Octopuss

I wanted something simple as a start, but can't get it to work. <DiskConfiguration> <Disk wcm:action="add"> <CreatePartitions> <CreatePartition wcm:action="add"> <Order>1</Order> <Size>100</Size> <Type>Primary</Type> </CreatePartition> <CreatePartition wcm:action="add"> <Order>2</Order> <Type>Primary</Type> <Extend>true</Extend> </CreatePartition> </CreatePartitions> <ModifyPartitions> <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add"> <PartitionID>1</PartitionID> <Order>1</Order> <Format>NTFS</Format> <Label>Boot</Label> <Extend>false</Extend> <Active>false</Active> </ModifyPartition> <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add"> <Order>2</Order> <PartitionID>2</PartitionID> <Format>NTFS</Format> <Active>true</Active> <Letter>C</Letter> </ModifyPartition> </ModifyPartitions> <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk> <DiskID>0</DiskID> </Disk> <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI> </DiskConfiguration> I still get that partitions list screen. I wanted to achieve the following: simply wipe the disk and create the usual 100MB boot partition and fill rest of the drive with system one. Do I always use both CreatePartition and ModifyPartition?

What's wrong? :-O C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools>d:\programy\install_wim_tweak.exe /p "e:\mount" ------------------------------------------- ---------Registry Tweak Tool v1.3.8-------- ---------------for Windows 6.x------------- ---------Created by Michał Wnuowski-------- -----------Modified by Legolash2o---------- ------------------------------------------- MountPath : "e:\mount" ------------------Starting----------------- Creating BKP of registry file... OK Mounting registry file... OK Taking Ownership... OK Editing 'Packages' subkeys 243/243OK Editing 'PackagesPending' subkeys FAIL Unhandled error occured. Object reference not set to an instance of an object. -------------------Ending------------------ Unmounting key... OK Restoring Backup... OK Removing Backup file... OK

How do you capture the image then, when it's a part of installation process? I just don't get it. I thought the point of audit mode is to make an image you can use for other machines, so doing a half-install which is then captured and used as a source instead of the default dvd makes much more sense. What you describe sounds like going into audit mode automatically at some point during the installation. Okay. But then you generalize, leave audit mode... and setup continues. I am missing something.

Yeah! Problem solved then!

So how does firstlogoncommands actually work? Does it run, 1) just once in total when a user logs on or 2) once for EVERY user? I couldn't find/understand this from resources I found.

Answer to myself: impossible to install anything that needs to write in user folder until a user is logged on. It was logical but I had to try anyway. Eset antivirus installed fine from a command ran in oobe phase though. Guess I will have to learn and use the **** firstlogon stuff. Kinda curious if it would run for every user that logs on.

Hm, ok. But how do I tell the setup which one to use for the boot stuff?

I am looking at the synchronous command option, but not really sure what is the major difference between running them in specialize and oobe phase. Which one is better (if I can use both for this purpose) and why? Also, I will be doing this on syspreped image with copyprofile set to true. If I install stuff this way, will it be for all users?

Max (or anyone else), can you give me an example of how the partition creation looks in the answer file please? Say I want to simply overwrite the disk with two partitions, one for system, one for data. OR Is the setup capable of something a bit more advanced? Like if the disk is partitioned in a specific way, don't touch one of the partitions and only "redo" the others? I'd say not

Gotta love MS... After a few tries I managed to do it though. Skipuser(machine)oobe keys did the trick (along with other minor things I think), and even though MS says these are deprecated and should not be used, they work like a charm. I am sticking with it. Still puzzled about IE settings. Can't get part of them to activate despite having them in the answer file. Oh and I noticed something else - after I install the language bar is floating on the desktop instead of being docked in the taskbar (or is it called superbar or something in W7?), which is pretty surprising, because I am not aware of messing around with this stuff anywhere.

Well this is quite good for other things too. Will experiment. Does the variable get carried over through whole setup? Or what's the last stage I can use it? Are you saying I should create another batch file with the choices which would be ran from setupcomplete btw? That doesn't sound all that awkward considering I can't think of any solution myself.

Hm, for some reason I still am getting the user creation screen even though I set the local admin to log on. What do I need to set in the answer file? I set autologon, password and administratorpassword in the oobe phase and still getting user creation and product key screens at the end of installation.

