spacesurfer

Personally, I'd rather use Package Manager myself since technically peimg is for WinPE. Microsoft's WAIK does not mention using peimg as the way to integrate updates offline. It instead uses pkgmgr. Since you are using peimg to install updates one-by-one, meaning using the for command to integrate each update one-by-one, you are not checking for dependencies. However, package manager uses an xml file to integrate updates, which checks for dependencies. See FireGeier's guide, which is a comprehensive guide from begininng to end, or this one just for updates only.

First, your question is in the wrong forum. Second, you obviously haven't searched the site for the answers first. Both of your questions are answered in this forum. Go to the unattended vista forum for answers.

Transfer rates are superior for hard drives, not for CD/DVD-RW. For HDDs: People often think SATA = 1.5 Gb/sec and SATAII = 3.0 Gb/sec, but this is not true. SATAII is the name of an organization that developed the standard. Yes, SATAII is newer than SATAI and may have better speed but not twice the speed. If you're looking for a 3.0 Gb/sec HDD, make sure it says so on box; don't just look for SATAII. If you go directly to Maxtor or Wester Digital site, they don't used SATAII designation; they use 1.5 Gb/sec or 3.0 Gb/sec.

Agree, I thinks it's toner. Leaking toner can cause all that mess. May have to clean up a little bit inside as well. go online to find out how to clean and install new toner.

sata is way to go. better aerodynamics because of cables.

Newegg - bought processor, memory, dvd-rw, sd card... so far. i have also used zipzoomfly.com where shipping is free on almost all items and prices are usually dollar less than newegg. i check pricegrabber.com to see if it's cheaper anywhere else but usually newegg comes out on top.

I have the samsung you mentioned in post#1. It's lightscribe capable. Works great so far. No coaster. I had an old Pioneer S106D (4x). For some reason, when people give me stuff, it would read anything from it. I bought this Samsung and it reads everything fine. I also burned some data DVD from Pioneer S106D. Later when I needed something, those DVD's are unreadable from any DVD drives. I'm not sure if it's bad media or if my Pioneer was messed up.

Of course you can. Start --> Search --> on right side, click where it says Advanced Search. The date options are there. If you are in explorer and want to search, then type your search query in explorer's search box in right corner. Then, you can click on search tools and choose search panel. Expand search panel for all advanced options. The search is enhanced in Vista compared to 2000/XP. If you index your drives, search is almost instanteneous.

Add Advanced System Properties to Computer Menu I hate to right-click my computer, choose properties, then choose advanced system properties. The extra step in middle is annoying and also the extra window that I have to close is annoying. I added "Advanced System Properties" to right-click on Computer so avoid this with the following registry addition: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\AdvSysProp] @=hex(2):41,00,64,00,76,00,61,00,6e,00,63,00,65,00,64,00,20,00,53,00,79,00,73,\ 00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,20,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,70,00,65,00,72,00,74,00,69,00,\ 65,00,73,00,00,00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\AdvSysProp\command] @=hex(2):63,00,6f,00,6e,00,74,00,72,00,6f,00,6c,00,20,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,64,\ 00,6d,00,2e,00,63,00,70,00,6c,00,00,00 Bring Back Classic Display Properties In Windows XP, you could right-click on desktop, choose properties, and display properties would come up. All the properties were group in one as tabs. In Vista, it's been replaced by Personalization where you have to click and a new windows comes up. I like the classic XP style. If you have XP, just rename %systemroot%\system32\desk.cpl to display.cpl to another location. Then copy display.cpl to vista's %systemroot%\system32 folder. It will add display to control panel. It works fine in Vista. Vista will ask you if the program ran correctly. Say yes.

Just curious, did you try the xml method. The proper way is to use pkgmgr with an xml file. Using such method checks for dependencies. Updating each cab one-by-by as done in your integrate.zip file you had for download will not do that.

Vista and Vista Boot Pro do not work by partition no. They work by identifying the GUID which are stored in the BCD file in the boot folder of the active partition. Vista boot repair is supposed to reassign the GUIDs during repair since the old ones are lost. I'm not sure why it's failing for you.

Vista MBR is repaired from Vista DVD. The Command Prompt can be called during Vista setup. It's WinPE's command prompt. Check out the guide here for details on how to call the command prompt.

