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Hey, this is a nice idea - we use something similar for our build, but on a per-machine basis as opposed to a per-device. We use: __ WQL = "Win32_ComputerSystemProduct" For Each oItem In GetObject("winmgmts:\\.").InstancesOf(WQL) sVendor = oItem. sMachineName = oItem.Version sMachineModel = oItem.Name Next WQL = Nothing __ We then match the machine vendor, name and model to some INI files to determine what should be installed for each machine type. Cheers, Dan

Yep, I initially tried this method but it added about 30 minutes to the build time, as sysprep takes ages to build the SysprepMassStorage section. Instead, we prepopulate the SysprepMassStorage with the most common (see my previous posts) and didnt bother with the rest. Oh also, using BuildSysprepMassStorage didn't always work for us as it didn't take into account the Intel Chipset drivers (we dont have these added until during Sysprep). Cheers, Dan.

I've noticed that if it doesn't find the unattended.txt, you'll get the install/upgrade message. Make sure the ini points to the full path, so if you're deploying to a temp location, reference that location and it should work. Dan

Xeroh, not too sure what the problem is there. It should all be doable through the SIF Jachin, You need to do the following: - Customise an unattended file with the NCIMAN utility provided in the admin folder of the client install - Edit ACU.Ini. You need at least the following settings [LaunchInstall] Launch=Yes [DisplayDialog] Display=No [unattendFile] Use=Yes File=location and name of your unattend.txt Instead of using SetupNW.Exe to install, run ACU.Exe. It'll do a silent install without prompts. Cheers, Dan.

Roaming profiles not an option for us - however, looking at a VERY nice product right now which would essentially wipe out the need to migrate data, and ensures we have a backup of everything on a users machine at all times:Connected Dataprotector Need a 5/6 Terabyte NAS behind it though... Pricey Throwing money at problems is a double-negative for places like ours. You're losing money on downtime, and money on getting someone else to sort it out. And someone's ALWAYS accountable when money has to be spent!

hehe, if you're going to make it that simple, then yes - this would *probably* do the trick. As far as I'm aware, switching the DLLs works without the need for regkey changes or any playing with devcon. you're tradeoff is automation though. and you've still got the support issue. Dan

Identifying the CPU type isn't helpful, as then you need something that determines what CPU has what HAL type - probably an extensive INI file or something, and you'd need to maintain it. At least with the SMBIOSD.Exe, it tells you either it's APIC or not. And I haven't been able to track down the same info through WMI. With the method you outline, you've got two problems: A: You have to have a HAL to get into Windows, and you're bound to find some machines that wont boot off your predefined HAL (even the standard PC one.) - hence you wont be able to get into Windows to change it. You *MIGHT* be able to get around this by using WinPE to do your imaging. Once the image is on the machine, detect the HAL type and switch the files. B: HAL switching isn't supported by Microsoft. If you end up having a problem affecting all your machines, hell, it could even be an Office issue - they have every right to tell you to sod off, even if the problem IS their problem. Unfortunately, there's no workaround for problem B, but if you aren't concerned, well i guess on your own head be it. Cheers, Dan

Viper, yep it's VBS. I haven't debugged it but it should work. Put the exe in the same folder, or reference a folder in the CMD /C<commandhere> part. After it all, you'd probably have something like If sAPIC = True Then oShell.Run "DevCon <do_your_APIC_swapping_here>",1, True End If Dont have time to figure all this stuff out tho! Re Maxamoto's comments on RIS, yep - RIS *WOULD* avoid this problem, but if you're in the same situation as our company is, we have about an hour to migrate a machine from 2000 to XP: Backup user data (circa 4GB) Image a machine (5GB) Let sysprep run and machine config itself Restore user data We JUST about manage by using imaging (from USB 2.0 drives). Imaging is the only way to get turnaround times like this. I know some of our other european offices use RIS, but they dont have ridiculous SLA's to meet! If you aren't under time contraints, consider RIS Dan

Eric, Can you create an image (unttended build) *ON* this machine-type and subsequently get the same image to boot? If it wont boot, the problem must be something else other than HAL...I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that you're creating an APIC build on a different machine and trying to get it up and running on the Sony? If this is the case, maybe this HAL issue is bigger than I thought. I'm no expert, just speaking from my own experience. Incidentally, what's your imaging software? No worries. I was stuck on this one for a number of weeks, at the hair-pulling-out stage - I wouldn't wish it on anyone! Dan

Viper, keep in mind you've prob only got two images to worry about, PIC and APIC (whether it's UP or MP, it doesnt matter). With this in mind, we know the SMBiosD.Exe can distinguish between a PIC and APIC machine by telling us if it supports APIC. So lets try something... _____ Dim oShell, oFSO Dim oOutputFile, aBiosString(), iBiosRecords, sCurBiosString, sAPIC Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") ' Set our APIC value to initially be false sAPIC = False sOutputFile = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%TEMP%") & "\Bios.TXT" oShell.Run "CMD.Exe /CSMBiosD.Exe > " & sOutputFile,0,True 'Read temp file into an Array aBiosString = Split(UCase(oFSO.OpenTextFile(sOutputFile,1,False).ReadAll),vbCrlf) iBiosRecords = CStr(UBound(aBiosString)+1) 'Delete temp file oFSO.DeleteFile sOutputFile 'Find the exception we're looking for For Each sCurBiosString in aBiosString If Instr(1,Ucase(sCurBiosString),"ON-CHIP APIC SUPPORTED",vbBinaryCompare) <> 0 Then sAPIC = True Exit For End If Next _______ As far as switching HALs, devcon's probably the way to do it, sorry I don't have more time to investigate. Cheers, Dan.

