NOTS3W

I have a program that to manually install requires right-clicking on setup.inf and choosing Install from the popup context menu. It requires no other options or switches, it just installs and asks to reboot to finish. How do I do that in an unattended installation? I don't see how to make that happen on a command line and I don't know what to give an addon maker as the command to execute. Here is the program and here is what I'm trying to automate. It adds the Security tab to the file and folders Properties in XP Home. I've looked at other addons and switchless installers and they all seem to have an exe, bat or cmd to kick them off. Any help? Thanks. Ray

And it all worked!!! I now have .NET 1.1 SP1 with KB886903 and .NET 3.0 on the Add/Remove programs list. I'm surprised that .NET 2.0 also appears there since I didn't explicitly install it. I know it's included with 3.0, but didn't realize that it would get installed separately. It doesn't show the two hotfixes (KB917283 and KB922770), however. Maybe the 2.0 that's included with 3.0 is already patched (?). For the record, here's what I did: Included this line manually at the end of cmdlines.txt: "dotnet11sp1.exe" (with quotes) I got that file from the RyanVM site (thank you Ryan!) Now .NET 1.1 gets installed at T-12. Included this line on the nLite RunOnce tab: start /wait %SystemDrive%\dotnetfx3setup.exe /q /norestart That ends up running from GUIRunOnce on first logon. I got that file from Microsoft and used your syntax for the rest. I placed the dotnetfx3setup.exe file in $OEM$\$1 so it would be found in C:\ The only problem is that dotnetfx3setup.exe gets left in C:\. There's nothing to delete it. I'll add a line to my cleanup.cmd to take care of that. Case closed (I hope). BTW, after making a number of test ISOs in nLite to install in Virtual PC and with more and more things needing to be copied into installation folders, I've created a cmd file to do that for me. I go through the nLite process up to the point of making the ISO, then run the cmd, then go back to nLite and create the image. The cmd file creates all of the necessary folders under $OEM$, copies certain files into those folders, and even echoes a few lines to the bottom of cmdlines.txt. I don't know if that's any great revelation, but it makes sure I don't forget anything each time I rebuild from scratch. Thanks again for your help with this. Ray

Hello again, Martin. I should have given you credit for that registry idea to delay execution of cmdlines.txt. Thanks again for that. It works fine as is. I'll try removing the cmd /c, though, and see if it matters. About the .NET installation: My .NET 2.0 is already being installed from GUIRunOnce so I can see where just replacing that with a 3.0 installer should take care of that part of the problem. I have the 3.0 files from Microsoft. I have to question installing 1.1 at the same point in time, though. Last night, I read this (post #42): Don't know if this is your problem, but it's been said a few times that .NET 3.0 won't install if you installed .NET 1.1 first without rebooting. This will not work: .NET 1.1 .NET 3.0 This will work: .NET 1.1 <reboot> .NET 3.0 This will also work and it's done if you merge 1.1 with 3.0 (but I can't test thoroughly if there are any side effects): .NET 3.0 .NET 1.1 I think I need to install .NET 1.1 from cmdlines.txt so the system reboots before it installs 3.0. I'll try that next. Thanks for all of your help. Ray

