chris4869

I ran into the same problem a few years back too. How about this: 1. Increase your "AutoLogonCount" from your unattended.txt file by one. For example, if you have AutoLogonCount=1, then set it to AutoLogonCount=2. You want Windows to reboot one more time. [GuiUnattended] AutoLogon=Yes AutoLogonCount=2 2. Add "RunOnce.cmd" to your cmdlines.txt. [commands] "RunOnce.cmd" 3. Create a "RunOnce.cmd" file with these codes: You need CMDOW.EXE. Add it to your $$\System32 folder. Omit the "CMDOW @ /HID" line if you don't have it. It hides the DOS prompt. The code is really short, so you might not even need it. ---------------------------- start of batch file -------------------------- CMDOW @ /HID SET KEY="HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx" REG ADD %KEY%\001 /VE /D "Internet Explorer 6" /F REG ADD %KEY%\001 /V 1 /D "%systemdrive%\YOUR IE6 FOLDER PATH\ie6setup.exe /Q:A /R:S" /F REG ADD %KEY%\802 /V 1 /D "Shutdown.exe /L /R /T:00 /Y" /F EXIT ----------------------------- end of batch file --------------------------- The REG.EXE command above is from Windows XP. It's different on Widows 2000. You can always (I recommend it) copy the REG.EXE from an XP machine onto your Windows 2000 machine (into your $$\System32 folder, otherwise you must change the commands above to match the Windows 2000 version. I use the REG.EXE from the Windows XP because it has more options and my script can be ported over to an XP machine later on without re-coding. My company is still using Windows 2000. The last line of the batch file is the most important one for you. The number %KEY%\802 is not coincidental. If you have more commands to add to the batch file, it needs to be higher than 802 (ex 803, 804, 910, etc..). Internet Explorer adds a few lines of codes to the RunOnceEx after it installs itself up to the 801 number. By the way... you need to update the "%systemdrive%\YOUR IE6 FOLDER PATH\ie6setup.exe /Q:A /R:S. Replace the "YOUR IE6 FOLDER PATH" with the correct path. Good luck. SYSTEM32.zip

Caouette, you can cut your installation down to less than 20 minutes (without apps) depending on the speed of your computer. It takes around 15-20 minutes on my P2.8 Ghz (this includes patches). You need to use your unattended install with ghost. Try this: 1. Perform your unattended install on a pc. Let the system transfer all the OS files to the $win_nt$.~bt, $win_nt$.~ls, and $ temp locations. Don't worry about where it copies the files. The file transfer is the cause of your slow unattended installation. You need to make a ghost image of your Windows unattended installation after the FIRST reboot. * You need a boot disk that boots your system to a server. * 2. Insert your boot disk while waiting for step 1 to complete. When the file transfer from step 1 is completed, your pc will boot up to your boot disk. Make an image of your pc and store it somewhere on your server. This will be the ghost image that you will use from now on. * To setup a new computer, use your boot disk to connect to your server and load the image from step 2. The installation will start at the setup stage instead of the tedious file transfer that has nothing to do with hardware/configuration setup. Try it and let us know.

I thought about doing it a while back too, but I ran into a couple of obstacles. For example the hard drive has to be reformatted to FAT32 (for a Win98 boot disk). You can't copy the i386 folder from your CD to the hard drive if the hard drive is already formatted in NTFS. It's time consuming. Maybe you have a different solution. Anyway.. I dropped the whole idea. I ended up creating a ghost image of a newly formatted hard drive (FAT32) with the i386 folder in it. I then use the CD boot disk (with ghost.exe) to reimage the pc with the /rb option to reboot after it's done. It usually takes about 5 minutes long. I added a line of command in the autoexec.bat (on the CD boot disk) to install the OS after the reboot from the ghost imaging. As far as your question go, I don't have any reference to the MsdosInitated switch. I left it out. I've been using this method to install Windows 2000 & Windows XP. I later found out that I can save a lots of time if I create the image after Windows created the $Winnt$.~ls folder (after the 1st reboot in Windows). If I capture it at that stage, I don't have to install from the beginning or modify my autoexec.bat to start the installation. This is just the basic foundation to my Windows unattended install. I later added extra drivers, created scripts to install my applications stored on the server as well as patches and hotfixes... blah blah blah.. It works great so far after using it on over 2000 pcs in my company over the course of 2 years. I found all my ideas & answers from this forum. This place rocks! I hope you start experimenting and tell us of your method(s).

Wouldn't it be easier to change the rebooting option from /R:N (never restart) to /R:S (always restart)? /R:A Always restart /R:N Never restart /R:S Silent restart EX. ECHO. ECHO Installing IE6sp1 ECHO Please wait... start /wait %systemdrive%\install\ie6\ie6setup.exe /Q:A /R:S

It takes about a 5-10 seconds for the system to create those shortcuts. Your script is deleting them before the system even have a chance to create them. Try slowing down your script with a ping test, or use a utility. Ex: PING 127.0.0.1 -n 9 DEL "%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Media Player.lnk" DEL "%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Internet Explorer.lnk" DEL "%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Outlook Express.lnk" DEL "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Launch Internet Explorer Browser.lnk" DEL "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Show Desktop.scf"

You can try creating a script that can detect the NIC card manufacturer and call your lappy.bat/desk.bat accordingly without having to prompt you for an input (L/D). It's totally unattended. Ex. If your laptop NIC card is made by 3COM For /F "tokens=* delims=:" %%f in ('Echo:^|ipconfig/all^|Find/c "3COM"') do Set Found=%%f If %Found% GEQ 1 ...call lappy.bat