spacesurfer

You might need some other dll's with pkgmgr like expand.exe does in non-vista systems. Not sure though. I stand corrected. You can't just use the stand alone pkgmgr.dll file. You need the whole WAIK because it relies on dll files. The reason I know is because I copied pkgmgr to integrate updates to my install.wim and it failed. Finally, I tried running it from its location and it worked! And I also learned how to integrate the updates using pkgmgr. Some are using peimg.exe to update their install.wim but peimg is for winpe. They say it works. I'd rather used pkgmgr. The link is provided by FireGeier http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=92406.

Anyone got this to work with pkgmgr.exe? I can't get it to work. I'm working in Windows XP. I get the following error saying the switch /o is invalid. This is really frustrating.

Why would you need fileformatconverters.exe for 2007? It's for 2003.

Actually, I wanted a way to integrate the hotfixes using pkgmgr. There are ways of doing it with peimg as mentioned in unattended vista section, but peimg is for winpe. i haven't had luck with pkgmgr yet.

You need imagex.exe to mount the image. pkgmgr does not work directly with install.wim. You might need some other dll's with pkgmgr like expand.exe does in non-vista systems. Not sure though.

You need to know serius programming to programatically update the ribbon like that. Search MS site. They have some high-level stuff.

Great! I'm glad it worked. I was wondering. I'm guessing you installed it online, correct? Did you modify the syntax from what I wrote? If you did, let us know the correct syntax. Also, I can't get it to work offline on a mounted install.wim. If anyone had gotten it to work, let us know the process. Integrating is better than installing afterwards.

You can back up the cab file. It's in %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution\Download under some gibberish named folder. Update: I think you can install a cab file with pkgmgr.exe. The Package Manager command-line options give the following for the /s switch which can be used online or offline (I'm assuming online means while you are using Vista and offline means a mounted image or while in XP). start /w pkgmgr /ip /m:path_to_cab\dreamscene.cab /s:c:\sandbox where C:\sandbox is a temporary folder used during install to extract the cab files. I can't try it since I installed it already using the MSU. Can anyone who hasn't installed it test it and let us know if it works? You need pkgmgr.exe from WAIK.

I don't think anyone answered his original question in post 1. I believe the /n switch for unattended installs and points to the xml file, not for integrating installs (according the command-line options for pkgmgr). It will add your xml to autoinstall as an unattended install. The /ip switch is the one you need (which is what you are missign) to install update. The /ip switch requires the /m switch. The /m switch points to the package directory. It seems peimg requires you to inject, then install. Pkgmgr, on the other hand, will install with one command (no injection, then install required). I haven't test this yet. Will post results once I am successful. It'd be nice if someone can come up with a cmd file for pkgmgr to do all updates without having to type out all of it. The syntax is: pkgmgr.exe /l:log_file_name /ip /m:package_directory /norestart /o:system_drive_path;offline_Windows_directory_path echo %errorlevel% You can echo %errorlevel% to find out if it was successful. 0 = success. (this was mentioned by sn3ak in this topic.

Does one have to extract all the contents of Vista DVD? Can one not just extract install.wim using a ISO utility since that's the only file that is changing. Then, one can inject the updated install.wim back into the ISO. This saves the trouble of extracting all the content, then recreating the ISO using some other tool. Thanks in advance.

You can't reallyinstall updates in cab format. You can, however, slipstream them to you install.wim. Follow the instructions here: integrate hotfixes and extras. Or search MSFN. I'm sure there's plenty of posts on integrating them.

Vista isn't so bad. It's buggy, though. The the bugs are annoying. MS released it too soon.

Yup, won't work with any version except the Enterprise version. Thanks for showing how to autoinstall SaveAsPDFandXPS. What looking for this.

Open new document. Save as template. Copy your macros from old template to new template in Macro Organizer.

Jaclaz, I've been around. I see you've been hanging around too. What else do you know about BCD file? Some has posted here that you can modify the BCD file so it can work with Ghost. I think it break the dependency of BCD on GUID. You know anything else about GUIDs? Interesting to note that even though the bootmanager is replaced in Vista, the same trick works (replacing bootmgr with grldr). Vista's boot manager somehow checks for the right ntldr because you can't rename grldr to ntldr and load Grub from Vista's boot menu. I get an error. However, replacing Vista's own bootmgr works like a charm.

Read about 8 or 9 posts down here; someone has already reported this.

you can't "integrate". You can silently install. Why don't you search? There are plenty of solutions in this forum. Look in unattended install section.

