Atari800XL

I'm still testing as well, my first test was with imagex.exe from the dism folder (using your GetWAIKTools) in PE. This was version 16299, x86, and gave no errors. But it looked to finish too quickly, so I thought something must have gone wrong. I cleared the partition again (didn't run the install), then ran WinNTSetup, to time how long that took. WinNTSetup did the apply in around 7 minutes. After that I checked the size of C:, around 5.6gb was applied. So I tested imagex.exe again, it finished in 5 minutes, also with 5.6gb applied. Huh? How can it be so much faster?! The install seems to have gone OK while I'm typing this, so lots of interesting stuff to test and analyze...

Did you know that the latest imagex.exe does support multiple "ref" parameters? (I sure didn't). It also supports "*.*": imagex /apply Education_en-us.esd 3 Z: /ref *.esd /ref *.cab imagex /apply Education_en-us.esd 3 Z: /ref *.* Abbodi1406 found out: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-10-imaging-customization-and-deployment.59187/page-28#post-1388789

Thanks. Just to be clear: when you manually apply with DISM (instead of WinNTSetup using Wimgapi), cab-to-esd is also necessary, isn't it? BTW, just finished the 3.8.8.2b1 test, using the new 17035 UUP files, everything working OK! (Not that the new 17035 preview is all that interesting, but that's a different story...)

Sounds good, JFX! Will test ASAP... How did you get this working without converting the cabs? Are you converting "on the fly" in some way?

(in a Burns voice): "Excellent!!!" Thanks JFX, just tested and this works for me. I'm sure others might find this too radical (maybe we'll find another way to disable the Edge page displaying), but to me, this will surely do for now! Of course, we can always enable Edge again after setup (during "PostInstall"). Normally, I would run setup on offline systems, but for Pro versions with a Digital License, it's better to have Internet access during setup, I have found this will get the system activated faster. Thanks again for your great support!

If anybody knows a reg setting to get rid of the new (unwanted) Microsoft Edge page popping up after a clean install of 16299 (when online), I would really like to know it. I like my setups to be completely silent, Microsoft seems to come up with new stuff all the time. I have been looking with regshot, etc. but can't find anything... The only thing I can offer in return is this, to get rid of the stupid "people" icon in the tray: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\People] "Peopleband"=dword:00000000

ADK: https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/1/E/31EC1AAF-3501-4BB4-B61C-8BD8A07B4E8A/16299.15.170928-1534.rs3_release_amd64fre_ADK.iso

With Windows 10 Version 1709 Fall Creators Update, build 16299.15 now being RTM, are you planning on making WinNTSetup 3.8.8 "RTM" now, as well? Or does the MS release have nothing to do with your release schedule :-) Either way is fine by me, the beta3 is working just great in my (UUP) tests [thanks again for the UUP support], ESD was released today (they even call it RTM, after saying they wouldn't use that term anymore). (Insider) ISOs and ADK will probably be available next week.

Some might find the tweak useful, it suppresses the "new network found" on clean setup: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Network\NewNetworkWindowOff] Note that this is just an empty key, there are no values "inside" it.

Thanks for "hanging in there" with me, JFX, it gave me the push to investigate further. Now I have to admit it turned out to be my own fault after all. I apologize for bothering you, it turned out one of the reg tweaks was -not- the same as the ones I successfully tested before (you can guess what the problem was, I'm sure, but I'm too ashamed to admit). Once again sorry for this, and thanks again for helping to narrow it down. Result for now is: WinNTSetup fully supports UUP, so one of these days the "rtm" will become available on the Microsoft updates servers, downloading the files is super easy with MKuba's UUP dump, so anyone can download this "shiny" (turd) OS as soon as it is released to Insiders, and apply it in a heartbeat with WinNTSetup! No need for converting to wim or iso (at least not for testing, same goes for upcoming rs4 previews, of course). Cool stuff...

OK, instead of continuous editing of posts, this one warrants a new one: SUCCESS! The problem seems to be in the reg tweaks. Now, I'm quitting testing for today, but I will continue tomorrow, because I still need to distinguish between "built-in" WinNTSetup tweaks (you can see which ones I use in the command line example a few posts back) or the ones I add via the extra reg tweaks folder (driversearch and network discover windows off). In my wimlib uup esd apply tests I did last week, I used the same tweaks, but I used the "old fashioned" reg method (everything working fine). I know you use a different method (offline reg, can't remember exactly). Now, maybe there's some incompatibilities there? Oh well, I'm off for today, but I'm glad I'm getting closer step by step...

