[AUTOPATCHER - a great utility !]

Actually, I've tried Autopatcher XP many times before, thinking it was a nice way to do things (and if they maintain the patches and everything, less work/hassle for me).

Now I'm quite glad I dumped it from my unattended setup. Just about every time, some installer would come up with an error while installing, I've had some odd reboots, and lots and I mean lots of issues with it. Latest problem I've ran througn is some weird error about no localizations for my version of windows (plain US english XP Pro VLK, nothing special by any means), and no arguments (including /english) managed to make it go away. Also, startup time tends to be quite long. And now with the even of XP SP2, it brings more frustrations and problems. No matter what switches you use, it WILL nag about your computer being SP2 so you cannot have a no-nag no user intervention setup (I've tried *every* switch possible). My success rate using it to patch typical computers is below 50%. Also, they seemed to be updating it often enough before, but the last one is starting to get a bit outdated now (I'm not that much of a "gotta have the very latest build" type of person, but it's pointless having to disable more and more stuff in Ap XP because they're outdated, and have to add the newer patches to your own install script instead). I've tried changing a couple things quickly on the disc, and it turns out they got some CRC checks on the database or something (never bothered looking deeper into it), and it wouldn't run at all... Their webpage says they're working on a new version. Hopefully it will address some issues, because in my case it was far more hassle and problems than help (although I still do appreciate them trying to make a nice app to do this job)

So I took what was good from it (a couple registry tweaks that are around anyways and couple more odd things... most of stuff in it is pre-sp2 patches), and added it to my main install script. Took about an hour tops to do it all. Much faster, more customizable, and never failed so far.

[Acrobat Reader 6 Lite & Fastest :D]

@crahak:

I followed your tip about getting the extracted files from the 'FEAD optimizer'. Very nice! Saves a lot of time...

Glad I could help. It sure saves a lot of time

Sounds like you got your MSI issues sorted out as well now.

[Acrobat Reader 6 Lite & Fastest :D]

AR Speedup works, but it doesn't necessarily keep the plugins you do/don't want and such. It's quite easy to script as well.

Also, wheter you script it or use AR speedup, there's a lot more to be tweaked (registry entries).

Personally, I used a vb script to get the job done (it's a bit ugly but it works, some day i'll rewrite it clean if i get some free time).

Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next

'Define variables
Dim ProgramPath, FSO, objShell, objNetwork

'Define objects
set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
Set objShell=WScript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

'Accept EULA
objShell.RegDelete "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\EULA"
objShell.RegDelete "HKLM\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\EULA"
objShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\EULA","1","REG_DWORD"
objShell.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\EULA","1","REG_DWORD"

'no updates, no ads...
objShell.regwrite "HKLM\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\FeatureLockdown\bUpdater","0","REG_DWORD"
objShell.regwrite "HKLM\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\FeatureLockdown\bShowAdsAllow","0","REG_DWORD"
objShell.regwrite "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\AdsInReader\bShowAds","0","REG_DWORD"
objShell.regwrite "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\Originals\bDisplayAboutDialog","0","REG_DWORD"
objShell.regwrite "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\Updater\bShowAutoUpdateConfDialog","0","REG_DWORD"
objShell.regwrite "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\Updater\bShowNotifDialog","0","REG_DWORD"
objShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\Originals\bDisplayAboutDialog","0","REG_DWORD"
objShell.regwrite "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AdobeViewer\Updater\iUpdateFrequency","0","REG_DWORD"
'internet connection speed
objShell.regwrite "HKLM\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\6.0\AVGeneral\iConnectionSpeed","00989680","REG_DWORD"

'Delete shortcuts
FSO.DeleteFile objShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersDesktop") & "\Adobe Reader 6.0.lnk", True
'FSO.DeleteFile objShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersPrograms") & "\Adobe Reader 6.0.lnk", True
FSO.DeleteFolder objShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersPrograms") & "\PrintMe Internet Printing", True

'delete old optionnal plugin folder
FSO.DeleteFolder "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\Optional", True

'rename plugins to optional
FSO.MoveFolder "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins", "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\Optional"

'create a new plugin folder
FSO.CreateFolder "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins"

'move the desired plugins back to it
FSO.MoveFile "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\optional\EWH32.api", "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins\EWH32.api"
FSO.MoveFile "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\optional\EScript.api", "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins\EScript.api"
FSO.MoveFile "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\optional\Search.api", "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins\Search.api"
FSO.MoveFile "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\optional\printme.api", "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins\printme.api"
FSO.MoveFile "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\optional\weblink.api", "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins\weblink.api"

It renames the plugins directory, creates a new one and move the desired plugins back, sets registry entries and deletes the annoying shortcuts. One file, no dependancies or anything. As ugly as it looks, it's never caused any problems either.

