Atari800XL

This is what I did: (1) Create standard Vista setup USB (diskpart) (2) Clean test laptop: install to only (new) partition (3) System drive is C: (4) Sysprep: generalize - shutdown system (5) Boot with Win8PESE (6) Capture new setup to new wim This new wim then seems to work fine with WinNTSetup (why?) Tested new wim on a different laptop, partitions 1 and 2 already in use (hidden, Grub4dos multiboot), installed to partition 3 (so partition numbers etc. are not critical at all, it seems). It has the correct C: letter! Hooray!! (again, why?) Next, I will do an "updaterun" and create another new .wim. If everything works, this is going a lot smoother than I expected! Last step after that is modify my PostInstall for Vista (already runs on w98, xp, 7, 8, 8.1, 10). Thanks JFX, your tips were invaluable once again!!!!

OK, will try that. Thank you very much for replying! I must admit I can't "get my head around" how this is supposed to to work, but I will test it as soon as I get home. What I mean is this: I can't understand (without actually trying it) how a normal setup would use C:, while WinNTSetup would create D: as system drive. But of course, you will be right and I'm looking forward to "playing around" with that. The update, sysprep/generalize and capture steps I always do anyway to create an updated wim, so that would stay the same. And than again, I can't yet understand how a new install of the new wim would then ("suddenly") **DO** work correctly with WinNTSetup (and why this time the drive letter would be C:). So I'll try the whole shabang, hope I won't have to bother you with my stupidity too much :-)

Yes. good idea. I need to make a new wim anyway (170 updates, I believe. Still, only 500-600 mb for 32bit, which is reasonable, Windows 8 updates are almost that big each and every month). Then the new (captured) install.wim *can* be used with WinNTSetup? (Hmm, guess not...?) JFX, in the 2012 discussion you mentioned to somebody to "start setup.exe" instead of WinNTSetup (this is the initial setup we're talking about again). Was that after the WinNTSetup apply phase, or do I need to do a completely "normal" Vista setup, without any WinNTSetup involvement at all? (I like to document all steps).

Just a quick question: I've done hundreds and hundreds of OS installs with WinNTSetup (XP, W7, W8, W8.1, now W10 tests, etc), but hardly ever Vista installs. Lately, I've had to do a few, so I decided to try it out with WinNTSetup. From page 7 or 8 from this thread (around 2 May 2012) I've read that with Vista, the system drive is named D: instead of C:. I just wanted to make sure if anything has changed in this regard. If I install Vista with WinNTSetup, will I have to accept that the system drive is always D:? If so, not a big problem, but maybe in the meantime new solutions came up? Again, just want to make sure. THANKS!!

For completeness, I should add that build 9879 seems to need one more setting for removing the search icon (bottom left): "SearchboxTaskbarMode". So I just add both now: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search] "EnableProactive"=dword:00000000 "SearchboxTaskbarMode"=dword:00000000

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Just found out about a few new registry entries for Windows 10, to get rid of the annoying search and task buttons. Just wanted to share with anyone interested (thanks to fekter@MDL): [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]"EnableProactive"=dword:00000000[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MultitaskingView\AllUpView]"Enabled"=dword:00000000

So I guess nobody used this new converted esd with WinNTSetup. Oh well, I still loved the fact that I could use it with WinNTSetup...

There was some debate about this on MDL as well, but the esd for build9860 (downloaded from original Microsoft server) can be decrypted and converted to wim, this results in a complete wim. Again, I tested with this esd: 9860.0.141008-2044.fbl_release_clientpro_ret_x86fre_en-us_4268ed97873110ab801beb19b3f5016090623c7c.esd Decrypted with esd-decrypter-v4c Exported to wim. Result is a complete 2,5gb .wim file. I don't like to use strange update images anyway, never used those, only clean installs (using WinNTSetup, of course). EDIT: Hope this link still works: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/57024-DISCUSSION-Windows-10-Technical-Preview?p=964130&viewfull=1#post964130 http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/57024-DISCUSSION-Windows-10-Technical-Preview?p=964130&viewfull=1#post964130

As this new Windows 10 build is only available as esd, the easiest solution would be using an unmodified file. At first I guessed true "on the fly" decrypting might not even be possible, but this is how the standard Windows setup works as well, so it has to be possible, right? Let's just hope not all new releases will be esd-only. Thanks for the wimlib tip, maybe we should ask him about the decryption.

I just installed the new Windows 10 build 9860 (released yesterday). It's only available as .esd (for now), so I used Qad's ESD Decrypter (MDL) to convert it from esd to install.wim (and also added NetFX3, using the previous TP iso as source). The decrypter worked very nicely, so I was wondering if it could ever be possible to decrypt a similar esd "on the fly" with WinNTSetup? I guess probably not, but I would still like to hear JFX' take on this... For me, this is the first time I "had" to use esd, no real alternative this time. Still, very nice to see I can still use WinNTSetup for the latest build, this makes a new install so easy (still fully unattended, with tweaks etc). Thanks!

