midiboy

No, it is not nothing you did ! Your utility makes this unattended CD of mine really usefull. As far as I know there is no user creation tool available that does what Wihu does so you can certainly be proud ! Well, returning to what I know best ( asking for more ) I would like to ask you for one more minor enhancement to Wihu, apart from all the other things I requested so far I have just installed my unattended setup CD twice and you know how it is if you do things a lot you press keys very rapidly instead of waiting for the dialog and clicking with the mouse. Now, if one creates a user on Wihu´s first login screen, then continues to press "ENTER" three times one actually cancels operation on the last dialog because the cancel button is the default button on the last dialog. Not only that, Windows will also not restart because of this. I mentioned it a while ago already and I vote for it again: Could you please, please add a /NOWAYOUT switch that disables all cancel buttons and ( very important ) also forces the user to reboot after going through the Wihu setup ? This unattended DVD should after all be handed out to people who do not necessarily know what Administrator accounts are and should be forced to reboot after installation. Also they should have no way out of creating a new user so it would really be very helpful if you could add such a switch ! Mhh ... I hope this is not too much work for you ! After all it´s holiday season ! Thanks in advance ! Alex

Hi Benjamin, well, it is not a big deal, it would just look nicer for users who don´t know your tool or for unexperienced users. If "Eigene Dateien" ( Personals) is on top everyone knows what that is, if "Administrative ..." is on top, most people will probably not touch this drop down menu because they may think that it does not apply to them ... So it would make it more userfriendly but it is not a big deal ... Well, why not disable it then for Windows 2000 and simply activate it for Windows XP ? Mhh, now every Win2000 user will protest ! But if it is easy to do for Windows XP, why not do it ? It would certainly be logical to do it if one does it for the first new user .... One other thing .... if you have time ... As I wrote you earlier I would require %HOMEPATH% and %HOMEDRIVE% to point to the Personals folder of the new user ... would it be possible for you to either make this connection automatically or, better yet, make a switch somehow that reads something like " Do you want %HOMEPATH% and %HOMEDRIVE% to point to you Personals folder ?" ? Or add it to the install.ini Environment section or something ... Would really help ! Thank you very much !!! Alex

It is /SkipSoftware ... not \SkipSoftware ! Bye, Alex

Hey Benjamin, thanks, all works fine now ! In case you get bored .... a few very minor suggestions: 1. Would be nice if "Eigene Dateien" (Personals) would be on top of the Shellfolder list. 2. Would also be nice if one could change shellfolders not only for the first user but all the others that are created with Wihu too. As always ... thanks ! Alex

Hey again, I did not see any change using the /SkipSoftware switch. The Software installation dialog still appears .... mhh ... Bye, Alex

Hey Benjamin, thank you very much for your work ! I am using Wihu extensively now ! I do have come across a small problem though. I don´t know if it is a bug or if I do not use your feature correctly but there seems to be a problem: On your website, you state: So I have added the following to install.ini: But as you can see in the screenshot below, the added user now has a folder named %NewUserName%. I thought Wihu will replace this variable with the name of the newly created user .... But maybe I am misunderstanding things here .... Also .... if I use the new /SKIPSOFTWARE switch ( thank you by the way ! ) will those environment variables in install.ini still be used ? Thanks, Alex

Hi Warthog, I think you are mixing up groups and usernames. See, on every system you have a user called Administrator and a group called Administrators. You also have a group called Users and some other groups (which a normal user would rarely use ). Now, you are not giving rights to specific users but to groups. At least that is the way to do it properly. So if you want a user to have all rights you put this user in the Administrators group. If you want him to have limited rights you put him into the Users group. At least that is the basic use. Don´t mix up the Administrator account (user) and Administrators group. You could, I guess ( did´n´t try this ) put the Administrator into the users group and take him out of the Administrators group and then have an "Administrator" without any rights ! It is just a name. You could also rename Administror to something like "Looser" .... Understood ? So what "Give Administrative Rights" means is, put that user to the Administrators group ! Bye, Alex

