Radimus

I just put WinPE 1.1 on a usb HD and it works great (sort of) The machine's BIOS must allow USB Boot Devices (most new ones do) the machine's chipset needs to be auto detected by WinPE or the USB devices BSODs on startup. That can be fixed I assume by updating the drivers in PE, but I haven't gotten that far. I can't see how a thumb drive would behave any differently

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/install.htm

it will remove itself after it runs... if you don't intend to sysprep it, then go ahead and delete it

the GUI is almost complete, buttons, child windows, etc. It will create the unattended files from scratch (default templates for WINNT.sif, regtweaks.reg, cmdlines.txt and svcpack.inf, etc) It also creates the subfolders for the app. I was looking into DL'ing the dependency files, like cdburn.exe etc, but perhaps not... Providing links may just be enough. I'm about to wrap the hotfixes into iexpress packages including the self extracting switches. I just want to remind those that are interested in this, that this is an admin's tool, you will need to know what switches are needed, you will need to know at what point you want each to be installed, and you will have to DL the patches yourself ahead of time. I am looking into a method of determining the switches required by each patch/exe through some automated routine, but I may rely on operator input... like running ewach patch once imported through a /? and having the operator verify the appropriate switch... dunno, that part is still under consideration. Some of these dependencies may not be that much of an issue for some, As I have already available on my nework the tested/approved patches for deployment, so it isn't much beyond selecting each one. If you want a set it and forget it tool, see XPCreate by GreenMachine

this will autogenerate a name ComputerName=* this will ask you ComputerName=

I still don't see the point for dealing with sysprep this way. Sysprep is used for rolling a machine back through hardware detection and naming and licensing. If you are making an unattended windows CD, why deal with sysprep at all. If you are syspreping a system, why are you dealing with unattended windows. The only things I can think of is a) you are a reseller loading software on multiple PCs and don't want to do it by hand, or B) you are in a corporate IT department looking to automate the IT dept production of new/updated images. (I am B) In either case, all you need to do to use sysprep, is to copy the files(sysprep.exe, sysprep.inf, and the other one *cl.exe, whatever it's name is) to c:\sysprep and execute sysprep -mini -reseal -reboot Be sure to have a floppy in the drive to catch it when it reboots. then you ghost or drive image it

patience... I've only been working on this for 3 days. Now just remember, this is intended to be an admin tool. You will be required to provide the patches and apps to install and the switches for each If you want something not as 'technical' and easier to build and update a CD, Check out XPCreate. GM did a great job in automating the process of updating and making a CD.

BTW... for those of you that care I'm writing this in a scripting language called Kixtart http://www.kixtart.org using an addon KixForms http://www.kixforms.org If you have ever used BASIC or are used to batch scripting, you will LOVE this language... easy and freeform and very powerful. and careware/freeware as well. A single EXE for kixtart, a single dll for kixforms, and notepad is all you need.

anything is possible... But i'd like to make it work for 1 OS first The principles are the same for any OS... just a bit of modification in some of the details that are particular to any given OS. Of course, I haven't even seen 2003 yet, so I'm just guessing there.

if you use WMI and enum all the CD drives, most burners have a CD-R/RW or something similar in the model string basically look in device manager and open the dvd\CD-rom drives container. most burners will have some type of CDR text description. or look in HKLM\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 0\Scsi Bus 0\Target Id 0\Logical Unit Id 0 and look at the Identifier value each of the 0's above will need to be changed to 1 alternately to walk the device connections

I'm adding a wrapper for iexpress: Am I missing anything obvious or overdone it?? I'm considering some type of grep routine to go 'fishing' in the file looking for 'hint' as to what type of package it was made with. or would some type of ini file be more appropriate... of course setup.exe wouldn't be very distinctive for an ini file.

I've updated it a bit. Items functioning so far: the CD drives on the PC gets enumed for the makeISO routine The CD gets ISO'd to the HD the ISO on the HD gets extracted to the working folders the accessory/option checkboxes modify the winnt.sif file the create ISO and Burn ISO function. it is just all the stuff in the middle that needs some work. Anyone know of a freeware/openlicense ISO extractor... with a command line or COM interface. WinRAR works, and I expect most people to have it, but I'd like to have a diferent method.