I think this is a better link, here you can read all about SP4, it also has the official download link. Please, never trust any other link! http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10321&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 In that forum, you can also ask about integration. If you're stuck, just ask! Here's a quick howto: (1) extract your XPSP3 to a folder, eg. d:\xpsp3 (2) Download sp4 (eg. to d:\WindowsXP-USP4-NOPOS-x86-ENU.exe) (3) Execute this from command prompt: WindowsXP-USP4-NOPOS-x86-ENU.exe /integrate:d:\xpsp3 (4) Rename d:\xpsp3 to xpsp4 (5) Rebuild the iso Please note: I still like the OnePiece solutions better!! (For one thing, those are available in more languages), but still the Harkaz SP4 is an amazing piece of work!!

Harkaz just released XP SP4 RC. I was very impressed, it works perfectly with WinNTSetup know (just did a quick test). I integrated SP4 into my SP3 source, used DPBase to add storage drivers (SATA etc), created the iso, booted Win8PESE-64, used WinNTSetup 3.7 to install. Everything works fine. English only for now, but still very impressive, I think. I will still use the (localized) OnePiece packs for now, but SP4 is a very impressive achievement, I think. Of course, the most impressive thing is that WinNTSetup can install both XPSP4 and Windows 10 just as easily, all three "products" released within one week!

[EDIT: Did this test with the previous version, not 3.7 yet!! Will do that tomorrow). Thanks JFX, what did you change? I just did a test with an unedited windows 8.1 unattend.xml, it worked right away! (Didn't expect that). Only thing I noticed was a very tiny start menu, was trying to find out which settings might cause that. I'm not sure if it's a setting in my unattend, or in WinNTSetup (tweak). Very nice to see the unattended setup working like this! This was my second install test, first was normal (no unattended), it was a long time ago for me to see all those nagging questions :-) I would like to know what you think of Windows 10. I don't "mind" it, really, but to me it's more like "8.2" than "10". I like it very much that WinNTSetup is just soberly displaying "Windows 6.4", there's actually no "10" visible anywhere...

Jaclaz, I don't understand what you mean. Is it important? Maybe I was not clear: I just downloaded Windows 10 Technical Preview for Consumer, put the iso on external HD, booted Win8PESE-64 on my test laptop, mounted the iso, started WinNTSetup. All seems to work fine. That's what I wanted to test (and share). Next up it testing unattended setup etc., but that's for later... Of course, it would be nice to hear from other testers.

Well, Windows 10 is downloading, looking forward to trying it with WinNTSetup!!

Sorry, I have not used this option before. I prefer adding the drivers to the iso. Maybe somebody else can explain...

I use DPbase to add MassStorage drivers as well (in fact, I use OnePiece Final Updatepack, together with an AddOn with POSready updates, last version september 2014). No problems with WinNTSetup (look at the posts in this thread 'round 16 april, you'll see JFX even added a workaround to support OnePiece packs). Hope it works for you, ask again if you need more info.

Good luck on the release!

OK, now I'm really getting excited as well. Looking forward to testing the bajeebus out of this, I like fiddling around with this stuff anyway, and have some spare systems around to test, all on w7/8.1/(xp/linux) multiboot as well, so lots of opportunities for testing! Didn't want to count the days until now, but when you say "middle of next week", I'm thinking "<10 days left"!! Thanks nuhi!

JFX, do you read "c't magazin"? It looks like there are very good articles in the current issue (2014-17) about SSD and Wimboot. I could send you the PDFs of the article if you like. (Of course, not to "educate" you, just to "inform"). All the info on creating the install.wim is very interesting (at least to me, having never used it, not being able to without the proper hardware), but luckily, for the apply phase we have it much easier with WinSE and WinNTSetup!!

Oh sorry, I thought maybe you read the WinNTSetup-related parts from time to time (didn't they send you the mag when your program was mentioned, like ChrisR?). The magazine had a complete change (guess it will stop soon), without informing any of the subscribers beforehand... I only read the online version anyway, no biggie for me, but I can imagine people who paid for their subscription being quite disappointed....

Well, sorry, this is off-topic, but I was very unpleasantly surprised todat that the very good Com! magazin (German) is, well, basically DEAD! JFX, did you read the magazine regularly? Have you seen the new format ("August" issue)? What do you think? I think it's a bloody shame!

I know JFX is a little bit fed-up with special XP packs-related stuff, but I just wanted to mention one more thing: Harkaz' latest "Unofficial XP SP4 - Beta 3" is now completely compatible with WinNTSetup. Or as JFX would probably put it: He has removed all the non-standard stuff, so everything runs as expected. I think this is actually very nice work of him, I tested the latest beta 3, it supports the standard /integrate switch, so I integrated it into a (en-US) SP3, then added Mass Storage drivers with DPbase, then installed with WinNTSetup. Finally in beta 3, this works without a hitch! I still have to decide if this will prove useful (as we already have the great OnePiece pack, which you can even rebuild easily every month with the latest POSReady updates, or use nLite to add them to your source), but I do believe the SP4 is something extremely Cool! B) I hope he finishes his documentation soon, because until now we only have en-US, it would be nice to have localized versions as well.

Congratulations JFX, you're in the latest issue of "Com! Magazin" (German)!!!! (Article "Boot from NAS", starting at page 44, WinNTSetup 3.4 is on pages 47,50 and 54).