There are lots of questions about dual-booting XP and Vista. More questions arise when one of the partitions go corrupt because you can’t load an OS. Vista Boot Disk Here’s how to prevent something disastrous happening, like not being able to load either OS because you formatted an active partition: *** Create a Vista Boot Disk *** The boost disk will allow you to boot Vista and/or XP if your MBR is corrupt or you lose your active partition, which contains your boot manager. Active Partitions An active partition is the partition that has Microsoft OS (XP or Vista) boot files. If you only have one OS, then your active partition will be your OS partition. You can only have one active partition. Therefore, if you are dual-booting, then one of the two partitions will be active. The order of install does not matter which partition will be active—meaning, if you installed Vista after XP, that doesn’t mean Vista’s partition will be active. To figure out which one is active, right-click on My Computer, manage, under Storage, go to Disk Management. It shows all the volumes (i.e. partion is MS speak) and one volume will be active. Boot Managers In XP, the boot manager (also an OS loader) is a file called ntldr. In Vista, the boot manager is called bootmgr (but the OS loader is winload.exe). When you dual-boot, both of these files will be in your active partition. Ntldr cannot boot Vista. Therefore, the system will load the boot menu using bootmgr, which can load ntldr if you want to boot to XP. Your MBR points to your current boot manager. Thus, whichever OS you installed last will determine your current boot manager. Therefore, if you install XP after Vista, then your boot manager will be ntldr. So, you can’t boot to Vista since ntldr can’t boot Vista. Therefore, you should install Vista after XP to avoid repairing the MBR using Vista DVD. Setup Behavior So, if you have XP installed currently on C, then C most likely your active partition. If you decide to install Vista from within XP, then Vista setup will not change your active partition. Instead, it will add it’s boot manager (bootmgr) to C and take control from ntldr. Thus, Vista can boot itself and XP via bootmgr. Your Vista drive will be something other than C since it’s already taken by XP. I believe, if you install Vista by booting from DVD instead of from within XP, then it will make Vista’s partition the active partition. I need to confirm this. If you have Vista installed currently on C and decide to add XP, you will have to setup XP by booting from XP CD. (For obvious reasons, you can’t do it from within Vista.) Therefore, when you do this, XP will override Vista’s bootloader and you will not be able to boot Vista. However, you can continue XP setup. Once finished, then you can use Vista DVD to repair the MBR. The CD will make bootmgr the controller and you will be able to boot both XP and Vista. I haven’t tried all of the following scenarios, but they should work theoretically. If someone wants a similar scenario for their system described here, then please try and post your results. Scenario 1 If you want to have XP on C and Vista on D with Vista partition as active partition, then install XP first, making a C partition and D partition from XP’s setup. XP setup will make C the active partition when you install it. (You can also create D after XP setup in finished from Computer Management). Install Vista by booting from the DVD (not from within XP). Call up WinPE command prompt. Use diskpart to make D partition active. Resume install of Vista to D. Of course, C and D can be anything you want. Scenario 2 If you want Vista on C and XP on D with C the active partition, then boot with XP CD, create C and D from XP setup. Install XP on D. D will be active since it’s the only OS right now. Boot with Vista DVD. Start WinPE command prompt from setup. Use diskpart to make C active. Install Vista on C. It’s always best to install XP first since it’s the older one and ntldr will not load Vista. Installing Vista will override ntldr and make bootmgr the controller and it’s compatible with XP. Grub Both ntldr and bootmgr are not very good boot managers, in my opinion. Grub is a good alternative which does not change the MBR. If you want to use Grub, the guide is posted here: Dual-booting XP/Vista with Grub. After reading the post, basically what you need remember is: make a Vista boot disk for backup, install XP then Vista, then boot to XP, rename bootmgr to bootmgrv and rename grldr to bootmgr, then copy bootmgr (grub in disguise) to where Vista’s botmgr was. This will allow you to boot to grub first.

Some things to think about: What you call bootloader is a file called bootmgr in Vista. Vista puts bootmgr in the active partition. I'm guessing your active partition was your XP partition and so Vista put the boot files in your XP partition. Most likely you installed Vista from within XP. If you formatted C: (XP partition), the Vista bootmgr went with it so you lost it. Seems like you haven't reinstalled XP on your C: partition. You may want to do that. When you reinstall XP, it will mark that partition active again. Then use the Vista DVD to repair. It should bring it back. If it doesn't work, try Vista Boot Pro to see if it fixes it. To avoid this issue in future, you should make a vista boot floppy. You can boot both XP and Vista from the instructions described there. You can also try to find someone who has Vista and see if you can make a floppy from their system and it might work on yours. (I have a feeling it may not because Vista boots by detecting a GUID).

Erase the footer and redo it. save it, reopen it. It should work after you delete it and redo it.

what's a good firewall for vista? i haven't seen any for vista yet.

