TheJerk

I'm curious, Durex, are you just using Firefly, or do you have other Beyond Media components? I'm in the process of trying to put together an unattended recovery disc for my HTPC and just for kicks did a search for Snapstream software in this forum. Yours is the only post with anything to do with Snapstream... Anyway, I see this thread is a little old, so I wonder... did you solve your issue? If you have the other components, did you manage to get those installed as well? Appreciate the help. Liam EDIT: D'oh!!! Just noticed the YEAR on this thread! ROFL In that case, has anyong managed to get the Beyond Media suite installed silently?

I can't for the life of me figure out what's happening, but for some reason after I install from my XP unattended I start to run into some issues. It always seems to happen after I play a round of Imperial Glory (I'll try their support, too), but rebooting among all the other common solutions for video issues doesn't reset it back to normal. What actually happens: I close Imperial Glory after playing for a while and the screen goes black to reset the desktop. The wallpaper image will suddenly disappear and the desktop becomes the theme's standard background color. From that point forward, Firefox (1.0.3, but I've also tried 1.0.4) won't draw correcly, either (website won't show at all, various GUI components will be invisible - anything that changes w/ mouse over will show after I've moved the mouse over them). Explorer also seems to "lag" during drawing of it's windows (when first opening any folder, and each time I navigate through folders within one window). My first experience with this, I removed the "unsigned dll" that's installed with nLite. The issue still occurred. I then tried it without removing any components (drivers, services, etc.). I've tried it without applying any video drivers during XP setup (installing Catalyst after first boot). Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might cause this issue? I haven't tried any other games, so I can't confirm this happens only with Imperial Glory (why I'm asking here). Turning off Theme support doesn't work, either, and I've neither does having ThemeXP installed (even though I use a standard XP silver theme with a custom wallpaper). I'd appreciate any suggestions, even guesses. I'm sure there's a ton of stuff I'm just not thinking of. TIA

instead of using WPI.ico file I just used the WIN51 because I was getting problems with the path <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's the whole issue right there, at least for me. WPI.ico will first be found within the WPI folder, and if that's placed in the $OEM$\$1\install, then it won't even point to the CD. So just change the WPI.ico to WIN51 and it will point to your root of the CD, right? Heh... jus' thinkin' out loud. Thanks for this thread, guys. I was wracking my brain trying to figure this out.

Yea, that's sorta what I was thinking. It wasn't until I tested it for the first time this afternoon that I discovered what exactly happens. In any case, this is still a very nice app. Now I just have to figure out the issues I'm having with it (going to search first, then post if I don't find an answer).

It's probably because I'm sick (*cough* *hack* *cough*) that I'm not getting the description, but perhaps you could add to the guide more detailed info on the Unattended Mode option on the General 1/2 tab of Unattended Setup page. I just switched from .99.8 to .99.9 and don't remember this option from before (was a long time ago that I set those options, anyway).

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=893803 I was actually about to download this and attempt slipstreaming by way of nLite. I'll report back if there's any issues with it. BTW, this pertains to XP (all SP releases), Win2k and 2k3 Server.

Thanks for the quick reply. I guess I'll have to poke around a bit and see if I can come up with anything. Seems to me that you should be able to specify a window's properties to "always on top", even if it's a window like WPI. By the way, I was fooling around with this a bit today and I have to say great job to all involved! Was a lot of fun to play with. If I can set this to always on top, then I think I'll be all set!

I'm just now looking into WPI for my unattended needs (from runonceex) and I was wondering if it's possible to set the window for WPI to "always on top". This would be usefull to me since quite a bit of my application installs are run through autoit scripts.

I used an AutoIt script specifically because of the Flash player. I've attached it if anyone's interested. You'll have to edit the script and put your info in, of coarse. Also, you'll need the compiled script (*.exe) placed in your Macromedia Studio install folder, assuming that you keep the same directory structure as on the original CD. If not, you'll need to edit the first line to point to where the Setup.exe is located (on the CD, it's in the FSCOMMAND folder). Edit the sleep times to suit your needs, but keep in mind that during a batch install like runonceex, it's going to take a little longer than if you were just running one installer. The times I put in this script were being generous, too. LOL

I'm curious to know if anyone has tried this. I have an issue with DEP coming up for Adobe Audition 1.5 during a full unattended installation (XP and all) and I'm wondering if anyone has figured out how to turn it back on following the whole unattended process without having to do it manually. Like a command added to "cleanup.cmd", for instance? Since this is basically a setting in the boot.ini file, is it possible to be changed while explorer is running? Is that possible to change from a batch file?

explorer.exe is running during the runonceex. I was wrong about the folder opening, though. The folder doesn't open until runonceex finishes and the user account opens. Same is true for the internet explorer window that it opens. Is there any way to avoid having those open after the next boot?

