Cartoonite

You might want to check out the Application Install forum. It has tips for installing quite a few programs unattended, including registering and/or inputting serials. If the specific program you want to install isn't mentioned, you can always ask there.

I've found that 7-zip seems to outperform RAR consitantly. I haven't done very extensive testing though. As for compatibility, I think RAR is a far more common format than 7-zip, at least at this point. If you are looking for universal compatibility, ZIP is probably your best bet. Windows XP can even support that right out of the box.

You're right, it is not illegal to make backup copies of CDs or DVDs that you own. (Although last I heard it was illegal to crack the encryption on DVDs in or to make it possible to back them up. Hmm...) However, is it really necessary to revive a topic that has been dead for almost 6 months to point this out? Your desire to help is appreciated, but please refrain from reviving threads where the issue has already been resolved unless you have something you feel may not be common knowledge to add. (Sorry, but I don't think advising people that making backups of their CDs is a good idea qualifies.)

Nice link drbadami. Hopefully Dm0n will be able to resolve his issue as quickly as that other user did. To summarise the ideas put forth in that thread, I suggest checking, in the following order: Your CD. Try putting it into another PC and see if you can locate and copy the txtsetup.sif file successfully Your RAM. A few posts in the other thread suggested that a faulty DIMM could be the cause of this error. Your hard drive. I got the impression that the error could also be caused by a failing hard drive that Windows Setup was having trouble writing to properly. Your CD ROM. Possibly the CD drive is failing and that is what is causing the problem. Hope this helps. Keep us posted on whether or not you can resolve your issue.

Well, I've tested this now, and it doesn't appear to have any effect. Not sure if it is just something that needs to be set prior to boot or something like that, but I didn't have any luck when testing this on a clean system. Incidently, I didn't get any better results when trying to change it through TweakUI either. Back to square one, I guess.

Are you sure you have the process names correct? Have you tried installing the app silently from the command line (using start /wait) and then killing the processes from the command line? If so, what feedback do you get from the kill commands? If not, I suggest trying it and seeing what, if any, error messages are generated.

Yep. I bet you are bang-on there WwTIPPYwW. Move this command to the end of the script or, better yet, move the whole script onto the DVD.

Oh man, this too good. And, sadly, so true. Haven't been in the industry long, so I don't really have much of a story to add of my own. Closest thing I've got is from when I was still in training and shadowing (listening in with) another agent. We had a client call in and we're trying to troubleshoot her system. The error message we're getting leads us to believe that some cables just need to be reseated. This somehow turns into a 30-minute endeavor as the client is insisting that there is nothing plugged into the port where the keyboard should be. Twenty minutes later she adds "...except for this cable that goes to the keyboard." I'm totally beside Jeff Foxworthy on this one: "Here's your sign."

"Hi, my very first post is this one, asking for a script that, by its very nature, could be put to use by a malicious user." Things that make you go, "Hmm..." Anyway, I'm with KAndle on this one, just ask them. If they themselves don't know, you can always refer them to the wonderful website http://whatismyip.com. As the name suggests, this is a site that displays your public IP address. I have found this site to be infinitely useful for exactly that purpose.

For anyone who is still unclear about Simple File Sharing, it can be dis/enabled from the Folder Options dialog (Tools menu in My Computer or Windows Explorer). The only other thing I can think of is jpatto's suggestion. Is the file you are trying to set permissions on stored on a drive that is formatted with the NTFS file system? FAT-32 partitions do not allow for security to be set at the file level.

Your welcome for the suggestion, although that is all it is. I can't say for sure that this will work, was just something I thought would be worth trying. Please post back with results, even if the results turn out to be that it doesn't work.

My understanding has always been that you can replace just about anything in the PC except the motherboard without too much trouble. However, once the mobo is replaced, Windows considers it to be a new machine and all hell breaks loose.

If I'm reading your posts correctly, the English language pack is getting forcefully installed onto this PC when you remote in from your English language XP Pro machine. Have you tried, as Takeshi suggested, installing both languages on all PCs involved (or at least installing English onto your girlfriend's laptop) before attempting to connect via Remote Desktop?