I'm sorry to ask so many questions here. I've really tried to research these things but sometimes my lack of experience makes it hard to fully comprehend what I've read. I've learned alot here but I seem to have hit a wall trying to understand the timing of adding .NET. I hope this makes sense: I use nLite. nLite has created CMDLINES.TXT which runs at T-12. I've added to the bottom of that file a .reg file and iespell.exe (a switchless installer). At first logon, WINNT.SIF calls nLite.cmd from its GUIRunOnce section. NLITE.CMD includes two lines. The first is a registry entry that sets up my Cleanup.cmd file to run after explorer is loaded: cmd /c reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce /v cleanup /d %systemdrive%\cleanup.cmd /f (I was having trouble copying files to folders that didn't exist yet and this solves that problem.) So far, so good. Everything seems to work okay except that I get an error message from Windows File Protection that some unapproved files are present and it wants to replace them. If I'm at the computer when that comes up, I've canceled past it. Otherwise, when I come back, Windows is installed so I'm not sure what's happened. Any ideas or suggestions? Anyway, The other line that nLite inserts into nLite.cmd is a call to install .NET 2.0 (nLiteOn_DotNet20_G.cab) which I inserted in the Hotfixes, Addons and Update Packs section of nLite. It fails because I didn't have cmdow and sleep in the path (fixed that for next test). While researching that, though, I realized that I also need to install .NET 1.1 and should install .NET 3.0 for good measure. That's where the timing issue comes in. As I understand it, if I install 3.0, I don't need to install 2.0 but I must install it before I install 1.1. Whew! I think that means that I should remove the 2.0 file from nLite so it doesn't get installed at all, then install 3.0 in cmdlines.txt so it installs at T-12, right? Then I should install 1.1 either by adding it to the GUIRunOnce section of winnt.sit -OR- by creating my own RunOnceEx.exe and inserting it in there, also right? I'm not opposed to either but I hate the fact that there are options like this when I really don't understand how or why to choose one over the other. Or, since I don't actually have a need for 3.0 at this time, I could leave things as they are (2.0 gets installed at first logon) and install 1.1 through cmdlines.txt at T-12, also also right? I'd prefer to install all three .NET files to be complete but not if it's going to make me crazy which may already be too late. I found this thread http://www.msfn.org/board/Silent_NET_Maker...702_t90779.html but got lost in the hfslip discussion and installing 2.0, then 3.0, then 1.1 and rebooting before or after one of them. Can someone please help an old guy understand the best way to install at least 1.1 and 2.0? BTW, I know that Ryan has an AIO .NET installer but (unless I'm not going to the right page) it's only available as a bit torrent which I'm not prepared for and it's a beta which means it's not quite ready for prime time. And I don't yet have access to RogueSpear's site to see what he might have so I guess I need to do this with downloads from Microsoft. Thank you! Ray

Martin, That's probably not a good idea since nlite.cmd still needs to run in guirunonce. It also installs the .NET environment from there. I tried the other option I thought might work (above) and nLite inserted the line into nLite.cmd as expected and everything worked just fine. Thanks for your advice. In the meantime, I found shortcutter.exe which seems to work great to make simple shortcuts from a batch file. I'll try that with a new installation this evening. Ray

Martin, I use nLite and enter %SystemDrive%\CleanUp.cmd in the RunOnce section and I copy CleanUp.cmd to $OEM$\$1. At the bottom of WINNT.SIF, nLite includes [GuiRunOnce] "%SystemRoot%\System32\nLite.cmd" nLite.cm_, in turn, contains my %SystemDrive%\CleanUp.cmd command. I think that meets your condition of running GUIRunOnce without a batch file other than cleanup.cmd itself. If I understand correctly, I should put cmd /c reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce /v cleanup /d %systemdrive%\cleanup.cmd /f into nLite's RunOnce command list and it will be executed in place of my CleanUp.cmd which will itself only be run after explorer is loaded. I'll try that today. If it works, it's a pretty painless solution. Thanks. Ray

Yzowl, Understood and agreed. I was just testing with a small program to see how to put something into the Quick Launch folder and be able to see it appear on the QL toolbar. I'm still working on how to create a shortcut. Thanks for the tip on %AppData%. Ray

Thanks, gunsmokingman. I've just started reading about the creation of shortcuts and planned to use a shortcut for this (and other things) rather than making a complete copy of the exe for each new appearance. I don't know anything about how to place a vbs script into my unattended file set, but I will try the cmd version. What would be very helpful is a command line script that mimics Windows' GUI Create Shortcut. When Windows creates a shortcut, it knows where the icon file is, etc. You don't have to provide any parameters. Maybe there's already a script to do this and I just haven't gotten there yet, but it would be great to have a routine that takes a single argument, the full path to the executable, and could create a shortcut in the same folder like Windows does. Then you could move the shortcut to wherever you want it. Or an optional second argument might specify where the shortcut should be placed so you could create and move it in one step. In my very limited research into this so far, I've seen scripts that require as many as four parameters to create a shortcut and others that hard code the executable details into each shortcut creation routine. My real problem at the moment, though, is that the destination folder doesn't exist. I brute forced my way around that by checking for the existence of each folder and creating it if it didn't already exist: if not exist "%UserProfile%\Application Data\." md "%UserProfile%\Application Data" if not exist "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\." md "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft" if not exist "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\." md "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" if not exist "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\." md "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" COPY "%windir%\System32\calc.exe" "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" /Y It ain't pretty and it's only temporary until I can figure out how to delay the copy until the destination is created. Right now, it's in CleanUp.cmd but even that's too early. Ray

Any other ideas?

