GreenMachine

Goodness, I'd hate to see if you DO mean to brag. I ask you to try one simple experiment: open a command window from your file that is called out of CMDLINES.TXT, and tell me where you are. Please. It is not to prove you wrong, it is to insure we are using correct info, that's all. As for your worries running hotfixes at this stage, slipstreaming the hotfixes themseves will eliminate that worry for you, and insure that when your users are requested to insert the XP CD, they will not overwrite your hotfixes. RyanVM? Any luck?

Creating the user beforehand does not insure that you log on to it. If the following is your case, it cannot work: You have AdministratorAutologon (or whatever it is called) set. AND You call the set the registry from a call in the GuiRunOnce section of WINNT.SIF. When it imports with regedit, it is logged into the Administrator account. The easy test would be to log on as the administrator, and see how it looks, no?

Could you be making registry changes to the HOT_KEY_CURRENT_USER section, and doing it as the administrator through GuiRunOnce and looking for them in a user other than the "Administrator" built in account?

Please, unforgiven, your off the track here. I also believe you are wrong, using outdated info. Open a command prompt from your CMDLINES.TXT file, and tell me where you are. $OEM$ is no longer automatically copied to the hard disk as I recall ... Furthermore, as he has autopartition to 0 in WINNT.SIF, there is no guarantee that he is installing on the C drive, why I said %SYSTEMDRIVE%\LOGFILES.TXT. Have you been following this thread, or did you just jump in at the end?

If you get to the first "pause" then you are back to the point where you put in either a bunch of "pause"s, or you try the LOGFILETXT thing again - onto the HDD not the CD ... It also would seem to be the CLS if that is all you changed, and that does not make a lot of sense to me ... the verdict is?

... you still with me RyanVM? ...

Maybe CLS, but that don't make much sense. For what it's worth: @ECHO OFF TITLE Post Install Setup :: ---------- Update MS Components ECHO Starting DirectX 9 Install. START "DirectX 9 Install" /WAIT ".\DIRECTX\DXSETUP.EXE" /opkYou don't need the CLS - you're off having a beer ... Try again from the setup without CLS (the only difference), and put a pause at the begining. Though, if there is any DOS box that pops up at all, it must be at list hitting CMDLINES.TXT.

Man, you're stumpin' me. Am I write in saying that it looks like UPDATE.CMD never runs? Do you have any proof that it even starts, other than the "1 file copied" windows?

What exactly do you have in CMDLINES.TXT? I dislike working there, as it has special rules and syntax. I have just two lines in my CMDLINES.TXT: [COMMANDS] ".\INSTALLS.CMD"Everything is done from the one CMD file INSTALLS.CMD. If you have more than one, test them all from the command line. If you do have only one, or UPDATE.CMD is the first one to run, it must be something else. What does CMDLINES.TXT look like?

P.S. For quicker debugging, try simply running update.cmd from the command line, without a real install.

How did someone say here: I'm such a plum ... Of course you have no logfile: you are running on the read only CD. Change LOGFILE.TXT to %SYSTEMDRIVE%\LOGFILE.TXT. If you had watched the setup, instead of going off for a beer, you'd have seen an error message! One of the commands is certainly at fault, and crashing the batch. You have a lot of commands, and this is simply my lazy way of not needing to double check each one. It is also generally a good idea to wrap in quotes when using an environment variable. True %SYSTEMDRIVE% will probably never evaluate to a non 8.3 string, but others such as %PROGRAMFILESDIR% or %ALLUSERSPROFILE% may. If you are interested, you do not need to be running the updates from the hard disk. I put them in $OEM$\SVCPACK and call them as: START "Installing Fix" /WAIT ".\SVCPACK\HotFix.exe" /Q /SI copy nothing to the hard disk, except the shortcuts (I replace them all), and a "SetUser bat and reg file" for resetting reg tweaks. I do not need $OEM$\1 or such. Waiting for your next results ...

Bummer. You can try the posted hacked version, which I understand to be SP1, and see if it works anyway (put it back after SP2), wait for hacked SP2 versoin, or get out the HEX editor. Let us know if you get it working.

You can use WinCDMan for creating a CD with multiple Windows setups. If the three versions share files (i.e XP Home and XP Pro), you may be able to do it on 1 CD.