I've read that Vista assigns drive letters by the HDD's and partitions GUID. If the GUID changes, then Vista cannot boot since it can't find the GUID. It can change for reasons such as restoring ghost images, moving the partition, etc. The commands you states above remove Vista's dependency on the GUID. That's all I know.

I like to keep things organized. So I have an XP partition; vista partition; programs partition; documents partition for my financial docs, computing docs, school notes, etc.; media part for music, videos, and photos; and lastly an images partition for ghost images and now imagex images.

I have a Samsung that I installed after installing Vista. I do not have any problems. I don't understand the nature of the problem. The only person who described this problem is post #1 and everybody else said they have a similar problem but no one had clearly described the problem with screenshots.

Search newegg.com. I got mine for $41 - free shipping, no tax. Cheaper than buying from local store.

Is it safe to delete files in C:\windows\temp folder in vista? I routinely did it for XP but in Vista, security box pop-up the first time I looked inside this folder.

You can pin it to start menu like IE7 and Windows Mail by dragging to start menu. See screenshot.

Good news for people who use Grub4Dos loader for multi-booting to various Microsoft OSes, including the new Windows Vista, and Linux. I've modified an old trick I've used to load Grub4Dos on system startup with Windows XP as the main OS. See the post at 911cd.net Multi-boot WinXP and other OSes with Grub4Dos for this method. Background For those of you not familiar with Grub4Dos (referred to as Grub henceforth), here's some background information on its benefits. Why use Grub instead of Windows XP boot menu or Vista boot menu? There are several reasons. You can't boot non-Microsoft OSes with XP/Vista boot menu. Grub4Dos loads Vista, XP, 2000, 98, Linux, BartPE on HDD or CD etc. You can't boot other devices, namely floppy and CD/DVD drive, from XP or Vista menu. Grub can boot floppy, bootable CD/DVD (even if your BIOS does not support it), and floppy images from its menu. It's backward compatible but not forward compatible; meaning, XP can load Windows 2000, 98, and other legacy OSes but not Vista. Vista can load previous ones but not future ones. This is not a limitation of Grub at this point. You can boot Windows PE 2.0 and VistaPE with Grub. Fourth, Grub does not modify the MBR or PBR. It requires no patching or hex-editing. It simply requires renaming a couple of files, which I'll explain next why renaming is required. Why Rename? My objective was to load Grub loader first, before XP boot menu (and now before Vista boot menu). In order to fulfill this objective, renaming two files is necessary. You can add Grub loader to boot.ini so that you can get an option to load Grub in the XP boot menu. However, if you want Grub to load before XP boot menu, you'll have to rename two files. First, you have to rename ntldr (the XP loader) as ntldrxp and grldr (Grub loader) as ntldr. Basically, you are disguising Grub loader as the XP loader. So, the system thinks it is loading XP but it is loading Grub. Then, you can create an entry in menu.lst to load XP with the following lines: title Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Pro (Find and Load) find --set-root /ntldrxp chainloader /ntldrxp If you had edited boot.ini to automatically load Grub without a timeout, then you would not be able to boot XP because of a circular reference. Why the circular reference? Because system loads ntldr, which reads boot.ini and loads grldr automatically (without an XP menu). Then, from Grub, you would choose to boot XP. However, ntldr will look for boot.ini and load Grub again automatically. It doesn't matter if you rename ntldr to ntldrxp. Ntldrxp will also look for boot.ini and you get a circular reference. Therefore, renaming both ntldr and grldr files solves the problem. Booting Vista with Grub So, with Windows Vista, is it still possible to get Grub to load before Vista boot menu? And can you boot Vista with a Grub entry? Both are yes!! Even though Vista's boot process had been modified, the same trick works with Vista as with XP. Let's look at the differences between Vista and XP boot process before I explain how to get a Grub menu before the Vista menu. For XP, the MBR looks for and loads ntldr. Ntldr then read from boot.ini. If it finds two or more entries in boot.ini, then it will present a menu option for the entries (unless you set to boot an item automatically). That's the process. (I've read that ntldr serves two functions: bootmanager and bootloader. As bootmanager, it presents a menu for XP and other OSes. As bootloader it itself can boot XP.) For Vista, the MBR looks for and loads bootmgr. You can say bootmgr has replaced ntldr. However, bootmgr serves only one function: as a bootmanager. Bootmgr refers to a file