Jadestar

That worked perfectly thanks. I wonder how I got my hands on a version that was actually replaced by a different version. I would have expected with new builds, there would have just been some update but obviously whatever I got was never a public release. Anyways, thanks again. Much appreciated.

So I just finished my new unattended windows 7 sp1 dvd with all updates to date. I grabbed the MSU file for IE9 and it worked fine integrating with DISM (I use this for all updates). After boot, IE9 is there, no issues whatsoever. It runs great. When I run windows updates, IE9 is still in the list..it downloads and installs like its not installed. Very weird. Is there a registry key somewhere that needs to be changed so that windows updates knows its installed? Thanks.

I'm using YumeYao's addon and I havnt found any issues with it. What errors need to be patched exactly?

First off I want to say that nlite hotifx integration has saved me alot of time and problems and i'm not trying to knock the program but I did notice that nlites integration isnt a true integration as it uses the svcpack method (it does a bit more work than simply throwing the files in svcpack and editing the .inf file though). What I'm wondering is that if there is a way to truly integrate the hotfixes into a windows xp source similiar to how DISM integrates hotfixes for windows 7 right into the wim file or how a windows xp sp3 disc has sp3 in the source files as oppose to having a sp2 disc with sp3 install in the svcpack. I hope this makes sense I do know that xp hotfixes have an /integrate switch that i havnt played with yet mostly because theres something like 80 updates post sp3 and it would take quite abit to manually /integrate each one...if that is the way to do it. thanks,

yes. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749415%28WS.10%29.aspx I use desktop icons on my PE to direct to start.exe and an unattended, and i put one in the panther directory in the wim to have it as a default. You will need a x86\x64 universal unattend file if you have both architectures. That's interresting but does that method of specifying the answer file work when booting from a dvd and not in windows. Basically what needs to happen is that /setup.exe whatever.xml needs to be specified based on what version is chosen during a dvd boot install. I'm not sure if that will work.

Thats exactly what im doing already. The idea was to skip that key screen so it goes into first boot and runs the rest of my scripts to install various programs, tweaks etc etc.

From what I understand once you delete an image from the image (so if you delete #1), the numbers immediately change. so for example 1=home 2=pro 3=ultimate if you delete 1 then the order goes to this 1=pro 2=ultimate So you just need to either recheck after each delete to make sure you remove the right one or figure out before hand what the new order will be after each delete. I still want to point out though that after I deleted home basic from my windows 7 install.wim it totally broke the install and i would select home premium and it would install pro

SO I integrated all the updates I could find for my vista install and this is what happens. It installs and when it goes to boot for the first time, it goes to stage 3 of 3 and then eventually to "could not update, reverting changes" and it just does this over and over. Are there any particular updates for vista SP2 that SHOULDNT be integrated because some of them do this stage 3 of 3 garbage? Is there anyway to find out exactly what update broke because theres about 60 total and i dont want to go one by one. Any thoughts? thanks.

It was actually imagex not dism that i used on my windows 7 file that totally broke it. I was using the imagex from the windows 7 WAIK i think...do i need the windows vista waik imagex or does it matter? The system im doing this all on is a windows 7 machine x64,

So when I'm installing vista i get some stupid choices like starter edition, home premium N (what the heck is N?), businessN etc etc.. I'm wodnering if vLite can easily remove the images i dont want and keep the ones i want (basic, premium, bus and ult). (if i cant totally remove the versions, can i atleast remove them from the selection menu?) Some background...I used DISM to remove home basic from my windows 7 image (because who actually has basic?) and it totally broke my install file. After I did this, I would choose to install home premium and it would actually install pro..!?!? so I just went back and left basic in there for now (it makes no differenc ein file size removing a lesser version, I just wanted to cleanup the version selection menu).

This somewhat goes back to my other post about product keys but that post is getting a bit bloated with different suggestions and ideas so I wanted to just simply ask the question here that may be a solution to my problem. Could it be possible to have multiple autounattend.xml files for the different versions of windows 7 (ie: home premium, pro, ultimate). Could there be a master autounattend.xml file that says (if you choose to install home premium, use homepremium.xml, if you choose pro then use pro.xml, etc...) What needs to be considered is that this install would be a dvd bootable so renaming files on the fly would not be an option as someone already suggested. The idea is to have one disc to do it all and have generic keys plugged in to each different xml so the install is fully unattended without having to type a key until the product becomes activated (and at that point I would use the customers key). I'm not sure if this is a possibility at all or not but it would solve my problem with product keys and I'm sure would be usefull in other ways to alot of people making All-in-one discs with unattended features.