Take a look inside the floppy. What kind of backup is it? What program did you use to back it up? If you used a certain backup program, you'll have to use the same program to put them in Vista. If they aren't compressed on the floppy, meaning if they are .doc files, simply copy them from floppy to wherever you want on the new computer.

I credited him for that. I got his permission as well. It's all in one place, however. Thanks.

@Jeronimo. I've finished creating a guide. I rather use pkgmgr.exe personally because of inexperience with peimg.exe. See my post in the unattended section for the guide: Integrate updates. I think it's pretty clear in terms of directions. Let me know if you hit a speedbump in the process.

How to Integrate Vista Updates This guide shows you how to integrate Vista updates to the installation source, which is install.wim. Much of the credit for this guide goes to FireGeier. His site contains a lot of useful visual guides for automating Vista installations. It is found here: FireGeier's Unattended Vista Guide. Although others have used peimg.exe, official documentation from Microsoft's WAIK is lacking. Therefore, methods described here use Package Manager. The only place peimg.exe is used in this guide is to create a text file that lists the packages that were integrated. Requirements WAIK tools (imagex.exe, pkgmgr.exe, and supporting files); you should leave these files in the install folder (%programfiles%\Windows AIK\) and not copy them to another location. Run them from their original location so all dll's that are necessary are there. Vista DVD ISO extractor Although Windows XP is not required and you can do this in Vista, I had trouble mounting images in Vista. Therefore, I was working in Windows XP. Preparation Create a folder called 'Vista_Work'. You can call it anything you want. I have assigned it a variable %vpath% in my script so I'll refer to it as %vpath% from now on. Create folders in %vpath% called Mount, Sandbox, Updates, and Current_ISO. I've assigned them the variables %vmount%, %vsandbox%, and %vupdates%, respectively. Procedure Boot to the OS that has WAIK installed. If you installed it in Vista, you'll need to run these scripts in elevated mode. Extract install.wim from Vista installation DVD to %vpath%. Create script file called set_variables.cmd, integrate.cmd and expand.cmd in %vpath% from the following code or download them from the links:The script set_variables.cmd allows you to skip editing the scripts with your working folders path (%vpath%). They are automatically assigned based on the current working folder. You may have to change the tokens value in expand.cmd, if you are not using the English version. Change tokens=5 to tokens=4 if that's the case. If you are unsure, leave it and continue, as no damage is done. Only your Integrate.xml will not be properly formed. You'll determine if it is improperly formed in a later step. Downloads: set_variables.cmd Expand.cmd Integrate.cmd set_variables.com :: As long as all your folders are within one folder, you shouldn't have to change :: these paths since this batch file will assign the paths based on where :: set_variables.cmd is located. This script is called by expand.cmd & integrate.cmd :: Also, the Windows AIK folders are added to the path so you can run imagex, expand, :: and pkgmgr without pointing to those paths. @echo off CD /d %~dp0 SET vpath=%CD% SET vmount=%vpath%\Mount SET vupdates=%vpath%\Updates SET vsandbox=%vpath%\Sandbox SET path=%path%;C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86;C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Servicing expand.cmd (courtesy of FireGeier) @echo off TITLE Vista Updates Expansion Process echo. :: As long as you are this script, integrate.cmd and expand.cmd are in the :: same folder, you will not have ot change your paths. CD /d %~dp0 call set_variables.cmd echo. echo Your vpath is %vpath%. If this is correct, continue. echo. pause :: Create an temporary to store expanded cab and xml files from msu files. IF NOT EXIST "%vupdates%\Temp" (MKDIR "%VUpdates%\Temp") DEL "%vupdates%\Temp\*.*" /q PUSHD "%vupdates%" FOR %%i IN (*) DO (Call :Extract %%i) :: Check for older file versions created by this batch and delete if exists. IF EXIST "%vupdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml" DEL /Q "%vupdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml" IF EXIST "%vupdates%\Temp\Sort.txt" DEL /Q "%vupdates%\Temp\Sort.txt" :: Create the first 3 lines of Integrate.xml ECHO ^<^?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?^>^ >>%VUpdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml ECHO ^<^unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"^>^ >>%VUpdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml ECHO ^<^servicing^>^ >>%VUpdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml :: Create sort.txt which is necessary for compiling Integrate.xml. PUSHD "%vupdates%\Temp" del *.txt del WSUSSCAN.cab Dir /OD > Sort.txt For /F "Tokens=5" %%i IN ('FINDSTR ".cab" Sort.txt') DO Call :WriteXML %%i :: Create the last two lines of Integrate.xml. ECHO ^<^/servicing^>^ >>%VUpdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml ECHO ^<^/unattend^>^ >>%VUpdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml echo. echo Finished extracting MSU's and compiling Integrate.xml. echo Check Integrate.xml to see if it is well-formed before continuing echo to use Integrate.cmd to begin the integration process. echo. pause ::---------------------------------------------------------------------------- :: SUB PROCEDURES & PARTS EXECUTED OPTIONAL ::---------------------------------------------------------------------------- :: Extract subroutine extracts the msu files for the necessary cab and xml files. :Extract START "Expand" /WAIT expand.exe %1 -f:* "%vupdates%\Temp" GOTO :EOF :: WriteXML subroutine writes entries into Integrate.xml, which are specified by the name of :: coresponding cab file. This is the command line, which will call the installation of the :: cab during pkgmgr procedure later. :WriteXML IF "%1"=="WSUSSCAN.cab" Goto :EOF SET Name=%1 IF ".