maxamoto

Strange that ApplyTheme.exe does not work for you. I use it in my install.bat (called from winnt.sif), and that's the only thing I use. I've never had to resort to a reghack or any other method...

Germany now, Iraq later, U.S. after that. I'm everywhere =]

Without Quotes, run this from a cmd prompt or a batch file: "ApplyTheme.exe Royale"

i haven't tested it fully....but i think there is another way to set the theme and i'm going to check it out..... or maybe someone could help us out <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Help is on the way. Here is an executable that will change your theme. Just call it from a batch file or whatever. Credit belongs to someone else, unfortunately I can't remember where I got this program and a quick search on Google reveals nothing. If anyone knows where this came from, let us know =] Download ApplyTheme.exe

Actually 5.1 is an upgrade. Here's my code: REG ADD %KEY%\013 /V 1 /D "%cdrom%\install\Messenger\messenger.msi /Q" /f I'm sure you can figure out how to get what you need from that. I've never figured out why people spend so much time building a forum just to have it populated by people who babble RTFM all day long...

I'll probably wait for SP1, just like I did with all the other major MS releases. Work smarter, not harder =]

Cnet?? Are you kidding me? That's your source? Sorry, but a senior of a tech magazine is going to write about anything to save his job, especially when it deals with older technology like the HOSTS file. It's safe filler for the mindless AOL pukes. Actually, it does block popups. If a popup spawns from a domain that's pointed at 127.0.0.1, what do you think happens? Use a flowchart if you need to. Did you actually test my method, or did you just try and debunk it based on what the "senior editor" of a tech mag said? One would need to be incredibly retarded to fall for this. The link I gave in my original post is a safe file. Did you check it out, or did you just jump in keyboards-a-blazin'? No petty insults here. A petty insult would have been "you're a moron who obviously doesn't know anything about how the Internet works and just likes to jump on whatever bandwagon the Cnet editors are on this week". Since I wouldn't ever say anything like that, I simply addressed what I though were deficiencies in your logic. Sorry if you were offended by that. To each their own. I'm suggesting an alternative way to stop the cr@p before it ever hits your popup blocker / spyware killer. If you don't agree, that's fine with me, but don't go posting your opinions disguised as fact. You'll get called out and end up looking real stupid. Especially if you're quoting some moron from Cnet... I don't care what anyone says. This will ALWAYS be funny to me =]

Ugh, I hate Firefox. It's just as broken, bloated and insecure as IE. Why install something that's busted when you already have something that's busted that does all the same things? Anyway... As long as you start and stop the DNS service (or just disable it. You don't need it unless you're joined to a domain), you will not "chug along" as you put it. I suppose I could have added that, but I'm sure people will reboot at some point and render this a moot issue. Not to mention the fact that "chug away" means an almost instant lookup failure once the browser realizes there is no web server running on the local host (unless you have one), so again, moot... Ugly? Yes, but so are ads, popups, trojans, phishing attacks and all the other cr@p out there. Take your pick, I guess... When you say your information, what do you mean? The contents of the C drive? Whatever was in the form you were filling out at that particular moment? You're going to have to be a bit more specific than "your information". Also, how exactly would someone "slip in" another IP? I assume you mean by hacking your computer, but then all your information are belong to us, as they say... Methinks you need to learn a little bit more about how things work before hitting the reply button

Interesting idea. I gave a try with RegShot but didn't get any results that seemed likely. also googled around to see if there was some other way to automate this... didn't find much except that it might be possible using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) but i've never used that before. anybody else? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Here's the code: strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _ & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\default") Set objItem = objWMIService.Get("SystemRestore") errResults = objItem.Disable("") Save as .vbs and use cscript to run from your unattended batch file. Cheers!

