Noise

Just download the 9.20 full installer from here. Or get you specific language version from here. No slipstreaming required

If you want to keep the default Internet Explorer shortcuts from being created, a better way is to add the following to your WINNT.SIF file: [Branding] BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes [URL] Home_Page=http://www.google.com/ AutoConfig=0

You might want to try and use DISKPART to create your partitions right before you kick off the installation using winnt32.exe. You will have to boot the system to be built with WinPE (Either from a CD, USB or Network) then run DISKPART. With DISKPART you can create the partitions, format them, label them, and assign the drive letters - then immediately kick off the installation. The I: drive letter should "stick" at that point.

I have a USB key with a bunch of programs on it (in various directories), and I have a bunch of CMD files in the root to quickly run these programs. If this is what you are looking for the solution is simple. Lets say you want a batch file to execute a program on the USB stick located in (USB Drive):\Applications\Everest\Everest.exe Create a CMD (or BAT) file on the root of your USB drive with the following: @%~dp0Applications\Everest\Everest.exe That's all you need. Works on all versions of Windows and no matter what drive letter the USB disk was assigned. The %~dp0 references the relative path of the batch file. Note, the above command only works in batch files, if you enter it in to the command prompt directly (for testing) it doesn't work that way. You may also want to to use the start command in the batch file: @START "Everest" /SEPARATE "%~dp0Applications\Everest\Everest.exe" EXIT That way the command prompt window will close after flashing temporarily.

Reminds me of this comic

Ah Ya. I see what you've done there. Pain in the a** ain't it. I suggest that you use reg files instead of the reg.exe command. There are strange and weird registry permissions in the "Default User" ntuser.dat file. Load the hive, then load a properly formatted reg file using regedit /s - the reg.exe may have problems with the permissions. Of course the "proper" way to edit the default user profile is to do at T-12 (cmdlines.txt) with a scripted installation.

Do any of the changes propagate? And shouldn't you be using HKCU instead of HKU?

Are you trying to make a Unattended Windows XP Installation CD on your own, using only Microsoft approved tools? Or are you trying to make a installation CD using a utility like nlite or hfslip?

Speaking as an old timer, who literally has been supporting Windows since 2.0, Microsoft's move away from hierarchical menu systems is a huge mistake. You see this philosophy in all new Microsoft products except the ones geared towards professionals (Exchange, SQL, Etc). The way Office 2007 has a "ribbon bar" and Windows 7's UI - these are not productive interfaces, they are fluff, they are bloat and they cripple the product. They deter you from experimenting, from looking around and finding out what you can do - from learning. For instance, the advantage of the "classic" start menu; Say I installed Nero on my PC a few months ago and now I want to make a audio CD from an tape for the first time. I forgot the name of the program that Nero uses for this (Nero SoundTrax). A simple click in Start/Programs/Nero and I can see all the Nero products that were installed. This takes less than 5 seconds to do, and I don't have to type anything. In addition, the classic start menu is great just to view what products you have installed, and helps with cleaning out clutter later. From an IT perspective, a quick support call from someone wanting to know how to start Outlook, "Click Start/Programs/Microsoft Office/Outlook". In less than 15 seconds I have a user starting Outlook - no remote desktop necessary, no confused users - quick, simple, efficient. I could go on and on about the classic start menu's value in the Windows OS. But it won't make a difference, Microsoft seldom listens to their support professionals when it comes to the desktop. They don't go outside of their comfort zone and mainly use marketing (who cater to fanboys) to make the decisions. It gets worse every year, and seriously p***es me off. If I wanted a Mac I'd buy a Mac, it's a better OS on the whole than Windows anyhow. The search feature in Vista/7 is another point of contention. I hate the index service with the passion of a thousand suns. Ever wonder why Mac's don't have a Hard Drive Activity LED? It's because their users would be saying WTF is my hard drive doing? Well, I have a Hard Drive LED, and I LIKE knowing when my servers and workstations are accessing my HDD, it's a good indicator of malware and viruses. If I see my HDD LED going crazy I immediately assume the worst - and for good reason. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft made a deal to eliminate the HDD LED from all desktop OS's in the future. I keep my data organized in directories, as any computer user should get used to doing. In previous Windows versions; If I want to find an MP3 file, I right-click my MP3 folder and search for a keyword. If I want to find the INF file my monitor is using, I right-click the Windows/INF folder and search all *inf files that contain the string "viewsonic". It's simple, efficient, and does not require the index service. These are examples of things Microsoft has previously done "right" and removed from the latest Windows versions. For me, these things were vital, they were what separated Windows from the other OS's. Google Desktop and OSX have caused Microsoft to do stupid things - and the way they nerf the advanced power-user tools from the OS is nothing short of inexcusable.

Something like the OemPNPDriversPath that has been in the unattended.txt since NT4. I haven't had to research this yet ahay. No Win7/Vista deployments yet on my end. I'm still, to this day, doing only 2003/XP - it's what the clients want, and I cant blame them.

I'm with you 100% Nexus. I like all the underlying improvements in Win7/Vista but absolutely hate the UI, Explorer and the Search functions in these new versions. Years ago Windows was all about functionality and productivity, now it's trying its best to be a MultiMedia only operation system. The lack of a classic start menu, and the removal of the excellent basic search functionality (that doesn't require an index service) that existed in 98/2000/XP/2003 is inexcusable in my opinion. Productive professional-level file manipulation in the new Explorer is **** near impossible. Jcarle, no offense - but I seriously cant see what there is to like about the UI. I simply don't understand it. It hides things from you that you need to see and dumbs things down to a preschool level without the option of setting an "advanced" mode. Unfortunately I have to use Win7/Vista for development (and my nVidia 3D glasses on my games) - but when trying to actually do WORK in these new OS's I literally find myself screaming at the OS. Windows 7 is extremely frustrating on a professional level.

