JAsT

Thank you so much. I dunno why I wasn't turning that up on a search. Anyway, I was wrong, as I apparently can't read. All that work (did the integration myself, manually, then tried the other 3 or so methods shown in this thread plus testing each one) and all because the difference between KBKB867282 and KB886903 apparently isn't big enough for my brain to register!! Thank you all, again. As soon as I learn to search and read, I'll be singing a new song!

OK I've read all this, and I can see that this thread is many months old, but I'm just beginning the struggle with this one. I downloaded all the stuff (7-zip,upx, etc.), ran the batch as instructed, all administrative installs and added patches appear to work, it installs when run (just running it on an existing .net-less WinXP installation to see if it does what I want before trying to incorporate it into my XP installation set) and it does install .net 1.1. However, Windows Update still insists I need to install that update which, honestly, is the most important part of this process: WUD not insisting I need updates. It's an appearance thing. I'm open to suggestions or, y'know, whatever you guys throw at me. Thanks for all the great info here, and for any help you can offer a poor li'l NooB.

You are correct. The GUIRunOnce was causing the choke, though now I'm having other issues. I haven't time to tinker with it right now, but wanted to post back to thank you for your assitance and let you know you were right. YAY!

will try it out. Thanks for the suggestion!

nope. XP appears to not like the /u switch even less than it likes my winnt.sif...

Thank you. I'm trying this now (as soon as my image is done building) so I'll post back. Nice catch on the "componants" thing... I could have sworn I had edited a "built" .sif for that, but obviously my spelling took over. I honestly hadn't even gotten to looking into WHY MSNexplorer was being persistant!

If I'm not mistaken, all those files under i396 that end in underscores are compressed installation files. Therefore, when an install complains about not being able to copy a file, you would want to check for the same file name but ending in an underscore to check the integrity of the compressed installation file. Corrections anyone? Did copying the decompressed file resolve your issue?

thank you. I have tried renaming the file any number of things, including unattend.* unattended.*, etc. etc. I have tried it in the root of the CD, the root of the HDD, under the CD's I386 folder, on the desktop, under a folder called "unattend" on the HDD, etc. etc. I don't think it's a location issue, either. I'm not sure what you mean by changing the switches on winnt32.exe, but I *THINK* you mean that if I store my unattended file at "c:\windows\desktop\user1\unattended.txt" that my command line to run winnt32.exe should look like pathtowinnt32.exe\winnt32.exe /dudisable /noreboot /unattend:c:\windows\desktop\user1\unattended.txt I've done that. Still no go.

Thank you. As near as I can decipher, as long as you tell it the file is intended for an "unattend", it doesn't matter if it's labeled as .sif or .txt, or anything else for that matter. The only issue is that it be a simple text file with the proper layout and that you label it with the "unattend" variable ( /unattend:yourfile.txt --or-- /unattend:yourfile.sif). Anyway, thinking along the same lines, I tried it as winnt.txt, winnt.sif, unattend.txt, unattend.sif, and probably a couple others I can't think of right now... Same results. I can try it with a copy with each name (two files) and see... Concerning the hotfixes. It appears that it IS installing my hotfixes, as specified in my winnt.sif. I'm confused about WHY, but it is. So, I guess I'm now on to figuring out how to make the downsized install unattended, as well as copying over (and running) the $OEM$ folder. (current best guess is to copy the $oem$ into i386 as well as the winnt.sif, but I've got to re-read some stuff...) Thanks again for all the help. I'll post up again when I figure out something else. I hope this helps other newbies, if nothing else.

Once again, it won't run if I try to specify an unattend file, and when I run it without, it refuses to: copy my $oem$ folder, utilize my cdkey as specified in the winnt.sif, along with anything else I specify in my winnt.sif. I'm not quite sure if it installs the hotfixes as specified in my winnt.sif, so I'm checking on that, but otherwise, it ignores that completely, requiring instead that I step through the install GUI specifying all the settings my unattend file normally would. If I'm misunderstanding something, please try again. However, when I just run the install from this CD, it works like a charm. When I try to run the noreboot, no worky with unattend. I understand that if I could get the noreboot to work, I would need to place $OEM$ folder to be in the i386 folder (as if installing from HDD), but I can't seem to figure out how the heck to get it to recognize my untattended desires. Thanks again. I'll letcha know what I find.

eyep. repeatedly does the same thing as typing the info in from the run line.

huh! never even thought of trying that. I'll give it a shot, let ya know. Thanks! EDIT: negative. Still does the same thing. hmm...

were you able to see the file on your CD? Were you able to decompress it?

Thanks again. Running winnt32.exe /noreboot DOES work, but doesn't copy over the stuff I need to have installed (ie the $OEM$ folder, etc.). I presume the problem there is that its running a "default" mode and ignoring the winnt.sif file that it reads when I boot the CDROM and install, hence trying to find the right command to tell it to read my winnt.sif. I believe I have what you are suggesting for the command: I click start I click run I type into the box: D:\I386\WINNT32.EXE{space}/dudisable{space}/noreboot{space}/unattend:D:\I386\WINNT.SIF I think that IS what you're suggesting, right?

Thank you for the assistance. No change, though. Specifying the /tempdrive:c: didn't appear to matter. I still see the same error message. It does change paths whenever I change the syntax on the /unattend switch, though. e.g. (running from CDROM, my D: drive) D:\i386\winnt32.exe /dudisable /noreboot /unattend:\winnt.sif gives me the error pictured in my 1st post but the path is changed to c:\windows\winnt32\winnt.sif as does D:\i386\winnt32.exe /dudisable /noreboot /unattend:/winnt.sif or D:\i386\winnt32.exe /dudisable /noreboot /unattend:.\winnt.sif If I change to D:\i386\winnt32.exe /dudisable /noreboot /unattend:d:\i386\winnt.sif I get the same message with path changed to d:\i386\winnt.sif Thanks for any further assitance!