Kelsenellenelvian's Content - Page 109

Windows Post-Install Wizard (WPI for short) is a hypertext application designed for giving users choice. While Windows XP offers many ways of customizing the setup process out of the box, its major drawback is the lack of being able to select which applications an end user may install. In the past, end users and administrators needed to either download the files manually, or create overly complex scripts that could only be used once. WPI allows you to create one image, which can then be custom configured, and optionally, automated, so that end users can install any applications. WPI is a simple to use automation program for the choice and installation of multiple programs, tweaks and scripts. No longer will you need a dozen CD's or more when doing a fresh Installation. No longer will you need multiple files when you are servicing another PC. With Windows Post-Install Wizard all that you will need is 1 or 2 CD\DVD's to fully install your PC with all of your apps, scripts, registry files or tweaks. Instead of having to re-download those apps like adobe reader, flash or updates to programs you can have them all on one disk. With WPI you can have all of them all on one disk and then have a nice interface for selecting which apps to install and after configured properly WPI will install all of them without any needed input from you. WPI also and is commonly used added to your windows installation disks. This way you can automate the complete process of Windows and program installations. With your typical setup of WPI you have your OS and all of the apps, tweaks and such on one disk. After windows installs, WPI kicks in and you are given a selection of everything you have configured WPI with, then you can select the ones you want or simply let the timer run out and your default apps will install. Highlights of the newest version! You HAVE to update config and options files by going into config and saving the doing the same in the options wizard. IT HAS TO BE DONE IN THAT ORDER! Also update your themes from the website. Known Bugs\Issues! The rewind button DOES NOT work on the media player... (Probably never has) Nero 7 messes with the IE scripting engine and WPI will not work if Nero 7 has been installed or is currently installed. HOWEVER, This link to Nero Cleantool --> HERE has been reported to fix this issue. So if you wish to use WPI and have had Nero7 installed you will want to "clean" your system first. v7.7.0 Updates - Released July 28th, 2009 ======================================================================== *** You will be alerted that your config file is too old. You will need to save your Config file first, then your Options file, IN THAT ORDER, to update them. *** All of the themes have been updated slightly; just for the padding around the wizards. You should update yours from the web site if you are not using one of the default ones. * Added 24 128x128 generic .png's in the graphics folder for tooltips. These images can be found, and added to, in the Graphics/Logos folder. * Fixed some wrong language codes. * Updated the grids with drag-and-drop functionality. Top, Up, Down, Bottom buttons have been removed. Dragging in main config list not necessary so not implemented. * Changed Conditions and Grayed Conditions string gadgets to textareas to show more. * Added a simple HTML editor for the Description in the Config wizard. Waiting for the next version to come out with more features. * Added Accordions and Editors combo boxes to Style tab. Three skins each. * MAJOR updates to the Options and Config wizards. * New Configurations tab in Config wizard. These items were moved from General tab in Options wizard. These are now specific to the config file being used. When they were global, all kinds of issues arose with category sort order, configurations, etc. * Interface tab in Options wizard is gone. Those items are moved to the General tab. * All the gadget layouts in all wizards/windows have been updated. * The wizards sizes have shrunk a little bit. NOTE: You will be alerted that your config file is too old. You will need to save your Config file first, then your Options file, IN THAT ORDER, to update them. * Do Not Load Desktop functionality has been updated. * Updated the Picture handling in the Config Wizard. * Tool tip images can now be placed anywhere. They are not forced to be in the Graphics folder. If no path is specified it will still be assumed the Graphics folder for backwards compatibility. * Updated trimString() to handle network and additional paths properly. * Added function isDesktopLoaded(). (Francesco) Usage: isDesktopLoaded() Returns: true or false * When using "Load desktop before installation starts", if already on the desktop, it will start to install. Before it would wait for a reboot. * Updated Bulgarian lang file. Notes and Extras Suggested disk folder layout: With the above folder layout all your config entries should read like: ["%wpipath%\Install\Blah.exe" /switch] Here is a small tutorial on how to add an app to WPI! Ok this is a sample (Very simple) configuration for CCleaner (A.K.A Crap Cleaner) This assumes you have all of the WPI files either in the WPI folder at the root of your Windows cd or all of the WPI folders (Common, Graphics, WPIScripts, Tools, Install and Themes) and the file WPI.hta at the root of your cd. Remember this is just the most basic and required entries for a program! 