I managed to fix the issue (went into nLite and changed a couple options), but I'm pretty sure it didn't have anything to do with my SATA drivers. Reason I say this is because this happened on both a partitioned PHYSICAL drive as well as a VIRTUAL machine (VMWare). VMWare doesn't use the same hardware configuration. Thanks, anyway. I was quite suprised to find that I had fixed it by making a couple adjustments in nLite. Nothing I had done originally had anything to do with anything vital.

bump.... please help

Agreed. I still haven't had a chance to check if explore.exe is running during runonceex as of yet since my unattended dvd is messed up (I have a seperate thread on that issue in the proper forum). As soon as I've worked through that issue, I'll post back here on my results.

I just created a DVD with a slew of applications on top of XP Pro w/ SP2 and the latest hotfixes. I was wondering if someone might explain how to troubleshoot it so I can determine where the problem might be. Here's what's happening: I boot from the DVD which skips ahead to partition information (the only part of the disk that needs user input). I select the partition and format it using NTFS (Quick). It goes ahead and copies the files it needs for installation and then reboots. After the reboot, it begins loading Windows, but before the installation billboard comes up it reboots again. It stays in an endless loop of restarting and loading the GUI setup from this point on until I stopped it and booted from the main partition. I've had to edit boot.ini and delete the old partition in order to get my original Windows install to load. I'm now trying to troubleshoot under VMWare (reason I didn't originally is because of the drivers). It's doing the same thing, so I know it's not the DVD, but the image itself. So is there any way I can troubleshoot this so I can figure out where the issue is?

As you can see by this thread, I too was wondering about the config. I think you'd need everything in the Data dir, though, not just one .ini file. Problem I see with that, though, is that the data's already written to that file using absolute paths. I wonder if it's possible to use an evironment variable to replace the system drive reference.

No, not yet. I have to re-setup the OS portion of the CD. I just finished the application portion of it earlier and I'm going to give it a test before I hit the sack tonight (will know by morning what the outcome is).

Well, considering I'm already using AutoIt, I might as well stick to that. Here's an interesting question, though. Let's say I don't know exactly what the title of the window is that I'm trying to close. For instance, it could be just the name of the folder, or in my preconfigured case could be the entire path including the drive letter. Considering this is a variable and not a constant (given different computer setups), what would be the best method. Does AutoIt use regular expressions (I haven't had a chance to research this just yet)? Would it be best to search the title for a given set of characters and then issue that a close command? Incidentally, thanks for the input.

Is there a way to kill a start menu folder during runonceex? I know about Internet Explorer, but the only thing I can figure is explorer.exe which would kill the shell, right? Reason I ask is because Macromedia Studio, which I've decided to use an AutoIt script for (because of the Flash plugin) opens both a webpage from Macromedia as well as the program group folder in the start menu. I can kill the website, but what about the folder?

At the bottom of every forum page, there's a search forum, same with every topic page. They work, and that's how I found this: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...cromedia&st=10#

This could be done. Are the windows that ugly? It's not that the appearance is good or bad, it's more about simulating a silent install. There are quite a few applications that are a real pain in the rear to install silently, if they will at all, so AutoIt easily covers that base. BTW, thanks for the clarification on WinMove().

Would you have to do that with every window, though? Seems every time you enter in a command for "Next", or whatever, that a new window would come up. Would that new window appear in the same location as the previous one, or revert back to the original location?

Yea, I'm still contemplating what I want to use. I love silent installs because you don't have to see it being installed. But at the same time, with AutoIt I can create a script for every application instead of hunting down all of the switches.

I was thinking about this the other day as I wouldn't mind doing this myself. An idea that came to mind would be to set up a GUI window with some sort of full-screen image and make the GUI "always on top". Then any active windows will be hidden behind your GUI. I haven't researched or tried this, so I've no idea how it would work.

Thanks, Mazin. That's a huge help.