GreenMachine

Wraith? Isn't that some ex-XP user who used to write code? Good luck on the Uni. Thinking of you up here, where beautiful summer is warm, the beach is hot, and the sunbathers are hotter! Hope you are enjoying winter ... If you aren't using Windows, I really think you should check out Solaris for x86. It puts all that faux Unix (e.g. Linux) to shame ... Sun lets you have it free, as well.

Welcome to MSFN, BenjaminKalytta, and thanks for that! Be carefull, or you will be asked to update your program to do everything, including washing the dishes! I do like the way it looks like a part of Windows. Quite slick, indeed!

Thanks, Ice M. Perhpas you can remove the list now? Your list has been added. If anyone cares to test the German XP Pro version with XPCTEST, now'd be the time!

Cool. Once you get it going, send me your drivers. My address is below. Keep me posted!

I let you know when one frees up! (You think the interpreter is inconsistent? Play with a few different versions of COMPRESS.EXE ... )

Yes, strange. Perhaps there is a reason it is listed as English. For now, I will wait until someone with one of those versions wants to work with me to solve the issues, and there does not seem to be a lot of users concerned ... Ice M. Same time posted - perhaps you will edit your's to include the attachment! The rest of you: please make a XPCTHLST file for your language, and post it!

@utln: Surprise, surprise! (Pretty easy, eh?) @Bilou: Well, that would be an option, but as I have over 200 Hotfix Update Lists out already, I don't think I will be modifying their structure. Secondly, the IE URL I can generate by changing only locale information, which is not the case with the hotfixes. Thirdly, XPCREATE will never do IE5.5, nor any version less than the latest. True, there may be some special cases where it is needed. but XPCREATE does not handle thoses cases, considered to be "rare". I understand what you mean, and it would be an acceptable alternative. However, XPCREATE seems quite stable in it's latest form, and I plan on only debugging, not updating it's logic, at the moment. It's not broken, so I am not fixing it right now! But keep those ideas coming: they did result in the IE integration!

My old song ... make a failsafe XPCREATION using the latest (XPCTEST) version, only adding the files on the Failsafe List on the Web Site (Current Hotfixes, in bold). Install this CD using F6 and a SATA driver diskette. That will confirm both the XPCREATION and your SATA drivers. Once that is working, post back, email me your drivers, and we will work on the SATA integration. I have many digital signed versions of the "ULTRA" driver. If there is a .CAT file included with the drivers, it is digitally signed. The ULTRA controller is a bit tricky, in that there are many, many different versions of drivers with the ULTRA name, and they do not necessarily work with all pobbible hardware. Let me know when you have an XPCREATE/F6 setup combination working ...

OK, you win: you are the smarter a**! Too bad you prefer to nit pick, than to answer the question yourself ... No, it wont copy if D:\EFG\ does not exist - behaviour by design - which is the desired effect, as opposed to creating a text file named D:\EFG. Reminds me of many of the IT meetings I went to with my Old Man. The speaker would say "Instead of re-inventing the wheel ... ", the Old Man would turn to me and say, "Tha a**hole couldn't even invent a toothpick." Or as he said upon retirement: "OK, we got the game going. Bring on the second string." I guess I'll go back to my own corner, where nobody is interested in who has the bigger dick ...

Yep, this should lick it. In fact, the problem was in installing the OE updates before reboot. There is a call in RunOnceEx (around 800) to do some dll registering with the Address Book Import/Export features. IE adds this same call a second time around 470 or so. This does not work with the replaced dll, and causes RunOnceEx to hang, as in showing a blue screen just before the desktop, and getting now further. Slipstreaming the updates is worse, as there are already the RunOnceEx entries, and when RunOnceEx is flushed at around T-14, it hangs there as well, leaving un-run entries (around 800). This also explains the move of the OE updates from SVC-HF2 to SVC-POS. Though I did not try, I would imagine if you remove the OE updates, that would fix it as well.

The Test Version has been updated fixing a few minor ... errors, and adding, once again, increased logging. I have tested on XP Pro, and Windows 2000 Server. XP Pro reports, as usual, the Advanced Networking Pack as missing. Windows 2000 comes up completly up to date on first boot. The only file I manually added to the creation process was WINNT.SIF, which I slipped into the source once it was on the hard disk. All other files, including hotfixes, updates, and IE (for Windows 2000), were downloaded as per the Hotfix Download List, or generated on the fly. Currently, the download lists are only functional for Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 2000 Server. If you would like to help create the list for your OS/Language, please see the Localized Windows Versions Thread. This release seems quite stable, so it will probabluy move from "Test" to "Production" very soon. Let me know how it goes ... Thanks!

