riverrm

post it in german, im fluent

mjc, great project. I've been working on some of the components you mentioned over the past few months of and on. Ambitious project. My take on Hotfixes: should be downloaded from ms directly(licensing/security). I wouldn't use a hotfix for production that came from anywhere else. I started down the road with ryans update pack, but ran into problems post sysprep. Windows Update/Baseline Analyser etc can determine which service packs or hotfixes are needed. MS maintains the list. Why not use that and just use the data already provided. I parse through mssecure.xml (which is avail for download) It provides me a list of patches for effected product id and the download location. As a bonus it also provides info about the patch which I use to create dynamic patch documentation in html format.

Pre-activation" of Windows XP by the OEMs will be done in one of two different ways depending on the OEM's own configuration options and choices. Some OEMs may protect Windows XP using a mechanism which locks the installation to OEM-specified BIOS information in the PC. This technology works very similar to existing technologies that many OEMs have used over the years with the CDs they ship to reinstall Windows on these computers. We expanded and integrated the existing OEM CD BIOS locking mechanism with product activation, and call this method of protection "System Locked Pre-installation," or SLP. Successfully implemented, SLP uses information stored in an OEM PC's BIOS to protect the installation from casual piracy. No communication by the end customer to Microsoft is required and no hardware hash is created or necessary. At boot, Windows XP compares the PC's BIOS to the SLP information. If it matches, no activation is required. Every single piece of hardware could be changed on a PC with SLP and no reactivation would be required — even the motherboard could be replaced as long as the replacement motherboard was original equipment manufactured by the OEM and retained the proper BIOS. In the unlikely scenario that the BIOS information does not match, the PC would need to be activated within 30 days by contacting the Microsoft activation center via the Internet or telephone call — just as in a retail scenario. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...te/xpactiv.mspx

run smbios as detached program in unattended.txt it will run before windows setup. then based on the return of the smbios query you could copy the correct drivers, or in your example modify install behavior by modifying/adding/deleting files later consumed by you install process. for example: smbios finds model=gx280 then copy gx280.bat to c: ; then during cmdlines.txt or after have script react to existance of that file.

long horn installs using a sysprep'd image for initial install and therfore skips textmode completly.

As Sonic say's: Regedit /s regtweaks.reg if using reg.exe in a batch file, keep in mind that the version of reg.exe is different between W2K and XP. I copy the XP version to W2K to keep my batch files the same. Also, check you reg files. XP uses "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" as the header info in it's reg files. It can use older versions, but W2K can't use newer. Good luck

stumbled across this topic a bit late. What's great about this forum is that needs are identified and solved as a community. The more folks are involved the more usefull the solution. What Moon originally requested is something most OEM builders implement in their recovery media. SMBios is generally the tool of choice. Now that wmi is available it can do most of what smbios can. SMBios is still the tool of choice on the production floor. The good thing is that there are DOS and Windows versions, and that does not have the overhead of WMI. Using this info manufacturers limit software to run only on dell machines,or only on GX280 models or one could make it serial numbers specific. One also could write a tag to the bios (such as asset tag etc.) which then could be used to determine which image/drivers/overlay to apply. great forum B)

This is exactly the kind of project that makes this forum stand out above all others. Several people have commented about how silly this project is, and wonder why you've taken the time to write something like this. This project embodies all that's great and creative here at this forum. Utilities/ Apps which perform a simple little function ( Display a Dynamic Flash Movie) based on customizable input is what this is all about. Where or how it's used is irrelevent. While I might not have an immediate use for it, I now know that if I want to display info to a user dynamically (populate input text file through another script) I can use this app. I doesn't have to be before shutdown. Great job Fritz

use runas

application staging from my understanding is copying file to their proper locations, but not making actuall system modifications such as reg settings and installing services. there is reference to this in the OPK, but i can't find any specific documentation on how to exactly accomplish this. the benefit of would be that for example office xp and office 2003 could be installed on the same master image. then at install time either ap could be fully installed and the other deleted. the deletion is far faster than a copy. thanks to anyone with info

can you re-post somewhere we can download.