jdgordon

hey all... new version time... i have now added OS dependance (and that works 100%) and the start of item dependance... (atm it doesnt give you a very descriptive message with what actually is being depended on... but it does fix it if you want it to) ok, so ive updated the rar file (link in first post), please play with it... im gonna finish the docs for it and start the proper xml files...

i guess i will get as many items done as i can be bothered doing anywho.. ive just added OS dependance so you save different items to the answer file depending on what os you are installing.. i have added the following versions into the code, let me know of any other versions that should get hardcoded.. (i tihnk i got the main ones... its easier to hardcode these and release a new version when a new windows comes out then to allow these to be added) any, win2k, xp, xpsp2, 2k3, 2k3sp1 dont worry.. you will be able to choose multiple versions for each item... so, ill add item dependancy and then do all the items and release it as 1.0 (unless ppl find bugs..) (os dependancy hasnt been uploaded yet so dont bother looking for it)

ye, im sort of hoping ppl will help out with the sections... if noone does then ill get the main items done tomorow and put them online. ive got part of a proper help file going which will make things easier for you also. oh, if an admin thinks this should be somewhere else.. please move it.

this program isnt meant to be run from windows... its for winPE so .net doesnt help us.. anyway.. follow the yellow brick road http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=50385 <--- can an admin lock this thread please?

hey all, well some of you may have seen my previous thread about a new tool to get your installs going from inside winpe... well that was scrapped and retsarted and i present to you Winstaller 1.0 (well almost 1.0... minor stuff to add, and im sure there are bugs to be fixed ) so i guess you want screen shots aye? the main screen: where you fiddle with the answers (and winnt32.exe setup commands might as well link to the download while im here... Click Me!! ok, so in the rar is a few xml files and a exe file... the only required file is the exe... (of course without the xml's the exe is useless....) all the info needed is read from the xml files so every1 can have different setups im not gonna write up a proper how to here (or right now) coz its not quite 100% finished (and coz im lazy) but i will make some important notes... - if the file "winstaller.xml" is with the exe it gets read automatically (only the <settings> tag is read at the start) - <readextraxml> can have as many xml files there as u want (must be less than 2600 chars in length tho), seperated by ; (no spaces) - you can arrange your xml files any way you want... i split them up to make adding more easy.. but its up to you..JUST REMEMBER TO ADD THEM IN THE CORRECT ORDER TO THE <readextraxml> TAG i was just bug hunting trying to work out why the tree wouldnt load correctly, of course it was because my tree.xml file was read before the items.xml file have a look @ items.xml.. - each item must have an <id> and it must be a unique number (e.g you cant have 1 in more than 1 item OR FILE) - the type is how you want the data saved to the sif file, so yesno type will save "yes" or "no", onoff is "on" or "off".. geddit? good - <default> is what it starts with.. - <sifsection> is the seciton in the sif it gets saved to.. - <sifname> is the value name in the sif file... if this doesnt exsist it uses <title> - <title> is only used by the list and tree.. if your not showing the item in the answer changer window u dont need to bother with it (i _think_ ) i tihnk ive got enough examples in the included xmls so u can get started... and lastly... - any item can be added to the tree (to do the list u need to add a new item and use its ID in the tree to have it shown) - only the yesno/onoff/onezero and text and setupcommand types can be added to the list, but ill work on adding more of the types... - for the setupcommand type, if its by itself checking the yes will use it, and no wont, and in the list, checking it will use it. almost finished... - pressing OK ni the answer changer screen saves the changes, cancel erases everything... so if you go in and change stuff and press ok, but then reopen it and press cancel you lose all the previous changes... stuff to still get done: - item dependancy - just gotta finish this a bit more and just incase you have no idea how this program is supposed to be used, setup the xml files how you want them, dump the exe on your win (or bart) PE cd and press install, it will write the sif file and get setup running.... then it will reboot for you (if you want it to) ok.. so.. um... bugs, requests, etc....

RailMan: its not that your boring.. what Martin said, this thread is for problems with the program... if its making non working sif files then ok, but other than that, sif questinos need to go elsewhere... ok good news... with a bit of fiddling the new format is coming along nicely.. being antisocial tonight so i rekon ill get a demo going later...

Railman5: i dunno.... please dont ask for sif answers in this thread (keep it clean..) maxXPsoft: yes actually i can say b0r3d winnt.sif creator.. cant you?? that needs .NET to run (doesnt it?) which isnt easy to get going on a pe cd..

hey all.. small update (shoulda done this post yesterday but forgot ) dont bother playing with this anymore... ive started recoding it pretty much from scratch to make it much easier to use and better, so its going to use a different xml format and it wont be able to read the old type... some quick reasons for the restart - can have items writen to the sif file that arnt on the tree - "live" dependancies (well.. if u try adding something that needs something else it will tell you then not when its writing the sif) - much easier to play with so hopefully ill have a new version up early next week you can play with (i cant wait to finish this so i can get my pe cd going again )

