ldoodle

Thanks. I have downloaded InstallShield Pro 2011 trial and using Cab View I can't seem to extract the whole lot in one go. The Extract file option is only available if I navigate the tree structure to each single file. Oh and each file is in subfolders but Cab View doesn't extract to the right folder paths - it just puts them all in the root of the folder you choose to extract to. What am I missing? I would rather have missing drivers in my build than extract all these files one-by-one!

Hiya, I am building a Windows 7 Pro SP1 WDS deployment build, and I am having trouble finding the .inf version of the HP Quick Launch Buttons. Does anybody know where to find them. I have spent literally all day looking for them! I can't imagine HP (a business outfit) would offer drivers that can't be deployed as part of a mass image roll-out. Thanks

OK, one minor problem. I have a Synaptics Touch Pad and Ricoh media reader. If I add the drivers for either of these to my unattended driver location, I get an error about boot critical drivers could not be used, and it bombs out. But neither of these are boot critical devices. Any ideas?

You can download the windows update drivers from the Microsoft update driver online catalogue. They download as cab files. I use 7zip to extract the contents. http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx You have saved me a lot of hassle. I knew about the catalog but didn't realise it contained drivers as well. Thanks very much!

Hiya, I have a load of HP Compaq 2510p laptops to deploy with Win7. Now the unattended Windows install in itself isn't a problem, but i'm pulling my hair out trying to find .inf based drivers for 3 things; Authentec Fingerprint Sensor Quick Launch Buttons HP hs2300 HSDPA module Now I know they are available as Windows Update has them but that is no good to me. I need a completely unattended install of these laptops. Any ideas? Thanks

Hiya, This can apply to all OS's that use the WIM file but as i'm concerned with Win 7 I've put it here. Is it possible to add/delete/edit individual files within a WIM image? Specifically, I have added custom shortcuts into a custom (captured) WIM and noticed one of the shortcuts has a spelling mistake in the description. I could re-capture the image with the correction but just wondering if there's another, quicker, way?

This is exactly what i've done. I've created an unattend file using the appropriate varibales (%MACHINENAME%) etc for things like computer name, domain name etc. This way I get a truly unattended vanilla install, after which I install my apps, drivers etc, then run sysprep. Once the custom image is captured to the WDS server, I apply the same unattend file which uses the computer name I used when pre-staging it in AD, and all works OK. Thanks for all your help. If I had thought about pre-staging I could have got it done a hell of a lot quicker, but you always forget about the simplest solution!

Thanks for all you help! So, I need to create an answer file for sysprep. I suppose the best thing would be the run sysprep with the gui without an answer file and go through the prompts and then I can add these to the unnatended file, so i'm only adding what needs to be added. When you say the domain join is done after first logon, that means I need to have an auto logon setting in the answer file which then runs netdom. What do I do about naming the computer? I suppose i'll have to script something that prompts for a computer name then joins the domain. This is a very long winded method compared to XP's sysprep mini setup process. Talking about going backwards Microsoft! OK seem to be getting somewhere. However it still prompts for a local user account, which then changes the computer name. I have added a new local user account in the unattend.xml file and this seems to get round it, so just wondering if this is correct. I'm also enabling the local admin account but this doesn't seem to be enough. Does that sound right?

Thanks for all you help! So, I need to create an answer file for sysprep. I suppose the best thing would be the run sysprep with the gui without an answer file and go through the prompts and then I can add these to the unnatended file, so i'm only adding what needs to be added. When you say the domain join is done after first logon, that means I need to have an auto logon setting in the answer file which then runs netdom. What do I do about naming the computer? I suppose i'll have to script something that prompts for a computer name then joins the domain. This is a very long winded method compared to XP's sysprep mini setup process. Talking about going backwards Microsoft!