Okay, I figured out the path situation (I was going about that all wrong) and how to delete CleanUp.cmd after it exits. But I still need some help with the copy problem. The folder I'm trying to copy to, "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch", does not yet exist at the time CleanUp.cmd tries to copy calc.exe into it. IE7 gets installed from a RyanVM Addon which I *think* happens at T-13 if I'm understanding the unattended timeline correctly. So shouldn't the folders exist by the time CleanUp.cmd runs from GUIRunOnce? Is there somewhere else I can run a Copy command and be sure it occurs AFTER the folders exist?

jaclaz, Thanks for explaining that. I think that since I'm building my unattended CD on my D: drive, I'll always have access to the files without making another copy of them on C:. At least I now know that it's okay to not have an I386 folder included in the new installation. Ray

Interesting. I know that both of the Dells on my home network here and the Lenovo Thinkpad I use for work all have C:\I386 folders. And I know I've seen it elsewhere because I always thought it was a strange folder name presumably dating to 80386 processors. But maybe not. On this computer, there are 8,827 objects taking up 805 MB of space. Nothing has a modified date later than about the time I bought the computer in 2002. The other Dell has about half as many files. Now that I look at it closer, it appears that there are a lot of compressed files along with their decompressed counterparts (i.e., ATTRIB.EX_ and ATTRIB.EXE). Some looked like they might be important (like application files, cursors, security files, .INFs). I just did a search for a few of the files and they don't exist anywhere but in the I386 folder on this machine. I see other threads asking about how to copy the I386 folder but nothing that says why you would want to. What's the advantage of having the folder on the C: drive? Obviously it's not an absolute requirement, but am I going to later regret not having it after I reinstall Windows? @Kelsenellenelvian: If you are referring to the Options page in nLite, there aren't a lot of choices there. 17 on the General tab and four on the Patches tab. None directly reference "I386" and I've not changed any of them. I take it that one or a combination of several of those options would get a copy of I386 moved to the hard drive. If the files aren't important, I won't worry about that folder. It just looked odd that it didn't exist when it does, perhaps unnecessarily, on all three other machines I currently use. Thanks for the responses. Ray

I've been working with nLite for awhile now. Everything seems to work fine (except for a few reg tweaks but I've worked around that). The other day, I noticed that there is no I386 folder on the HD after installation. Is that normal? I don't think I've seen a system that didn't have an I386 folder on C:. Like I said, everything appears to work, so I guess this isn't a problem. It's just unexpected. Am I doing anything wrong? Does it matter that it's missing? For the record: XP Home, SP2 Ray

Updated: I still need help with this line in CleanUp.cmd: COPY "%windir%\System32\calc.exe" "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" /Y The destination folder doesn't exist before the command gets executed. See my second post below. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have three commands in my CleanUp.cmd file that do not execute. They are interspersed with other commands that run as expected. Is there any reason why these commands shouldn't work? ::Append additional folders to Path environment variable for command prompt set PATH=%PATH%;c:\;d:\;d:\dosutils;\d:\dosapps;d:\dosapps\qb45 ::Add items to Quick Launch COPY "%windir%\System32\calc.exe" "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" /Y ::Delete this file DEL CleanUp.cmd EXIT I do have some reg tweaks that run from cmdlines.txt at T-12. One of them turns on the Quick Launch toolbar. All of that should be done by the time I copy Calc.exe to the Quick Launch folder. The command does work if I run it after installation. I cannot figure out why these commands are not working during installation. Can anyone help? Thanks. Ray

