Octopuss

I think I have everything registry-related sorted out by now Thank you.

I intend to install a few small apps during setupcomplete.cmd phase based on user input (I am trying to create universal image for all 3 main departments of our customer. Each is using a few different apps.), but need a bit of help. I want to include the source files on the DVD, but not sure how to pass it to the batch file. Is there any variable for the source drive during Windows setup? Or is specific drive letter always assigned?

Question: Simply adding $OEM$ folder into DVD\sources will make the setup copy its contents into %windir%? Or do I need some other settings from the unattended file maybe?

That's what I do as well. Already found out about a few reg tweaks that completely screw installation up if they are added, like disabling WinDefender. What kind of default values do you mean? I am going through SIM atm, looking at stuff I can do there and eventually deleting those things from my tweaks if they are doable through unattended file. The pretweaks as I call them should be harmless enough in most cases, It's pretty much all those folder options, context menu items, etc. Gotta test more though, because I also set temp variables and page file there, which smells of trouble

Great post, thank you.

Ouch, that sucks. I am sure I will forget to add some of those to wow My 2) question is probably the biggest concern. Like "Microsoft-Windows-IE-ClientNetworkProtocolImplementation", which can be added to specialize and OOBE phases. I don't get that at all. edit: Oh I see some of the values apply to one pass and some to another - just need to figure out whether there are such that can be applied to both!

Might as well post here insead of starting a thread. In SIM, I can click around and add components to various installation phases. That's clear enough. But: 1) Under components, I see plenty of things. That makes sense (lol). But it looks like the same stuff, only some start with amd64, some with x86 and some with wow64. Do I need set a particular thing up in each of them? Or what's the deal here? 2) How do I know where to add a component when there are several phases available? This was asked before but not answered in a way that'd give me a hint. 3) Where am I supposed to find the values to type in? Of course some are covered in the help and some even have specific values to be chosen from. Some do not though. Is it just about Google then? 4) I already have a bunch of registry tweaks I apply to an image before I sysprep it. I see some of these can be set in the unattended file as well. Shall I not bother (setting something twice should not do any harm, shall it?) or shall remove them from the .reg file? ad 4) example: in SIM I can set lots of options for IE, but I couldn't find the one that sets tabs options. If I go into audit mode and configure IE, and unattended settings are applied during the installation, will they overwrite anything I set before? (including reg tweaks I possibly import even before syspreping)

Are you suggesting I should forget the whole thing?

Nope not at all. In fact it was a stupid reg tweak to disable Windows Defender.... Yeah, wtf. What happened was that the OOBE part was actually completely skipped for some unknown reason. I waited and waited and after a LONG time I got to the standard login screen - but I noticed that much later.

Why don't you recommend it? How else would I enter it?

Yes I noticed that too, but there was something else, lol. Btw I also tried to use a tweak to disable Windows Defender, but that totally screwed the installation process up! No OOBE screen, up to like 15 mins of waiting and then just login window. Weird.

I finally got time to dig into this and copied the recovery images from one machine. After lots of hopeless looking around for the OEM folder which is not present at all, I found whole bunch of the xrm-ms. Really no idea which ones I need though. Perhaps you could help me out? Do I understand it correctly that I just need one or more of these placed in specific DVD folder and the automatic activation will work?

Um. How could the key combination work when I wasn't actually at OOBE phase at all! But the question is why! Why would it be skipped? I didn't use any tweaks that would mess around with users.

I installed a system and got to the point of creating and user and setting a name for the machine. I wanted to enter audit mode, pressed Ctrl-Shift-F3 and... nothing happened. What's wrong? Any ideas? edit: also, the phase before user creation, I seem to be stuck with "Please wait for the Windows modules installer" message that sits there for LONG time (like 15 mins or so) before the **** screen appears (and then the key combination doesn't work). Totally not looking like working as intended :-O

Damnit you managed to reply before I was done editing the post (solved now, but still have a question)

After lots of trial and error I managed to nail it down. Everytime I applied the tweaks and installed it in VM, I'd get BSOD and restart when the windows was supposed to start. One stupid key typed slightly wrong. Jeez I'm dumblind... But then again, I've been trying to get this part working for 2 days pretty much nonstop and 3 hours a day worth of sleep is BAD. I still have one question though: do I really need to use REG_EXPAND_CZ type for those keys that contain variables like for example %systemroot% which I am very fond of lately?

