Cartoonite

Thanks durex, but I can't really take the credit. I just modified work done by edmoncu. Incidently, he, in turn, was modifying work done by someone else. Ah it is an interesting world we live in, eh?

Thanks for the reply vcBlackBox. I had actually already considered doing something like this, but was unsure just how to go about setting it up. My script is actually a little bit different from his. I use a pair of type statements with an echo statement for the install directory line. For those that are interested, here is the code I used: HeyDJ.cmd cmdow @ /HID FOR %%d IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%d:\WIN51 SET CDROM=%%d: SET DIR=%CDROM%\Install\Apps\HeyDJ set ISS=%systemdrive%\HeyDJ.iss if exist %ISS% del %ISS% type %DIR%\setup1.iss > %ISS% echo szDir=%systemdrive%\Multimedia\Hey Mr DJ >> %ISS% type %DIR%\setup2.iss >> %ISS% Start /wait %DIR%\setup.exe /s /f1"%ISS%" exit This cmd file sits in the HeyDJ directory on my CD. Setup1 and Setup2.iss are the two portions of the iss file that are separated by the line that dictates installation path. Setup.exe is the original program installer. The extra variables are there just because I hate typing.

Which RunOnceEx window are you trying to apply a theme to? The window that the command script itself runs in when you are importing all the registry keys, or the RunOnce window that gets presented when all the programs are being installed?

Okay. Thanks for explaining that for me. Back in September SiMoNsAyS posted a fairly in-depth description that might help you out. You can find it here. I haven't read through it completely yet, so I'm not sure what all is in there, but it might have some stuff that will help you figure out exactly when names get assigned.

I've run into a bit of a snag in setting up my uA CD. One of my programs (a Winamp plugin of sorts called Hey, Mr. D.J.) installs from a setup.exe-based InstallShield installer. I am able to get it to install silently using the method outlined in the MSFN Unattended CD Guide (found here), but the install path saved in the setup.iss file that is created is absolute. If I attempt to replace the path with a variable one (C:\.... with %systemdrive%\...) the install fails. Does anyone know of a way to get around this?

Yes, Swimming_Bird, you've got it right. Additionally, gunsmokingman's script will provide an error message if setup.exe is not found. The only required line for setting up the CDROM variable is the for statement. I use a slight variation of the one gunsmokingman posted in my own scripts. FOR %%d IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%d:\WIN51 SET CDROM=%%d: WIN51 is a file that resides at the root of all Windows XP CDs so that an alternate drive won't be designated by accident if, for some reason, you are booting from the Windows XP CD with another CD in another optical drive. Also, I personally feel the code is a little bit cleaner if the colon is added at the end of the line as a part of the set statement rather than repeating it throughout the set to be parsed by the for statement.

And here I thought we did it because of the wonderful fools who every so often come along and flame us for no reason... @lylo Thanks for showing your appreciation. Welcome to MSFN.

Let me just make sure I am following this properly: uA installation generates a random name to assign to the PC User aka is created PC is renamed to aka Have I got that right?

That's certainly interesting. What have you broken now? I don't believe that your screenshot is a fake, but as far as I know Alanoll is right about this and having computer and user name identical should not be possible. Every test I have ever run has failed to create a user who's name is identical to the machine name.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I thought those "recovery" partitions were usually just images of the system partition from right before the machine gets shipped. If that's the case, just about any disk imaging utility should be able to create an image that would suit your needs. The only sticky part would then be creating a boot option that allows you to re-image the system drive from the boot menu.

I believe you can set a maximum password age from the command line as such: net accounts /maxpwage:XXWhere XX is the maximum password age in days. I also believe this to be a system-wide setting, so I don't think you will be able to set maximum ages of different lengths for the various accounts. There is an option to set "Password never expires" on specific accounts which will bypass the maximum password age setting that you can use if you want one or more accounts to have permanent passwords. Edit: It is also not necessary to add users to the Users group once you have created them. New users are made members of this group by default when they are created via the net user command.

