InTheWayBoy

You'll have to make one...check the guide: http://unattended.msfn.org/

Okay, so I think the issue is that we need to use newer files...I've been seeing that certain files from Windows 2003 SP1 solve a lot of RIS/PXE issues. One, there seems to be some info that suggests replacing a few files within BartPE from a Windows 2003 SP1 source. Check that last link I posted earlier, down towards the bottom it talks briefly about it. Another option would be to try and load the ISO into the local computers RAM. This too is a new feature with Windows 2003 SP1: http://msdn.labtech.epitech.net/cs/blogs/j...02/22/2296.aspx I've never tried that, but looks promising. Of course, you would need a decent amount of RAM on the local machine, as a good chuck would be taken up by the ISO. All this info is aimed mainly at BartPE, since they are the ones who really seem to 'hack' this stuff...if you are using WinPE or ERD, then I would assume it's similar, but I can't comment on it.

Yeah, it's pretty simple as is...maybe some of the new stuff at the top could be put at the bottom. I don't see the need for the icon and picture stuff to be so prominent. But that's just more of a design issue than anything. The options are great otherwise! If you're looking for easy, maybe some kinda seperate application that would say, scan for all exe's in the install dir, and then show what it found and lets you edit each item. Kinda like how PEBuilder is. I would think this would help newbs out more since it feels more like an application. But that would obviously add to the development.

Yeah...and read and re-read that link that cheezus420 (Love the name) posted. Between the Unattended Guide and that awesome post you should at least get a good idea as to what needs to be done. Also, another option is to install WinXP, Update, and then install all the programs you want for a certain profile...then you can make a RIprep image...that's a whole other post all in it's own. You would have to repeat this for each set of applications you want installed. So if you want one profile to include Office and Firefox, and another to just have Office, you would need to make two Riprep images. Also, there are some gotcha's with Riprep in regards to hardware configurations that really don't make it the best tactic.

Well RIS only handles the first part of the WinXP setup...it won't do anything for application installs. To accomplish what you want, you'll need to look into other programs. I would suggest WPI, which has a sub-forum all to itself. Basically you would have to setup WPI to have different installation profiles, which isn't hard but is time consuming. Actually, the most time consuming part is testing your applications to see what you need to do to make them install silently...then you can organize them in WPI. Normally, you would call WPI from within the *.sif that you use...GuiRunOnce I believe. Again, RIS has nothing to do with application installs...RIS basically just moves the windows install files over the network to the client. Once the files are transfered and the text setup is done you don't interact with RIS again. So all the things you want to do are really more related to the Unattended Installation portion. I suggest you get a local copy working first, one that would work from a CD. After you know it works in that configuration then you can basically use that CD as your Windows source when you setup RIS. There are a few things you need to worry about, but those come well after all the hardwork is done. Read the Unattended Guide, search the Application Installs sub-forum, and test test test.

Good call...I always set the share permissions to grant access to everyone and then use NTFS File Permissions to tighten down security. But obviously if the computers aren't able to see the share at all then that would be a problem!

And that's what is so wierd...according to the error message the DC has DHCP...but as you say it doesn't. I can't say I've ever run across that. Let's see if maybe some more info would help. Sounds like you have other servers on the network, and obviously clients. How many other servers do you have, and what functions do they perform. You say you use static IP's, does that include all the clients? Do you have a router that is doing DHCP for you? Maybe that could be getting in the way, although I don't see how that would result in the error you are getting. I did a little searching on the event ID and came across a few things that might help: http://msmvps.com/bradley/archive/2004/04/24/5452.aspx http://forums.ocmodshop.com/default.aspx?f=17&m=15450 http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid...pnathlp&phase=1 Looks like one of the issues had to do with ICS...are you using that?

Well first off my steps aren't 100%...I may have missed something somewhere...check this out: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_...erver-2003.html Now in most cases when you install a program, the bulk of it is installed in "C:\Program Files". However, user configurations are stored in the "Application Data" folder of the user profiles. So, if you install Firefox, the program is installed to "C:\Program Files\Firefox", but the users profile (Which contains Bookmarks, Histroy, Cache, etc) is stored in "C:\Documents and Settings\Application Data\Mozilla...". What that means is that the customizable aspects of the program will follow the user. However, if that user logs onto a machine that doesn't have Firefox already installed then they won't be able to use it...follow me? Now Folder Redirection is a neat little thing that does much of the same, but in a different way. You can enable Folder Redirection in the Group Policy for the Desktop, My Documents, Start Menu, and Application Data. Most, like myself, will use it for My Documents (So they always have access to their personal files) and Application Data (So their custom program settings follow them). But, instead of copying the files over the network at logon/logoff, Folder Redirection tells the computer to look to a share on the server instead. This is good in that you don't waste a ton of time moving files, and it's bad because the files are always on the server, and that can slow things down in certain situations. For instance, if you have a 500MB file in your My Documents and you go to open it, the local computer will first have to get the file from the server, and then when it's saved it will have to put it back on the server. To most, that's okay...ten seconds to access a file each time is better than ten minutes at each logon/logoff. Some people, like the guy in the link I provided, use a mixture of both. I don't do that, at least not until I get a few other things straightened out. Folder Redirection is also limited to the items I specified...this too is a b***h in certain situations. Outlook stores it's data files in the "Local Settings\Application Data" folder of the user profile, which you can't redirect. Also, Folder Redirection means that if a user sits down at one PC and customizes things and the goes to another PC those changes won't follow the user. That's because the file that holds those changes, "ntuser.dat", isn't in the any folder that can be redirected. You mentioned you wanted to make sure that all users/computers have the same applications. If those programs come in an MSI installer, then you can use Group Policy to make sure that any computer attatched to the domain will have that program installed. Of course, many don't use MSI installers, which makes them useless here. But you can find some custom installs (Firefox comes to mind again) that will allow you to do this. Essentially, if you dropped a new computer on your network then after two logons the computer would have all the programs you would need installed. It takes two for various reasons...maybe even more. Whew...big post. If I lost you anywhere, just ask away...I'm no expert but I've been learning the same thing for the past few months so it's kinda fresh in my memory. Good Luck!

