jrf2027

You still have to use the /s switch, even if you've selected "Hide start dialog" and "overwrite all files" in the Modes tab of the self-extracting options when you created your installer with rarreg.key built-in. Don't ask me why, but it works for me. I had the same problem.

I just completed an uninstall of Firefox 1.0 and an install of 1.0.1, keeping all my plugins and search plugins by doing this: First, I downloaded FFDeploy.exe from Bob Templeton's site. Next, I ran FFDeploy, selected the Firefox directory, did not import favorites, and did not create .exe file. Then, in the Firefox_Deployment directory created on the desktop, I deleted all but the GlobalProfiles, Plugins, and Searchplugins folders and the CreateProfile.vbs file. (CreateProfile.vbs is placed in the directory by FFDeploy.) (Why not just use FFDeploy to make the entire installation? Because Firefox isn't technically "installed" then, it doesn't appear in the Add/Remove Programs dialog, and this allows you to use your same settings with a compatible version of Firefox, not just reinstall your original installation.) After that, I made a WinRAR SFX file of the remaining file and folders, using the following comment: ;The comment below contains SFX script commands Path=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\ SavePath Setup="C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\CreateProfile.vbs" Silent=2 Overwrite=1 Title=Firefox Unattended Customization Setup Then, I uninstalled Firefox 1.0, and manually deleted the following folder: C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Mozilla. I then renamed the 1.0.1 installation "Firefox.exe", for simplicity, and ran the following using RunOnceEx: REG ADD %KEY%\260 /VE /D "Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1" /f REG ADD %KEY%\260 /V 1 /D "D:\Install\Firefox\Firefox.exe -ms" /f REG ADD %KEY%\260 /V 2 /D "D:\Install\Firefox\Custom.exe" /f (No, that doesn't mean I have 259 other programs installing before Firefox... ) All settings are intact. It's like I never uninstalled it at all. Windows even still recognized Firefox as the default browser. I don't have a very complex installation of Firefox, so this works for me...just thought I'd share my way of doing it, in case somebody happens to find it useful. EDIT: I've never tried doing it this way with extensions, but there is an extensions folder in the Firefox_Deployment folder after FFDeploy runs - if somebody is willing to try it, let us know how it works. Also, when Firefox runs for the first time on a new machine, it will ask you if you want to set it as the default browser. To prevent IE 6.0 from nagging you about being the default browser, put the following registry key into your registry tweaks: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main] "Check_Associations"="no" I haven't verified this is the only registry tweak needed to prevent IE from nagging you - there may be, and are probably, other tweaks which do the same thing, and I will update as I find them. Overall - this allows for somebody with intermediate skills, who isn't a programmer, to easily create a custom Firefox installation.

@totoymola - I think MartinaL is referring to Adobe Reader 7, not Adobe Acrobat 7. My Adobe Reader 7 Basic AIP is 12.9 MB using WinRAR.

Yes. It contains all the program files. If you don't have it in the same directory as the .msi, it's not actually installing anything. If you're crunched for space on your install disk, you can use the .msi with data1.cab to create an administrative install point. Just do a search for "adobe install point" and you should find the instructions.

Do you have any data files from the Adobe Reader Setup Files folder besides the .msi file? You should have a data1.cab file also, if not you won't be installing anything.

I don't see any obvious problems...but I do have some questions for you to help diagnose the problem: 1. What are the contents of the %systemdrive%\Install\AdobeReader7 directory? 2. Have you tried running it with the /qb switch instead? Do any errors pop up if you run it with that switch? 3. Are you trying to install from an administrative install point or just from what was extracted when the regular Reader 7 was run?

When you're in Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options. Click on the "programs" tab and change the HTML editor to Notepad.

Buy It Here

I used to get those problems all the time, back when I was slipstreaming SP2 RC1 and SP2 RC2, thinking that all the file names had to be in all capital letters. Then, I found this forum and started using cdimage to make the CD ISO's, discovered that you do not, in fact, have to have the file names in all capital letters, and all has been well since.

There's probably also a folder in there with Adobe Reader which can be deleted. My SFX RAR for NAV 2005 is about 22 mb, using best compression with solid archive. The main things are, of course, Adobe, MS Internet Explorer, and the MSI installers, all of which can safely be eliminated if you're using XP SP2, and have Adobe already installed.

Do you have the following line in your winnt.sif? [Unattended] OEMPreinstall=Yes Do you have the files to be copied to %systemdrive%\install located on your CD at $OEM$\$1\Install (or located in your XPCD directory before making the CD at \XPCD\$OEM$\$1\Install) ? If the answer to either of those questions is no, you've found your problem. Also, where do you have RunOnceEx.cmd located?

I remember some discussion about this a while ago, but I can't find it in a search either. I think that the solution involves running a cleanup command to delete some temp files.

The serial number should be inside the setup.iss file after you created it - at least it was in an older version of Macromedia Studio that I installed for a friend. You did create setup.iss by logging your install, correct?

Not to sound like a total newbie here, but can you point us to some info on how to edit the MSI? This would definitely be of interest to me. I searched and couldn't find anything...

Older versions of DLA use InstallShield. Don't know about the current version. Also, you may not even need to install DLA - it's not a burning suite like Roxio or Nero, it just enables formatting CD's so that you can drag-and-drop to them (a la Nero's InCD).