You may have tried these two tweaks previously and said they do not work. I tried using them on an installed system and said the same thing. I rejected these and others when they did not appear to do anything on a working system. Then I happened to add them to a new unattended installation and voila! While trying to sort this out, I saw that there were a lot more people asking for a way to do this than were people with a reliable solution. Hopefully, this will help some of you. I'm not taking credit for having discovered these tweaks. They've been posted numerous times here and elsewhere. Member dll32 was the last person to share them with me. I'm only suggesting you try them during a new installation. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ; Enable "Quick Launch Bar" right at first logon [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop] "TaskbarWinXP"=hex:0c,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,b0,e2,2b,\ d8,64,57,d0,11,a9,6e,00,c0,4f,d7,05,a2,22,00,1c,00,0a,01,00,00,1a,00,00,00,\ 01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,01,14,02,00,00,\ 00,00,00,c0,00,00,00,00,00,00,46,83,00,00,00,10,00,00,00,a0,b0,48,5e,89,8d,\ bd,01,00,d8,9e,e4,2a,8d,bd,01,00,45,fe,5e,89,8d,bd,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\ 00,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,13,01,14,00,1f,0f,e0,4f,\ d0,20,ea,3a,69,10,a2,d8,08,00,2b,30,30,9d,19,00,23,44,3a,5c,00,00,00,00,00,\ 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,cd,97,15,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,af,24,5c,\ b9,10,80,57,69,6e,6e,74,00,00,20,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,af,24,a3,b9,10,00,50,\ 72,6f,66,69,6c,65,73,00,50,52,4f,46,49,4c,45,53,00,19,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,\ c1,24,08,92,10,00,69,65,35,30,30,2e,30,30,30,00,00,28,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,\ c1,24,08,92,10,00,41,70,70,6c,69,63,61,74,69,6f,6e,20,44,61,74,61,00,41,50,\ 50,4c,49,43,7e,31,00,21,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,c5,22,9d,91,10,00,4d,69,63,72,\ 6f,73,6f,66,74,00,4d,49,43,52,4f,53,7e,31,00,29,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,d3,22,\ 32,a6,10,00,49,6e,74,65,72,6e,65,74,20,45,78,70,6c,6f,72,65,72,00,49,4e,54,\ 45,52,4e,7e,31,00,24,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,db,22,76,ba,10,00,51,75,69,63,6b,\ 20,4c,61,75,6e,63,68,00,51,55,49,43,4b,4c,7e,31,00,00,00,8d,00,00,00,1c,00,\ 00,00,01,00,00,00,1c,00,00,00,36,00,00,00,0d,f0,ad,ba,8c,00,00,00,1a,00,00,\ 00,03,00,00,00,e7,18,2d,23,10,00,00,00,49,45,35,30,30,5f,58,31,43,00,43,3a,\ 5c,57,49,4e,4e,54,5c,50,72,6f,66,69,6c,65,73,5c,49,45,35,30,30,2e,30,30,30,\ 5c,41,70,70,6c,69,63,61,74,69,6f,6e,20,44,61,74,61,5c,4d,69,63,72,6f,73,6f,\ 66,74,5c,49,6e,74,65,72,6e,65,74,20,45,78,70,6c,6f,72,65,72,5c,51,75,69,63,\ 6b,20,4c,61,75,6e,63,68,00,00,10,00,00,00,05,00,00,a0,1a,00,00,00,a3,00,00,\ 00,00,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,cc,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,\ 4a,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,40,00,32,00,e6,01,00,00,c4,24,15,9f,20,00,4c,61,75,\ 6e,63,68,20,49,6e,74,65,72,6e,65,74,20,45,78,70,6c,6f,72,65,72,20,42,72,6f,\ 77,73,65,72,2e,6c,6e,6b,00,4c,41,55,4e,43,48,7e,32,2e,4c,4e,4b,00,00,00,40,\ 00,00,00,02,00,00,00,36,00,32,00,48,02,00,00,c4,24,15,9f,20,00,4c,61,75,6e,\ 63,68,20,4f,75,74,6c,6f,6f,6b,20,45,78,70,72,65,73,73,2e,6c,6e,6b,00,4c,41,\ 55,4e,43,48,7e,31,2e,4c,4e,4b,00,00,00,36,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,2c,00,32,00,\ 51,00,00,00,ec,22,46,39,20,00,53,68,6f,77,20,44,65,73,6b,74,6f,70,2e,73,63,\ 66,00,53,48,4f,57,44,45,7e,31,2e,53,43,46,00,00,00,52,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,\ 00,00,00,00,16,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,16,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,\ 00,00,00,01,00,00,00,aa,4f,28,68,48,6a,d0,11,8c,78,00,c0,4f,d9,18,b4,37,02,\ 00,00,e0,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,16,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,16,00,00,\ 00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00 ;Small icons on the Classic Start Menu [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects2] "Settings"=hex:28,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,06,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,6b,00,00,00,1e,\ 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,e2,02,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,03,00,00 I use XP Home with a classic start menu. If these tweaks don't work for you, it might be because you use XP Pro and/or the standard XP start menu. Tweaks that others have insisted worked just fine for them did not work for me and I suspect that's due to one or both of those differences. The small icons tweak is the same for both XP Home and Professional. The Quick Launch tweak is not. Good luck. Ray

