Thinkster

It sounds like your on the right track Sony, In XP unattended, I had cmdlines.txt run Explorer.cmd which was a simple script whose main line was: start /wait regedit.exe /s %systemdrive%\packages\custmusr.reg My custmusr.reg file contained all the reg tweaks that would effect the default profile that Windows was creating at that stage of the installation. Therefore when Windows finished installing and I would go to add the first account, it would inherit those same settings that were applied to the default profile. So to do this in Vista, you have to do your settings in an Audit mode after Vista has finished installing, not During? And does this only apply to local accounts of Domain accounts as well?

Yeah, but iTunes is a horrible piece of software that is very restrictive and probably just as bad as WMP11! Everytime I work on a system that has iTunes, it's always a PITA!, especially because the music is encrypted or in a proprietary, worthless format. MP3 is the way to go, No If's, But's or And's about it! I let my customers know that if they install it or use it that it will void their support warranty. Winamp should be able to handle their needs for playing music and VLC player for video!

Well, you said it, "Netflix's stupid thing" It is just that!!! I encourage everyone who has a Netflix account to complain to neflix about their horrible streaming service that is dependent on WMP11, IE7 and even then doesn't work half the time. Instead of WMP11, try using VLC Player as it will play most media formats (except Netflix, but I would cancel that if I were you!). And as for picture viewer, there are many third party viewers out there that are better then anything Microsoft could make. My favorite viewer is VuePrint (http://www.hamrick.com/upg.html).

I Took a machine with a clean install of Vista, Installed WAIK, Daemon Tools, vLite and copied the entire contents of a Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 Original DVD to a folder called D:\VISTA OEM SP1 I went through all the vLite Vista options, components, tweaks and configured how I wanted it. I also dowloaded & extracted the driver files for the Video & Audio from Acer told vLite to use those. So I create my ISO using Vlite and burn it to a DVD. I then boot up the computer and delete my C: Partition and reformat it in NTFS using Acronis Disk Director. Then I boot up the PC with the freshly made vLite Vista SP1 Business DVD and answer the first few questions about what partition to use, etc. The installation begins and it gets to Step 2 (Installing Windows) with the green status bar at bottom showing about 60% at which point the installation FAILS with the following message: "Installation was canceled. Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed." WTF? Why was installation canceled, I didn't cancel it. Why can't it update the computer's boot configuration, it was writing to the C: drive just fine and the PC is new!? Any ideas here? If I stick in the original Vista Ultimate SP1 DVD, of course the install goes fine, so what gives?

WMP is one of the worst players along with iTunes. I would definately pick something like Winamp and I used to have a gapless/crossfade plugin for it which you can get free.

Thanks jrf2027, Although since my original post, I have already discovered this and have in fact used that great utility from orev. I was able to use vLite to take a "Windows Upgrade Anytime" Disc and lighten it up a little as well as make it a Business only version. I also found that the backed up key from the utility was different from the key on the sticker on the outside of the PC and I know why now...

In Windows XP, Durring Unattended installation, I would run my registry tweaks at the T13 point which would put the settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER which in turn would effect the Default user template (C:\Documents and Settings\Default User) How do I do this in Vista either before the very first user account is setup or afterwards so that any additional users that are setup with have the settings I want?

So I went around to each machine and ran activation_backup.exe I then transfered the two files created to the Server too the respective subfolders of //Server/Activation named LABPC01, LABPC02, etc... Also, I saved the Product key from the sticker on the outside of the machine (which is different from that captured by activation_backup.exe) to a text file called 'sticker_key.txt' I'm thinking (actually hoping) that maybe in my script I can do an 'xcopy' of the appropriate folder from the server to the local harddrive of the machine and run the 'activation_restore.exe' from within that folder on the local drive. I don't know though if I'll be able to xcopy from the server in post sysprep mode. I'm guessing I'll have permissions issues or something or that the network will not be accessible yet.

Thanks, good info on your site! But I'm curious if you have a non exe version like script format that I can modify or switches like: activation_restore.exe -silent /p //server/activation/labpc01. (where the /p represents the path). I would like to run a script during the sysprep stage after an image has been deployed that will tell your program the path to the activation data for the particular computer it's on. The determining factor for which computer it's working on will be the MAC address which it cross references in a lookup table. Let me know if I should post my current code as I know it's going to need some tweaking for Vista.

I've used nLite before for XP Builds and it's worked good and even allows you to load a session file. This is the first time I've tried vLite and it looks like it's not quite there yet. The options look good, but don't work for me. I spent the time slipstreaming SP1 and went through all the tweaks, component removals, unattended, etc. but it created the .iso without applying any of the custom settings. I looked at the Last Session file and it had very little listed in there. So I had a Last session file that I had created previously on a non-SP1 slipstreamed build and placed them in the root of the new SP1 slipstreamed source files. I made sure that the "Load last session on browse" was checked, but it completely ignores it and overwrites my "Last Session.ini" with minimal data. Is there any way to get customizations to work or just hang in and wait for a new version of vLite?

You didn't have to go out and waste $300 on Vista in the first place! If you did your research, you would have found that it's better to stick with Windows XP Pro and wait till Windows 7. But wait until Windows 7 has been out for at least a year so that your not one of Microsoft's Guinea Pigs like most consumers are who rush out to buy the latest OS! And no they shouldn't give attention to Vista for another 6 years, they should be quick to replace it like they did with Windows ME. I find Vista to be kind of one of those "bastard childs"....