I join domain after mini-setup and reboot, as sometimes the NIC drivers will not work until after reboot

ick...

floppy disk?? There is something logically inconsistant with installing a remote control program via sneker-net WinInstaller LE can make a MSI for those 2 files and the service and app settings for deployment

http://www.famatech.com/solutions/clients/netinst.php or to make it real simple make a SFX in WinRAR

if your focus is: I am only doing my PC... so if it blows up, I'll take care of it. Fine turn SFC off If you are supporting between 3-2,000 PCs turn SFC on if you are supporting more that 2,000 PCs, turn it OFF as it will not be you running around trying to fix the broken PCs that have deleted the teddybear file

in the drivers folder: $OEM$\$1\drivers\004_monitor\*.inf winnt.sif" OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000_Chipset;Drivers\004_monitor"

Suggestions?? Additions?? Comments are welcome. It does not download any patches, it just uses the ones that you provide It copies them to the image to install them as shown here: http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/installhotfixes.htm and ISO's them as shown at http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/finish.htm I may include a "Slim Image" option as shown here: http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/space_saving_tips.htm just because I have a huge amount of drivers that may need to go on various machines in my org. (Darn Dell and Compaq... why can no 2 models use the same NIC ) The Accessories check boxes can modify all sorts of 'global' settings... not just simple ini values "Import" buttons are "browse for file" "Open" buttons open the specified folder on the local machine, so files can be dragged in from where ever you DL them I intend this to be a convenient method of updating a Image and provide a simple method of updating the winnt.sif and adding patches. I suppose that it wouldn't be too difficult to modify it to do win2k images, I'll save that for later. Too many of the check boxes would need to be changed... unless I did it in a tabcontrol... I dunno. There will be mouseovers to provide a bit more detail than the simplistic labels, But I expect this to be a bit more of an admin tool than for the average end user, but I doubt that many average end users wind up on this site. And yes, I've seen XPCREATE, but I'm not trying to duplicate GM's excellent work. I'm looking more at making customized & automated XP Images after burning the ISO, GM's is more of an automated method to update a CD before burning the ISO. I may have a 'alpha' that is testable by the end of the next week or so. The Wife is going on vacation and taking the kids next week, so I should be able to get some work done

ON so what about the directories... System File Checker keeps the system more stable by keeping 3rd party apps from removing possibly important files. Drive space isn't much of an issue anymore... unless you are a mark for overnet/kazaa.

I rebuilt the image and changed a few items in the winnt.sif and all is well. On to CD2: MSO2k3 CD1 unattended WinXPSP1+ CD2 unattended MSO2k3+ CD3 antivirus, other misc apps, Drivers, Regtweaks, and sysprep creating corporate Disk images has never been so easy...

I dunno if this is of any assistance, but Mine has started to do so since I added a few lines into my winnt.sif. Before this change the iso worked fine. specifically: ExtendOEMPartition=1 FileSystem=ConvertNTFS NTUpgrade=No Repartition=Yes it happens right after the textmode "Setup is copying files..." finishes The problem seems to be caused by the following file: setupdd.sys An attempt was made to write to read-only memory I made the image this morning from a sp1a base and all patches as of today. I'm rebuilding it now to try again, and will research the above items

I just read through the xpcreate.bat and found the command the was used to: create the ISO and burn the ISO and put them in seperate bat files CDIMAGE -LXPCREATE -YD -N -H -X -OCI -M -D -Bboot\XPCTBOOT.BIN CDROOT XPCREATE.ISO CDBURN.EXE d: XPcreate.ISO -SPEED 16 then I make my changes to the files in CDRoot. Once I get them right, I copy the changes back to FilesCD

Anyone have a batch or reg that will switch the default XP look and feel to the standard win2k look and feel... and or back?? we are deploying XP, but corp doesn't want to scare the lusers with a different color start button (not that they know what it is) and would like to make the machine look as much like win2k as possible. However, they realize that many people have XP at home, and might work better with that interface. so they decided to deploy XP looking like 2k, but want to provide a SINGLE button to change the entire UI to go back to XP style. Any help with this?

hmmm.. first time is almost a winner. I should pay more attention to the filescd folder and perhpay my automations would work...