I'm hardly an expert at this, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once, so let's see if I can help. As you've probably already discovered, creating a .reg file of tweaks isn't difficult once you know what to tweak. I've not used RegTweak.net, but I assume you have a file that looks something like this: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;APPLICATIONS ;Enable word wrap and status bar in Notepad, and give it 10 pt Tahoma font [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad] "fWrap"=dword:00000001 "StatusBar"=dword:00000001 "lfFaceName"="Tahoma" "iPointSize"=dword:00000064 The first line is required. It tells Windows what program to use for the registry imports that follow. Lines starting with a semicolon are comments (nothing happens on these lines, so write any notes you need there). The registry key is contained in [], on its own line. You can browse through the registry using RegEdit (Start ~ Run ~ Regedit) and find the key you want to change. Watch the status bar at the bottom of the RegEdit window as you browse through the registry to see where you are in the registry. THAT line needs to be placed in your .reg file surrounded by [ and ]. The remaining lines are values to be set in the registry for the specified key. There are several types of values, so you have to be careful how you enter them. In my example above, StatusBar takes a binary value, but IfFaceName takes a string (text) value. Others require hex values. In my example, all of the values that pertain to a single registry key can be entered below that key without re-typing the key each time. You save the file with any name and a .reg extension (like MyTweaks.reg). If you double-click the file, it will import the registry entries into your registry, right or wrong, so be careful what you change. If you want to add multiple tweaks in a single file, do this: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;APPLICATIONS ;Enable word wrap and status bar in Notepad, and give it 10 pt Tahoma font [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad] "fWrap"=dword:00000001 "StatusBar"=dword:00000001 "lfFaceName"="Tahoma" "iPointSize"=dword:00000064 ;Turn On Popup Blocker [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\New Windows] "PopupMgr"="yes" ;Enable Phishing Filter Automatic [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PhishingFilter] "Enabled"=dword:00000002 To see how this works, copy my first example into Notepad, save the file as Tweak1.reg on your desktop, close Notepad and double-click Tweak1.reg on your desktop. Answer Yes and OK to the two messages that will pop up. Open Notepad and type something (anything). You'll see that it is using the Tahoma font. Now copy my first example again into Notepad but this time, change the word "Tahoma" to "Lucida Console" and change the value 00000064 to 00000128. Save the file as Tweak2.reg. Close Notepad and double-click Tweak2.reg on your desktop. Open Notepad and it will be using the Lucida Console font in a rather large size. (To change back, double-click and import Tweak1.reg again.) You can add new keys, add new values, remove values and remove entire keys to accomplish most of what you probably want to accomplish. If a registry key or value that you include in your file doesn't already exist, it will be added. To remove a key, add "-" between the "[" and the "H". To remove a value, change it to a blank value or "-". Search the forum to see what others have used. You can also export a registry key and its values by finding the key in RegEdit, clicking on it and selecting File ~ Export. It will produce a file like my first example above which you can then modify and import back into your registry. As I've learned, some tweaks take effect immediately, some take effect when you reboot (or logon/logoff), and some can only be set in a new installation. I spent many hours of trial and error to get some things to work and I still have some that I haven't been able to figure out. (Like how to set just the Control Panel to Icons View while leaving all other folders set to Details View). Many registry settings are far from obvious. Search in the forum for what you want to change and it's likely you'll find that someone has already figured out what to set to do what you want to do. Or ask a specific wuestion. It's easier to answer simple questions than to explain how to perform an entire procedure. Including your tweaks in an unattended installation is a little more complicated. I use nLite to create my unattended installation configuration and before making the ISO or burning to disk, I add a line to cmdlines.txt which is in the $OEM$ folder in my installation files set: REGEDIT /S MyRegTweaks.reg That runs the program REGEDIT which in turn imports the contents of the file MyRegTweaks.reg into the registry during Windows installation. /S is a switch to make the command execute silently, if that matters. That's the syntax others have used so I just use what's evidently been successful. There are probably other ways to do that. You also need to include the file MyRegTweaks.reg in the set of files that will become the installation CD. When you've created your file of changes (MyRegTweaks.reg), copy it into the $OEM$ folder before burning your CD. The Windows installer knows to look for and execute the commands it finds in cmdlines.txt. One of those commands will be your REGEDIT entry above. I know that doesn't tell you everything you need to know, but it points you in the right direction. BE CAREFUL. Unless you know exactly what you've changed and how to change it back if something goes wrong, you can screw up your system so badly that you'll have no choice but to reinstall Windows before you're ready. I use Virtual PC from Microsoft (others use VMWare or VirtualBox) to test everything before committing a change to my system. In the worst case, I have to only blow away my virtual session and start over. My host (real) machine remains unaffected. For more information on how to create an unattended installation compilation and how to add tweaks to it, read these if you haven't already: http://www.msfn.org/board/Complete_Beginne...end_t28005.html http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ http://www.overclockers.com/tips1158/ Good luck. Ray See what verbose will get you? Martin just told you more than I did in 500 words or less.

