jamieo

MS seems to have dropped a lot of things from Vista at the last minute - seems quite unprofessional for such a large operation. I'm using the vista installation's boot.wim as my winre.wim which works fine but I obviously can't add any packages to it so how to support html for chm viewing etc? Jamie

Has anybody got any unattend settings to work in WinPE?? Elsewhere in this forum I see people cannot get WinPE to accept the XML. Guess I'll need to try mine again and look into the logs to see what's going on...

Thanks, but as I posted, I already tried this and it only effects the windows setup keyboard mapping etc. If you know different please post your code, heres mine: <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SetupUILanguage> <UILanguage>en-UK</UILanguage> <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI> </SetupUILanguage> <InputLocale>0809:00000809</InputLocale> <!--InputLocale>en-UK</InputLocale--> <SystemLocale>en-UK</SystemLocale> <UserLocale>en-UK</UserLocale> <!-- UILanguage must be en-US to avoid prompt --> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback> </component> </settings>

Thanks for the confirmations. I guess it's useful to have the choice. I'm using the name key myself as I don't have to worry about the number and order of images inside the wim. Cheers.

Is there any way to specify the default keyboard layout so it won't prompt for it when WinRE boots? The prompt for admin password that follows it isn't too bad but I find the keyboard one quite annoying.. I guess I haven't found an answer so far as the users from US don't mind having to just hit enter! I've already tried specifying an unattend.xml or using wpeutil but maybe I'm implementing them incorrectly or at the wrong time. Has anybody got this working? If so, please post your code. Edit: Although 'WinRE' would imply it, I am refering to WinPE 2.0 that ships with Vista Edit: Booting the same .wim from UFD doesn't prompt for admin password (but still prompts for keyboard) so how do I get this behaviour when booting from HDD? Jamie

Was that in response to my post? Obviously, my point was to highlight the file as a starting point to investigate removal of the strings referenced. Not to give an exhaustive list of all files for all languages. Anyway, sorry I didn't achieve my aim of being helpfull. Jamie

Glad to see everyone's got this nailed now. I didn't mention this option as I have not tested it and was unsure if it would work on it's own. Have you tested it yourself? Would be useful to know if it's been proven... though I can't imagine when it would be useful unless you have two images with the same name - which you can't in a single .wim. Since the description doesn't seem to be shown during setup I guess you could use it as a tag to identify your default image and then whatever you call it your xml will pick the right one.. Jamie

I haven't seen this explained very well anywhere (this link tries but fails miserably) so I'll try and explain how I understand this to work... The difficulty in actually entering this setting is they don't give you a nice fluffy 'ImageName' parameter to fill in, instead they give you this weird generic METADATA type that they fail to explain properly. (I think the idea of this type may be to manipulate settings not directly exposed in the WSIM xml) The METADATA type consists of two elements: a 'KEY', which can be thought of like a registry path and defines which setting you want to define, and a 'VALUE' which defines the data you want to assign to the setting described by the key. The key used to set the name of the image is: '/IMAGE/NAME'. When setup reads this key it will know that the value paired with it is the image name. I believe it's also possible to use the image index instead by using '/IMAGE/INDEX' but I have not tried this. Considering the above, to select Vista Ultimate from the standard installation DVD you should set the value to 'Windows Vista ULTIMATE' - these names can be determined using 'imagex /info' as previously explained in this topic. Therefore, the relevent XML (that I've verified to work) should be: <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <ImageInstall> <OSImage> <InstallFrom> <MetaData wcm:action="add"> <Key>/IMAGE/NAME</Key> <Value>Windows Vista ULTIMATE</Value> </MetaData> </InstallFrom> </OSImage> </ImageInstall> </component> </settings> After reading this you should hopefully find this link makes a bit more sense! Jamie

Those strings are in %WINDIR%\System32\en-US\systemcpl.dll.mui

Thanks for the input Ibis. However, I did already notice 'Helvetica' is in the registry substituted with 'Arial' while 'Helv' is in the undo reg file as 'MS Sans Serif' - I just assumed they were two different styles of the same family. While I'm not 100% sure what the original substitution was on Vista (has anybody an actual backup?), a quick google for 'helv font substitute' seems to confirm my settings as well as the assumption that at least Microsoft see 'Helv' and 'Helvetica' as two different typefaces. I would like confirmation of this though - if 'Helv' is purely an abbreviation of 'Helvetica' then it seems strange that MS treat them differently..

