pianoman

Rather than messing around with getting Windows Update to save the files... just wget each file URL per the log file. Linux toys make Windows better.

Yes, there are the updated files on disk. I guess I can scan for their version strings and base my "re-run" decision logic on that. My hope was to stick to registry which is my normal mode in my script - look up the update, check for the installed value, etc... Thanks!

I pre/post scan detected what installing the second version of Windows 2000 Update Rollup 1 for SP4 installs - I don't see any registry key / file I can key off of to see if a machine has the second version installed or not. Anyone find a consistent means of detecting this difference?

One nice thing with doing the suggested binary update to the new EXE is the /windowsupdate switch works again which is like /silent but puts up a progress bar WITHOUT a cancel button. (Win2K SP4 here, so don't scream "SP2" to me! ) So, what are the steps to track down the correct offset when M$ comes up with a new EXE anyway?

No no, MHz got me exactly what I was looking for. Based on which apps get on the box, etc... I'd like to preconfigure various HKCU settings, thus I am long past cmdlines.txt by the time electronic software distribution kicks in. I did notice at least on my Win2K the file menu was missing in Regedit, but RegEdt32 was able to load a hive, most odd. reg command line is even better for automation which that was provided as well.

No yourself! You scripted install folks can be quite honestly lame about the power of file system imaging and using SysPrep to drive the PnP subsystem. So long has the HAL does not change, done correctly, one can move the image between CPU's, desktop/laptop, etc... without issue. It's fine if most here prefer scripting, it has its uses (such as customizing components out of the WinXP CD) but do try to stick to the facts, or if you do not know them FOR SURE then tell your fingers to stop typing.

All right, cmdlines.txt is basically a bunch of single command line things to execute, so what does one toss in there to update the default user registry?

When a brand new profile is created for a user, where is the HKCU registry generated from? I want to place customizations in there so they are in affect the very first time the user logs in. Win2K SP4 / WinXP Pro (Probably SP2 by the time we get to XP)

Delete M$'s INF/PNF for the driver leaving only the vendor one, forces the issue. PnP can be told what to do. PianoMan

Why not? So long as the HAL does not change, I use the same image. Working on how to handle that. SysPrep with -pnp drives a full PNP process, and I place the correct drivers for that machine in dirs specified in OemPnpDriverPath. I doubt there is anything which can be done with a scripted install than an image install can no deliver, but it does require thinking outside of the box. (Not saying one does not modify the install of the origional image - like to get rid of bundled software) PNP can be your friend... Ya'll have fun with your scripting, I'll stick to building imaging technologies. Don't stop scripting... M$ keeps adding more stuff to the install that I don't want in the image! so I can learn from ya'll. PianoMan

Considering tools such as CaptiveNTFS allowing Linux to access NTFS, and BartPE allowing a mini NT boot, simply boot one of these and InfoZip zip the entire partition, minus the swap file. To restore use your boot environment to format the partition and unzip. It has been gossiped that M$ uses XCOPY to "install" 64-bit OS's booted of of their OPK / WinPE CD. Just files guys, not brain surgery! Customize your CD, install, then zip and reuse over and over! PianoMan