Well, more success. I tried [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects2] for big "Settings"=hex:28,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,02,00,00,00,03,00,... for small "Settings"=hex:28,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,06,00,00,00,03,00,... from the desktop and it did nothing. So I added it to my ISO (what the heck, Quick Launch wouldn't work either until I tried it in my last installation) and IT WORKED! I now have small icons on my classic start menu on a virtual pc session. I wish I'd have known that a few weeks ago. I guess some of these things you gotta learn by trial and error. Note to anyone who cares: Even if a tweak doesn't look like it works when tested on a running system, it might work when it's included in the installation. Many thanks. Ray

That didn't work either, for me. Nothing changes when I change that byte, even after a reboot. If I change to small icons manually, the change takes effect immediately but that registry key doesn't reflect the change until I reboot. It looks like something gets changed somewhere else and on rebooting the system, that key gets loaded with the current setting. Another observation about the Administrator appearance on the Welcome screen: It eventually just goes away but comes back when I reboot. I left the system up and untouched for about 12 hours. When I came back, there was no Administrator on the Welcome screen. After I rebooted, it's back. Doesn't work any better, but it's back. LOL. Evidently, amocanu is right and I need to just give up on this one. Thanks for your efforts. I do appreciate it. Ray

@dll32, That worked for the Quick Launch bar. Thank you. Actually, I'd tried that same tweak from within the VPC session previously and nothing happened so I never added it to my unattended install until today. I tried it on blind faith and it worked! One down. The other tweaks weren't so successful. Everything is there in the registry, but I don't have any Documents entry on the Start Menu. And I still have the big icons on the Classic Start Menu. Are you using XP Home? Do you have a password set for Administrator? See below. I tried VirtualBox about six weeks ago when I started learning about unattended installs and had some trouble with it so I switched to Virtual PC. I don't recall what the problem was and may try it again. @amocanu, You may be correct and maybe that's why I'm seeing what I'm seeing. In nLite, I set Administrator as Active with no password. I also set the registry as I said in my first post. After startup (it signs me on automatically without going to the welcome screen), if I switch users, I can see Administrator on the Welcome screen but it won't let me switch to Administrator without entering a password (which I didn't set). It just keeps asking if I've forgotten my password. If I log myself off, I see Administrator, too. Then if I try to sign on as Administrator (blank password), I get a GINA logon window and a Logon message window with "Unable to log you on because of an account restriction." I suppose the account restriction may be that Administrator can't log on unless in safe mode. Thank you both for your responses. I appreciate the help. Ray

