Afterdawn

I am not using your XPcreate utility to create my CD's.. but I am using it as a reference when i make my own batch files! Your file uses really complicated structures... it's a nice learning file!

@ un4given1: No you cannot do it that way! The cmd-files do not contain absolute paths (because you can add programs quicker that way!) @ everybody who thinks the pops instruction isn't needed!: Who cares!!! You won't notice it if you removed it! Maybe your unattended installations is 14 nanoseconds faster!!!! Anyway I changed it a bit: [uPDATE: Please check http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=251941 for the most recent version.[/uPDATE] set installDir=\\10.0.0.152\install net use %installDir% /user:username password if NOT %ERRORLEVEL%==0 ( echo. Cannot connect to %installDir% ) else ( pushd %installDir% for /R %%i IN (.) DO ( if EXIST "%%~fi"\!commands.cmd ( echo. echo Installing "%%~fi" cd "%%~fi" call !commands.cmd ) ) popd ) Now it installs from a network drive.. if the server is available! And now PUSHD is mandatory! Because it automatically maps the first available drive (ie Z:). CD doesn't understand direct networkpaths (it does for mapped ones of course). Also if you PUSHD you gotta POPD otherwise the stack only grows!

Warning! This tweak: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem] "NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:00000001 unfortunately troubles the installation of a lot of software! This one caused me headaches! I spend days to figure out what caused it! For example... if you would run the .exe installer of vmware-client, then you would get a popup message of the options of the windows-installer. (Workaround was the run the extracted MSI-file) Another problem.. SafeNet Softremote VPN client wouldn't install properly.. the driver wouldn't load! (offtopic: what a dirty piece of software-crap is that! all virtual network adapters and enhancers installed just to connect to an IE-only site.. .. well my father needs it!)

@jdoe: The POPD instruction probably isn't needed here.. but I use this script in another larger script-file, so when the for-loop finishes i want to make sure the active directory is restored. Btw, CD doesn't understand network-paths! PUSHD automatically creates a temporary (ie Z:) network mapping! Also.. if ya would put the ECHO lines in the cmd-file... then it would almost defeat the purpose of my script! @staples I'm am sure you can replace all that networkletter mapping/changing with a simple PUSHD command! Ah well.. maybe you'll need the net use ... command too.

thank you

please.. could at least somebody say: "hmm that's nice i'll consider using it"

[uPDATE] The information in this post isn't up-to-date, please check this post for the most recent version of my script. [/uPDATE] Hello! I created a small script that makes the maintaning and adding of applications to your unattended disc a lot easier. Normally, most people use this sort of scripts to install applications: echo. echo Installing Kaspersky Anti-virus 4.5 "%SystemDrive%\apps\KAV\Setup.exe" /S /N echo. echo Installing Winrar 3.12 "%SystemDrive%\apps\Winarar\wrar341.exe" /s Ofcourse there's nothing wrong with this.. only this requires a lot of manual work and typing. So instead of adding applications manually, i created a script that runs at "install time" and automatically checks for applications to be installed at a given directory (in this case "%SystemDrive%\apps").: @echo off for /R "%SystemDrive%\apps" %%i IN (.) DO ( if EXIST "%%~fi"\!commands.cmd ( echo. echo Installing "%%~fi" pushd "%%~fi" call !commands.cmd popd ) ) How? It scans all subdirectories and in each directory it checks for a "!commands.cmd" file and executes it. So [deleting an application / adding an application / changing the dir-structure] won't require to change your install-scripts! The "!commands.cmd" file should only contain Setup.exe /S /N (in the case for Kaspersky). Because the script temporary changes the current directory to the application-directory you won't have to use absolute paths. You could use this script in this dir-structure for example: %SystemDrive% | |---Apps | |---Archiving | | | |---Powerarchiver 5.4 | |---Winrar 3.41 | |---Winzip 8 | |---Graphics | |---IrfanView 5.3 |---Xnview 2.4 Now only put a "!commands.cmd" file in a directory that you want to install automatically; so for winrar this file contains only wrar341.exe /s. (Also this way, if you would just double-click the cmd-file from explorer or something.. it should install the application too.) The cmd-file could also contain the regular file-exist-checks such as with the ATI control panel or the Nvidia sound-panel. Applications are installed in the order they appear in de directory structure. So if you have an application that needs to be installed before others, you should make sure that directory appears first in the directory structure.

I'm looking a program to "convert" my CMD scripts to a nice looking GUI program. Is there an utility that will help me do this? Something like Visual Studio or Visual Basic is way too complicated... I just want a program that will let the user interact with the cmd-file in a nice GUI-way. Thanks in advance!

Well.. because the file may not be there the 3rd or 4th time you'll check it! I'll bet you like to program like this : if (boolean1 == true) boolean2 = true; if (boolean1 == false) boolean2 = false) Maybe I'm just a perfectionist.. yes that's it. I am going crazy to make the perfect unattended CD... I spend hours (if not days) to search for a specific registry tweak in order to replace the manual work (which costs me less then minute to perform i guess). I'm nutts! But i can't help it! I *must* create perfect unattended CD! Cannot stop anymore... it's tooo late now!

why check 4 times for the atiddc.dll file? this is a lot "cleaner": IF EXIST %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\atiddc.dll ( reg add everything and more..! and do lots of stuff here you can even add commands here;) )

I see that you have files included from the base dir? Why? I thought these files always belong to the installation/setup program!