I don't know man. I think I am doing pretty much the same thing. This is what I have in my batch file: @echo off Color 0A echo mounting the image dism /mount-wim /wimfile:e:\Win7\sources\install.wim /index:1 /mountdir:e:\mount\ echo removing some minor s*** files rd "e:\mount\Users\Administrator\Favorites\Links" /s /q rd "e:\mount\Users\Administrator\Favorites\Microsoft Websites" /s /q rd "e:\mount\Users\Administrator\Favorites\MSN Websites" /s /q rd "e:\mount\Users\Administrator\Favorites\Windows Live" /s /q rd "e:\mount\Users\Public\Music\Sample Music" /s /q rd "e:\mount\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures" /s /q rd "e:\mount\Users\Public\Recorded TV\Sample Media" /s /q rd "e:\mount\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos" /s /q echo loading registry from the image reg.exe load HKLM\WIM_Default "e:\mount\Users\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT" reg.exe load HKLM\WIM_Software "e:\mount\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE" reg.exe load HKLM\WIM_System "e:\mount\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM" echo importing registry tweaks reg.exe import "e:\tweaks.reg" echo unloading the registry reg.exe unload HKLM\WIM_Default reg.exe unload HKLM\WIM_Software reg.exe unload HKLM\WIM_System echo unmounting and saving the image dism.exe /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"e:\mount" /Commit pause edit: what did you change please? I don't know of any simple way of checking the changes. edit2: why did you break the tweaks into different files, or rather - by what logic?

I ran into a dead end with my reg tweaks - the **** file refuses to import. I only just found out when I still had no tweaks applied when I installed the system and tried to do it manually after - I keep getting an error message about registry access error or something. The mustbe something wrong with the file, I don't know Could someone check it out please? edit: the /s switch does nothing, I am not getting any splash screens at all anyway...

Lego, could you make a small change to the /l parameter please? Currently there is no option where the list of packages will be saved to. Unless I missed something, it always gets saved in c:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\, which is not even "the same directory" as the programs says (I understand it the way it should be saved in the mounted image's directory instead)

What does /s do? Ad HKCU - I realized it's just a subkey of HKLM in offline image, so I am just using HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\WIM_Software\Classes. That is right, hm?

I tried and they work.

Aaaah! I see! It's clear now. Btw the whole registry to load are these three files, right? reg.exe load HKLM\WIM_Default "d:\mount\Users\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT" reg.exe load HKLM\WIM_Software "d:\mount\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE" reg.exe load HKLM\WIM_System "d:\mount\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM"

I think I have it sorted now. It's a bit messy though. Using variables and paths in standard REG_SZ types is tricky and sometimes doesn't work, but paths have to be written with duoble backslashes else the key doesn't get added at all. And even then it doesn't work sometimes. ;Add Services [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\Services] "Icon"="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-67" "Position"="Top" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\Services\command] @="mmc.exe services.msc" The icon part works, but if I write the command part in the same way, it doesn't. Fortunately we have system paths variables set by default. myselfidem, you told me to change stuff in controlset001 key instead of currentcontrolset, which confused me. Google says something about these keys being more or less copies of one another, so it will probably work either way.

Sorry I do not understand at all. I asked why you told me to change completely different key than the one the stuff I want to change is located in. I didn't experience anything so far, I am still drowning in it (did make SOME progress though) Also which keys exactly need special permissions? So far I didn't run any problems except for things around HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\Windows.delete, which says read only. Do you have any list maybe?

I will give it a shot. Now that I think about it, in the worst case I will install the machines with the OEM keys which are on the stickers on their sides. It's just that I still hope I will be able to do it with the Lenovo key without having to type anything anywhere (and bothering with activation).