Hey Warthog, mhh, it doesn´t matter where you put the program. You could either copy it to the system32 to have it on your system without adding the path to it or you could, as I do it, put it on your Windows Installation CD into any subfolder and call it from your runonceex.cmd in case you use this to install Windows unattended. How to call your software from an unattended CD is described here Add Administrator rights does what it says ... it gives the user you just added administrator rights, meaning add it to the Administrator group instead of adding it to the Users group. You do the same thing when adding users in System control panel. Bye, Alex

Hey Benjamin, will test it out ! You are great ! Thanks ! Alex

Hey again, I am just never satisfied I guess .... I just came up with a new "idea" ... I hope you don´t mind ... Since you already have that user.ini file ... would it be a lot of work to also add a few lines to preconfigure all of the shell folders for each preconfigured user ?? Mhh .... that would be a nice thing actually, right ? Sorry, I know I am pain in the a** ! Sleep well ! Alex

A pst file is the major data file of Outlook. All mails, contacts and other data are stored there. THe mst file is a preconfigured silent installation file the Office Ressource Kit Silent Installation Wizard creates. It sort of tells Office what to install and in what way. More information is here Bye, Alex PS: I tried your latest beta on a fresh installation on VMWare just now and it works as expected. Windows even automatically created folders inside the Personals folder but not all of them ( just Music and Pictures ) .... Your utility is really getting perfect by now. In case you have some time left, maybe you might consider adding the features I suggested earlier ! Thanks ! Alex

Hey Benjamin, ok, I got it working now. Your tip with Environment variables was a good one. I had a systemwide variable in there named "PERSONAL" and it was set to D:\%USERNAME%. I deleted it and now it works. However, a small minor detail ... contrary to the Windows process of changing the "Personal" shell folder, inside folders (Music, Pictures, Video) are not getting created automatically if they do not exist yet. Maybe if you have some time left ... I have another question now ... I have instructed Office 2003 setup to automatically install the default .pst file into %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\Outlook via an mst file. Could you think of any way to change those variables automatically depending on the setting of the Personals Shell folder ? I think thats why I created this PERSONALS variable in the first place. Bye, Alex

Hi Benjamin, mhh, strange ... so I downloaded Wihu again just right now but the "bug" is still there ... I attached a screenshot. First pic shows that I add a user named Bernd. Also I am logged in as Alexander. Then I proceed to step 2. I choose "Eigene Dateien" and the path that Wihu suggests is D:\Alexander .... this cannot be right ? Bye, Alex Edit: I made sure that Bernd is no existing user !

Hey Benjamin, just downloaded the program again but now this "bug" seems to be back again where the default path for "Eigene Dateien" is the current path of the logged in user, not the future one of the just created user .... Other than that, thanks for your great work and for listening ! Alex

Hey Benjamin, ok, thank you very much for fixing the bug that fast and for helping with the MMC. I tried the new version now and it seems to work as expected now. I also found the reason why the older 2.0 beta didn´t: I had emptied the user.ini. May I keep on suggesting a few minor features or did I ask too much already ? From a user´s perspective, I think you could change the "shell folder changing dialog" to be more userfriendly. 1. The most important setting "Personal" should be on top by default and should be called "Eigene Dateien" in German, not Personals 2. When changing this one folder in Windows XP by rightclicking on the "Eigene Dateien" folder on the desktop, Windows will also change the shell folders for Pictures, Music and Video to be a subfolder in the Personals folder. It would be wonderful if you could achieve the same! 3. I don´t know about the others here, but at least I made the experience that users mostly change the following folders: Personals My Pictures My Music My Video Favorites Desktop So maybe you could make this into a two step process: One drop down menu for those folders and then an "advanced" drop down menu for the other folders. This would make it easier to find the folders I need if the ones changed most of the time are seperate from the others. 4. Last but not least I once again ask for a multiple user creation feature without the need for a predefined user.ini 5. In case you still read this ... wouldn´t it be nice if your tool would also be available via the Control Panel as a cpl ?? Thanks for listening ! Alex