Thanks Just an suggestion. Maybe you can try to make differents "Autounattend.xml" for each version you want to install and put them inside a floppy or USB key? You can have in this way only one Windows 7 with all versions on your DVD, and choose the version you want to install with the specific "Autounattend.xml"! Change just the name for the others, like: "Autounattend_Premium.xml"; "Autounattend_Pro.xml" and the one you want use "Autounattend.xml". Some help here: I hope that will help you! If I could have multiple autounattendeds then that would work perfectly. I could put the generic keys into the files and then use the customer's key to activate after the fact. I read through that post but I couldnt seem to find the part where it talks about doing that. Perhaps I missed something. If i could make my autounattend.xml basically say "if you're home premium, use homepremium.xml, etc..that would be EXACTLY what I need to make this work flawlessly. I just finished the rest of my windows 7 stuff with tweaks so this would be the icing on the cake. Thanks agian, hopefully i can figure out how to do this now *EDIT* You know what, i totally misunderstood what you meant. You're saying having all the version sof the autounattended on a key and renaming them as i need. I guess that would work aswell but i dont know. i thought you meant it was possible to have multuple unattend.xml files on one disc and have it use a specific one based on the version it installed. my bad.

There is virtually NO difference between an OEM disc and a retail disc of windows 7. Infact the ONLY difference at all is the single variable in the ei.cfg that says OEM or RETAIL for the "channel". The one difference I've seen where this needs to be changed is if you want to use an upgrade key, you have to use a retail install, oem install wont accept an upgrade key (i'm guessing because upgrade is retail only, theres no such thing as an oem upgrade). that is the ONLY difference, other than that the files are all identical.

So it took me 3 tries and 3 reboots to finally get ONE image done, home basic for windows vista and i have 3 more to do. While "integrating" after selecting rebuild all, the system will hang on a random update and completely lock down the pc and I have to hard reboot it to get it to come back. Its bad enough that vlite is rediculously slow when integrating updates (compared to using DISM for windows 7). I know for a fact that its a complete hang because I was rebuilding home premium last night at work (where i am now) and left it going when I left at 5pm. When i came back this morning at 9am it was still stuck on an update and it definately doesnt take that long. Is there any rhyme or reason why it simply just freezes on an update? Its never the same update twice either it seems. Is there a faster, easier way to do this than vLite? All i want to do is integrate updates into Home basic, premium, business and ultimate. I dont want to do ANYTHING else that vlite does...tweaks, components, iso blah blah...JUST updates. I used DISM to do windows 7 and that was a breeze but it doesnt seem to support windows vista, or atleast not what I could find. I have a huge directory of updates I want to integrate. Thanks. *edit* While I was typing this message, it froze on the first update it wanted to integrate and of course previously it made it past this update. Looks like the whole computer isnt totally f***** but i cant bring up the task manager to kill vlite, it just locks up aswell so if i want to try again, i have to reboot.

I could do that, but its kind of a pain in the butt. The whole idea is to create one master disc. I already have an xp pro/home and vista disc on one dual-layer and I was going to add the windows 7 on it aswell (it will barely fit). I would rather just suck it up and have the install stop half way through and have to enter the key rather than have fifty discs laying around. Also, we're only dealing with x64 and since home basic is non-existant basically, its only 3 installs. I guess i COULD live with 3 diff installs since MOST of them would be either Home premium or pro but i havnt decided yet. I just wish it worked like vista. That suggestion was something I found on the internet and I cant really remember where I found it but they said to put a variable in the key area but it just errors about an invalid key and the install fails to continue, I might research on that productkey field more though. Thanks again for all your input.

I've made some search about your question. Could you give the link where you found this example, please and I can try on my computer? However I've read it's not really working good for many people, except someone but I don't why: no explaination. Thanks Which example are you referring to?

You guys are totally missing the point. The situation lies where there is no way to tell what version of the operating system they have. NO WAY AT ALL. And even if there was a way to PE the system or do all these other tricks, what I want to do and should be able to do (vista worked this way), would be a million times easier anyway. It doesnt matter what their responsibility is...if you told a customer "sorry i cant fix your computer because you dont have backup discs" that would be completely retarded and we might as well close our doors because they would never come back

That would work fine if i wanted to make 3 different discs for home premium, pro or ultimate, but the idea is one disc to install all which means i cant pre-key the disc, the key entry has to be manual.

Thats really interresting and it might help me out for different scenarios. it doesnt solve my initial problem but presents some other options for activation. Thanks again for all the help. Hopefully someone can still give me some advise on my issue on how to skip this key thing or add it at the beginning

slmgr - ipk (use the valid key) However it's only for one computer! You need to use for each computer or laptop. Could you explain to me what that does exactly? where is this tokens.dat file and what does it do? We get anywhere from 2-5 computers in everyday, mon-fri for repair and we probably do a few windows installs a week. Not a whole lot of windows 7 reinstalls now but as time passes on and computers break more and more, it will increase and thus i need it to do it the way vista worked how i explained it above. im not sure how that tokens thing works but if i have to edit a file everytime i do an install, i could just as easily edit to autounattended file with the correct key aswell but thats not what i want to do. thanks for your input.