I added <DriverPaths> <PathAndCredentials wcm:action="add"> <Path>$WinPEDriver$</Path> </PathAndCredentials> </DriverPaths> And SIM keeps saying that the "key" must have a value. Should I ignore it and proceed anyway?

Answer to the last question is simple: because that's the only option. The machines are bought with Pro edition and there's no reason whatsoever to upgrade to Enterprise. There is and never will be any deploy environment. By the way this all started only because of the default local profile (guess you remember my original question) problem, and naturally I couldn't use pre-installed machine or bloated recovery DVDs for that. It works now btw, thanks to Maxx (was pretty **** simple really, only I didn't know where to start). On top of that, I am doing all this in my spare time and only because I want to do stuff right. Colleague solved the default profile problem by some awkward 3rd part utility that messes around with file/folder security and then simply copied profiles over just like in XP. Yuck. Not my cup of tea. (and sorry for spamming, I am pretty short of time, already behind a schedule with several machines )

I must confirm that cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ilc %windir%\system32\OEM\lenovo.xrm-ms cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk xxx works like a charm.

no ideas?

So I would have to write another unattended file? I am obviously missing something but I can't understand how is this simplier

So I finally managed to finish my image, but still need a few points cleared. Firstly, this is rougly what I do: 1) copy the source somewhere and extract just Professional edition, copy/pasting it back. 2) run my pretweak.bat batch file which mounts the image, deletes some files, import reg tweaks etc. 3) install it, go to audit mode and customize the system a bit, generalize and capture 4) add autounattend.xml and install it.... It finally got through but now come the questions: 1) Is it possible to have the local admin account log in just once? I don't need any other local users cause the machine will go straight to a domain, plus I got the product key page to show up when I normally created a user, which is something I do not want to do. 2) Some IE settings did not carry over, any ideas why? Namely the trusted sites, but not sure if there weren't any others. 3) Is it possible to change all the stuff I get asked about by the configuration wizard that pops up when I run IE for the first time? I found some in SIM, but not all. 4) Is it possible that some apps cannot be installed in audit mode? I installed Eset antivirus and while it worked, it screwed up the final installation which halted with an error. Checking logs revealed it was causing it... 5) The activation through setupcomplete.cmd didn't work, but I hope it's because I am installing the system in VM instead on Lenovo system. I got a message which says like "Check the errors by running slui.exe "0x2a 0xBBA" on non-core edition of Windows". Uhuh? 6) Is there a way to change some settings globally for all users when there is no HKCU hive created yet? Like in one case I need to change visual effects to pure windows classic, but the image is set for full aero (will be for two different company departments) Please check my files for anything that could use some improvements or some obvious nonsenses. If you can answer any of my points, please do so http://www.mediafire...wj64ckhk27k0cyy Thanks!

Oh I see. WinPE is reflected into normal installation. At which point of the installation is the $OEM$ folder copied onto the system partition btw?

I know, but I thought that adding drives in WinPE pass only applies to the setup... Gonna try it anyway, we will see...

I exported just Professional edition out of the original source and it works when installed, so it must be something after sysprep part. Is this the correct command? imagex /compress maximum /flags "Professional" /capture k: e:\install.wim "Windows 7 Professional" K: is the .vhd I installed the system on and which I am capturing, obviously. edit: trying with C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools>imagex /capture k:\ c:\install.wim /c heck /compress maximum /verify "Windows 7 Professional" now.... final edit: SOLVED had to specify something more in unattended file

Are you sure it's Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsWinPE and not the "nonPE" component?

And for some reason it doesn't work again after I syspreped an image, captured it and pasted back into ..\sources. What's wrong?!

What are the benefits? It also looks pretty complicated. Why is adding answer file to an image and rebuilding it better than simply installing it straight away and using the key combination? Keep in mind I need to sysprep the system too...

I will add one more question. Getting close to being done with my image, but integrating drivers is left to do. I would like to do it in an elegant way, probably to have them on the DVD instead of manually injecting them into the image so I don't have to redo it in future. I guess I should use SIM, but I am a bit (quite a lot) confused about the process there.