RyanVM

Try this line under [sourceDisksFiles]: viasraid.sys = 1,,,,,,4_,4,1,,,1,4 Also, make sure you have the path to the driver defined in the OEMPnPDrivers key of winnt.sif. If all else fails, the pack I created (linked in my sig or the pinned thread) has support for that controller and automatically patches txtsetup.sif properly.

Works like a charm! I tested it on both Virtual PC and on a freshly formatted separate computer.

That looks very promising (and exactly the key I was looking for)

IIRC, that was a platform for the Welchia worm to spread (or one of them).

You only need a new product key if you're downloading a slipstreamed ISO from them. Otherwise it works with your normal WinXP product key (as all service packs do).

Just tried it - doesn't work. Apparently the compatibility mode setting doesn't go with the shortcut. I created the ISO with the shortcut and mounted it in Virtual PC. The shortcut in Virtual PC doesn't have the compatibility settings checked like it did prior to that.

ooo, nice trick

I've got an installer that whines about being installed on the wrong OS if I try to install it on XP (it lets you install anyway and works fine after being installed - just bad OS detection I guess). I've found that I can run the installer in NT4 SP5 compatibility mode and it then keeps quiet about being installed on the "wrong" OS. Is there a way I can script having the program start in compatibility mode in a batch file?

Oh, and I should probably point out that this has nothing to do with my volume license key - it's legitimate.

I'm an XPSP2 beta tester. I was at the WindowsBeta site the other day and noticed that build 2120 was posted there. My eager heart skipped a beat and I quickly fired up the MS File Transfer Client. After uninstalling the old SP2 RC1 build on my laptop and all the old SP2 hotfixes, I restarted my comp. I installed the new build and restarted again and that's where the fun begins. Upon trying to log in, I was greeted by a "Your copy of Windows must be activated before you can log in" message. Interesting given that I'm using a VOLUME LICENSE version of Windows that doesn't require activation. Thinking "Well that's weird," I decide to try and activate by phone. I go to the screen with the phone numbers to call and notice that the space where my Installation ID is supposed to be is blank! Time for the fun phone calls to MS. After fighting with that stupid automated system, I finally got an operator who had no clue what to do and sent me to customer service. After listening to the Sasser cleanup hold message what seemed like 90 times, I finally got another guy who once again had no clue what was going on. He transferred me a tech support guy in India (New Delhi to be exact). He was unable to help me either. In recap, this is what the new SP2 build did for me: wasted over an hour of my time on the phone, destroyed my XP installation (time to find a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter so I can at least get the data off my laptop's hard drive before formatting), and left me hoping that this was a random fluke and not a bug with this particular build, oh, and I'm now an expert in getting rid of Sasser . Thanks for reading,

Done of course.

I'm attempting the DetachedProgram method right now (as in, VirtualPC is ripping away at it ) with a self-extracting RAR archive. It ended up with a compression ratio of 5:1 (from 105MB to a bit over 21MB).

No go on either of those.

I've got that key in my (working) regtweaks, so it won't hurt to use it

I'm trying to automate LabVIEW 5 setup (don't ask ). It uses InstallShield version 3.0.107.0. When I try running it as setup.exe -R, it executes properly but doesn't leave an .iss file anywhere on the hard drive! Anyone have an idea as to how to make it do so?

It appears that the problem with that method is that it was automatically resolves the string to C:\Program Files instead of leaving it in %ProgramFiles% format.

Like I said before, it should be the default one. If it's not, you're changing it elsewhere. And make sure you run ModifyPE on the file before creating the cab file, or else windows might refuse to copy it.

Windows File Protection, my friend . With msgina32.dll, you're probably better off running ModifyPE (there's a link to it from the MSFN unattended guide) on the file then compressing it by running "MAKECAB MSGINA32.DLL" in a command prompt. That'll turn it into MSGINA32.DL_ which can then overwrite the current version in the I386 folder of the CD. Regarding the other options, the Luna theme (modern) should be default. Try this for ditching the Go button, but IIRC, it takes more than just this setting to make it disappear. ;Disable Go Button in IE [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main] "ShowGoButton"="no"

;Allow Remote Desktop Connections [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server] "fDenyTSConnections"=dword:00000000 To delete the Online Services folder, you need to disable windows file protection first. Follow the directions here: http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/wfp.htm

Yeah, I too have been trying to keep things as modular as possible so I can rebuild a CD quickly. Alanoll, you might look into batch files to make the necessary changes to those files for you

It's also good to note that WinRAR SFX archives can be made to extract completely silently with no switches.

Rats, Alanoll beat me to it

At least with a RAR archive, you can tell it to extract silently when creating the EXE, no switches needed. I have one question. I was under the impression that driver installation was the very first part of the GUI part of setup. How does this detached program get run prior to hardware installation?

Yeah, I can get almost a 10:1 compression ratio on the monitor drivers (not surprising given that all they are are INF and ICM files). But yeah, it's nearly 3000 files now (and a whopping 18MB ). They compress down into a solid RAR archive of 1.91MB

I think you can do it, it's just not always reliable. Heh, where's GM when you need him