Takeshi

Officially M$ says Sysprep does not support OEM installations already on the end-user's computer (it can of course be done by the OEM in the factory) so there could be a problem - but I can't be sure. Can you quote the exact prompt message?

I've just tested your reg files. It does seem to do what you said, but rather strangely, when going to services.msc, it has no effect on the status (i.e. it still says Started and Automatic after applying the sroff.reg)!

I'm still a bit puzzled by this. When you turn off SR service via regedit, it won't do anything until you reboot the computer, because it writes to the HKLM key and this normally requires a reboot to take effect. So when you turn it off and on with regedit in the same session, nothing should have happened. I think you would normally use the net stop and net start command to stop and start services with immediate effect! Coming back to the bat file, you can further simplify it by using HKLM or set it as variable, if you like.

This may be a long shot, but some characters on the German KB are on different places compared to the UK or US KB, like the Y and Z are interchanged. So before even considering German characters and accents, there is some room for possible errors. The logical step to take, assuming this is the case, would be to use only letters and symbols that are on the same keys on both keyboards.

If it is fully unattended installation then the prompt shouldn't come up. If the above tip doesn't solve it you might get more help by asking in the unattended Windows forum.

The OEM product key will not be valid for the upgrade and it "looks like" the other key is blacklisted.

You can disable but not delete the Administrator account. If there is another admin account then you can reset the Admin password in Local Users and Groups, as pointed out above, or in: control userpasswords2. If you're really stuck, there're at least 8 or 9 tools to reset the admin or any account passwords in XP. The easiest to use commercial tool I've tested is ERD Commander's LockSmith tool. For a free tool, then the Linux based Offline NT Password and Registry Editor comes to mind. BTW, the hack the logon screen method, which is widely published on the net, does not work in XP. The command prompt does not have enough privilege to run the net command any more and displays a "system error 5, Access is denied".

Norton is very difficult to uninstall properly but it is possible to do so. Also LU is prone to frequent errors. If it gives an error number, then look it up on Symantec website. Sometimes deleting or renaming all the files and folders used by LU in your user profile will at least temporarily solve the problem.

You cannot simply clone XP to a computer with different hardware. See M$ KB 314082.

You can flush the DNS cache but I think you need a thorough cleanup of your system of malware and junk first.

What are you trying to do exactly? To make a distribution folder? Did you copy the I386 to a separate distribution folder on the HD?

What did you do in Sysprep exactly? Did you change or remove any files?

The files for E Asian languages refer to CJK languages so if you add one or more of these in winnt.sif they will be automatically installed during Setup. e.g. [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup = 1, 9 7 = Japanese; 8 = Korean; 9 = Trad. Chinese (TW, HK and Macau); 10 = Simplified Chinese (PRC, Singapore) If you are using any CJK versions of XP, it is not necessary to install Files for E Asian lang as they are automatically installed. As for the non-unicode setting, I'm not 100% sure, but it seems to be this: [RegionalSettings] SystemLocale = 00000809 Locale IDs: 0809 = UK 0409 = US 0404 = Taiwan 0c04 = HK 0804 = PRC 1009 = Canada

What AP are you using? Have you checked the manufacturer's site for any bugs and firmware updates? And are you talking about the WEP or WPA key?

The backup wpa.dbl method - if that's what you have in mind - only works on the same hardware as far as I'm aware. In any case, if you're only testing it in VPC then the activation grace period should not be a problem.

I've done it bothways and it worked. I prefer to slipstream SP2 on XP Gold to get a clean start and therefore potentially there would be less problems. There are some extra folders in slipstreamed SP2 which you can remove.

Factory PCs commonly use the System Preparation tool (Sysprep) or modifications of it. My DELL laptop has a 0.99GB I386 folder left behind and I found a cmdlines.bak in $OEM$. I'm also puzzled why this folder was not deleted whereas Sysprep folder was (as intended).

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

You're correct in thinking about malware but if nothing is found you can try reinstalling IE (which is closely related to explorer.exe): http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;318378

I've tried this before but the IE temp internet folder ("Content.IE5") has a special system attribute and you just cannot delete it while logged on in normal mode. You can do it in Safe Mode, or if you dual boot, from another XP installation (in that case you can simply delete the whole thing in Windows Explorer - I do this regularly).

It would be useful to show your exact commands here. And I assume you are logged in as admin. I don't think you can slipstream XP in a Win2k system - if I remember correctly.

This "NTLDR is missing" error can also occur when the boot.ini is corrupt or missing but in your case it sounds like the HD is the problem.

Yes you're right about KB890830 v1.2. Reg query can be used with %ERRORLEVEL% in a bat script without having to output anything in text (add >nul).

That website doesn't mention Reg query but it surely exists in Windows XP and seems to do what I have in mind. WSH RegRead also does similar via VBS or JS. If the end-users don't delete the log files (or the Uninstall folders) then your script should do it. I'm just trying to find the best or most professional way to do it. KB890830-V1.2 is now v1.3. After installing the last update, a restart is required.

I'm puzzled by two points. If you create a SR point and then turn off SR, it will delete all the SR points. Also, the reg files edit the HKLM keys and normally this would require a reboot to take effect. Also, wouldn't it be better for the script to check for update entries directly in the registry, rather than the logs, as I delete the logs myself periodically?