Thanks Alanoll, I tried this: [Datenträgerverwaltung] command.0="%systemroot%\system32\diskmgmt.msc" description=Öffnet die Datenträgerverwaltung default=0 for Wihu 1.6.1.2 but it did not work, any idea why ? Wihu gives me the following error message: Status: 0, Fehler 193, Installation von "Öffnet die Datenträgerverwaltung" konnte nicht gestartet werden: Fehler %d, Installation von "%s" konnte nicht gestartet werden: C:\WINDOWS\system32\diskmgmt.msc Sorry, it is German, but it somewhat says ...Error 193 Installation of "%s" could not be started. I also tried the command without the "" and with the /s switch but it never worked. Calling this from Start ... Run ... or from a cmd works fine. Bye, Alex

Hey Benjamin, just a few observations with the shellfolder feature: 1. Maybe I am misunderstanding something but if I first create a new user and then proceed to the shell folder changing dialog am I changing the shell folders of that newly created user, right ?? Because it is not working. I have attached a pic which shows two things: First, I just created a user named Alexander, but the default path for the Personal shell folder offered by Wihu is D:\Administrator. Shouldn´t it be at least D:\Alexander ? Second, if I change that to D:\Alexander, then later reboot and log in as this user, the shell folder is still C:\Documents and Settings\Alexander ... as you can see on the pic. If your shell folder feature is actually only changing the shell folders of the currently logged in user and not the one I am creating than it is more or less useless ( at least for me ) because your utility runs after an unattended installation and will always be run from the Administrators account which is not an account I would use after that. If this is the case (which I suspect it might be right now ) would you then please also add a switch to skip the shellfolders dialog ? ( you probably think I am a lunatic now ) Maybe you can clear this up a bit ... 2. Currently you have "Use logged in user" activated by default. Would you mind changing that to be off by default or provide a means to save settings ( user.ini maybe ? ) Thanks, Alex

Thanks Benjamin !

Hey Benjamin, THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH for adding shell folders and for also adding the skip installation switch soon ! Just came across a small problem. What if the unattended installation is on a new system where only first partition is formatted ( during setup ) and second ( D:) is not. Before adding shell folders to D one would have to format the drive. Do you either know how to call the Windows GUI format utility (see attached pic ) or could you add a button to the shell folder setup dialog to call this utility ? I tried to find out if this utility is a seperate program using filemon but nothing came up so I guess it is out of my hands ... Of course I could call a cmd with Dos format utility but this would look terrible compared to your great looking utility. I also hope you will consider adding the multiple user add option without the need to have a prepared user.ini. PLEASE ! :-) By the way ... if you make your IBAN and BIC codes known ( bank account scheme in the EU ) I would gladly send you a small donation !! Your work is very much appreciated !!! Bye, Alex

Well, actually you have that wrong ! It is "Ein Herz fuer Kinder" and "Herzlichen Glueckwunsch" ... so both times just a "z" and no Umlaut or "tz" ! But I am glad you can order Bier .. so at least you won´t starve in Germany or Austria! Ok, back to my problem ... You are a genius ... this method worked for getting the User Shell Folders to stick, but unfortunately it did not work for my the few visual settings that do not stick. Since I have no experience in creating this I simply copied from your example and adjusted the obvious like "REG_DWORD" etc. But apart from the User Shell Folders nothing else worked. I know I am asking a lot but could you maybe have a look at my file below and tell me if something very obvious is wrong with it ? Thank you very much ! my regadd.cmd:

Thanks, Alex

Hi Benjamin ! What do you mean by Windows shell ?? Thats what I am doing now, but it is sort of unnecessary to go through the empty installation dialog ... well, it was just a request ! Yeah, but this does the opposite !! So to make it clearer: I would love to have a "/skipnorestart" switch I know, but think about it ! After installing quite a few apps and drivers you would want the user to always restart and not have the option to keep on working .... right ? Well, I could of course also right click on the "My documents" folder and change it there or change all the different shell folders using TweakUI. But a single place to create users, create and change shell folders for them etc. would be simply cool and especially helpful for the last step in an unattended software installation. And your utililty is altready much nicer than Computermanagement ! In my imagination I would think of something like your user creation dialog with the addition of a button to change or create the "My documents" shell folder of that newly created user, a button to change or create the "My music" shell folder of that newly created user, and the same for all the other shell folders like My pictures, videos etc. Then, when the user logs in the first time, all the folders are already where one would want them to be. Well, I am just dreaming ! Anyway, thanks for making my imagination fly ! Bye, Alex

Hey GreenMachine! Close enough ! It´s actually "Herzlichen Glueckwunsch"! By the way, at least momentarily I have given up on the whole idea of automating shell folder creation for each new user. I have played around for days now trying to get this to work but it does not. No matter if I change "User Shell Folders", "Shell Folders" or both in the registry, right clicking "My documents" on the desktop still shows the old wrong path to the User Profile on C. Also since I have an expert on HKCU settings here ( read through most of your great webste! ) I have one more question unrelated to the topic of this thread. Maybe you have some tipps up your sleeve ! I am loading almost all of my regtweaks during the T13, T12 stage so it affects the default user Profile. However, some settings will not work this way. Most prominent are some visualeffects settings, screensaver settings, audio settings etc. So my solution is to reload the same registry tweaks upon first creation of the actual user profile (I am adding a self destructing batch file to the Autostart folder of the Default user Profile during Setup ) This does work but the settings actually only work the second time the user logs on (seems logical). So my short question to this somewhat long introduction is: Is there a way around this ? Either by making the settings work right from the start by changing the default user profile or making them work at the first start of the newly created user profile ? Anyway, thanks for your help ! Alex

Hi Benjamin, thanks for the new version. Don´t want to appear unthankful but actually I had something else in mind when thinking about multiple user creation. I know this forum is all about unattended setup but if that is what I wanted a simple batch file using the net command would do all I need. Contrary to software installation which for the most part stays similar on each system, user creation will differ on each system. Therefore an ini file that contains all the users to be created would not help me much. I actually thought about adding new users on the fly in the same way your former version did but with an option to add more than one user. Of course everyone´s needs will differ but that is actually a feature I am missing so far. Also, how about adding a few more switches for the following features: Skip software installation dialog disable close button/cancel button and disable the possibility to not reboot afterwars ( grey out system restart switch ) = always reboot Would be great if that could be added ! One last question: Does "homepath" actually change the system shell folder for this user similar to right clicking on "My documents" and moving the folder ?? THAT WOULD BE COOL ! Of course it would be even cooler if one could change this path through the GUI of the program instead of a more or less fixed ini file. Thanks ! Alex

@Benjamin: Tolles Utility !!! I will continue in English so others can follow First, this is a great little app. Thank you very much ! I have three wishes: So far, I actually only use it to create new users after an Unattended Setup. So it would be great if there was a command line switch that allows Wihu to go from the User creation screen directly to the last reboot screen, skipping the Software Installation screen. Would that be possible ?? Please ! Second wish would be to add a command line switch to make the Wihu dialog modal so that the user is forced to add a user and reboot without being able to do something else or skip the step. Actually, it would be great if it even the close or cancel button would be greyed out in this mode so that after a default installation the user is forced to add a user and reboot. My third and last wish would be to add an option on the first dialog ( user creation ) to add more than one user. Something like an "add more users" button which opens one more user creation dialog ... I hope my wishes are not too demanding and of course thank you very much for that great app !!! Bye, Alex