1. Download the app and place it in the WPI\Install Folder. (CCleaner.exe in this example) 2. Run WPI.hta and click on the “Config” button\Icon area. 3. Go to the very top area above the config section and click on the button that says “Add” 4. Enter in the name section “CCleaner” No quotes! Then press the TAB button to activate the rest of the wizard. 5. You will notice the Unique ID (UID) section gets automatically filled in for you. 6. All apps are selected to be installed by default right from the start so if you don’t want it selected by default you must uncheck this box. 7. Choose a category for your app to be displayed in. If you want the app to be displayed in a category you don’t see simply chose other and a box will appear that will allow the entry of you choice. 8. In the commands tab click on "Add" at the controls area just right of the command line pane and then the the little folder icon and browse to your folder that contains the app, preferably the .\WPI\Install folder then select the CCleaner installer, this will place the appropriate path in the command line. 9. Add the necessary switch(s) for the program to run silently. For CCleaner the switch is /S so you would have your command line looks like so = "%wpipath%\Install\CCleaner.exe" /S (This can be easily done for most standard apps by simply clicking on the USSF button on the far right of the command line.) Other switches for apps that USSF cannot identify you can try looking at the forum section here = MSFN Application Installs section, 10. Select the Save and then the Exit buttons and you have now configured your first app! Afterwards you configure WPI to run with your CD using whichever method you choose. We suggest using one of the pre compiled and nicely provided $oem$ (Source folder if your are using Vista or Server 2008) folders that can be found in the downloads section. Then you can use an app like nLite, vLite, CDImageGUI or the Makeiso* program included in the tools folder to make your CD w\WPI bootable again. * MakeIso.exe = Adds make bootable .iso to the right click menu of folders. It is a silent installer so DO NOT click on it 50x a simple double click is all that is need to install it. It can be uninstalled from the add\remove programs menu! Just go to the source folder (The one that contains I386 and WPI) and right click then select Make Bootable ISO... _____________________________________________________________________ I have seperated the tools out from the main archive. You can download the tools here: Tools archive. Contents of the tools archive: WPI Config Lister CDSwitch <-- 3 Custom themes for CDSwitch MakeISO.exe Cleanup.exe (Deletes ALL icons from the desktop) Reboot.exe (Dialog box that will reboot in 60 sec unless cancel is pressed) _____________________________________________________________________ Here is a quick start package that will set your windows disk up to use WPI after the desktop loads. This is for use with all versions of Windows 2000, XP and 2003! To make use of this archive all you need to do is unRAR it and place the %oem% folder beside the I386 and WPI folders. http://www.wpiw.net/downloads/Post_$OEM$.rar Contents of the Post %OEM% archive: cmdlines.txt RunWPI.inf _______________________________________________________________________ Here is a quick start package that will set your windows disk up to use WPI with runonceex. This is for use with all versions of Windows 2000, XP and 2003! To make use of this archive all you need to do is unRAR it and place the %oem% folder beside the I386 and WPI folders. http://www.wpiw.net/downloads/$OEM$.rar cmdlines.txt RunWPI.exe _______________________________________________________________________ Here is mritters RUN_ WPI solution! http://www.wpiw.net/downloads/$OEM$_RunWPI.cmd.rar CleanUpWPI.cmd cmdlines.txt RunOnceEx.cmd RunWPI.cmd Use is as the same as the one above... _______________________________________________________________________ This is for use with all versions of Windows Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7! To make use of this archive all you need to do is unRAR it and place the Sources folder at the root of your CD. Sources Folder. Contents of the Sources archive: setupcomplete.cmd (This needs to be several folders deep so I preset the folders for you) ________________________________________________________ Over 2000 .png images for your pleasure to use in your tooltips or whatever! PNG Collection. ________________________________________________________ Themes are now hosted on WPI.net!!! Theme page! Please remember and donate!