mrjrt

Hey. Long-time reader, first time poster (of consequence, anyway). I've been using these boards for years as a reference, and I figured I should probably give something back. I've finally gotten around to building a customised Win7 install and I'm gone with AIO, which means the setup environment runs in 32-bit mode. The tool I used offered to include the 64-bit recovery tools, which I figured was a good idea, though it seems debatable given some of the stuff I've read on the subject. Anyway, That's all fine, but as I've got chunks automated with an AutoUnattend.xml, it skips right past the link to launch the recovery tools from the 64-bit boot.wim, then fails as my 64-bit doesn't have an install.wim for it to scan for install images. So what I made was a simple setup replacement stub that parses the AutoUnattend settings and launches the recovery tools as the normal setup would. There's probably a way of doing this properly, but I'm dammed if I could find it. I've included the source and as getting Mingw tools for both 64 and 32 bit sorts is such a PITA, also both the compiled exes for 64 and 32 bit (though I can;t think why you'd need the 32-bit one). Hopefully someone else will find them useful. Instructions from the source file: Next up...another tool using the XML parsing code to fix up registry paths early in setup (i.e. renaming program files) using settings from custom AutoUnattend... SetupProxy.7z

Hello all. Just wondering if anyone can shed any light on my current quandry....I'm doing a spot of customisation and I'd like to rename the Windows directory. I was able to accomplish this in Windows XP by using: [SetupData]DefaultPath=\WinXP...in TXTSETUP.SIF, but I can't find the equivalent functionality in Windows 7's install process. I have a similar problem with the "Program Files" directories. In XP's setup I was able to alter those using: [Unattended]ProgramFilesDir="\Local"CommonProgramFilesDir="\Local\Common Files"...in WINNT.SIF, but again, I can't find the equivalent functionality in Windows 7's install process. At least with the latter you can copy them, edit the registry and then delete the orignals. Not exactly an option with the system directory though. My other avenue of enquiry is to make the changes into the WIM directly - rename the folders there and update the registry hives with the updated paths rather than trying to script the changes. The main hiccup I foresee is the bootloader probably generating the initial listing with the default path rather than looking up anything in the registry...anyone tried this already? I know I could just hard link the names I want to the directories default names and then hide the default directories, but I do a lot of system-level work, so running with hidden files & directories isn't really an option for me.

I gave up and just made folders under $1 and copy them into place with cmdlines.txt Just seemed that certain folders wouldn't copy across. Very chort names...I renamed "Documents and Settings" to "Home" and "My Documents" to "Documents". I suppose I could have let text mode setup complete then mounted the partition and inspected what got copied across...but in the end all that matters is what actually happens...so cmdlines.txt it is.

I've been trying to finish off my XP disc and have found another problem...it seems random folders in my $OEM$\$Docs just don't seem to copy across properly. All the other $OEM$ folders work fine, and indeed, some of the $OEM$\$Docs folders do as well...but not all of them. I think setup is wiping them out during the process perhaps...but I'm at a loss why. I've got some customised folders in my "Default User\My Documents" and "All Users\My Documents" folders. The "All Users" ones copy across fine, the "Default User" ones do not. I figure that windows is wiping them out when it initialises the profile when GUI setup starts, so I added a folder to $OEM$\$Docs that I could xcopy across from cmdlines.txt, but these extra folders don't seem to get copied (or at the very least, they're missing when examined from a Shift+10 console). The custom Desktop.ini file however does get copied! So far I've concluded that any folders in the $OEM$\$Docs level won't work, nor will folders inside $OEM$\$Docs\Default User\My Documents. ...has anyone documented these issues anywhere so I can work around them without all this trial and error?

I've fixed most of my issues with my custom XP disc, but have one (seemingly) last one...the Desktop.ini files in my customised default user profile. I've renamed some shell folders, and this is all fine - but when my default user profile is copied for a new user, the DeleteOnCopy section is obviously recreated with the new user's name, but always with the default folder name, not my chosen renamed value. Everything else is fine, it's just the new user profiles that aren't correct. i.e. [.ShellClassInfo] InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12688 IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\mydocs.dll IconIndex=-101 [DeleteOnCopy] Personalized=39 PersonalizedName=Pictures ...becomes... [DeleteOnCopy] Personalized=39 PersonalizedName=My Pictures Owner=NewUser [.ShellClassInfo] InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12688 IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\mydocs.dll IconIndex=-101 When searching, I came across this thread, which gives me a potential solution of sorts (i.e. omit the DeleteOnCopy section so one isn't created in new profiles, then add it in manually using runonce), but I'd like to throw it out there to see if there's another, better, way to achieve a customer value in new PersonalizedName values?

Long story short, my old trusty SP2 slipstreamed XP setup disc is dying, and I figure I may as well take the opportunity to update things. Problem is, I can't get the thing to work properly! All I'm attempting is to add sp3 and the main bulk of post sp3 hotfixes, pull in the various driverpacks, run some custom installers after setup, and set up the regional settings as UK rather than US. I'm also including the old browseui.dll (so I can keep my address toolbar) and the modded terminal services that allows concurrent logins. I'm most of the way there...I have it defaulting to and installing the UK keyboard layouts, but it still lists the US layout during setup. Weird thing though, since I switched from 'ProvideDefaults' to 'DefaultHide' (to get it to actual pay attention to the timezone setting - I want GMT, not PST), the second keyboard layout is still present after setup...but rather than the expected US, it's RO - Romainain? I'm a bit perplexed by this. Additionally, the main post setup installer I want to run (via svcpack.inf) just isn't running, seemingly. It's a 7zip sfx that runs a cmd file that copies stuff into a directory then installs itself as a service it basically sets the reg key to enable concurrent terminal services sessions as xp disables it each boot when you're on a domain). Is there a way people debug these things? I also had the strange issue where the dynframe.dll was missing so I had to edit the sif files to change the arbitrary numbers to another set which seemed to fix. *sigh* Why does it have to be so complicated... [edit] Just realised that it's not actually setting the timezone properly either: I've somehow ended up with "Coordinated Universal Time", which has an index of 2147483728 rather than the 085 I specified in my winnt.sif. Gaaaaa.....! Right time for now, but certainly will go awry once DST kicks in next spring...