strel... im sure there are many peeps like me that randomly search across the web and these forums trying to find answers and methods of creating a personalised unattended install. i thought i would not leave silently and give you feedback, thankyou very much. i have been trying to merge .net 2 to my slipstreamed xp sp3 cd using nlite for a few days now. before this i had never used (or heard of) nlite and i have very limited experience with computing... i stumbled across this forum during my research and spent days reading threads, downloading, installing, following guides, copying, pasting, getting lost, head scratching, head aching... until i eventually stumbled across this thread. i read through your instructions carefully and hey presto... job done! though i'l admit that i messed up the first time (i was getting errors from nlite stating it was an unexpected type of hotfix) because i was putting the exe file in the nlite setup instead of the zip file so basically i thought rather than just use the info and move on i thought id stop by and say thanks... now im off to try and work out why my security update add-ons keep corrupting my install and how to include the WGA malarky on the disc! Joel