Once you get Outlook running the way you want, run the Office Save My Settings wizard, and import those settings into your MST file. You are prompted for this while making the MST (Can't remember which step at the moment). Hey, it works for me...

Don't know if I'd say I'm an expert...I've just tinkered around with NAV and NIS quite a lot. B) But as far as virus definitions go, I've never had luck with putting newer virus definitions in the install source VirusDefs folder. If you want the most up-to-date definitions when you install your Norton product, compress the folder found at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\VirusDefs, and make a SFX file that extracts the folder back to that location prior to installing the program. (Of course, before you make the SFX, delete all but the most recent virus defs folder - for instance, if the first three folders in your computer are named 20050122.012, 20050123.001, and 20050124.012, the most recent ones are in the last folder (20050124 = date the defs were released; .0xx=version of the defs made on that day).) You should be able to make a SFX RAR of the NAV 2005 install source that is 22.0 MB compressed. Adding the virus def SFX adds about 5 MB, and your symlcrst.dll SFX should only be another 200 KB on top of that.

This is the last program I use that I have not been able to integrate into my unattended setup. The install is InstallShield based, so I am able to install it unattended - sorta. First, the installer refuses to install if there's any other installations awaiting a reboot. Second, after installing, the program forces a reboot - if you're installing it regularly, you don't even get a choice, it just tells you it's rebooting and to click OK. When installing silently using the setup.iss file, it reboots automatically, meaning to me there must be a switch in the setup.iss file which can be reset to prevent the reboots, but I've been unable to find it as of yet. I've been running the rest of my unattended, then after the rest of the programs are installed, I reboot and run the QB2003 setup via -s. A reboot is forced, then after that reboot I apply an update pack (for which I have been unsuccessful at finding ANY unattended switches). I'll post the setup.iss file after I get home from work. Anybody else succeed in an unattended install of QuickBooks (I assume any version from 2003 will be similar) without requiring a reboot before installing and forcing a reboot after installing?

I've had success slipstreaming SP2 into Dell OEM CD's with post-release updates. It took me a littke while to find the solution. And it's really easy! 1. Delete the svcpack folder, and all files in it. 2. In the \i386 directory, delete all files called either "KBnnnnnn" or "Qnnnnnn", where n equals a number, and there are six numbers in the file name. 3. Open svcpack.inf, and delete out all references to any hotfixes to install. Save as svcpack.inf. 4. Here's the kicker - you need to makecab your svcpack.inf down to svcpack.in_. Apparently the SP2 routine requires svcpack.in_ to be cabbed, and if it finds an uncabbed one it will not install the service pack. This has worked for me on the Dell OEM version of XP Home that shipped out with a new computer in July, 2004, just before SP2 went RTM.

Ditto what raskren said. It can read NTFS, read and write FAT. Sounds to me, though, like your hard drive is running NTFS, if you can't access c:\ from a Win98 boot floppy disk. But yes, if you have any FAT partitions on your drive, or in your computer, you will be able to copy all your vital files to that partition. On the other hand...if it's not Windows that is corrupt, but your hard drive's boot sector is, your only option may be to boot a clean Windows install on a second hard drive, then try to fix the boot sector problem on the first with that. Like I said, it worked for me to rescue data from a friend's disk when I did it that way.

It looks like your install files are getting copied correctly, just that the install processes are not running. Please post your winnt.sif (MINUS THE PRODUCT KEY!!!!), so that we can see from where your cmdlines.cmd file is being called. Are you calling it from your winnt.sif? If so, make sure you have the path to cmdlines.cmd correct (i.e. C:\Install\cmdlines.cmd )

Try this: 1. Run regedit. 2. Search for your registration number. 3. If your registration number is found in the registry, export that registry key as "Spyware.reg". Then, when you're reinstalling, set it to be run before the program is installed. You can do this with just about any program using a product key or registration number. (I personally do it this way for Nero, MusicMatch Jukebox, Norton Internet Security, and a couple of other programs I can't remember at the moment.) If, however, your product key is not in there, then the information is not stored in the registry and you can't automatically register it. Some of these programs, however, allow you to automatically register them through other means - if it's an InstallShield installer, you can create a setup.iss file; some programs allow you to directly copy files into the installation directory (Norton activation, for example). It really depends on the program - just play around with it, you'll figure it out if it can be done.

I haven't ever used it myself for this purpose, but there's a Linux distribution called Knoppix which can be booted fully from a bootable CD-ROM. Once you've started your computer using Knoppix, it will be able to read your NTFS partitions. You can use it to, first, verify that your files still exist and, second, if they do, transfer them to another drive or burn them to a CD. Once your files are safely backed up, you can do whatever you want. Another alternative is to get a second hard drive and install Windows on that. When you install Windows, don't have your first drive plugged in. Then, after Windows has installed correctly, plug in your first drive and start it up. It may need to verify that the first hard drive is good, and it may take a while to check. This did help me rescue a friend's data files.

Found this website on wpa.dbl and activation from an earlier post... http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php Sounds to me like what you propose (cabbing wpa.dbl) may work, as long as the volume label is the same on the hard drive. Except - any way to guarantee the wpa.dbl is copied to the proper folder? I see there is a wpa.db_ on the Dell OEM CD, which is pre-activated. Is there a wpa.db_ on the retail editions of XP, or non-pre-activated OEM CD's? If so, this just might work, as long as the drive's volume label stays the same.