All, Here is a nifty trick to keep the 'Net bugs at bay. You can avoid most advertisements, spyware packages, popups and other nasties by editing your HOSTS file. Even better, you can import one during your unattended installs by adding a preconfigured HOSTS file. Simply go to This site and download the HOSTS file in zipped form. Then, in your XPCD (or whatever you call it) folder add the unzipped HOSTS file to the \$OEM$\$$\System32\DRIVERS\ETC\ folder. You can test it now by overwriting the original HOSTS file in SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\ on your current machine with the one you downloaded and navigate to Wired's webpage. You should see a "Page cannot be displayed" error where the advertisement usually sits at the top. Note that you might have to defeat whatever anti-spyware you run in order to do this, since it might be protecting your current HOSTS file. Anyway, the file on mvps.org is constantly being updated, and it's worth checking out in my opinion. Cheers! NOTE: Edited post to reflect correct folder path to place updated HOSTS file.

Thank you, gentlemen. Very professional looking. Your hard work shows and is appreciated!

I am. I have a SATA RAID 0 setup on my machine. I guess that would have been pertinent information to put in the first post, my apologies Anyway, prior to taking the steps above I was unable to do an unattended install on my machine without loading drives via F6.

I have, and setup tells me it can't find the drivers for the Promise RAID =]

Well, this was waaaay too easy. Here's what I did: 1. Created the $oem$ dir on my unattended DVD 2. Created a 'Textmode' directory under that 3. Put the updated drivers in the Textmode directory 4. Tested it. No floppy, no BSODs, just a solid install with no issues. I did not add any information to the [MassStorageDrivers] or [OEMBootFiles] sections. Strange that it would work this way, but it did. Anyway, I hope this helps someone, as I have been struggling with this issue for quite some time now.

Thanks for the reply. I'm a moron. I figured this out about an hour after I posted this question. Unfortunately, being in the Army I don't always get a chance to get online whenever I want, otherwise I would have edited this post. Thanks again

IDE/SATA RAID is useless. It just adds 10 seconds to your boot time.

I've had this break SAV. Here's a free Program that checks Symantec's servers for the latest updates and downloads/installs them. I run it after installing SAV10 on my unattended DVD using this: REG ADD %KEY%\035 /V 1 /D "%SystemRoot%\system32\UpdateVscan.exe /s" /f Cheers!

Diskeeper.

Has anyone done this? I really don't like having a ton of stuff on my drive after a fresh install, so during the unattended setup I have all my 3rd party applications install from the DVD. I would like to have this capability with WPI (WPI running off the DVD as well, of course). Suggestions? EDIT: One of the issues I'm having is with the syntax. Using %CDROM% does not work, and the error I get is "can't find c:\Blahblah". Shouldn't it be d:\, since that's my dvd drive?

Tell your manager that due to the restrictions he/she has placed on your troubleshooting that you are unable to complete your mission. Then, go crack open a cold one and relax. There isn't anything you can do without logging in as Admin. Zip, zero, zilch, nada. As far as decrypting the admin password goes, NO.

So if I copy the GroupPolicy folder from one of the machines I setup (minimal restrictions) over the GroupPolicy folder on the 'restricted machines', then that should take care of it? or is it computer/user specific? I can use Winternals ERD to do the the folder/file replacement if this is the case. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you have the ERD disk, use it to reset the administrator password and then use gpedit.msc to do the dirty deed...

I think so. I got the same thing as well. I just replaced an older version of the dotnetfx.exe with the new one (june 5th, I think) and now I'm getting all the prompts one would get on a manual install where it used to be unattended. Just checked his forum and there's no info on this issue yet. Just tried to do a silent install on my main machine, and it bombs. There's something definitely something strange with this release...

Where can I download this Adminpak.msi ?? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> poledit is from the nt4 days... Leave it alone. If you're running XP. just launch gpedit.msc as administrator and make the changes yourself. running gpupdate from the command line when you're done will keep you from rebooting.

Long logins with AD is almost always a DNS issue. Check your client records in the DNS console for duplicates. Also, if you're running WINS duplicate records in the database can sometimes cause a problem. If you want your clients to be able to surf the net when server falls over (although, keeping the server standing up straight would also solve your issues, it would seem), configure your Win2003 DHCP to assign your clients the AD DNS server as DNS server #1 and your ISP DNS server as #2. Or alternately, just set up a caching-only DNS server in your perimeter and call it a day.

You can try plugging the IP addy into www.samspade.org, but I doubt anything will come of it, just because ISPs really don't care about that kind of thing...