Sonarcade

hi, I just installed Microsoft's shared computer toolkit and got to the getting started window in the program only to have my computer reboot into the test account that I had made. Now, the test account is a limited/restricted account and both administration accounts don't show up in the logon screen. I clicked on hide administration account so it automatically logs onto the limited account. I didn't realize that clicking this would mean never ever getting access to my administration account. I tried booting into safe mode only to have it behave the same as if I were to log on normally. I don't want to reinstall windows and I've even gone so far as to try to restore my Windows and change the registry settings (both of which I'm denied access to) and went into the recovery console. I also tried the alt+ctrl+del twice method, but no new window outside of the task manager pops up. I can logon to my admin account through the recovery console but don't know what to do from there. The MS forums seem way too packed with topics that I don't know where to put this one. I even called Dell and Microsoft only to have both of them reject my request for a non-fee-based tech support session. Thanks in advance. I have Windows XP pro with SP2 installed. Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on. --Zxian

can I install ryanvm's pack after having installed windows xp? I got rid of internet explorer so I can't go on the windows update site. Thanks.

ah, OK. I can see where I've been unclear. I'm trying to make an unattended windows xp installation on my USB hard drive so I can have all my programs silently installed as well, since a CD can't hold everything. I should've said that in the first place. Phew, thanks for the prompt response. Man, I love this board...and you.

Thanks for the response. I'm trying to make a USB hard drive which already is filled to the wazoo a bootable drive without having to format. It's currently formatted at NTFS and has pretty much my XP CD contents copied right into the root of the USB drive. I got an error saying that it can't find NTLDR once I boot from the USB drive so I copied the NTLDR from my internal hard drive. I then got some error about boot.ini, which then got me to copy the boot.ini from my internal drive onto the external. But I have a feeling that I'm going about the wrong way about doing this since it's not really files I need to make it bootable, but the configuration of how these files will react with my USB drive. If the latter, how do I go about configuring these files to fix my problem? I've also tried to copy the contents of my XP CD onto a DVD instead of making an image of the CD and burning the image onto the DVD. If I just burn the contents without using an image, then I get the same problem. So there's obviously something I'm not getting with this whole boot thing. Thanks.

does this information pertain to making a hard drive in a usb enclosure bootable? My BIOS supports booting from a usb device. I just have problems with figuring out how to make a boot sector for it or anything period. I would also have problems with making my CDs and DVDs bootable, thinking that I can just make a Windows XP ISO with nlite and then mount the image, then copy all its contents to the root of said CD, DVD, or hard drive. Isn't there an easier way to go about making a drive bootable instead of using a floppy drive(which I don't have)? TIA.

I'm getting the same exact problems. Now whenever I load windows, I get a hardware wizard bubble telling me "system" is found and i get prompted for compbatt.sys. This is with the latest .99.9 beta Thanks.

[quote name='totoymola' date='Oct 9 2004, 01:48 PM']I don't think so..  Maybe you should try the Wise for Windows Installer instead.  They offer a free trial but you have to sign-up first.  [url="http://www.wise.com/dev_evaluations.asp"]http://www.wise.com/dev_evaluations.asp[/url][/quote] cripes. This is definitely not for n00b-fare.

so does installshield x pro work on wise installers?

What initially turned me on to the idea of the unattended install was not only due to the fact that it automatically installs my apps, but that it cuts down on clutter, hence increasing stability to the whole system. I see how much of a time-saver slipstreaming can be and I have no doubts about that. But as far as stability is concerned, I assumed that slipstreaming hotfixes and service packs can increase the stability of the OS by having the old files discarded or just not installed at all. My faith in the benefits of unattended installs for apps, however, comes into question when dealing with applications or 3rd party drivers(3rd party in that they're not by MS). I know no one's under any obligation and may even loathe shedding some light on this issue to a noob or maybe it's a very controversial topic. Who knows? It's just that I'd like to know if I'd be in the same situation stability-wise if I were to just create a batch file that installs all my apps after my slipstreamed unattended install of XP finishes or if I went through the process of learning about the various switches for each of my programs. Thanks much.

Hi, I was wondering if I'd get the same results from the switches in my unattended install as I would if I actually put them in the command prompt in an already installed version of Windows XP so I can go about learning about switches via troubleshooting instead of going from scratch seeing as how the unattended.msfn.org guide doesn't really go in depth about how to find switches(asides from searching this forum). Thanks.

any luck on this?

I noticed that after I run the office customized installation tool, all the files that I don't need for installation(eg. powerpoint, access, outlook) are still in my cd image. Is there a way to trim it down so I only have Word and Excel? Thanks.

Hi, has anyone here successfully slipstreamed any of these audio utilities? Much appreciated.

sorry for coming off as a noob, but I was wondering where you added RunOnceEx.cmd in the winnt.SIF file. And by "last four lines" you don't mean OemSigningPolicy=Ignore OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000\chipset;Drivers\001\cardbus;Drivers\002\D800\LAN;Drivers\003\D800\Audio;Drivers\004\Video\nVidia" (all on one line, no breaks) OverwriteOemFilesOnUpgrade=No but this: OemSigningPolicy=Ignore OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\000\chipset;Drivers\001\cardbus;Drivers\002\D800\LAN;Drivers\003\D800\Audio;Drivers\004\Video\nVidia" (all on one line, no breaks) OverwriteOemFilesOnUpgrade=No I'm guessing? thanks a lot for your time and work.