[Edit]

I forgot to mention. It seems that most people are running the .exe installers to install the app which takes ages (the FEAD optimizer thingy). Start the installer and look into %systemroot%\cache (ie c:\windows\cache in most cases). You'll get the extracted form in .msi format that installs a lot faster. Hope that helps too.

[HOWTO Firefox 0.9.3 unattended]

Nice find! I'll probably give that a try tonite. Thanks

[HOWTO Firefox 0.9.3 unattended]

That's very close to what I do.

I also add the unsinstall info to the registry via a .reg file

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Mozilla Firefox (0.9.3)]
"DisplayName"="Mozilla Firefox (0.9.3)"
"UninstallString"="C:\\WINDOWS\\UninstallFirefox.exe /ua \"0.9.3 (en)\""
"DisplayIcon"="C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe,0"
"DisplayVersion"="0.9.3 (en)"
"Comment"="The Browser, Reloaded."
"InstallLocation"="C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox"
"NoModify"="1"
"NoRepair"="1"
"Publisher"="Mozilla"
"URLInfoAbout"="http://www.mozilla.org/"
"URLUpdateInfo"="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/"

and i also recopy the UninstallFirefox.exe to %systemroot%.

I find it important to have the uninstall information in there

I customize my firefox (settings, various search plugins, web developper toolbar, checky, adblock, needle search, ...) before copying the main directory and app data directory as well.

Any more than that, I might as well make 2 system snapshots and repackage it all altogether as a .msi file instead (either ways you get to redo it all over again next time)

[HOWTO Firefox 0.9.3 unattended]

I was going thru a lot before to get it installed nicely too

Editing the .ini files (and the next time you can't remember for sur what excatly you had to change), AutoIt scripts, ... Then plugins and all..

I now do like MCT does, with the exception that I xcopy the shortcuts from the install disk instead of creating new ones. It's easy to make you disc install the software, then mass xcopy icons for all these apps like that, with the entire tree structure.

Anyways, I've basically given up even considering installing it in any other ways.

[A mega easy to get the CDROM variable set]

Yes, it work in any scenario, but just a note, I did an error while copy/pasting. It should have been:

for %%a in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist %%a:\i386\winnt.exe set CDROM=%%a:

(With a : at the end)

That way your CDRom letter is say, J: istead of J ... You get the idea anyways. If you don't want to search thru all these drives, just remove the ones you don't want but eithe way it's pretty quick and never fails me. You could make it look for win51ip.SP2 or winnt.sif or whatever too...

I use that to launch my main installing script from a a directory full of installers (not located in $OEM$ at all). I just don't see a point of copying the installers to the HD first during the setup phase like lots of guys seem to do. Also, I much rather have one big script that launches the installers, adds registry entries, and launches more "sub"-scripts to tweak the installation instead of other methods. Some people seem too see GUIRunOnce as a n00b method, I just see it as more versatile and better adapted for my needs...

[Making a Slip Stream Bootable DVD?]

Yes, that's what I use also. Most testing with VMWare, then once it seems to work fine I burn it on a -RW. They've come down in price a lot and they're handy. There's new versions/builds coming out every month of just about every program mine installs, so it's definately worth it

[Making a Slip Stream Bootable DVD?]

Of course it is. It's by far the best way to go too. Have it install XP SP2 unattended, office 2003 SP1, and all your other usual software, configs, tweaks and everything. You never look back

[The Best anti-virus]

I have to say I find this poll mostly useless because of the "n00b factor". Instead I'd look at virus oriented magazines, testing, and certifications... And usually Norton is at the bottom of the list

[A mega easy to get the CDROM variable set]

There has been a couple methods listed already but neither work for me.

I use GUIRunOnce for a main installer script that launches more scripts. Using GUIRunOnce, the first method won't work, and somehow, the other method in this thread doesn't return the right drive for me... So even if it might work sometimes, I don't trust it, and to be honest, I never thought of doing it that way.

There is a much simpler way. Have a unique file on your CD, and look for it:

@echo off

for %%a in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist %%a:\path\to\yourfile.xyz set CDROM=%%a

(where \path\to\yourfile.xyz is the path to your uniquely named file called yourfile.xyz or whatever it might be, with no drive letter of course)

I GUIRunOnce to start command.cmd, after that, command.cmd uses that code to find the CD Rom drive letter, and starts %CDROM\whatever.cmd that does the installs directly from the CD (Actually, a DVD-R but that's besides the point). Simple to do and works reliably at every stage.

Might not be news to most people, some people might like other methods better, it might have been posted 150x before... But anyways. I hope it helps someone... Just "contributing" hoping to make someone else's life easier.