called bcd (short for boot configuration data). You can say bcd is like boot.ini. It contains the menu entries for Vista's boot menu. There's a third file called winload.exe that actually loads Vista. This is the bootloader for Vista. So, for our purposes, we need to replace bootmgr with grldr to get a Grub menu before the Vista menu. Then, we need to create an entry in menu.lst for booting Vista, XP, other OSes, and other devices. Finally, now for the instructions. Requirements grldr, the file that loads Grub loader. You can find it at http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome. Download the zip file and extract files to get grldr. WinImage or any other floppy image creator Floppy drive and a floppy A system that is currently dual-booting XP and Vista Backup System First step is to backup your system with System Restore or Vista's backup program just in case things go haywire (if you follow directions correctly, it shouldn't). I don't use system restore but you may want to. If you are comfortable, you can skip this step. The worst that can happen with these simple instructions is you lose the ability to boot to either Vista or XP. If you created a Vista boot floppy as explained in the next step, then you should be able to recover. If something worse than this happens, you did something beyond these instructions. Create Vista Boot Floppy Now, make a Vista boot floppy. Follow the instructions: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=95092. I advise you not to skip this step. It will not only help you now, but also if in the future you can't load Vista or XP, it will come in handy. Note: you can create a Vista-only boot floppy, XP-only boot floppy, or Vista/XP dual-boot floppy by modifying your boot options in Vista. If you want a Vista-only boot floppy, modify your boot options to boot Vista automatically (without a timeout). If XP-only, boot XP automatically. If you want dual-boot, specify a timeout before loading your default choice. The changes you make are reflected in the bcd file. Therefore, all files will be same on these floppies except the bcd file. For the purpose of these instructions, you're better off creating a Vista/XP dual-boot floppy so you can boot to either one. Rename bootmgr After creating a boot floppy, boot into XP. Give yourself permission to modify bootmgr. You may have to take ownership. (I took ownership of the file and then modified permissions. I now realize maybe that was not necessary. Not sure.) Rename bootmgr as bootmgrv. Rename grldr Rename grldr as bootmgr. Just like in XP, we're going to fool the system into thinking it is loading Vista, but it is loading Grub loader. Then, copy bootmgr (grldr in disguise) to where the Vista's real bootmgr was, usually in the root folder of your active primary partition. Create Vista Entry in Menu.lst Just like how ntldrxp was able to boot XP, bootmgrv can also boot Vista from Grub menu. Create the following entries in menu.lst. The # indicates comments. Take a look at the comments if you are not familiar with menu.lst. # Sets colors, timeout before default selected and default value color black/cyan yellow/cyan timeout 5 default 0 # Boot Vista by finding and loading bootmgrv title Microsoft Windows Vista find --set-root /bootmgrv chainloader /bootmgrv # Boot XP by finding and loading ntldr title Microsoft Windows XP find --set-root /ntldr chainloader /ntldr # Boot BartPE by finding setupldr.bin title BartPE with XPE 1.0.4 (from HDD) find --set-root /minint/setupldr.bin chainloader /minint/setupldr.bin # Boot BartPE from USB HDD by swap method; note your USB HDD number may be # different. I have two internal HDD's ((hd0) and (hd1)), making my USB HDD # (hd2). Therefore, I have to swap (hd0) with (hd2). title Boot BartPE from USB HDD map (hd2) (hd0) map (hd0) (hd2) chainloader (hd0)+1 # Boot whatever is in CD/DVD drive, even if your BIOS does not support # booting from CD/DVD drive. You need a file called sbootmgr.dsk. # It's a very small SBM disk image. See the end of guide for download link. title Boot CD using Smart Boot Manager find --set-root /sbootmgr.dsk map --mem /sbootmgr.dsk (fd0) map --hook chainloader (fd0)+1 rootnoverify (fd0) # Example of how to boot a floppy image by finding and loading the image file. # This is much faster than booting from the actual floppy. title Boot Ghost 2003 (ghost.img) find --set-root /ghost.img map --mem /ghost.img (fd0) map --hook chainloader (fd0)+1 # Boot whatever is in the floppy drive title Floppy on (fd0) chainloader (fd0)+1 rootnoverify (fd0) Note, we do not need to rename ntldr as ntldrxp in this case. You can also add Linux and other OSes supported by Grub. I don't use Linux. You can search for instruction on the net. Reboot Voila! Reboot and you should see Grub menu with your boot menu options! Please post any discussion points.

This is the most frequently asked question. Really, people should search before asking such questions.