EDIT: Expected wimgapi for a while, but that also doesn't seem to be it. Now it seems I have narrowed it down to either the reg tweaks or the unattend.xml. Suspect the first, but am still trying (I will continue this tomorrow).

--- removed, error was my own failt ---

--- still testing, sorry ---

Sorry to be vague. I have now downloaded the new beta, and have put both "uup.txt" and "upp.txt" in the folder, just to be sure. Apply seems to work now, so things are looking good. Please confirm again: you do mean "uup.txt", right? Have to run now, but will test more later. Thanks again for the new stuff...

Thanks, I will try soon. But just wondering: what command line was I supposed to use? I did try some different combinations of the ref parameter, but didn't succeed. Thanks for the updates!

I tried some stuff with the new beta, but couldn't figure out if you've changed anything pertaining to UUP/ ref/ ESD stuff? What's new in the beta?

So that's not a flat-out "no" to the idea? What did you use to download the UUPs? The tools are in constant development at the moment... Did you use a fully automatic solution, or did you start the download from a list of URL's (they sometimes time-out after a few minutes already!)

I'm really not so sure about asking this, but I just "have to", somehow... I don't know if you've heard about the great new "UUP Dump" project by MKuba50, but it's a very nice set of php scripts that allow you to download Windows UUP files directly from the Microsoft Update servers. I know, I know, you don't want to mess with Insider Previews, but I'll try to restrict this purely to Release versions of Windows 10: Version 1703 (build 15063) is also available as a "UUP" edition. I have done some tests applying these files directly (without going through converting all ESD's to WIM, making ISO, etc.) and it seems to work just fine: (1) There are a bunch of CAB files that need to be converted to ESD (done in a few seconds, best done before hand, I guess). The bulk of the files are already in ESD format, though. (2) After that, all different SKUs are available from the set of ESD files (Pro, Edu, etc.) (3) Apply can be done by adding an extra command line option for the ESD stuff, for example: using DISM: DISM /Apply-Image /ImageFile:Cloud_en-us.esd /Index:3 /ApplyDir:Z: /SWMFile:*.esd using Wimlib-Image-X: wimlib-imagex.exe apply professional_nl-nl.esd 3 c:\ --ref=*.esd Once again: I really don't expect you to jump on this immediately, but I'm sure you understand I was thinking of WinNTSetup as well, when I was experimenting with this. The new 1709 version will probably be out this week, and I expect that the UUP files are available a week (or more) earlier than the ISO/ "normal" full ESD version.

Yes, that's it. Best solution, case closed. Thanks again!

Yes, I will try all of that (in time). And to perplex you even more: maybe the coolest idea would be for WinNTSetup to modify an existing "autounattend.xml" on the fly with the new name (if desired). That way there would be no misunderstanding on when to apply what. But I'm sure JFX will not bother :-) Thanks again for listening guys, just trying to learn here...

JFX, yes, this would normally be done in unattend.xml, just wondering if I could make something to act as a sort of "override" for incidental use. Jaclaz, yes, I asked if WinNTSetup could "manage" it, but *if* that would be the case, I don't know at what particular stage that would happen, like JFX said, it would normally be done by unattend.xml, so I was just wondering if setup would execute that *earlier* or *later* in the process than changing it in the registry myself (=after apply, before first boot). But from your reactions, I can already see that this will not be the new "killer" feature for WinNTSetup 4.0! :-) (meaning: it wasn't such a great idea in the first place. I believe I first got the idea when a buddy of mine was setting up Server 2016 in a VM, which doesn't ask for a computer name, and thinking this would be nice to spare a reboot later. Something like that... This also brought up the question of why a Hyper-V generation 2 VM is so picky when it comes to bootable iso's, but that's a whole 'nother topic). Thanks for listening, anyways.

So after WinNTSetup is done with the apply fase (just prior to first reboot), would that be the appropriate time to do the settings for a name change, or is that "too soon"? (ie. is the random name fase still to come, so changing the name this early would have no effect?). Just wondering (before having done any testing yet).

Thank you! I will start experimenting...

JFX, with all the nice new releases lately, I wonder if I can ask you something: - What would be the best way to name/ rename the computer after apply/ before reset? I know it can be done with autounattend.xml, but it would be great if WinNTSetup could name the PC on its own. At this moment, I'm using this in "PostInstall" to rename the PC, but doing it in WinNTSetup would shave off one reset in some cases. WMIC ComputerSystem where Name="currentname" call Rename Name=newname WMIC isn't normally available in PE, is it? Do you know of any other way to do it in PE (maybe using WinNTSetup -runafter, or maybe a new option?) Thanks for any info...