again for the tip! JP

Thanks guys! Do I need the readme.htm and spnotes.htm files as well? I've already removed the unneeded lang and other folders in WinXP, deleted the IE5 folders in my admin install point of Office XP SP3 and Norton SW, and deleted the INSTMSI and INSTMSIW.exe's from apps that had them. Since I'm doing a clean install of XP, those files are never used. I wanted to come up with a simple but novel approach to cramming the OS and ALL needed applications into one CD, and I've accomplished that finally with MSFN's help. Since I'm a beginner, I didn't want to hack files or use gosh's approach to reducing the size of the XP install folder (renaming folders halfway through the install cycle) becuase I wanted to be able to go back and update those folders as "full" installers. That is possible using my approach. I'll publish my technique in detail very soon, but so far, I have been able to fit the following full installers onto one bootable 700MB CD: - WinXP Pro SP1 (English) - 22 Hotfixes and Supplemental Installs from Windows Update - Office XP Pro w. Frontpage SP3 (Admin install folder) - Norton SW Pro 2002 (same functionality, but smaller then 2003 or 2004) - Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 - Nero 6 Ultra 6.3.1.6 - QuickTime 6.5 full - Ad-Aware 6 build 181 with 274 reffile - SpywareBlaster 2.6.1 with updated DB - SpywareGuard, also with updated DB - Google Toolbar (latest) - My IPs 1.0 - Winamp 5.02 Pro MSI - VB6 SP5 - WinRAR 3.30 - PageDefrag 2.1 - RegShot - CDex 1.51 - TightVNC 1.2.9 - 63MB of drivers, including Omega's ATI 4.3 Catalyst drivers, nVidia 45.xx series (so it will install on TNTs), Rage 128, and a few others Like I said, I'll publish the technique soon, but so far it's working great. The only thing I have left is a few interface tweaks I've yet to figure out, but I'm sure the pros at MSFN will be able to help. Thanks again, and please let me know about those HTM files on root. JP

Folks, Quick question: I'm continuing to run up against the 700MB ceiling for my unattended CD, and the latest idea I've had is to delete the files on the root level of the XP CD (Setup.exe, autorun, win51, win51IP, etc.). I'm doing a DOS install with \i386\winnt.exe using a WINNT.SIF file in \i386, and it's booting using a 1.44MB DOS floppy image. Do I need the setup.exe program there? It would save me over a meg of space. Please let me know what files on the root would be safe to delete, considering I'm doing a clean install from DOS. Thanks, JP

Use Nero 5 or 6 to make your bootable CD, if you have it, then find a DOS boot floppy and use that as the boot image of the CD (Nero will ask for it when you're making the CD image). Also, your WINNT.SIF has FileSystem=* - Windows will ask you what file system you want, so this line MUST be changed if you want to go fully unattended! Remove that line entirely. Here's the first part of my WINNT.SIF file to get you started: [Data] AutoPartition=0 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended Repartition=No OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes UnattendSwitch="Yes" TargetPath=\WINDOWS WaitForReboot="No" OemFilesPath="d:\Install\WinXP\$OEM$" OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\0INTEL;Drivers\1VIA;Drivers\2SiS" DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore NonDriverSigningPolicy=Ignore KeyboardLayout="US" Hibernation=No [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=* EncryptedAdminPassword=NO OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=35 OemSkipWelcome=1 [GuiRunOnce] d:\batfiles\postxp.cmd Good luck, and keep trying, JP

Sorry, that was a wild guess during a quick reply - just read the readme for the correct syntax, and let me know when you get it working. Thanks! JP

Hey there, I do the exact same thing! I really do prefer a small 1.44MB boot floppy with Win98 DOS files and my RAR32 DOS decompressor. Then I load up a 700MB RAR archive on the CD and that has everything I need for a complete install. I would use the ConvertNTFS flag in WINNT.SIF if I was assured that I could reformat the partition as FAT32 if I had to redo the install cycle. I think AEFDisk 2.1 (free) may do this, but I've not gotten around to adding this to my scripts yet. It's really small though (18k). Here's a snippet from the readme: AEFDISK is a DOS based, command line driven disk partitioning utility. With AEFDISK you can: - Create primary, extended and logical partitions - Delete primary, extended and logical partitions (and wipe them) - Format FAT partitions - Hide and unhide FAT, NTFS/HPFS partitions - Activate/deactivate a partition - Show the partition table - Show characteristics of harddisks - Install the standard MBR loader to a harddisk - Save or restore the MBR - Set up hundreds of harddisks with a simple batch file on a floppy - and more... It can set up partitions for you, but adding partitions requires a reboot. If you assume the hard disk already has a partition available, you could use AEFDisk in a script as such: aefdisk 1 /formatfat:1:Hard_Disk (formats the first partition on drive 1 as FAT32 and names it Hard_Disk) Go to http://www.aefdisk.com/ and see if you can get it going. It's a DOS utility, small, and free - why not try it and shoot me a message when you get it working. Like I said, I've downloaded it but I haven't gotten it going yet, but it seems like what you need. JP