I suspect your best bet would be to eliminate the problem which prevents you from addressing the root cause of this problem, rather than attempting to find a way to disable a critical failure system message. Just my opinion.

I tried that but when I get to one part it tells me to put in my Serial code thing. I got my manual but where the certificate of Authenticity should be there isn't anything and there is a little print syaing it's been removed and should be on my PC. But it isn't. Is there any way for me to figure out what my CD Key is? Sounds like you bought an OEM machine and they installed Windows before shipping it to you. If you still can't find the CD key information on a sticker that has been affixed to the PC, try contacting the company that sold you the PC; they may have something on file that can help you out.

Don't have a solution for you, unfortunately, but certainly do keep us posted. This is something I would like to be able to implement as well.

You may need to disable simple file sharing in order to have the security tab appear.

If you are looking to change the image that appears at the classic logon screen (Press ctrl+alt+del to log in.), you can do it with the following registry entry: [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop] "Wallpaper"="Path\\to\\bitmap.bmp" Please note that you must use a bitmap image for this to work.

Sounds like you might have run accross something new. All of the methods described in the Guide are machine-dependant once Windows has been activated once. Since you can install to multiple machines from the same CD without needing to activate it none of the responses posted thus far would apply. If no one posts a reply that addresses this, you may need to contact Microsoft to get this sorted out. Good luck.

Interesting. Your very first post and you already want to lord the fact the you know something others don't over the other members? Maybe you joined the wrong forum; I always thought the point of this site was for people to get and offer help, not so smart-mouthed punks can preen themselves... Check out this thread about these two hotfixes. I believe you will find a solution there. (Or just use RyanVM's wonderful update pack, as many of us lazy forumers do. )

Is the slipstreamed version a home-made slipstream based on the original? Have either of these CDs been used successfully to install XP on other machines? Certainly sounds as if your hardware should be more than adequate to install Windows XP. Have you tried replacing the harddrive with a spare, if you have one? Have you tried repartitioning, as opposed to just reformatting, the harddrive? Can't think of anything else to try at the moment, but it's way early and I'm still half asleep. I will post back later if I can think of anything new.

I'm with you on this one durex. Started a thread myself a month or two ago on this very same topic, and shot that very same suggestion down for the very same reason. Anyway, durex's suggested method is the one that I use. Once I had all of my apps setup to install, I ran the install on a test virtual machine. I the reordered the icons to my liking, set up the size of the QL bar, etc... and then exported the following reg entry: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop] "TaskbarWinXP"=hex:<Value goes here> It is very long, and will configure your taskbar the way I like instead of how you like, so I won't bother posting the entire hex value from my reg file. There should be plenty more information on this throughout the forum. Just try a simple search for something like "Quick Launch." Just be prepared to do a lot of reading. Oh, one other thing that I do to set mine up. Once I had the QL bar configured just the way I wanted, I rar-ed up the QL folder into an SFX that gets extracted during the uA process so that I don't have to worry about moving/creating all my desired shortcuts. Hope this helps.

Doesn't look to me like there is anything in that file that would cause WMP to not appear. Did you (or someone else) modify the XP source files in any way before implementing this unattended file? If so, how?

According to the MSFN uA Guide, there are 3 ways of activating it, all of which will fail when testing the uA CD in a virtual machine. Check out the uA Activation page here. From the sounds of things, I suspect your CD uses the third method (OEM). As noted in the guide, and as cy. already mentioned, this method will fail because the virtual machine is not the same as the actual machine for which the activation has been preconfigured. One question: Does this statement refer to when you install Windows onto your computer from this CD, or when installing to a virtual PC from this CD? If the latter, then all of our speculation thus far is for naught.

How are you trying to add the account? Using one of the many GUI-based methods, or from the command line? If you can't seem to find the account using any of the GUI-based tools, but you are still getting an error message when trying to recreate the account, I suggest trying the command line. The following command should delete the account if it does indeed still exist: net user <username> /delete If that works you can then recreate the account using whatever method you are most comfortable with. Personally, since you would already be at the command line, I would recreate it from there using the following command: net user <username> <password> /add Since you have backed up all of her documents and everything, you should be able to just copy them back into the desired location and have her back to "normal" without too much trouble.