nARkwS

And by "mutable" you mean...?

But it isn't. It's a customized Windows installation. I think maybe if it'd been a re-write of the GUI, but still based on NT's lowlevel architecture then it'd be commendable, but it isn't, it's a high level customization. I'm not gonna comment any more coz I hate disrespecting people's work. Your customization is very nice indeed. You have good design skills. -nARkwS-

It's nice, but what's the point in doing a release of it? Everyone customizes Windows to suit their own needs anyway. Sorry for being so sceptical, but I don't see the point. Also, it's not really a topic for discussion on this forum. -nARkwS-

Not in a production environment where each system requires a unique key to allow successfully activation. -nARkwS-

From what I remember smartdrv.exe doesn't support CD-Rom drives. I remember having a speed issue with a bootable CD rom I made a while back, and determined smartdrv.exe was for HDDs only. I may be wrong, or someone may have done a mod'd smartdrv.exe that does work on CD-Roms. -nARkwS-

Was that a typo? Do you mean Connectix does adjust the pagefile, but real systems don't? If it wasn't a typo then you should probably ignore the rest of this. There exists a bug in a range of Intel chipsets which disallows pagefile resizing (crazy, I know, but it's true!). If the systems are using affected chipsets, the problem can be resolved by installing the Intel Application Accelerator (from Intel's website). The IAA also resolves other issues (eg. IDE-DMA). -nARkwS- In my dozyness I never noticed the second page, and gave that answer before realising you'd resolved the issue. I'll keep all the info in though coz it's useful for folks to know.

Another method which I couldn't get working conventionally is changing the value of the "CmdLine" MULTI_SZ value at HKLM\System\Setup If you change the value to exclude "/retail" then it has the same effect as my msoobe.exe manipulation. Unfortunately I've never found a conventional way to modify this reg value after t-9 minutes. -nARkwS-

Do you mean for non VLK installations? If so then there are 2 methods which work. * Remove the product key line from your answer file. You'll be prompted at T-33minutes. * Use a generated product key within your answer file and manipulate msoobe.exe's execution to invoke the request for the real one. Rename the real "msoobe.exe" to "msoobe2.exe" and create an alternative "msoobe.exe" which ignores any switches passed to it, and runs "%windir%\system32\oobe\msoobe2.exe /f". For this to work it's necessary to replace msoobe.exe within MSOOBE.EX_ Attached is a zip file with a text file of the VB source (a single form), alongside the exe it creates under my (ancient) copy of VB6. The exe is so far tested only on Home OEM + SP2. It assumes Windows to be at C:\WINDOWS. I hardcoded the path through lazyness because I didn't think anyone but me would ever use it :-/ I've also included the cab version, ie. MSOOBE.EX_ -nARkwS- BTW the msoobe.exe in the zipfile is the same as the one as within MSOOBE.EX_ I forgot to mention that in the rubbish HowTo notes. Force_request_for_product_key.zip

I must be seeing things coz I coulda sworn Astalavista stated a clear and sensible point about nlite. -nARkwS-

That's not possible with all releases of WinXP anyway. I think it worked when I tried it on Corp, but it definately failed on Home OEM. It errored with a bunch of missing files during text-mode. Microsoft state pretty unclearly that you need to use an I386 folder with no service pack. I didn't have a pre-SP1 version of Home OEM, but fortunately I just got hold of one with SP2 integrated, so I don't need to care about slipstreaming anymore -nARkwS-

But it's not a hotfix. It's a silly mistake from the security squad at Microsoft. They should have released a roll-up pack to patch Windows and Office (if necessary). Instead it just sends you to a webpage telling all about the blundered component. -nARkwS-

The notications settings are stored as DWord values at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center] "AntiVirusDisableNotify"=dword:00000001 "FirewallDisableNotify"=dword:00000001 "UpdatesDisableNotify"=dword:00000001 The values above will disable notifcation -nARkwS-

You'll get away with imaging after the final part of text-mode on any current NForce based system (I think), simply because the NForce drivers aren't native to Windows, so generic ones are installed.

Can't say for absolute certain how much faster it is, but HDDs are far more reliable than optical drives, and whenver installation problems occur, then the optical drive and media are out of the equation already. I install Windows around 3-6 times a day, and it's the most hassle free method I've found. -nARkwS-

When you install from Winnt.exe /s: the first phase of text-mode is copying from the media. It then reboots and performs th second phase, which is equivalent to doing a normal boot of the CD (or floppies). BTW I added an edit to that previous message (telling of an issue I encountered with a 160Gb).

kenedy I don't ever install XP on systems with a lesser spec than 466Mhz+128Mb RAM. I haven't tried it on a multi-processor system, but I have installed on SATA. The SATA driver is loaded (by pressing F6) at the very beginning of the second phase of text-mode. I'm pretty sure that the SATA driver could also be integrated into the installation, but have never tried that. I've deployed Home + Pro OEM on hundreds of systems with varying hardware using this method. I've also did it with Corporate on around 30 systems. The only issue I ever encountered was with a particular 160Gb Hitatchi ATA133 drive, which was probably a bad firmware revision or something similar, as the drive passed DFT and took an attended installation of XP no problem. -nARkwS-

To speed things up I use Symantec Ghost to do a partition image of the HDD after it's first text-mode run. This of course is only possible with an installation started from winnt.exe The HDD contents will always be the same after the first section of text-mode, regardless of what hardware is in use, and unpacking a 380Mb compressed image from contiguous CD space is much faster than suffering the first text-mode each time. Ghost (like other software probably) lets you unpack partitions to any size of HDD without having to do any disk preparation. It all helps. -nARkwS-

Here's a slightly editted version. I keep falling into the old trap of re-reading it once it's been posted, and finding typos. The fixes are just spelling, grammar and general file naming. I'm going to stop looking at it now (unless there's a tech issue of course). -nARkwS- oobepack.zip

I never noticed that it'd lost the attachment when I did a preview! Lesson learned! I've editted the post to include the attachment. -nARkwS-

Thanks to everyone on this forum who's ever asked or answered a question that's helped me find the right solution. An area which seemed to lack good information (anywhere) was the manipulation of the OOBE Wizard (XP first boot) . I've put together a pack which describes how to skip each page except User Creation. It's so far tested only on Corporate with SP2 integrated, but the OOBE seems to be generic. I've included an SFV of the original files I used to simplify verification. NB: This prodedure isn't for anyone wishing to skip the wizard entirely, as that's possible within an unattended answer file. enjoy... -nARkwS- Attachment reposted due to minor typos.