Hi folks, I've been refining my Seteq XP Builder for some weeks, and have recently come across the SCHTASKS command-line app built into XP Pro. I'd like to use it to insert some self-maintenance tasks into my builds, but it's being stubborn. Background: I'm not an advanced scripter like gosh, Aaron, and others, but I think I've come up with a cool way to create an unattended installer on 1 CD. I've created a fully scripted installer for XP SP1 plus numerous patches, Office XP Pro SP3 Admin Install, VB6 SP5, Norton SW, Nero 6, Winamp 5.02, 3 Anti-Spyware tools, Quicktime 6.5, Google Toolbar, TightVNC, Acrobat Reader 5.1, WinZip, plus 86MB of device drivers - all on one bootable CD. Uncompressed, the software totals about 1.18GB. I can accomplish this by assuming that the target PC has two FAT32 partitions, with a D: at least 1.5GB in size. I decompress a 700MB RAR solid archive in DOS to D:, then run all installers from D: (so I kick out the CD when the install cycle starts and the PC can reboot properly when needed). I use a POSTXP.CMD file which I launch from GUIRunOnce. Yes, it's not pretty but it's a standard command-line which is all this beginner can manage. At the end of the install sequence, there are a few things I need to do, including: Convert the C: drive to NTFS Add Scheduled Tasks to auto-defrag and other maintenance duties The first I'm still researching, but the second can be accomplished with .XP's built-in SCHTASKS utility, which can be configured via CLI from script. The Problem: The defrag task can successfully be created with the following: SCHTASKS /create /TN "Defragment Hard Disk" /TR c:\windows\batfiles\defrag.vbs /SC weekly /ST 17:00:00 /RU system But that job won't run. If I have to define a system name, user and password (if you define 1, you have to define all 3), then I run into problems because my WINNT.SIF defines * as the ComputerName (so if I have to build several PCs on the same network, the names will all be different). Even if I try to define a static computer name (e.g., PC), and I have a static user and password (XPUser, xpuser), the resulting command would be this: SCHTASKS /create /TN "Defragment Hard Disk" /TR c:\windows\batfiles\defrag.vbs /SC weekly /ST 17:00:00 /S PC /U XPUser /P xpuser but SCHTASKS doesn't like that either. It bounces back a message: ERROR: passing the user credential on local connection. I KNOW this is the correct system name, user name, and password, because I set it myself. Augh! Does anyone else use this, and if so, what parameters have worked for you in unattended scripts? Thanks, oh and if anyone can tell me how to convert my c: drive to NTFS during the install process, that would be cool too. JP PS: Here's my POSTXP.CMD install script, for reference: @echo off SETLOCAL SET A=d:\Install\Apps SET I=d:\Install SET P=start menu\Programs SET U=start menu\Utilities CLS IF NOT EXIST %I%\Addons\nul ( @ECHO. @ECHO Extracting Addons ... @start /min /high /wait %A%\UnRAR.exe x -o+ %I%\Addons.rar %I%\ @DEL %I%\Addons.rar ) FOR %%R IN (Norton QuickTim Reader51 CDex OfficeXP Spyware1 Spyware2) DO ( IF NOT EXIST %A%\%%R\nul ( @ECHO. @ECHO Extracting %%R.rar ... @start /min /high /wait %A%\UnRAR.exe x -o+ %A%\%%R.rar %A%\ @DEL %A%\%%R.rar) ) ECHO. ECHO Installing Office XP ... start /high /wait %A%\OfficeXP\setup.exe TRANSFORMS=%A%\OfficeXP\Unattend.MST /qb- ECHO. ECHO Installing TightVNC ... start /high /wait %A%\TightVNC.exe /sp- /verysilent ECHO. ECHO Installing Ad-Aware 6 (Anti-Spyware tool) ... start /high /wait %A%\AdAware\AdAware6.exe /s xcopy %A%\AdAware\reflist.ref "%ProgramFiles%\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware 6\" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y ECHO. ECHO Installing Nero 6 Ultra CD Burning software ... start /wait REGEDIT /S %A%\Nero6.reg start /high /wait %A%\Nero6303.exe /SILENT /NOREBOOT /SN=[deleted] /WRITE_SN ECHO. ECHO Installing Norton SystemWorks ... start /high /wait %A%\Norton\NSW.msi /QB ECHO. ECHO Installing QuickTime 6.5 ... start /high /wait %A%\QuickTim\QT65Full.exe ECHO. ECHO Installing Visual Basic 6 Runtimes ... start /high /wait %A%\VB6SP5.exe /Q ECHO. ECHO Applying MDAC Hotfix ... start /high /wait %I%\WinXP\I386\Update\Q832483.exe /C:"dahotfix.exe /q /n" /q ECHO. ECHO Applying Media Player Hotfix ... start /high /wait %I%\WinXP\I386\Update\Q817787.exe /Q:A /R:N ECHO. ECHO Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader ... start /high /wait %A%\Reader51\Setup.exe /S /F1"%A%\Reader51\Setup.iss" ECHO. ECHO Installing Google Toolbar ... start /high /wait %A%\Google.exe /q ECHO. ECHO Installing My IP Address ... start /high /wait %A%\myipss10.exe /silent /noreboot ECHO. ECHO Installing WinAmp 5.02 ... start /high /wait %A%\WinAmp5\WinAmp.msi /QB taskkill /IM winamp.exe /F taskkill /IM winampa.exe /F xcopy %A%\WinAmp5\WinAmp.ini "%ProgramFiles%\Winamp\winamp.ini" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y xcopy %A%\WinAmp5\gen_ml.ini "%ProgramFiles%\Winamp\Plugins\gen_ml.ini" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y ECHO. ECHO Installing Spyware Blaster ... start /high /wait %A%\Spyware1\Spyware1.exe /verysilent /SP- taskkill /IM spywareblaster.exe /F xcopy %A%\Spyware1\*.dtb "%ProgramFiles%\SpywareBlaster\*.dtb" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y ECHO. ECHO Installing Spyware Guard ... start /high /wait %A%\Spyware2\Spyware2.exe /silent taskkill /IM sgmain.exe /F taskkill /IM sgbhp.exe /F xcopy %A%\Spyware2\*.dtb "%ProgramFiles%\SpywareGuard\*.dtb" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y ECHO. ECHO Applying Global registry tweaks ... start /high /wait REGEDIT /S %I%\WinXP\$OEM$\XPTweaks.reg