Only problem is I cant uninstall a bunch of my programs... Ill try out those boot time antivirus checkers... As far as re-installing.. heres the thing. If I were to reformat and reinstall I would need to do it without their help or them noticing. Ive got a my own copy of WinXP and grabbed the i386 folder from the install disk they use and I know there are ways I can find the CDKEY my pc is using now... so I could re-install. That leaves me with a few problems though.. 1. This laptop has Symantec AV installed and is setup to be managed via their symantec server... I obviously dont know the password and I would assume I would need to be on the network when I install this to select the syamtec server and whatnot... again, Im hardly ever in the office, so this would be difficult. 2. Ive got outlook installed which is setup to login to their exchange server.. which I dont have the slightest idea how to setup 3. Currently the account I use to log into my PC is a domain account.. not a local one.. so I wouldnt be able to create this account unless I have direct access to the network... 4. I dont have any domain admin access so I wouldnt be able to add myself back to the domain when I did get back into the office, right? So as you see, I dont think I would be able to reinstall windows without the assitance of my MIS dept, which I wouldnt have. If anyone thinks I would be able to get around the above issues, by all means speak up as I would have no problem with reformatting. Thanks for the suggestions guys! Keep em comin! Can't say I can address all of these issues, but I think I may be able to help out a little bit. Can't help you here. Think you may be SoL just based on this point alone. Resetting this is easy enough. You will need the name of your mailbox, your password and the name of your Exchange server. The name of this server can be found from within Outlook itself or through the Mail icon in Control Panel. Don't remember the exact steps offhand, but if you try opening the Mail Control Panel applet I believe it is fairly self-evident from there. If you are not connected to the network you cannot delete your domain account. Further, if you are not a domain admin (which I assume you are not) you also cannot delete your domain account. You will likely have issues reconfiguring your laptop to join the domain (if that is how it is currently configured) if you are not connected to the network. I suspect the laptop's domain account would also have to be reset, since reinstalling XP should give you a new GUID and SID, essentially marking it as a brand new machine, regardless of the computer name you assign it. In all honesty, though, I suggest you contact your company's technical support/IT department if this is a company machine. I understand that you don't really want to turn your computer over to them for several days, but I don't think it is wise to risk violating whatever agreement you have concerning use of company assets. If you can't fix it yourself (with our help ) through virus scanners or any other method short of a re-install, I really suggest you write it off and just give the laptop to the IT department to fix. That's just my two cents. BTW: Any luck running those boot time scanners?

As far as I know it is not possible to do this with [GuiRunOnce], a06lp. However, you could use a script executed from cmdlines.txt. This is essentially what people use RunOnceEx.cmd to do. Try running a batch file from there with code similar to: for %%i in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T L U V W X Y Z) do if exist %%i\win51ip.SP2 set CDROM=%%i: SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx REG ADD %KEY% /V TITLE /D "Title For Window" /f REG ADD %KEY%\001 /VE /D "Name of step" /f REG ADD %KEY%\001 /V 1 /D "%CDROM%\WPI\WPI.cmd" /f This will be run the first time a user logs in to Windows after the install has been completed, exactly the same time as a program called from [GuiRunOnce]. The only real difference is that there will be a dialogue box created that displays each successive program as it is run. And do try to be a little more patient. Even one full day is not all that long to wait for an answer...

I don't believe this is possible with Home. I suggest upgrading to Pro unless you are sure that you will not be requiring connection to a Windows domain.

It would run immediately if you replaced your Office.exe file with one created from the code I posted. Instead of importing the installer programs into the registry to be installed one at a time, the installers are called one at a time from directly in the executable itself. IERunonce.dll can be used if you want to execute the RunOnce key without having to reboot. Calling installers directly from the second executable file rather than importing a new set of reg entries seems a simpler solution to me. If, however, you can get everything shrunk down small enough to fit on one cd by making use of astalavista's posted 7zip Office guide, that's an even simpler solution. Plus, as an added bonus, the install can once again be 100% unattended.

Strange, indeed. Just out of curiosity, does Windows recognize your monitor as anything other than a "Generic monitor?" If it does, maybe the new cable was interfering somehow with the detection process? Just a thought... Edit: BTW, as soon as you can teach me to grow trans-atlantic legs, I will be happy to deliver that a** kick you asked for.

What the heck are small caps?!? If you mean all in lower case letters, I have no idea. I just remember reading in a couple of threads not too long ago that people were having trouble getting their unattended files recognized and that renaming them so that they were all in caps solved their problems. *Shrugs.* Don't ask me, I just type here...