hey there, there's a few ways you can do it. With Notes 6.5.x, here's what we do, obviously all scripted: Install the MSI - <msi_name>.MSI /QB! NOTESDIR=C:\Notes DATADIR=C:\Notes\Data ALLUSERS=0 This creates a flat install of Notes as opposed to a per-user install. Per-user installs the Data folder structure to C:\Documents And Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data and is specific to each user. Personalise Notes - Copy a clean Notes.INI to C:\Notes. This should include a line "ConfigFile=ConfigFile.Txt" Copy your customised ConfigFile.Txt - I've attached a sample one below. You need to change a few items with a script, like mail server, sametime info, user details Copy ID file to C:\Notes\Data, along with a customised bookmark.NTF and pernames.NTF (that's if you need to do customisations). Sample ConfigFile: ;This file is used to setup the Notes client environment. ; ; ;*****User Details******** ; ;Username= [e.g. User Name/OU/O] ;KeyfileName= [e.g. C:\Notes\Data\User.ID] ; ;;*****Server Details******** ; ;Domino.Name [Domino server name e.g. MAILSERVER1] ;Domino.Address [iP address of Domino server] ;Domino.Port=TCPIP ;Domino.Server= [1 to connect to the server, 0 for no connection] ; ;*****Internet Accounts******** ; ; AdditionalServices=0 ;Mail.Incoming.Name= [incoming POP or IMAP server name] ;Mail.Incoming.Server= [1 for POP or 2for IMAP] ;Mail.Incoming.Protocol= ;Mail.Incoming.Username= [Mail account user name or login name] ;Mail.Incoming.Password= [Mail account password] ;Mail.Incoming.SSL= [1 to use SSL; 0 not to use SSL] ;Mail.Outgoing.Name= [Outgoing mail account name, a friendly name used to refer to these settings] ;Mail.Outgoing.Server= [Outgoing mail (SMTP) server name] ;Mail.Outgoing.Address= [user's Internet mail address, such as user@isp.com] ;Mail.InternetDomain= [internet Mail domain name such as isp.com] ;Directory.Name= [Directory account name, a friendly name used to refer to these settings] ;Directory.Server= [Directory (LDAP) server name] ; ; ;*****Dialup settings******** ; ;NetworkDial.EntryName= [Name of remote network dialup phone book entry] ;NetworkDial.Phonenumber= [Dial-in number] ;NetworkDial.Username= [Remote network user name] ;NetworkDial.Password= [Remote network password] ;NetworkDial.Domain= [Remote network domain] ;DirectDial.Phonenumber= [Dial-in number] ;DirectDial.Prefix= [Dialup prefix, if required. For example, 9 to access an outside line.] ;DirectDial.Port= [COM port to which the modem is connected] ;DirectDial.Modem= [File specification of modem file] ; ; ;*****Proxy Settings******** ; ;Proxy.HTTP= [HTTP proxy server and port - e.g, proxy.isp.com:8080] ;Proxy.FTP= [FTP proxy server and port - e.g, proxy.isp.com:8080] ;Proxy.SSL= [sSL proxy server and port - e.g, proxy.isp.com:8080] ;Proxy.HTTPTunnel= [HTTP Tunneling proxy server and port - e.g, proxy.isp.com:8080] ;Proxy.SOCKS= [sOCKS proxy server and port - e.g, proxy.isp.com:8080] ;Proxy.None= [Do not use a proxy for these hosts or domains] ;Proxy.UseHTTP= [use the HTTP proxy server for FTP, Gopher, and SSL security proxies] ;Proxy.Username= [user name if logon is required] ;Proxy.Password= [user password] ; ; ;*****Replication Settings******** ; ;Replication.Threshold= [Transfer outgoing mail if this number of messages held in local mailbox] ;Replication.Schedule= [Enable replication schedule] ; ; ;*****Instant Messaging Settings******** ; IM.Server= IM.Port=1533 IM.ConnectWhen=1 IM.Protocol=0 ;IM.ProxyType= ;IM.ProxyServer= ;IM.ProxyPort= ;IM.ServerNameResolve= ;IM.ProxyUsername= One thing to note, you can NOT get rid of the "Notes Setup is Complete" message when you first start notes. I've tried in vain, and ended up having to use a sendkeys. There's probably more that've I've forgotten, and you'll find more info in the Notes whitepapers on how to set up everything (like your standard Notes.INI). Hope this helps, Dan.

Let me be the first to say, well done, excellent solution. I'm actually working on something pretty much identical for my company, which basically allows every country to configure XP to their liking, while still having a common configuration (apps, policies etc). Dan

Hey, Have a look here. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=336436 It's possible, but difficult and not advisable for corporate environments. Dan

Regarding building this into Sysprep, well, you can't really modify sysprep itself. You could potentially use Devcon prior to sysprepping your machine to downgrade the HAL type to a Standard PC which *should* work with any machine type, and then script something to change it back once the machine has booted up. I was going to investigate this, but as I said before, MS doesnt support it so I can't argue with that (from an enterprise support perspective). You're newer Sony laptop is probably still PIC. The only laptop I've come across so far that's APIC is a ThinkPad T43 (might be a newer chipset, or maybe something IBM specific). You can do what I do to check: Take the attached file Run it from a DOS box with the commandline : SMBiosD.Exe > Output.Txt Open the Output.Txt created in Notepad Ctrl-F and search for APIC If it is found, the machine is either an APIC uniprocessor or multiprocessor machine. The line should be "On-chip APIC supported" If not, it is likely a PIC machine Dan SMBiosD.Exe

well, you can put it in RunOnceEx if you want. Operations like this I usually put in a cleanup script and call it through RunOnceEx as the last option, so various files get deleted and additional DLLs get registered. You could probably also put it in CMDLines.TXT if you wanted.