ECHO. ECHO Applying User registry tweaks ... start /high /wait REGEDIT /S %I%\WinXP\$OEM$\user.reg ECHO. ECHO Applying Spyware Blocking definitions to IE ... start /high /wait REGEDIT /S %I%\WinXP\$OEM$\spyblock.reg ECHO. ECHO Creating Backup folder on D: Drive ... IF NOT EXIST d:\backup\nul (@md d:\Backup) xcopy %windir%\batfiles\*.txt d:\Backup /Q /S /C /E /R /Y ECHO. ECHO Cleaning up Start Menu items ... MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Nero" xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Nero\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Nero\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Nero" /S /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\TightVNC" xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\TightVNC\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\TightVNC\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\TightVNC" /S /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Anti-Spyware" xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\SpywareBlaster\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Anti-Spyware\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\SpywareBlaster" /S /Q xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\SpywareGuard\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Anti-Spyware\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\SpywareGuard" /S /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Norton SystemWorks" xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Norton SystemWorks\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Norton SystemWorks\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Norton SystemWorks" /S /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\My IP Address" xcopy "%userprofile%\%P%\Camtech\My IPs\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\My IP Address\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%userprofile%\%P%\Camtech" /S /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Anti-Spyware\Lavasoft Ad-aware 6" xcopy "%userprofile%\%P%\Lavasoft Ad-aware 6\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Anti-Spyware\Lavasoft Ad-aware 6\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%userprofile%\%P%\Lavasoft Ad-aware 6" /S /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Microsoft Office Tools" xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Microsoft Office Tools\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Microsoft Office Tools\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Microsoft Office Tools" /S /Q REM ECHO. REM xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Acro*.lnk" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y REM del "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Acro*.lnk" /F /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\QuickTime" xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\QuickTime\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\QuickTime\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\QuickTime" /S /Q ECHO. MD "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Winamp" xcopy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Winamp\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%\Winamp\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Winamp" /S /Q ECHO. xcopy "%userprofile%\%P%\Accessories\*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Accessories\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y RD "%userprofile%\%P%\Accessories" /S /Q ECHO. copy "%userprofile%\%P%\*.lnk" "%allusersprofile%\%P%\*.lnk" /Y DEL "%userprofile%\%P%\*.lnk" /F /Q ECHO. copy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Windows*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%" /Y DEL "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Windows*.*" /F /Q ECHO. copy "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Remote*.*" "%allusersprofile%\%U%" /Y DEL "%allusersprofile%\%P%\Remote*.*" /F /Q ECHO. del "%allusersprofile%\start menu\*.lnk" /F /Q xcopy %I%\Addons\*.* "C:\Documents and Settings\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y MD "%ProgramFiles%\CDex" MD "%ProgramFiles%\WinZip" xcopy %A%\cdex\*.* "%ProgramFiles%\CDex\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y xcopy %A%\WinZip\*.* "%ProgramFiles%\WinZip\*.*" /Q /S /C /E /R /Y ECHO. ECHO Adjusting File Associations ... ECHO. assoc .blt=txtfile assoc .cue=txtfile assoc .diz=txtfile assoc .eml=txtfile assoc .iss=txtfile assoc .log=txtfile assoc .md5=txtfile assoc .m3u=txtfile assoc .nbi=txtfile assoc .nfo=txtfile assoc .nt=txtfile assoc .pif=txtfile assoc .sam=txtfile assoc .sif=txtfile assoc .sfv=txtfile assoc *=txtfile ECHO. ECHO Setting up Scheduled Tasks ... SCHTASKS /create /TN "Reset Norton AV" /TR c:\Windows\Batfiles\AVRESET.BAT /SC MONTHLY /ST 16:00:00 /RU SYSTEM ECHO. SCHTASKS /create /TN "Defragment Hard Disk" /TR c:\Windows\Batfiles\DEFRAG.BAT /SC WEEKLY /ST 17:00:00 /S P4 /U XPUser /P xpuser ECHO. ECHO Disable search companion ... start /wait regsvr32 /u /s %windir%\srchasst\srchui.dll ECHO. RD c:\temp /S /Q RD C:\Ý /S /Q del %windir%\temp\*.txt del "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temp\*.*" /F /Q del "%userprofile%\Desktop\Spy*.*" /F /Q del "%allusersprofile%\Desktop\Spy*.*" /F /Q del "%allusersprofile%\Desktop\Nor*.*" /F /Q REM del "%allusersprofile%\Desktop\My IP*.*" /F /Q REM del "%allusersprofile%\Desktop\Acro*.*" /F /Q ECHO. %windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -r -t 70 -c "Initial Install Complete! After you reboot, get online and run Windows Update and Norton LiveUpdate programs to complete installation." ENDLOCAL EXIT