Ahhhh that is clear! I guess you've tried it, so we will know. I do it (something) like this: Which, hopefully, results in the same thing. What about SP2? I hope it does not have an UXTHEME.DL_. Personally, I would not install SP1, and then SP2 except on a running configuration. In fact, every CD I make I start with the XP CD in one drive, a blank CD in another, and run one .CMD file that will rip XP, slipstream the SP in a given directory (regardless of name), slipstream the hotfixes in a given directory, integrate my own files (CMDLINES.TXT, INSTALS.CMD, IE6.1, .Net, etc.) found in a given directory, create an ISO, and burn it to CD. One click. Then again, I've been known to be a lazy dog...

I remember seeing that at one point as well, but I (perhaps incorrectly) attributed the "Close Tray" option to CloneCD, which I had installed. Perhaps you had CloneCD previously? I do not think it is a native XP right click option.

Sorry, I do have a little trouble with the language. Du kannst mir ein PM auf deutsch schicken wenn du wilst. (Ob wohl ich werde auf Englische antworten). If you are using an exchange server, you are already in a networked environment I assume, and not just using exchange as a POP server. In this case you are MUCH better of using Active Directory and Roaming Profiles. A user can then log onto any PC in the Domain, using a single profile, as opposed to a profile on each PC. Reduces maintenance time considerably, and centrally locates all users settings to a predefined location. Additionally, using Exchange Server the only user data needed in the profile is User Name (one and the same with Active Directory) and exchange server name. Not sure if that helps ...

Like D. said ... As a general rule you should not add entires to the HOT_KEY_USERS key, except in rare cases to the HOT_KEY_USERS\Default User key. All user settings should be added to the HOT_KEY_CURRENT_USER key (which translates to HOT_KEY_USERS\"Unique_User_SID")

I'm not sure I follow. I extract and slipstream in one command, so I could not extract/replace file/slipstream. but the end result of extract & slipstream/replace file is the same, no? I would hope, using your suggested method, that the slipstreamer would notice something wrong with the file, just as XP setup does (and notes in the setuperr.txt log). Try and tell!

Service pack versions always superceed previous versions: you only need apply the latest service pack. I slipstream SP1 (not SP1a), latest hotixes, and inject the UXTHEME.DL_ that is available on the board. The only reason to do it before the SP1 slipsrteam, would be if you do not plan on installing SP1, as it will overwrite it.

Please accept this as constructive criticism. I have written a few guides ... That is one single sentence. Sentences like this really need to be broken down to simpler elements. I consider myself to understand the subject already, but I have trouble making heads or tails of this one. Short, simple sentences are the key to effective documentation.Also, there are a lot of people on this site, and the web in general, that do not speak english as a native language. There will certainly be confussion over the use of "no" instead of "know". Aside from that, the idea of sharing and passing the knowledge can only be complemented. Don't be discouraged by my, or others, criticism.

I tried WinCDMan long ago, but did not like answering the questions, or typing the paths in answer to the prompts, so did not use it. It seemed a little too generic for what i wanted. The code, on the other hand, is beautifly simple. So much so I was inclined to write the author and tell him how good it looks. I did not try a full run of it, but it sure looked like he was slipstreaming the hotfixes in the same basic fashion as royalbox. No reason it should hang, especially as it is just an expand and copy of existing files - they are not actually executed. You have access to all the source in WINCDMAN.CMD, so you can easily debug it if you wish. I use the "RoyalFix" method and have no problem (that I've noticed) with those 4 hotfixes you mention. By 2nd generation I guess you mean what some refer to as the type 2. Those are simply the ones with the setup style icons, and none of them seem to be "supported" for slipstreaming. I set up the unsupported fixes and other updates from a call out of the CMDLINES.TXT file. In terms of "the best", I think it is kind of binary: either it works correctly, or not. This way works for me.

@Yazoo: Appology accepted. I just like things to be more positive, as you obviously understood. My answer to branding was wrong, as you clearified the question above. Sorry. About the 8/9 years ..., I generally don't let it get out, but if age/experience counts I have been a professional software engineer for over 20 years ... We used to dream of BBSs! Peace

Behaviour by design, no? It will work fine in those cases where whatever is on the CD will not reboot, as is my case.

My point exactly ...

Sorry if I was unclear. My point was: There are a lot of knowledgable people here that are more than happy to help. Show them respect by doing a minimum of research on your own. If you do not find what you like, move on. If your are truly here for help, try to act accordingly. If you are here for whining and dis-respect, please stop.On the other hand, it is too bad you did not pay more attention to my response to your question, because you would have learned what Branding is in the MS sense, as well as why, and where the word came from.