Since I have 14 Machines (Acer) that are preloaded with Vista Business and all the Acer bloatware & trial crap, I would like to go to each machine and backup the activations data and store the data for each on a server in corresponding folders like LAB01, LAB02, etc... Then I would like to do a clean install on one of the machines and configure everything the way I want and then Sysprep it so I can make an image. I have a script that I used on XP machines that would run after the image has been deployed and is about to boot for the first time that would query the machines MAC address and look it up in a database to determine the Computer Name and it's Product Key an automatically apply that information. I'm hoping to extend that script to be able to also apply the corresponding activation data that had been backed up. Any ideas on this??

I have Windows 2003 Server R2 running with AD and the Vista business client machines are joined to the domain. I have created a Folder called 'Users' with a shared subfolder called 'Students' on the server and have set permissions for 'Students' to have Full Access to that folder. Now on the Vista workstation I went to User Accounts and 'Configure Advanced user profile properties'. I then select the account that shows SERVER\Student and click the [Copy To] button. I then Browsed for and selected the 'Students' folder that's shared on the server. I also again set permissions in the 'Permitted to Use' section. I get a warning message saying that the folder exists and the Data will be deleted (which is fine because there is NO data), then when I click OK, it Always errors out with "<\\Server\Students> could not be deleted. Please delete the directory and retry." So I take it that you can't put user profiles from Vista machines on a Windows 2003 Server? I never had this problem with XP.

Manufacturers these days cut corners where ever they can including NOT sending CD's/DVD's as they used to, So unfortunately I don't have an Acer Windows Vista OEM disc. Even if it did come with a disc, it would probably be their bloated one with all the stuff I don't want. I searched the HDD for i386 and other related Vista install files but nothing.. Any other ideas?

I'm working with 14 machines that came with Vista Business preloaded on them from Acer. Of course they come with all the bloatware and acer stuff I don't really want and are not customized the way I want. Each PC has a sticker on the side with the product key which I have entered into a database. Can I take a real Microsoft Vista Business SP1 Disc and do a clean install on each machine using the Machine's sticker product key?

Set Vista to Windows Classic mode and you don't have to worry about having special requirements to make Windows look "pretty" I think it's better to have windows more functional then pretty... Is there a legitimate reason for needing Aero?

Here's the scenario: Have 14 machines (same exact model & hardware config) that have Vista Business preinstalled so I would say it's Vista Business OEM. I have machine 1 tweaked to pretty much the way I would like all the other machines to be and have uninstalled all the manufacturer's bloatware/trialware. I have Office 2007 and Symantec Antivirus also installed (VLK versions). These machines will be on a domain that has Active Directory. I would like to create an image of machine 1 to put on the server where it can be 'distributed' to all the other machines but have the product key, machine name, UID stripped so that I can either manually enter that on each machine or have a script do it by using a look up table based on MAC ID of machine. I've done this before by using SYSPREP on XP machines, but this is the first time I'm venturing into this scenario on Vista based machines and I know it's a whole different ball game. I've downloaded WAIK and I have Acronis as well as Norton Ghost, but I just don't know what's the best route to take...

Ummmm..... Disable UAC! Windows XP never had this annoying thing, so why should Vista. I had to setup 14 Vista machines today, and the first thing I did was disable UAC as well as the stupid sidebar. I don't need a nagging popup everytime I try to do something on a system.

I know the hives are the registry, but I was hoping to be able to "compile" the hives into one .reg file or something that I could view in notepad or view on my computer's regedit without having it load anything into my personal registry. I'm NOT looking to replace my registry files with these, I simply want to view it and extract a couple important keys for the customer. I've already replaced the hard drive on the customer's computer with a new one and reinstalled Windows. But now I have his bad hard drive hooked up as a master on my IDE2 port. When I try to access certain areas of the drive, it makes clicking sounds and gives my a Cyclic Redundancy error. Luckily I was able to copy the hives from one of the restore points to my computer's hard drive and so that is what I'm working with.

Any ideas on this in scripting it??

Whats the Brand/Model of the motherboard? Why can't you use IDE Hard Drive (PATA)? A lot less headaches with the well established IDE/PATA drives...

Why would you be upgrading from Windows XP to Windows XP?? If you are trying to fix a corrupt installation or something, your better off not being lazy and backing up your important data, then formatting your drive and performing a CLEAN install of Windows that will be unattended and have your product key integrated into the winnt.sif answer file.

When I setup PC's in an office without a server, I always set each machine to 'Workgroup' under Workgroup name and enable File & Print Sharing. Normally, I click on 'My Network Places' from the desktop and then click 'View Workgroup Computers' on the right pane. This should show me a list of all the computers in the workgroup by their name. However in one office, this no longer works on ANY machine! Instead it gives an error message saying something about "You don't have permissions to..... Contact a system administrator.." I can however manually add shared folder or printer by manually adding a network place and putting in the \\computername\sharedfolder. I can then access that shared folder. Why wont it let me browse all the computers in the workgroup without having to know each computers exact name and shared folder name??

Had a friend with a similar problem. I was able to resolve it by swapping out the SATA drives (which I had told him NOT to buy) with the more reliable IDE (PATA) drives and using the FAT32 File system. It's been working like a charm ever since. I don't recommend NTFS unless your in a corporate environment and really need the security.

Why use that lame firewall in the first place?? I always disable it on all machines. It's much better to run a hardware firewall as is offered in varous routers.