Phoneywar

I've encountered this problem as well but assumed it was something I had done wrong as I built the XP Pro install disc on a W2k system. I haven't had the time to explore the issue any further but I shall try to get to it this weekend and let you know what I find. EDIT: I've just found the following post which may or may not be the same issue - http://www.msfn.org/board/Basic-unattended...ue-t120684.html

As far as I am aware there is no virtualization software capable of running under the 9x series OSes. The codebase is simply far too different from that of the OSes derived from the NT codebase.

That sounds like a customised OEM disc rather than a Windows installation CD. I've never encountered anything like it with either retail or Microsoft OEM media and it may not install at all. I would suggest trying it in a virtual machine first. See what happens. EDIT: heh, updated your post while I was away from my machine did you

I've assessed two different Vista products on a range of hardware, took me nearly a month, and I would have to say it's not ready for the corporate environment. Even SP1 hasn't addressed more than a fraction of the issues I found. It's also horrendously overbloated with stuff that we will never use. It's far worse than W2k or XP in that regard. We will be sticking with W2k and XP for the forseeable future. We may even skip Vista altogether and wait for 'Windows 7'. Not that I expect that to be much better

Well we all have opinions but some people, ie. the afore mentioned OS Nazis, seem to think that their's is the only one which matters. I have also been using system imaging for more than 10 years and over that time I've used a wide range of tools including both Ghost and True Image. I must admit I don't like the newer DriveImage based versions of Ghost and would not recommend them to anyone. But I certainly would not declare they are s*** and no one else did either. I think you just reacted badly when Silvereyes tried to explain his reasoning, then he reacted badly when you appeared to be criticizing that, ad nausem.

Depending on burner software being used you may not even need a separate erase step. Nero doesn't although it does show a warning about the disc not be empty and asks if you want to continue.

And I was told this was such a nice place with friendly, helpful natives. I certainly wasn't expecting the System Imaging Tool Nazis (similar to Operating System Nazis but not quite so mature ) However, from my reading of the original post, I'd have to agree with Silvereyes and bj-kaiser about Acronis and it's one-click option. I would suggest the OP download the trial version and try it. It's the only real test of suitability.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that was meant to be a joke. @everyone Thanks for your suggestions but the problem is not the installation procedure which is fully automated in any case, but the pre-installation customisation and removal of extraneous crap from Windows. One of the primary sticking points as Kelsenellenelvian spotted is nLite's license. We did consider using XP Embedded as our R&D platform but quite apart from the complexity of the thing, is the problem of extracting the information we need to tailor a standard XP build.

As I understand it the company is owned by CoS members and German law forbids government and local authorities from doing business with any group or organisation deemed to be extremist in nature or has connections to such. Both the British and German courts have offically declared the CoS to be a dangerous cult. Personally I've tried Diskeeper, O&O and both versions of PerfectDisk and I much prefer PerfectDisk. Not so sure about PD2008's new interface. A touch of the Teletubbies there I think

Does anyone know of an alternative to nLite for customising W2k and WXP? Ideally something with a non-interactive mode which would tailor an install to our specifications given an appropriate configuration file. And please don't suggest XPlite or XP Embedded. We have already looked at those, one is useless, the other too complex and both are far too bloody expensive for the number of systems we expect to build. We need a lightweight solution and would appreciate any assistance you can give. Even a pointer in the right direction would help. Many thanks in advance.