%Name%"=="." GOTO :EOF SET XML=%Name:~0,-4%.xml SET Cab=%Name:~0,-4%.cab ECHO ^<^package action="install"^>^ >>%vupdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml FOR /F "Tokens=*" %%i IN ('FINDSTR "assemblyIdentity" %XML%') DO (Echo %%i >>%vupdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml) ECHO ^<^source location="%vupdates%\Temp\%Cab%" /^>^ >>%VUpdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml ECHO ^<^/package^>^ >>%vupdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml :EOF Integrate.cmd @echo off TITLE Vista Updates Integration Process CD /d %~dp0 call set_variables.cmd echo. echo Your vpath is %vpath%. If this is correct, continue. echo. pause echo. echo Before beginning, please choose the version of Vista you want to update. echo. :SELECT_VER set choice= set /p choice=Choose 1 for Business, 2 for HomeBasic, 3 for HomePremium, or 4 for Ultimate: if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1% if '%choice%'=='1' goto BUS if '%choice%'=='2' goto HB if '%choice%'=='3' goto HP if '%choice%'=='4' goto ULT echo. ECHO "%choice%" invalid! Try again... ECHO. GOTO SELECT_VER :BUS SET VERSION=1 SET type=Business GOTO STEP_1 :HB SET VERSION=2 SET type=HomeBasic GOTO STEP_1 :HP SET VERSION=3 SET type=HomePremium GOTO STEP_1 :ULT SET VERSION=4 SET type=Ultimate GOTO STEP_1 :STEP_1 REM MOUNT A READ-WRITE IMAGE OF THE CHOSEN VISTA VERSION imagex.exe /mountrw "%vpath%\install.wim" %VERSION% "%vmount%" ECHO. ECHO Press any key to begin integration of updates. Once you start the process. echo you should not cancel it. Make sure you are ready before continuing. echo. PAUSE echo Starting integration. This can take several minutes. Please wait until it finishes. echo on START "Starting Package Manager" /WAIT pkgmgr.exe /o:"%vmount%;%vmount%\Windows" /n:"%vupdates%\Temp\Integrate.xml" /s:"%vsandbox%" /l:"%vpath%\integrate.txt" echo. echo The errorlevel is: %errorlevel%. echo. echo An errorlevel of 0 indicates successful integration. Press any key to save a echo list of installed packages to a text file. ECHO. pause echo off peimg.exe /list /image="%vmount%\Windows" >> "%vpath%\Current_ISO\updates_installed_%version%_%type%.txt" echo. echo The Sandbox folder should be cleared whether integration was successful or not. echo. pause REM Delete, then recreate the folder rd "%vsandbox%" /s /q mkdir "%vsandbox%" echo. echo Now, we are ready to commit changes and unmount. Selection an option to echo unmount while committing or not committing changes. echo. echo Once you commit, the process can take several minutes as the changes are echo saved to your installation source. ECHO. :SELECT_COMMIT set choice= set /p choice=Choose Y to commit changes. Choose N to abandon changes: if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1% if '%choice%'=='Y' goto COMMIT if '%choice%'=='y' goto COMMIT if '%choice%'=='N' goto ABANDON if '%choice%'=='n' goto ABANDON echo. ECHO "%choice%" invalid! Try again... ECHO. GOTO SELECT_COMMIT :COMMIT imagex.exe /unmount /commit "%vmount%" goto END :ABANDON imagex.exe /unmount "%vmount%" goto end :END echo. echo Done. Press any key to exit. echo. Pause [*]Copy all of your MSU updates to the %vupdates% folder. [*]Execute expand.cmd. Expand.cmd will extract the .cab and .xml files from the .msu files in a temporary folder called Temp in %vupdates%. It also compiles a file called Integrate.xml, a necessary file for integration. Note: do not change the spacing in expand.cmd. Some spaces are necessary to build a proper structure for Integrate.xml. [*]Examine this file (Integrate.xml) using Notepad. It should have as many entries as there are updates of the following nature: Integrate.xml sample (partial) <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <servicing> <package action="install"> <assemblyIdentity name="Package_for_KB928089" version="6.0.1.1" language="neutral" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"/> <source location="E:\Vista_Work\Updates\Temp\Windows6.0-KB928089-x86.cab" /> </package> ... and so on If your file is bare, you may need to change tokens=5 to tokens=4 in expand.cmd. [*]Execute integrate.cmd once you determine your xml is good. It will prompt you through the steps. Note that if you were successful, you should get an errorlevel of 0. The script will also create a file called Updates_Installed_%#%_%type%.txt, where # and type correspond to the Vista version number (1 to 4) and type (Business, Home Basic, Home Premium, or Ultimate), respectively. This is only for the purpose of auto-generating a text file that shows all the updates. The official way of checking integrated updates is described in step 8. NOTE: You will have to install updates to each version of Vista separately. So, you can repeat integrate.cmd for each version by running integrate.cmd and choosing to mount a different version. NOTE: You don't have to repeat expand.cmd for each version, only integrate.cmd. The script empties the Sandbox folder automatically but does not delete the cab files that are expanded in Temp folder. You can manually delete the cab files later if you prefer. [*]Start WSIM and open your updated install.wim. If you are asked to create a new catalog file as the current one is missing or outdated, go ahead and create a new catalog file. You will see your packages automatically assigned as either hotfixes, updates, or security updates in the directory structure of Packages. NOTE: This is the official method to check whether your packages were installed. We used peimg only to make a text file that does that automatically for step 9. You'll have to create a new catalog file for each version of Vista if you want to update it in your ISO. [*]Inject install.wim back into the ISO if you committed changes to finish the process. You may also inject updates_installed_#_type.txt if you want to know which updates are contained in the ISO image. You can also use Microsoft's utility to rebuild the bootable ISO but that involves extracting ALL the files from the DVD, not just install.wim. Therefore, it's easier to use an ISO utility than Microsoft's utility. Injecting the catalog file is options as it is not used by setup.