Check the individual files NTFS permissions and see what is listed. I had a similar issue where even though I enabled Domain Computers on the NTFS Permissions it didn't propigate to the child files...you might need to apply the permissions again, and make sure it will effect the child items. Just a thought...

Well it looks like this is a feature of the chipset...here's a what a PDF on Intel's website has to say about it: I kinda see what it's talking about...looks like it would be a nice feature to have. However, I can't find any info on actually using or enabling the feature. Maybe someone else will have a idea?

Hehe...sorry, just thought it was funny. I too think it's a good idea, but I doubt the stress on the server would be worth it.

Is the computer a Dell or some other major manufacturer? If so, then you might need to blank out the HD before hand. Many of the OEMs are including hidden partitions on their systems now, and I had a similar issue with RIS before I manually erased the hidden partitions.

Yes you can load ERD, WinPE, or BartPE from RIS. It's pretty simple from what I understand, although there have been issues where you don't get network access when the image has booted, because the PXE/RIS is using the network to deliver the files. There are ways around this, but I have never had a chance to try any. As I understand it, you would simply copy the contents of the CD to a new folder in your RIS images folder...normally that's located: \\Server\REMINST\Setup\English\Images That's the UNC, but it's the most universal way to explain where the files go. You would make a new directory there and then copy the CD to it. There are other steps, but that's the simple explanation. As for your other question, yes you can make your own WinPE. ERD is special in that all of the code is done by Winternals, and because of that you can't really duplicate the tools or features of it. WinPE is M$'s sanctioned tool, but this can only be had if you jump through whatever hoops M$ sets. I think you need to at least be a part of their OEM group. BartPE is the golden child of it all...it's similar to WinPE but doesn't require all those steps...you just need a copy of WinXP or Win2003 and the program PEBuilder. The beauty of this application is that there is a ton of user support, and you can customize the hell outta it. Even though we have a sub-forum here for WinPE, the best place to find out more about BartPE is at their official forums: http://www.911cd.net/forums Be warned, making a custom BartPE is a very big task, but nothing impossible. If you've made an Unattended CD then you shouldn't have any problems crafting a BartPE CD. Here are some links to more info on booting ERD/WinPE/BartPE from RIS: http://staff.stir.ac.uk/thomas.speirs/Bart-PE_RIS.htm http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...;304992&sd=tech http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...&st=20&p=76574&

what happens when you try and access the help function...are you getting a script error? I had a previous customer who had an issue with a script error when trying to access the help function. I could never fix it, ended up having to reload the whole OS. I think it was because the help and support was customized by the OEM (Gateway) which makes it's non-standard. And of course Gateway said the same thing...reload.

With that last error it sounds like your HD got screwed...I've seen messages like that before, and sometimes the drive would still work, but in most cases that's not recommended. You could try finding the manufacturer of the HD and download their diagnostic tools...run that and see what it says. It could still be other things, but with the info supplied I would think it's the HD.

Not really, but when you go editing the registry a simple typo can be a bad day. Also, if you look in the Unattended Windows section there are a few stickies that are loaded with reg tweaks. I can't say for sure if all of them work with Win2000, but many should.

Never heard of it...what's it do?

Might have to try that...but doesn't UPX add overhead to the on-the-fly compression? Also, the Firefox Preloader is good when it works...and when it doesn't it really gets annoying. It essentially keeps a copy of Firefox always loaded, but that also means your user profile is always loaded too! Too much wasted RAM.

I'm pretty sure all you need to do is copy their local profile to a new share on the server, and then in the User settings in AD you need to input the path to the users profile on the share. So lets say you make a new share on your server called "Profiles". And in that folder you copy over the profile of a user, let's call him "Jack". So the UNC to the profile would be: \\server\Profiles\Jack In the AD Users and Computers app, locate Jack and go to the properties. Look for Profile, then enter the UNC into the Profile Path field. A bit of warning though, Roaming Profiles can be very painful. When a user logs onto a machine, the server transfers the WHOLE profile to the local computer. That means if a user has a lot of files in their My Documents it's gonna take a really long time. And that goes both ways too I believe, meaning shutdown/logoff times are increased. There is something called Folder Redirection which is getting more popular as it offers similar results but with much less network traffic.

I see...so you can still use WU, but it won't show new updates as they are built for SP1 and above. Makes sense.

Glad to help!

I think you might run into some issues too, as many hotfixes might require SP1, maybe even SP2. I can't verify this, but I seem to remember that being that case sometimes. Also, doesn't WindowsUpdate require at least SP1 now?

Just don't delete the old profile until you are sure you have everything...things like Outlook PST's are kinda hidden in the profile.

So it's just the one user...that would mean it's something with the users profile, either their registry or something bad hidden in the temp files maybe. A quick fix would be to create a new user and then move the old users documents to it...but that doesn't fix the problem.