I don't know how you could do the IP addresses without setting up a "static DHCP" server which would give out the same IP address to a certain MAC address. By the time you collected all the MAC addresses, though, you might as well type it in the IP control panel of each machine manually. As far as machine names go, I just set the machine name to be randomly generated, as such, in WINNT.SIF: [UserData] ProductID=11111-22222-33333-44444-55555 FullName="User" OrgName="Windows XP" ComputerName="*" which of course you can go back later and change the PC name later. Honestly, the typical PC unattended install has to reboot after certain kinds of updates anyway, so I would think you could set that stuff as you were installing the PC at the user's desk or during the final reboot. Defining that in some sort of file on a static CD might be making this too complicated. You may want to try other methods. JP

Folks, I've been revising my unattended CD for weeks, adding invaluable features mentioned here at MSFN - so thanks for everyone's input. I'm hitting a wall on alot of registry tweaks I'm trying to find and apply to my setup. I use RegShot to determine all registry changes for every setting I do to a clean XP build, and alot of them are coming back as changes to the HKEY_USERS area of the registry, instead of HKEY_CURRENT_USER. The problem is that there seems to be a random number generated in the HKEY_USERS area which makes the address for these types of changes different for every build. When I see this section, most changes are in: HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2052111302-152049171-1060284298-1003 and this number changes every time I do a clean build. Further, I've tried making changes to the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT folder set, and they don't seem to work. Can anyone tell me how I can get around this, and apply settings to the default user profile? Thanks in advance, JP