I see what you mean and I meant to add a link but forgot. It's pretty old. Not on the Microsoft download site anymore. But this is it (the SCESP4I version for x86 Intel machines): ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/tools/SCM/ Here's more information on it: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=245216 and here: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_home_sectab.htm Thanks! Ray

I'm surprised this hasn't been requested before. Does anyone have switchless or silent installer for Windows Security Configuration Editor? I have XP Home with Security tabs on file and folder Properties panels. I'd like to set that up in my unattended compilation, too. No shortcuts needed. Just have it install itself. Thanks. Ray

Anyone? (4 through 8 below) 5/22: Some successes. I've added a few additional requests for help below. I've been searching for weeks for the final few tweaks for my unattended XP Home compilation. Some I've found but they don't work (could be my Virtual PC test environment). Others I simply cannot find. Does anyone have any that work to accomplish these tasks? I'd like to do this through registry tweaks just because I know how to set them up. I've tried using regshot, but that either tells me that nothing's changed, unrelated items have changed, or hundreds of things have changed. It's never pointed me to a key I could just change and see the desired result. 1. I setup Administrator with a blank password, myself as an Admin-group user to autologon with no password, and made Guest inactive. Windows logs me on automatically but when I log off, I only have myself on the Welcome screen. No Administrator, I cannot switch users. I tried setting this: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;Show Administrator on the Welcome Screen [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList] "Administrator"=dword:00000001 but I still don't get Administrator on the Welcome screen when I log off or switch users. -- Sort of success. Based on responses below and my own testing, I gave up on this one. 2. -- SUCCESS (see below) -- I cannot get small icons on the Classic Start Menu, after setting it in nLite AND trying this: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;Use small icons on Start Menu [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] "Start_LargeMFUIcons"=dword:00000000 but I CAN get them if I right-click the Start button and set it manually, so I know it's possible. 3. -- SUCCESS (see below) -- Same for QuickLaunch. I can turn it on manually, but I cannot do so through the unattended process. 4. -- Still need some help here. -- This one is very frustrating. I want to turn off the recent docs list but not remove the Documents entry on the Start Menu. This sounded good: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ; No Recent Docs menu removes the recent documents from the start menu. [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] "NoRecentDocsMenu"=dword:00000001 but leaves me without a Documents option altogether. What I REALLY want is this: My Files.....My Documents My Music My Pictures My Videos each as a link to a folder of my choice. I've seen ways to change the locations of those items, but I cannot find a tweak that works to actually set them as links, include them on the Documents menu, and/or let me change "Documents" to "Files" or "My Files". Maybe I'm asking for the impossible. In the past, I've just created shortcuts to the folders and put the shortcuts on the MFU list (Classic Start Menu) but it would be much better as described above. If anyone knows of obvious tweaks I've missed, I truly apologize for taking up bandwidth. I've scoured lists, threads, sites and even tried a few of my own ideas that I thought might work. It's possible I've overlooked something, but I don't think so. I'm still stuck on ten things (there are six more I haven't even mentioned) that I just can't get right. I think I've made about 80 or 90 modifications from what I've learned, though. Can someone PLEASE help me so I can finally get a good night's sleep? Thanks, guys. Ray 5/22: Some more things I need help with: 5. I'd like to sort the desktop icons by type so that the recycle bin ends up on the left side of the screen where it belongs, IMHO. I've tried this: ;Sort desktop icons by Type [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop] "Sort"=dword:00000002 and it inserts the value into the registry fine, but doesn't do anything. Is there a way to arrange the desktop icons from a command line? 6. I have all of my folders set to Details view but I want to change one (Control Panel) to Icons view. I've discovered that if I set the Fonts folder to Details, each time I re-open it, it's back to Icons view. I'd like to have the Control Panel act the same way or let me set that one folder individually through a registry tweak. 7. I have an HP 722C printer attached to my PC. I need a way to force Windows to look for and install the drivers without stopping at the New Hardware Found Wizard. HP says there are no drivers needed to download because XP has all of the required drivers. Indeed, if I go through the wizard, Windows finds two drivers, one for HP 720C and one for HP 722C. How can I install the driver through the unattended process and persuade Windows to think the printer is no longer NEW hardware? 8. How do I automatically turn on file sharing for all of my drives? (This is XP Home, BTW) I have two computers on a home network and I share all drives on both computers. (There's a firewall between that network and the Internet.) I can turn it on manually and I've used NET USE to map the other computer's drives, but NET SHARE doesn't work to create a shared resource. Or I don't know how to make it work. Again, thanks for any help or advice you can offer. I'm learning a lot. Ray