Automatically connecting to Windows Update can, I believe, be used to update your drivers. however, don't be fooled into thinking you need the latest drivers. If the current ones work, why bother? Except in the case of a major flaw in the driver, an update will not make your PC faster, will not make yor graphics prettier, will not connect you to the 'net faster, and will not get you more dates.

You are seing that message because a file previously repacked by XPCREATE is being called at the wrong time. In other words, you put something in the wrong place. Check the Web Site for a list of Current hotfixes and the correct file size.

@Bilou_Gateux: This time it was easy, you requested finished development! Concerning the Hotfix List, please see the other post I made somewhere on this forum. There is a little tool to help you/me out. @DrunknMunkie: There is a new option in the XPCREATE.INI file, DLAUTO, that can be set to YES or NO for AutoDownloading. The method mentioned by Virindi works fine as well. @frankiboy_01: There were a few "typos" ... which have since been fixed. Also, there was no download list for your OS, so it did not update much ... This version should have eliminated those issues. I even tested it myself this time! WARNING ... In order to make the IE download and installation work, I have had to manipulate the registry, on both the XPCREATOR and XPCREATED machines. On the machine creating the Windows 2000 CD, I delete this registry key : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\InstallInfoThis is done to insure that the IE installer will start from scratch, and not pick up an interupted download, possibly in an unbeknownst to me directory. (Live and learn.) Secondly, during setup of the Windows 2000 installation, I flush the RunOnceEx registry key by invoking the RunOnceEx process. This finalizes the IE installation before a reboot, and eliminates conflicts with the OE Windows Address Book that is updated later in the installation.

I would opt for skipping RunOnceEx, and just using GPO. The applications you need installed before that point you can do from CMDLINES.TXT, otherwise include them in the GPO installations. Other than that ... I dunno!

Thanks, frankiboy_01, that compliation was most helpfull. That gives me most, but I am still missing some pieces for Japanese, Korean, Chineese Simplified, Traditional and Taiwan, Arabic and Hebrew. Some of those in the list were simply listed as English. Strange ... Thanks to you as well, Ice M., and welcome to MSFN! In fact, I need both the more standard 3 letter code, as well as the 2, sometimes 5, lettter code. (FR, or EN-US. Gotta love them standards ... ) For all that are willing to help, I attach a small utility that will help build the Hotfix Download List from the files on your PC. To use it you must: Extract the files MAKELIST.CMD and MD5.EXE to the directory whre XPCREATE is installed. Download the failsafe list of hotfixes for your locale. Run MAKELIST.CMD Edit the resulting XPCTHLST.TXT file, replacing the DOWNLOADLINKHERE text with the correct link to each file. Post your file in this thread, or send the file to Virindi for inclusoin on the Web Site. Test, test, and test again ... MAKELIST.ZIP

****, why can't I get XPCREATE to look that slick? I'm gonna keep this one ... Thanks!

FINDSTR in a FOR loop will get the strings you need, TOKENS in the FOR loop will let you pick your piece of the string, and delimeter. TYPE and ECHO can be used to write strings, and the ">" redirect sign lets you output to a file named to your liking. (You are not looking for someone to do your homework, are you now ... )

Any XPCREATORS be sure and indicate that they have a bastardized ISO when reporting any bugs ... My box is, at best, average, and I do a complete XPCREATION in about 15 minutes without packing the CAB files (for testing). Final versions take me a half an hour. Debuging corrupt files takes me forever ...

@sleepnmojo: Now tell the truth: did you try, or just look? If you tried, you may not have been so quick to post. It was just a favor, but if you want a lesson ... The final backslash is there for two reasons. Firstly, it is included in the failed example at the top of the page. Secondly, it tells the interpreter that you want to copy the file ABC.TXT to the D:\EFG\ABC.TXT, and not E:\EFG. Assuming the exercise is to copy ABC.TXT to another directory, the trainling backslash is required for correct syntax, and to avoid creating the file D:\EFG in the case the directory D:\EFG is non-existant. Resulting value in the registry: CMD /C COPY "C:\ABC\ABC.TXT" "D:\EFG\"

REG ADD %KEY%\100 /V 1 /D "CMD /C COPY \"%SYSTEMDRIVE%\ABC\ABC.TXT\" \"D:\EFG\\"\" /F

You did not follow the three steps before posting ... No winnt.sif means do not add a winnt.sif file to the XP creation. I will NOT help you debug until you have attempted a "failsafe" CD.

Hmmmm ... I suggest you back up a step, read up here: http://unattended.msfn.org and here: http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/drivers.htm and then give it a go.

You should: 1) Download the latest version of XPCREATE. 2) Run XPCREATE using ONLY the files listed on the Web Site Failsafe List (Current Hotfixes) NO WINNT.SIF, NO UXTHEME.DL_, etc. 3) If the problem persists, attach the file LOGFILES.CAB to your next post.

I would say affirmative.