I've seen people mention problems getting a uA (unattended) install working properly right from the get go because of the way they named their unattended file. If you haven't already, try renaming it to WINNT.SIF (make sure it is all in caps) and see if that fixes it. Also make sure that you've got it in the I386 folder where it is supposed to be. No offense meant if I'm telling you something you already know, just spitting out all the ideas I can think of. Keep posting back (although you may want to start a new thread to get more specific issues looked at) if you have any more problems.

I suggest changing your Office.exe script so that it doesn't use reg keys. Instead, have it just call all the programs directly. cmdow @ /HID @echo off ::This for statement does the same thing as all your if statements ::You only need to set this variable once. ::I also edited it to make it slightly more effecient. for %%i in (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T) do if exist %%i\CD.TXT do set CDROM=%%i: TITLE Installing Office And Photoshop echo Change The CD-ROM start /wait %systemdrive%\CD.exe echo Installing Office 2003 start /wait %CDROM%\install\Office\Office.exe echo Arabic Interface For Office start /wait %CDROM%\Install\Arabicoffice\Setup.exe echo Adobe PhotoShop CS ME start /wait %CDROM%\Install\Photoshop\Setup.exe EXIT Removed the IERunonce.dll line because it is not needed in this case. Try copying this code into a new batch and retesting. I think it will solve your problem, although I can't guarantee it. Of course you will have to convert the new batch to an executable as well. Good luck. Let us know if this works.

I'm pretty sure you're right about this, CHANDER. I suspect he has directly copied an installer of some kind that checks to make sure it is being installed from a CD and that TSH refers to the original CD of that particular program. asbsamsf is also right though. The posted image that we were asked to troubleshoot is not related to the code that got posted.

Nope. But we can maybe help you solve it youself. I doubt VMWare has a problem with your RAID setup. As far as I understand it, the virtual machine won't even see the RAID setup. All it will see is the hard drive file(s) that you have configured it to run on. It sounds to me like the virtual machine is trying to boot off the hard drive before you install anything on it. The hard drives created by programs like VMWare and VPC are created totally blank; they don't even have partitions on them yet. If you try to boot off of a partitionless hard drive, you are likely to get an error message like the one you are experiencing. I suggest checking to make sure your VMWare machine is in fact mounting (loading) the CD or CD image that you want it to when it boots up. Open the Inventory screen for the virtual machine you want to test on, then double click the CD-ROM icon. I suggest using ISO images just because hard drives are much faster than CD-ROMs, but it's up to you. Select the image or the CD-ROM drive that you want the VPC to use, then make sure that the "Connect at power on" box is checked. Click OK to close out that dialogue box and you should be good to go. Power up the VPC and bask in the glow of a freshly booted Windows Setup. If it still doesn't boot, I suggest checking into your virtual machine's BIOS to make sure that the boot sequence is correct to allow the box to boot off the CD-ROM. Hope this fixes things up for you. Good luck, and welcome to MSFN.

Looks to me like there is some kind of conflict between the hotfixes and BST. This may be a bit of a silly question, but am I correct in assuming BST = Bashrat's driver pack?

lol If I had a dime for every typo-produced error I've had to troubleshoot in my projects I could retire. Batch files should come with a built-in spellcheck!

Good advice, SyntaxError. I always try to test things out for myself either on a virtual machine or on a box I don't mind having to reformat before installing on any important machines. Don't think I have ever had any trouble with their (MaximumPC's) tweaks as of yet, but it still doesn't hurt to be careful. Just because they've never steared me wrong before doesn't mean they're always 100% accurate. Better safe than sorry, as they say. That's also why I made a point of saying in my original post that I have not, as of yet, tested all of the tweaks myself. Since I haven't tested them myself, I don't want anyone else implementing them on their live machines based on the assumption that I said the tweaks are safe.

Please use the edit button to edit your posts rather than posting several times in succession. It will make the thread much easier to read and follow. About your CD, the error you found would certainly cause WMP 10 to not be installed. You also need to make sure these lines are in your WINNT.SIF: [GuiRunOnce] %systemdrive%\Install\Start.cmd Secondly, I think there was a bit of a communication error between you and CHANDER. Based on what I read in both of your posts, there is still one more change you need to make. Either make a directory in C:\XPCD\$OEM$\$1\Install\ called MediaPlayer and put your WMP 10 executable in it, or edit the batch file tjhart85 was nice enough to make you, replacing C:\Install\MediaPlayer with C:\XPCD\Install. Either option should get the batch file properly pointed at the installer.