No rush nuhi, I'm happy to do it manually now I know how - would make a great feature though but first enjoy the holidays! I haven't an answer for the CD-Key thing as I'm only evaluating Vista until it is available for purchase (most likely with a new laptop). At a guess, with there being more than one matching image I'd bet setup picks the first. Might be a good thing, leave the original image there for a default install then other images for advanced users... For UA there is a setting to specify image name, haven't tried it though... Jamie

The 'blurryness' is the desired, cleartype effect - it may be that my cleartype settings are not optimal, I'm still playing with them (see updated pic). I agree with your views on the 'System Font', 'Arial Bold' would work better but I don't know how to set that - it could happily be omitted from the fix tbh. Jamie

OK! Need to post quickly before I completely bore myself (and everyone else) with this. New reg file, seems to be closest to original fonts while ensuring cleartype does it's job everywhere. I'll forward this to the original blogger too. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes] ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ; 100% accurate replacements, in both type and width ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Helv"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "MS Sans Serif"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "Times"="Times New Roman" ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ; Less accurate, slightly narrower replacements ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="Times New Roman" "MS Serif"="Times New Roman" "Tms Rmn"="Times New Roman" "System"="Arial" It should be seen from the above as well as the attached png that the first group are a no brainer. The second group are a little less accurrate but will not result in any 'overlapping' as the replacements are all slightly narrower. Ok, Done! Edit: Updated screenshot using default cleartype settings (gamma=1000).

Any news on this nuhi? I've actually been using the second idea with imagex before processing with vLite and it works very well. Haven't tested(installed) all entries on the created image but work flow is nice and vLite seems happy enough processing it. Jamie

I thought I should point out which font's were affected how as without comparing word by word, it can be easy to miss that I made many changes at all! Replaced with newer version of the *same* font originally set "MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "MS Sans Serif"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "Helv"="Microsoft Sans Serif" I don't know how different 'Times' or 'Tms Rmn' is from 'TNR' ?? "Times"="Times New Roman" "Tms Rmn"="Times New Roman" Should probably change to Times New Roman - have not seen it used in anything though. Hmm.. default for "Tms Rmn" is to use MS Serif so it makes sense that I should amend the following... "MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "MS Serif"="Microsoft Sans Serif" Replaced with best fit that is anti-aliased "System"="Arial" Based on the above I only consider a couple of settings to be away from the defaults - the rest are 'fixes' that should have been there from the start! If I knew 'Times' and 'Tms Rmn' were definitely the same as 'Times New Roman' I could say only 'System' and 'MS Serif' have been changed. All other fonts are actually the same type, just anti-aliased as you would expect. In fact, where (and as often as) 'System' is used you probably wouldn't mind leaving it alone if you were going for a (Single Checkbox, either On or off) tweak that you didn't want to change the actual 'type' of any fonts. If that's in response to the shots I posted then I have the cleartype gamma tweaked which is nothing to do with either of the fixes posted - your gamma will retain whatever value you currently have. That was the point. Except for a couple of obscure fonts there are already newer versions in the default install that render as anti-aliased. I should point out that the top group of settings at the beginning of this post, while looking like the defaults, are actually different while maintaining the same 'type'. While not against the reg tweaks in nLite, I don't actually use them. My contribution here is purely for the benefit of those reading, not to sway nuhi either way as it doesn't matter to me personally - I would post the response elsewhere (the original blog would be a good start I guess) but it just happened to come up here as I'd finished doing my own tweak. (This statement isn't really directed at you ZileXa, I didn't take offense to your post or anything ) Jamie

Sorry for the delayed reply, I don't seem to be getting topic notifications... A selective tweak is exactly what I did above with my version of the settings. The original replaces fonts like 'MS Sans Serif' with 'Segoe UI' which is a completely different font that is much wider. Mine has replaced it with 'Microsoft Sans Serif' which is the same font but it renders as anti-aliased - I don't know what microsoft were thinking with that!!! :need a 'blow brains out' emoticon here!: Oh, and what happened to my attachments?!?!? Jamie