Just to confirm, this is what i'm currently doing with the native WDS deployment service: 1) Install Windows 7 Pro from WDS in attended mode 2) When it gets to it's first prompt screen, i'm hitting Shift+Ctrl+F3 to reboot into Audit mode 3) Make any customizations (drivers, applications, joining domain etc) - when first entering Audit mode you get the Sysprep tool open, and it opens each time you reboot while in Audit mode 4) This is where i'm stuck. I first tried just using the Sysprep GUI with OOBE selected and Generalize ticked, hoping it would 'remember' domain settings etc from Audit mode. Do I need to come out of the GUI and supply an .xml file to a Sysprep command line? If so what's the point in joining a domain when in Audit mode, as I've read on the MS website that this is how it should be done.

Thanks! I've been trying all day but I cannot get 2 things to work: 1) Prompt for a computer name (it's randomly generating one), despite my XML file not having the ComputerName entry at all 2) Disable the prompt for a local username Both happen if I try and do it the WDS/WSIM native way, and point 2 happens if I use MDT to deploy then sysprep before capture. Point 2 actually breaks the domain join as its joining the domain with the randomly generated computer name, yet when having to add a local username it renames the PC so you can't logon to the domain anyway. Help!! Thanks

Thanks for the reply. I have tried MDT 2010 and it's more complicated than SIM; it doesn't give me any options for customizing the install process for domain join etc.

Hiya, Our environment is Server 2008 R2 WDS with Windows 7 clients. I am trying to build a base image for our machines to blast out to all the others, however i'm stuck at the sysprep stage. This is what I want. 1) Install Windows 7 from WDS onto a PC 2) Install all drivers/applications etc 3) Run sysprep, reboot and re-capture the image 4) Upon reboot, all it does is ask for a computer name and joins it to our domain 1 and 2 are OK, but I cannot work out how to get 3 and 4 to do what they're supposed to. When using the OOBE option in sysprep it reboots and asks for a local username, network location etc. Using the audit option in sysprep just reboots and puts it straight at the logon screen. Neither way puts it in the domain. Sysprep in XP was so easy so why do Microsoft insist on fixing what isn't broke! Thanks

I have managed to sort it. shell32.dll does in fact NOT need to be modified to get the shutdown dialog display the custom image. msgina.dll actually needs to be replaced with your custom one. The reg hack for GinaDLL does not work on the shutdown dialog - only for the logon and ctrl+alt+del dialogs. The best way I found was to customize msgina.dll with custom images, then use cab maker to compress it. Then overwrite the original msgina.dl_ file on the source CD on unattended installations. As for being overwritten by updates - in my experience the only ones that modify msgina.dll are Service Packs. I am running XP SP3 and very much doubt MS will be working on a SP4 for XP!

And how does one overwrite shell32.dll? Even in safe mode it is locked! For msgina.dll, I use a custom filename and use the GinaDLL registry entry to point it to that. Is there not the same way for shell32.dll? Thanks

Hiya, Is it possible to change the picture in the shutdown dialog box (ie Start > Shut Down)? I have never been able to this, but have always changed the logon and ctrl+alt+del dialogs with a custom image using Resource Hacker, but have never found the correct file for the shutdown one. Thanks

We're using Windows Deployment Services (the successor to RIS) on our network. When I originally created the images of the PC's I built-in the username and password using SysPrep. The need arose recently to change the password. So, without re-creating all the images (we have about 7), is there away to extract the file that contains the password entries from the .WIM file, change it and put back into the .WIM file? Thanks/...

Yeah I know that..!!! I fomatted as FAT32 with the intention of converting to NTFS post-install. Anyhow, I have not got it working. Originally I downloaded the Technet x64 Ent. Edition with SP2 embedded. I burnt this ISO to cheap CD-R media I got from work. This is the one that kept failing. I then decided to re-download the ISO, but this time went with the one without SP2 embedded, and burnt to 'proper' Verbatim DVD-R media - whizzed through text mode without a problem. I'm not sure if the original download was corrupted or if changing media sovled it. It's half-way through installing now so will apply SP2 when it's finished. Thanks for the responses...