ok, time to tease you all with another small update you can now add dependancies to any item (BUT it can only depend on another item that is of the onoff/yesno/onezero type) AND you can have up to 16 dependancies for any item (might make that more if needed) add this sort of line to the xml under the <item> u want it in (works in list items aswell) <dependancy>section,item,1/0</dependancy> where section is the seciton in the sif file (eg. GuiUnattended) item is the sif item (e.g OemSkipWelcome) and 1/0 is either a 1 (yes/on/1) or 0 (no/off/0) [its the value it must be for the dependancy to work...] atm it askes you if you want to allow the change (if its needed) for each item that does need to be changed, but ive decided a new window will be better listing everything and letting you choose if you want to accept all changes or cacel it. (saying no to any of the changes no will no write the item to the sif at all (atm)) the os choice is gonna a fairly big PITA to add in, but it can be done using this.. (items in the sif that arnt recognised are ignore by the setup.. right??) example of the YUCKY way to do OS dependant items.... the cd key... <item> <title>Product Key (2000)</title> <summary>Type your Windows Product Key Below</summary> <section>UserData</section> <answername>ProductKey</answername> <type>text</type> <default>xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx</default> <dependancy>IGNORE,win2k,1</dependancy> <dependancy>IGNORE,winxp,0</dependancy> <dependancy>IGNORE,win2k3,0</dependancy> </item> <item> <title>Product Key (XP)</title> <summary>Type your Windows Product Key Below</summary> <section>UserData</section> <answername>ProductKey</answername> <type>text</type> <default>xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx</default> <dependancy>IGNORE,win2k,0</dependancy> <dependancy>IGNORE,winxp,1</dependancy> <dependancy>IGNORE,win2k3,0</dependancy> </item> <item> <title>Product Key (2003)</title> <summary>Type your Windows Product Key Below</summary> <section>UserData</section> <answername>ProductKey</answername> <type>text</type> <default>xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx</default> <dependancy>IGNORE,win2k,0</dependancy> <dependancy>IGNORE,winxp,0</dependancy> <dependancy>IGNORE,win2k3,1</dependancy> </item> <item> <title>OS chooser</title> <summary>pick your OS (ONE only)</summary> <type>list</type> <list> <item> <title>Win2000</title> <section>IGNORE</section> <answername>win2k</answername> <type>yesno</type> <default>no</default> </item> <item> <title>WinXP</title> <section>IGNORE</section> <answername>winxp</answername> <type>yesno</type> <default>yes</default> </item> <item> <title>Win2003</title> <section>IGNORE</section> <answername>win2k3</answername> <type>yesno</type> <default>no</default> </item> </list> </item> of course.. thats not very nice coz you will be asked twice to fix dependancies.... but it should work... (just tested.. it does work) i think thats enough xml reading stuff.. now im gonna finish the rest of the program (so it can actually get the install going)

oh.. oops, i misunderstood you... you want to save the new defaults to the xml file??? way to hard to do, sorry... OT.. why the heck doesnt forum subscriptions work???

Martin Zugec: maximising the window will be a bit of a pain, but ill add it if an item is really long, you can use the <summary> tag to add some extra notes (in the list that will make a tooltip.. soon) i got no idea how to do dependancies.. but i will look into it same about os.. thetop: it does thanx all

Mike_Wilson: this isnt the main part of the proggy... when its finished apply will save the changes.. ok will save and close and cancel will close without changing... then you press "install" or something and it will get going... Martin_Zugec: thats why i did it all from the xml format... the whole thing can be added by whoever.. whenever... so please, put together xml files with the different groups (ill look into getting it to read more than 1 xml file when it starts)... the xml format is pretty simple... if you cant figure it out wait till tomorow and ill write up a proper howto. the available types quickly: yesno - saves as a "yes" or "no" onoff - "on" or "off" onezero - "1" or "0" text - saves any text typed keyboardlayout - internal type becauase im lazy... does the keyboard layout droplist timezones - as above for timezones command - NOT IMPLEMENTED YET (will just spit out a any text under the section... gonna be suefull for the post instal stuff) list - makes the list view (look in proper.xml for an exmaple, only the first 4 types are valid here) droplistStr - makes a drop list and saves whatever text is chosen from the list to the sif file... add items like this <choice>item</choice> droplistInt - as above but saves some number to the sif.. <choice>number,text</choice> any item (except IN the list) can be disabled by adding " disabled" tot he type tag.. e.g <type disabled>yesno</type> also, hidden will be available soon so u dont have to disable items to have the written if there is a input type you think we need let me know.. oh.. and to edit text in the list view. just click once on the text Data item...

25 downloads and no feedback well you may have noticed the screenshot looks much better now thats what ive been working on today. so now you can have multiple items on 1 page, or individual items... ill upload a proper sample xml soon when i finish one still doesnt start winnt32.exe yet and always saves changes (choice to save changes is next on the list) lemme know... edit: ok ive attached a much better xml file to this post... it apears my idiotic way of making the tree has left a nice expolit open so you can make dummy items proper.xml

you can you can choose the input type for each item. you have the choce between yes/no, a boring text line and a drop list (which gets populated from the xml file), im sure ill add more when i get some feedback

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=50385xpinstaller.rar

putting in my 2 c.... the new site is sloow... and ugly... (tho i guess it needs to be got used to..) anyway its back to the old one now

the only computers in the house that still have 98 are the laptops (p133 and p200 or something) which would work like a 1 legged dog

ok well im typing this up to c and it looks like im always using my right index fingre.... im also right handed..

hey.. bloody topic doesnt let me go long enough so hopefully this gets viewed... im bored and looking for procrasrtination, so if i write up a guide to adding the rss feeds to Miranda IM (which btw is much better than trill coz its free and lighter and smaller an better!) can it get linked with the till howto?

Authorization Required ??????

in flames - behind space

im sure this has been asked- and answerd- many times before.. but anyway.. it means that you can goto your "friends" house and reinstall windows for them in 30min when they might have completly different hardware than what your image will support. thats bassically it

i got the 100th vote anyway, im from sunny melbourne australia... the worlds most livable city

i can add an option to the ini to show the confirm window... i also noticed the : after the makelocalsouce switch and ive fixed it... i hope to eventually add sp2 support (the firewall stuff), hopefully ill do it soon, but i dunno.... i want to add guirunonce support but not sure the best way to do it...

u can reinstall 3 or 4 times iirc, but if you are not changeing any hardware (or only 1 item is changed) then u can copy the wpa.dbl from the windows\system32 directory from 1 install to the next... i think u need to copy it in safemode or even from a boot disk