Thanks Jeronimo, I think you'll like it. It looks a bit odd in the test screenshot as it's not a proper program and you wouldn't normally have all those fonts together. In normal use it just looks... right. I've included some decent screenshots below.. I'd like some confirmation the other settings in that original reg file aren't needed. I haven't overode the settings as forcefully as that file has (explicitly changing filenames etc.) and so far it seems ok - when changing stuff the whole OS (and everything else) uses I prefer to do only as much as is needed and no more. Screenshots:- [note: my cleartype gamma is set a little lighter than default - this is independent of the fix refered to] (Click the links on the headings, they were too big to attach) As Vista comes naturally: The only thing wrong with this pic is the nasty aliased font being used by 'Autoruns' making it look out of place. With the original font fix applied: 'Autoruns' fits in better now but look at the folder options dialog. The font that was previously there looked much better but now we have big ol' Segoe UI that doesn't even fit! This problem occurs in a lot of places on a variety of programs. With my settings applied: 'Autoruns' is taken care of with an anti-aliased version of it's original font (Microsoft Sans Serif) and the folder settings retain their original font which is the same as the one 'Autoruns' is now using. Personally I think this font not only fits better than Segoe UI, but also looks better for crowded dialogs like these... Note: 'Microsoft Sans Serif' and 'Tahoma' look very similar with the latter being slightly 'looser' in appearance. This makes it a reasonable replacement instead of 'MSSS' which would improve consistency as there would only be two main UI fonts. However, it's also very slightly wider and using it in place of 'MSSS' resullts in text being cut off in the same folder option dialog shown above. Jamie

I voted No, not because I disagree with the fonts being a problem but because I think the fix needs to be less drastic. There may well be a reason somebody wanted to use Arial or Sans Serif in their App, to differentiate from other text for example. Also, as others have mentioned there are downsides such as text not fitting their labels in standard windows dialogs as well as 3rd party apps. This is due to Segoe UI being bolder, and as a result, wider. I don't really see the need to replace fonts like 'Tahoma', 'Arial' and 'Microsoft Sans Serif' when they already render as anti-aliased. It is the aliased fonts such as 'MS Sans Serif' that look so bad in the Vista UI, and these are the only ones I've replaced. Here is the same code that is included in the zip file I've attached. As you can see, I change fewer settings and keep the fonts which already work as anti-aliased for cleartype. I think this results in a cleaner and more reliable font setup. I don't have 'Helv', 'Times' or 'Tms Rmn' so I have set sensible (but untested) values for these, if you have better settings or find any problems please PM me and I'll amend. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ; Substitute old, aliased fonts with their nearest anti-aliased counterparts ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes] "Helv"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "MS Sans Serif"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "System"="Arial" "MS Serif"="Microsoft Sans Serif" "Times New Roman"="Times New Roman" "Times"="Times New Roman" "Tms Rmn"="Times New Roman" Attached in the zip are the following files: AntiAliased.reg (shown above) is my attempt at a fix. FixFont.reg is the original fix referenced by this topic. UnFixFont.reg is to undo both the previous fixes. Fonts.exe is a quick vb form to show the fonts (used for the screenshot) Instructions to apply font settings: If you've previously applied either fix then run UnFixFont.reg Now, apply either my fix (AntiAliased.reg) or another and log off, then on to see the changes Run Font.exe (in zip) to test the new settings. ---------------------------------- Download:- ---------------------------------- radar.zip Er.. not here anymore?? Please see code above or OP. ---------------------------------- Comparison of settings:- ---------------------------------- Also gone. I'd repost if I thought they'd stay put...

Hi nuhi, I'm glad you like my suggestions. I just noticed you put (vLite) in the description this morning, would be nice to make both title and description user defined though.. Would be great if 2) is possible. I never thought of 3) like that, with 2) implemented there's not too much need for it as the original will be the backup! I look forward to your progress, if you need any help with testing just say. Jamie

(Not a removal or a tweak so I started a new topic) Great program nuhi, really impressed! Plan to install my first test tomorrow some time. Now for a few suggestions regarding the image creation and taking advantage of the new WIM format. 1. Add the ability to rename the images and thier descriptions. This one's already possible using the imagex tool (see attached) but isn't as friendly and the feature just 'belongs' in vLite! 2. Not sure this one's possible - looked in imagex already. Instead of modifying an existing profile within the image, create a new one next to it leaving the original intact. So for instance, you can choose "Vista Ultimate" or "Vista Ultimate - vLite". 3. This could be difficult.. The ability to backup the current image configuration if not rebuilding the image. This should allow vLite to add back in components that were previously removed as the files still exist in the image. Those are just some ideas, the first one is the most realistic and I'd love to see it in the next release or so. If the second one is possible using the wimgapi then I'd hope it should be fairly straightforward. The last one is a wish list idea and is probably for implenting a long time from now... Thanks for all your hard work! Jamie