OpLocks? From somewhere on the internet I copied a long time ago: Disable opportunistic locking on either the client or on the server. To disable opportunistic locking on the client, set the following registry value to 1: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRXSmb\Parameters\OplocksDisabled To disable opportunistic locking on the server, set the following registry value to 0: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\EnableOplocks For more information about how to disable opportunistic locking, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 296264 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296264/ ) Configuring opportunistic locking in Windows Interesting that we had a similar problem Monday; Coping large files (>4GB) to a Isilon NAS. We ended up using ESEUTIL from the Exchange reskit to do the copy.

Nois3 to Noise? I had to use the "3" instead of an "e" because someone stole the name "Noise" first. Made me sad.

Here's the way I add the Source to Windows XP 32bit during a scripted (winnt.sif/unattended.txt) installation, it works for server 2003 too. Note that I use Robocopy for the actual copy process and XP doesn't come with Robocopy.exe by default. I solve this problem by adding robocopy.exe to the \I386\$OEM$\$$\System32 directory on the installation source. Again, this is for a scripted installation - the script called from CMDLINES.TXT which launches it at T-12. The source files are copied from the temporary directories that are created during setup, and don't exist after setup is finished. Hope this helps. @ECHO OFF ECHO - Creating Compressed Local Source MKDIR %SystemRoot%\SOURCE >NUL COMPACT /C %SystemRoot%\SOURCE >NUL ECHO - Copying I386 to Local Source ROBOCOPY ..\I386 %SystemRoot%\SOURCE\I386 /s /e /r:1 /w:1 /A-:RASH /XD WINNTUPG /XF WINNT.SIF /NP /NC /NS /LOG+:C:\SRCCPY.LOG > NUL ECHO - Setting Registry Source Pointers reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" /f /v "SourcePath" /d "%SystemRoot%\SOURCE\I386" >NUL reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" /f /s _ /v "Installation Sources" /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d "%SystemRoot%\SOURCE_%SystemRoot%\SOURCE\I386_%SystemRoot%\SOURCE\I386" >NUL reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" /f /v "SourcePath" /d "%SystemRoot%\SOURCE" >NUL reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" /f /v "ServicePackSourcePath" /d "%SystemRoot%\SOURCE" >NUL reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Transaction Server\Setup(OCM)" /f /v "Source Path" /d "%SystemRoot%\SOURCE" >NUL reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSDTC\Setup" /f /v "Source Path" /d "%SystemRoot%\SOURCE" >NUL reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\Setup" /f /v "Source Path" /d "%SystemRoot%\SOURCE" >NUL

Wow, those are some constraints. With Windows XP you only have two options: Use F6 to load your SCSI Driver during setup Add the SCSI Driver files to the I386 directory of the installation CDROM and edit the TXTSETUP.SIF file If you were doing a network installation you could use the OEMBootFiles method to add the SCSI driver during boot. But, because you're using a CDROM you only have the above two options. Remember, OEMBootFiles only works if you launch Windows setup from WINNT32.EXE from WinPE (or WINNT.EXE from DOS). If I was you I would fight the "Must not remaster the Windows XP ISO" constraint. Because, frankly that restriction is silly. XP is an old OS and needs to be smacked around a bit to get working properly on new hardware. I suggest you do it the second way, as outlined here. It's the easiest. Good luck.

How the heck are you teaming ports with a non-managed switch? Is this for fault tolerance only? Because your definitely not getting link aggregation, and probably confusing the crap out of the switch.

You can use the tasklist command in windows to check if the program is already running. A simple batch file would be really easy to do.

I prophesize that one month after Windows 7's release there will be a buffer overflow exploit in MHT files causing Microsoft to disable and discontinue them like they did with CHM files. Let it be written.

Well, every application is different. Some will take their serial number from the command line during install - most don't.You will have to research the installation switches for the application you are installing. A good place to start is appdeploy.com.

Consider it a badge of admin honor. The day you realize that roaming profiles suck is a special day in the life of an admin. Now you can look knowingly in to the eyes of other admins as you pass them in the hall.

No.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=54475

Well, I doubt I'll take the time to try it out unless I have a reason to. I could have used Cluberti's script 4 years ago really really bad. But you can do it yourself if you want to. Just make sure you do it on a test (vmware) machine, because if you screw up registry permissions you are really screwed. First log on as the user you want to lock down, then load Cluberti's registry file. Then, use SETACL.EXE to remove inheritance from the registry keys listed in Cluberti's registry files. Then lock the rights to those keys to "everyone" readonly. That way the currently logged on user will only be able to read those registry keys and not modify them. Should work. The hard part is getting the cryptic commands in setacl.exe correct. http://setacl.sourceforge.net/html/examples.html

OMG Cluberti I love you!@ But it's a fleeting IT kind of love, that will soon be replaced when I get distracted by something shiny later on. But those registry settings could be loaded and then locked down with ACL's. /scampers off to look for old setacl.exe script... // oooo look - something shiny!

http://it.anandtech.com/ And The MSFN Frontpage News Section really is outstanding.