OK, tried copying the i386/AMD64 (this is a x64 installation) folder in Recovery Console, but the COPY command only allows single file copy (what's up with that). How can I copy the entire folders. Tried copying xcopy onto a floppy but it won't even run. Thanks/...

Hiya, I'm trying to install Windows Server 2003 x64 Ent. Edition but am having real problems during the text-mode portion of setup, in that I keep getting file copy errors - each time I try to install, it errors on different files. I don't think it's ever got past 50% though. Hardware: Antec Titan Case Tyan Tomcat n3400b motherboard AMD Opteron 1212 processor Crucial Ballistix 4x 1GB RAM Toshiba DVD-ROM drive 5x 250GB Seagate HD's in RAID-5 SSI 5 drive backplane module I have tried 3 different optical drives and 2 different IDE cables and I still get these errors. Also tried burning to different media brands and burners. Funny thing is, I can install Windows Server 2008 Beta 2 no problem, so I wonder if it's the SATA RAID F6 drivers i'm using (i've tried both NVIDIA's and Tyan's web pages for the drivers). Any suggestions? Thanks/...

Hi, I am running a Storage Server 2003 R2 x64 box, and am making use of the MMC based management for stuff like File Screening and Disk Quotas etc. I am trying to develop an .asp page that show users their quota status. Now the below script kinda works, in that no errors appear, but it's not finding any info for the specified user (in this case Joe Bloggs) and doesn't work for any user I specify. Is this because i'm using the MMC snap-in for Quota management and not going through the other way of right clicking the drive in question and clicking 'Quota', as this show no entries. If so, can the script me modified to look at the MMC-base quotas instead. Or does something else need to be done. Thanks/... strComputer = "servername" Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _ & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colDiskQuotas = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_DiskQuota Where User='Win32_Account.Domain=""domainname"",Name=""Joe Bloggs""'") For each objQuota in colDiskQuotas Response.Write "Disk Space Used: " & vbTab & objQuota.DiskSpaceUsed & "<br />" Response.Write "Limit: " & vbTab & objQuota.Limit & "<br />" Response.Write "Quota Volume: " & vbTab & objQuota.QuotaVolume & "<br />" Response.Write "Status: " & vbTab & objQuota.Status & "<br />" Response.Write "User: " & vbTab & objQuota.User & "<br />" Response.Write "Warning Limit: " & vbTab & objQuota.WarningLimit & "<br />" Next

Hi, I have WDS installed on a business network and we have a bunch of Mesh Pegasus laptops that are causing a real headache with regards to imaging them. I have created a base installation of Windows XP SP2 from CD, then run SysPrep to remove the necessary bits and shut down. When booting to the network, I get the 2 options I should have - Boot Image and Capture Image. I run the capture image option and it loads through WDS ok, but when it get to the stage of loading Windows with the green progress bar, it freezes with 2 bars of the progress bar showing. This happens on ALL of our Mesh Pegasus laptops, and none of our many other branded laptops/computers, all using the same source CD for base installation. Any suggestions? Thanks/...

Hi there, I have a paid-for version of Windows XP x64 Edition, and would like to know if it's possible to use this key for an x86 installation instead of the x64 installation, as not all my apps are supported on x64. Thanks very much/...

Hi there, I've managed to change the background image in the logon dialog (msgina.dll). This works fine on the actuall logon bit, and when you press control+alt+delete once logged on. However, when I hit shutdown on the start menu, it displays the original Windows XP image. I'm guessing this is because this is in a different dll file - does anyone know which one I need to change for the shutdown dialog? Thanks very much/...

Hi there, I stop vol.exe from being installed (using WINNT.SIF) as my sound card has got it's own proprietary software manager. I stupidly created an unnatended disc for use on 2 other computers and forgot to take this statement out!! Is there anyway I can install vol.exe without having to re-install Windows on both machines again? Thanks very much/...