rusty_steel

Maybe I'M confused... but, if you DON'T install the apps as part of the initial "unattended" install, they're not really part of the unattended install, are they? It seems to me that you're making the process way too complex. If the installs will require user interaction, you could either: a: create your own subfolder in the $OEM directories, and have it copied over during install, then execute the apps post-install (and post-wpi). You could probably archive the entire folder and password protect the archive, so that only an authorized person could access the installs. Whether an install can be unattended or not has nothing to do with how or where it's packaged, only whether the installer can accept, and you know the proper swithches. b: Create a seperate install disk, just for apps you only want on specific machines. If you read up on wpi, or any of the other post-install helpers, you'll figure out what needs to be copied to the drive for the commands to work. You can probably make the jump from that to running the install-helper app of your choice sperately from the actual Windows install. (I did, and I'm not very bright) c: You could go freak-wild, and burn a multisession DVD with the Windows installer first, and your "special apps" installers on session 2. You could use an autorun creator, there are several, to create a menu of apps to install, and you could require a pssword to access that menu...

If you're new to Linux, and have a good internet connection, you have great options! There are several nice distributions packaged as Live CDs, which can be installed to hard disk if you like them. If you follow the advice others have given, you can get an Ubuntu Live disk, a Mepis disk... and I'd also recommend looking at Kanotix... and, for a change of pace, PCLinuxOS. Grab 'em, burn 'em, boot 'em and run 'em! Once you find the one you are enjoying the most, use it's install to hard disk feature. Here are some links: Ubuntu Downloads Kanotix Mepis PCLinuxOS If you can burn a DVD, I'd say grab RR4. It's a live Gentoo disk, with options to install to the hard disk. I grabbed a copy and ran the daylights out of it on my AthlonXP2600 machine, and it's extremely complete, visually well designed, and has an adapted version of K-Package to update packages. The release date is only a week or so ago, so there's probably nothing to update for quite a while. Here's a link, if you, or anyone else, wants to give it a shot. RR4 Homepage Sure, this is a Windows user forum, but all the kids are trying Linux!

My, my, my... none of you know me, and that's fine. I understand you're all regulars, and feel entitled to vent and flame. Feel free to do so with my post as well. Of course, on any of the sites I administer, you'd be warned once about wasting my bandwidth on off-topic replies, then you'd be blocked for some period of time, depending on the severity. Things you apparently don't realize about these types of posts: 1:) New visitors to the forum, who are visiting a PINNED TOPIC get to wade through all your posturing before they figure out that everything useful is at the top. 2:) Every reply uses server space, and bandwidth in BOTH directions. Your flames eat up space on a server, and waste server bandwidth. Other readers also waste their bandwidth downloading your comments, which are unrelated to the PINNED TOPIC. 3:) Posting off-topic personal requests in a forum thread muddies up the reading for everyone. We routinely remove off-topics, or move them to more appropriate places. ... This is where I decide I won't waste any more bandwidth or time. In short, this thread contains useful information and was pinned as part of the library for unattended developers. The replies here make the thread appear amateurish and childish. Is that your intent? If not, maybe every reply which doesn't further enhance the topic would have been more appropriate in a PM. These are just the thoughts of one renegade coder who visits this site pretty frequently...(and probably the reason all my code still goes to open-source projects )