getwired

Modify your startnet.cmd to consist of: DISKPART /S commands.txt FORMAT /Q /Y /FS:NTFS WINNT32.exe /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /dudisable /makelocalsource /unattend:unattend.txt EXIT Your commands.txt file should consist of: SEL DIS 0 CLEAN CRE PAR PRI SIZE=40000 CRE PAR PRI SEL PAR 1 ASSIGN LETTER=C ACTIVE SEL PAR 2 ASSIGN LETTER=E BTW, you don't need to reboot. Just partition, format, and go.

Remove the line starting with disableadminondomainjoin from your SIF file(s). That is on by default after Windows XP Service Pack 1 and in Windows Server 2003.

You should install NTFS, not FAT32 with conversion. The end result isn't as efficient if you start with FAT32.

Yes - the documentation included with your copy of WinPE has directions on how to install WinPE on RIS.

WinPE (and BartPE, it's reverse-engineered twin) are both designed to be used without Windows. They boot from CD - they don't require Windows at all, and will do exactly what you want.

Actually, WinPE was also available to Microsoft's Software Assurance customers pretty early on. Not immediately upon XP's release, but pretty close thereafter. But your point is very true, that most people complaining about the shortcomings of WinPE (which is architecturally the same thing as BartPE, sans the reverse-engineered build process) are misunderstanding it's original goals. It was not intended to be an embedded OS. That's what Windows XP Embedded was for. PE was meant for preinstallation - deployment, recovery, and diagnostics.

My point was more that you aren't really removing much from WinPE (if you're only down to 120)... As WinPE can be carefully scaled down using the documentation included with it to get below 120, that's the supported way to remove files.

two things... 1: if you do something, and it throws hundreds of errors, it doesn't really work. 2: if by scalping the XP source, you wind up with a WinPE install of 120 MB, it doesn't really work - as any level of careful file exclusion (using the supported method of removing files from WinPE) can get you a WinPE that is error free at build time, and smaller than 120MB.

What are you removing via NLite that would normally be there in WinPE???

Won't work.

Like I said, you won't be able to get it working on an offline OS. It doesn't work. Sure, for simple MSI's that are just a file copy. And if you can ever trick the installer to redirecting registry, perhaps. But throw in one custom action (which any complex MSI will have) and it won't work. I'm not saying it's not an interesting scenario - it is. But without work from Macrovision (nee Installshield)'s developers it is more work than it will be worth.

Have you added ADSI? WinPE by itself does not include any ADSI functionality.

Why would you possibly want to run installshield under WinPE? You won't be able to get it working properly with an offline OS, and it won't store anything you install across reboots...

Not true. You just cannot do it with any currently released version of WinPE.

Not in the near term, nope.

It does not support it, no.

There's no pretty GUI version - that's what TAP does. But given the ability to use WMI in WinPE now, TAP is redundant - especially if you did want to build a fancy GUI.

What exactly is the blue screen you get? Hard to help much without that...

With WinPE this is specifically forbidden by the EULA...

XP Embedded doesn't provide source code. It provides Windows XP, in layers of components, and those components can be combined together to create an image specifically suited to an embedded device as needed.

Have you partitioned and formatted the drive? Go to Start | Run and run diskmgmt.msc. You should see the drive there. Partition and format it accordingly, and then it should appear in My Computer.

You need to reinstall the entire thing - there is no way to install "just the media center part". If Windows setup is provided the correct type of product key during install it is automatically installed.

Clean install, providing the key you obtained when you bought your Media Center PC, or when you bought your copy of Media Center from a reseller. That's all you need to do. Provide the key, and it will automatically be installed, as it is a part of the OS you licensed from Microsoft.

That will allow you to connect FROM. Those two binaries are only for the Terminal Services Client - they don't affect the ability to connect to a 2000 Pro machine at all. The only way to connect to the GUI of 2000 Pro remotely is using third party software.

Note you can't upgrade from Pro to Server... But yes, you could have the functionality if you reinstalled. Though using VNC, PCAnywhere, or simply upgrading to XP Pro will also solve this. What I meant earlier, Zillah (sp?) sorry was that all connections to XP Pro are to the console. That is, there is one session, and if you connect via Remote Desktop, the local console will lock. Log back onto the local console, and the RD connection will be disconnected. This is compared to Windows Server 2003, where you can have technically three connections - 1, 2, and the console - via mstsc /console. A true terminal server setup brings more connections, but licensing fun.