I'm afraid I can't help you with the T-12 questions, but I can tell you what I know about those Dell CDs. I started with the Dell Reinstallation CD that came with my system. It looked like a regular CD, basically same files and folders, etc. AutoStreamer wouldn't even recognize the CD files as an OS but nLite went through the entire configuration process and created an ISO image. But it wouldn't install. I got file corruption errors every time. I don't think it's a bad CD since nLite was able to create a usable ISO as long as I didn't add or change anything. Before I could figure out the difference between my CD and any other XP CD, I learned that Dell would send me a replacement for no charge. It arrived within 36 hours and already has SP2 slipstreamed. nLite has no problem with that CD. I've added hotfixes, addons and tweaks and deleted certain components. I've made at least a dozen successful ISO images from it and every one installs without a problem. The only step I haven't taken with the files from that CD is to slipstream a service pack since that's already done. It's not true that all Dell and/or OEM CDs will not work with nLite. It's also not true that all Dell and/or OEM CDs that won't work with nLite will work in another process. I'd try nLite to see what you get. If that doesn't work, I wouldn't be too surprised if a manual configuration fails too. Ray

Is there a way to launch and close IE7 during an unattended install? I'm using nLite and adding a number of additional registry tweaks through cmdlines.txt. I'm finding that setting Google as a search engine and making it default doesn't work: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;Add Google as a Search Engine [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\Google] "DisplayName"="Google" "URL"="http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}&rls=com.microsoft:{language}&ie={inputEncoding}&oe={outputEncoding}&startIndex={startIndex?}&startPage={startPage}" ;Make Google the default Search Engine [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes] "DefaultScope"="Google" I've checked the registry and those tweaks are in place before I first run IE. When I launch IE, it only lists Live Search and the registry entries are replaced with new entries that refer to a GUID: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes] "DefaultScope"="{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}" "Version"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}] @="Live Search" "DisplayName"="@ieframe.dll,-12512" "URL"="http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}&src={referrer:source?}" If I do the same Google tweaks after closing IE, they work fine. The next time I open IE, the default search engine is Google. Oddly, other IE tweaks from cmdlines.txt (like closing unused Favorites folders and suppressing the Welcome to Tabbed Browsing page) work as expected before and after the first run of IE. I'm not sure where or how to launch and close IE. Does anyone know how to do that? Then I'll have to learn how to add those tweaks to GUIRunOnce so they happen afterwards. If I add those keys to HKLM or HKU, will that help? FWIW, although I don't think it matters, I'm testing the installation in Virtual PC 2007 using Windows XP Home Edition. Thanks for your help. Ray

Either of those methods should work, but I shouldn't have to do that since VPC creates the virtual drives. I just need a way to get to them from XP. Last night I discovered the solution which is not documented anywhere that I can find: From a working Windows VPC, I used disk management to change the CD drive assignment from D to E. The second hard drive had never been formatted (my oversight) so Windows wasn't recognizing it. I fixed that, assigned the letter D: and copied some files to it. After reinstalling XP, I still have both drives and the second one still has the files I put there before the install. Now I can use RunOnce to move files from an existing D drive to the new Windows installation on C (I hope). Ray