@FireGeier BTW, is the site provided by your links your site. It has a problem loading in IE7. Whenever I open it in IE7, IE7 slooooows down and I can't do anything in IE7. Other programs aren't affected, only IE7. The site loads fine in FF. I see. Will not try it. Of course. Well, I'm not a programmer so I don't understand some things like tokens, etc. I do understand that it's necessary to parse the xml's to make it into one. I don't know German so I didn't know what all those VU Batch Modules were for. Since I didn't know, I didn't want to run them. I did, however, strip your offline_update.cmd, took the necessary parts, modified it for my system folders and it worked without all the other files. So, I was just referring to all the VU Batch files. You're offline_update.cmd is pretty well organized. Thanks. Question: Once you create a new catalog file, what do you do with it? Do you need to inject it back into ISO? Is it necessary?

FireGeier, Can you not apply the updates one by one using the individual xml files rather than combining the info from all the xml into one xml? What I mean is using a command such as: PUSHD %vupdate%\Temp FOR %%i IN (*.xml) DO (Call :update %%i) :update START "Starting Package Manager" /WAIT "%toolspath%\pkgmgr.exe" /o:"%vmount%;%vmount%\Windows" /n:%vupdates%\Temp\%1 /s:%vsandbox% /l:%vpath%\integrate.txt Thus, for each xml in temp, it would apply the update sequentially. This would eliminate the complicated code required to piece together the intergrate.xml. Also, I'm going to put together an easy-to-use guide for updating based on your scripts. Is that okay? I didn't use your VU modules -- too complicated for me.

@FireGeier I had to change tokens to 5 in line For /F "Tokens=5" %%i IN ('FINDSTR ".cab" Sort.txt') DO Call :WriteXML %%i to get it to work. I kept getting a bare XML with tokens=4. I looked at the sort.txt and the command prompt windows and what was happening is the file size (displayed as xxx,xxx) was being used as xxx.cab and xxx.xml. I changed it to 6 and no luck. Changed it to 5 and bingo! Took me forever to figure out what was going wrong. Also, I did check the file generation by your script and the one by SIM and they are exactly alike. Now, I can rest in peace.

How did you come up with a way to automatically generate the XML? That's pretty ingenious. Is that XML the exact same as one generated by SIM?

Well I'd kick myself in the arse. I kept removing that title thinking it unnecessary. Thanks. I got it to work by changing to that directly in batch file. But I'll have to redo it. Thanks for pointing out the error!