If the system boots then finding the version is not a problem. If the customer does not have a genuine key then we simply refuse to do the install unless they want to buy another key to avoid legal issues. The issue is when we're doing a reinstall of windows on a system that doesnt boot at all and we have no idea what version they have and the version on the key is rubbed off (it happens on laptops all the time after a year or so of use from heat..the version name is gone but the key is still readable).

I think you misunderstood. The key AND version is different on every install from computer to computer. Today I may want to install windows 7 home premium on a laptop and tommorow may be windows 7 ultimate on a desktop...two different versions with 2 different keys. I want to automate everything BUT version selection and key entry...which works so far, just not in the order that it did for vista or how i want. *Edit* I wanted to add that I just tried one suggestion, using a variable for the <key> part of the file like this <Key>%Please Enter Product Key%</Key> and it reports it as invalid and stops the install. Heard that on another site but it obviously doesnt work.

So for my unattended vista setup, it goes like this. Enter your license key (which if entered, autoselects the correct version of vista). If you dont enter a key then you are asked which version of windows you are installing and then are required to enter the key later on when you activate. This is how I would like my windows 7 autounattend to work aswell but it doesnt. It works like this. A screen comes up and asks me which version i want to install...home premium, basic, pro or ultimate. Goes through the entire setup and then at the end, stops and asks for the key. This presents me with 2 different problems. One: It stops the unattended setup half way through since it sits there waiting for a key entered to continue to first boot where i would do runonce and program installs and Two: i may not know what version of windows im installing but i know the key...this happens on alot of laptops where the part that says what version is installed on the OEM key is rubbed off but aslong as the key is visible, we're ok. I put in the right key and the proper version is installed. If i cant have the install ask me for the key first then i can deal with that key screen before first boot just skipped and enter it when i activate. This wont solve my problem 2 but hopfully i can work around it...would still be better than having my install stop half way through. Any thoughts? Thanks, oh here is my code <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SetupUILanguage> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> </SetupUILanguage> <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale> <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <UseConfigurationSet>true</UseConfigurationSet> <UserData> <ProductKey> <Key></Key> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> </ProductKey> <Organization>Owner-Corp</Organization> <FullName>OwnerPC</FullName> <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula> </UserData> <ImageInstall> <OSImage> <InstallFrom> <MetaData wcm:action="add"> <Key>/IMAGE/NAME</Key> <Value></Value> </MetaData> </InstallFrom> <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> </OSImage> </ImageInstall> </component> </settings> <settings pass="oobeSystem"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <OOBE> <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage> <NetworkLocation>Home</NetworkLocation> <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC> <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE> </OOBE> <UserAccounts> <LocalAccounts> <LocalAccount wcm:action="add"> <Description>user account</Description> <DisplayName>User</DisplayName> <Group>Administrators</Group> <Name>User</Name> <Password> <Value>cABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAFAAYQBzAHMAdwBvAHIAZAA=</Value> <PlainText>false</PlainText> </Password> </LocalAccount> </LocalAccounts> </UserAccounts> </component> </settings> <settings pass="specialize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <TimeZone>Mountain Standard Time</TimeZone> <ComputerName>*</ComputerName> <AutoLogon> <Enabled>true</Enabled> <LogonCount>2</LogonCount> <Username>Administrator</Username> </AutoLogon> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC-UX" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <RunSynchronous> <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add"> <Description>Run first reg start</Description> <Path>cmd D:\programs\copyappsvista.cmd</Path> <Order>1</Order> <WillReboot>Never</WillReboot> </RunSynchronousCommand> </RunSynchronous> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:d:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /> </unattend>

SO I decided to google today to see if Outlook 2010 would remove the 2gb pst file limit to prevent large pst files from becomming corrupted and to my surprise, this has been fixed sine outlook 2003. Apparently, in outlook 03,07 and 2010 if your pst file is unicode then its limits are 20gb instead of 2gb. The problem I have is that I am sure I have seen corrupted pst files that were over 2gb and in office 03 or 07. I'm also fairly sure that not all of those in question were upgraded from older versions and thus still in ANSI format (the format that has the 2gb limit) SO my question is...am i crazy? is it possible i'm just thinking I've seen 2gb limit corruption in 07 but thye were all older formats? I'm trying to wrap my head around this because we always tell people to keep their files under 2gb to prevent corruption and one guy was scared out of his wits when I told him what would happen....he was using 2007 at the time and paid us to split his pst file into 3 seperate files to get it under 2gb (it wasnt that expensive but i still feel bad) Any thoughts?

I have a custom boot.ini file that does the showgui and all that jazz. Anyway, the procedure I use right now is to delete the current boot.ini after first boot and copy my custom to the C drive. This works MOST of the time but in some cases it breaks and the boot file gets weird...some ppm flag gets put in there aswell as a bad default entry that leads to a hall.dll error (unless you choose the right boot). Not sure what that problem is but manually replacing the boot.ini file seems to work. So my question is, can I put my custom boot.ini file in the installation media itself so that when windows installs, it puts MY boot.ini file on C: instead of the one it would normally create? Thanks,