Thanx for the fast reply. But i only get 14 files. I moved them from the following dirs (see attached image) Notice that some dirs (like idefilter or pfd) do not contain any INF files at all, nor are they subdirs of dirs with INF files in 'm! Should these be copied nevertheless?

There are lots of dirs in the package... I want to integrate this driver in $1\drivers.... Does somebody has experience with these drivers? Note: I read all the unattended pages at msfn.org, also i used the search for hyperion.. but the only method described is with Nlite... which I don't want to use.

What are the NAM and PreNRM dirs in the Ethernet dir? Are they needed for the OEM preinstall method? Also, what method do you prefer... move the contents of all dirs to ONE dir.. or refer to the dirs individually. (In the winnt.sif file) ****.. wrong place --> can somebody move this topic to "device drivers" [edit] Btw.. what is GART?

Thanx, found it out already. And I know why you need both. And ENTER on Windows is 2 ASCII characters, one for CariageReturn, and one for LineFeed. Linux files for example need only one character. (LineFeed). Anyway, now you can make some pretty funny things. Like putting the hex-codes of a complete program or something under .exe extension (or whatever, you can always rename it). Or a complete picture (.bmp / .jpg) LOL . This way you can hide some files nobody would ever notice.

Yes that's even better, especially because there are no enviromental variables available. We need to figure out how this DATA key works. Hex-entries don't look pretty

This is something I found very useful. It is possibly to define your own new-file types like this: [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.cmd\ShellNew] "NullFile"="" This for example creates a empty cmd-file when using the New-File menu. The best part is, you can let windows copy a existing file to a new file you create using that menu. The code then becomes: [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.cmd\ShellNew] "FileName"="c:\\windows\\system32\\cmdnew.dat" Now create the cmdnew.dat in the system32 folder, and put anything you like in it. In example, i have by default @echo off in it. This is also useful for .reg file, where i put the Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 by default in the newly created file. Note: Enviromental Variables like %windir% unfortanetely don't work!

Remember to first log-off (or restart your computer) to let explorer.exe save your settings to the registry. Because if you change folderview settings it won't by applied to the registry immediately but only after the first reboot/logof.

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@astalavista: I'm really sure about this. I tested it many times with VMware workstation. Please note that you can apply this tweak whenever you want, but be sure Explorer.exe is not running while applying them, because if you restart/quit/logoff the computer, then explorer.exe will overwrite some of the settings currently cached in memory. This applies to some other Explorer settings as well. @Mhz: True, binary tweaks are always a bit tricky, but there is no other way to enable "quick launch" besides enabling it manually. Besides, I'm pretty confident the "quick launch" is pretty much the same on each computer. I tested this. (I installed windows xp sp2 with no tweaks applied, and then manually enabled quicklaunch, exported it and compared it against the one in the Big Registry Zipfile from the Sticky. It was exactly the same.) Then again, you can always export the key from your own registry, if you know which ones to use. Rember to restart your computer because explorer actually write most settings to the registry on shutting down. [edit] removed some nonsense

You can configurise Winrar to disable some or all of the context-menu items. In your "\documents and settings\your username\sendto" folder, you will find the "Send to" items. Delete the ones you want to get rid off And for the rest of the programs, just configurise / uninstall them. You problably won't need the Radlinker entries etc.

When my unattended installation finishes, a batch file is executed so that the user can enter a password in order to auto-logon the computer. However this password is saved in plain text in the registry (DefaultPassword under the Winlogon key). If you use TweakUI to auto-logon your Windows, then the password is encrypted. Off course I want to this without TweakUI, in an unattended manner. How do I do this? I can't seem to figure out how TweakUI saves this encrypted password. I realize that the password inputted by the user needs to be encrypted by some command-line tool (md5.exe) or something like that. Note: I do not want to use the "encryptedadminpassword" entry in the winnt.sif file, because the password is not static. (Neither is autologon supported this way)

Whenever you delete some special file in explorer (like a executable / read-only file), it prompts for an extra confirmation (something like "are you sure you want to bla bla..."). You get the same sort of warning when you move a read-only file. How do I disable this behaviour? Note: I do not mean the option under "recycle bin -> properties -> ask for confirmation". This is only the first prompt, which appears always when you try to delete any file. I bet this isn't possible without hexediting explorer.exe i guess....i searched all sites.

I think this should be corrected to the Registry Zip: The line: "Use Search Asst"="no" should be "Use Search Asst"="yes" on the condition that you have these keys: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Search Assistant] "SocialUI"=dword:00000000 "UsageCount"=dword:00000001 "UseAdvancedSearchAlways"=dword:00000001 This will NOT enable that stupid dog or whatever, but it will let you search by advanced options by default (so that you won't have to tick the advanced anymore). If you would have "Use Search Asst" = "no", then you wouldn't have the dog neither, but then those [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Search Assistant] keys would be useless.

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