IcemanND

windows password use an offline password changer. bios/hard disk/startup passwords depend upon the system and model. no universal method for these and some cannot be removed without motherboard replacement.

Check out Windows Update Downloader (WUD) http://wud.jcarle.com/

I use a similar procedure except that I manually copy the i386 directory to c:\i386 first the run winnt32 /s:c: /syspart:c: tempdrive:c: and have no problems on both physical machines and in VMware workstation. There are strange rare occasions where I have to reboot for PE 2 to see the newly created partition but those are few are far between and it is less hassle to reboot than to try and figure out what was happening. I also do not run bootsect. just the diskpart script to partition, format, etc.

1. This is not a warez site! Links/Requests to warez and/or illegal material (porn, cracks, serials, etc..) will not be tolerated. Discussion of circumventing WGA/activation/timebombs/keygens or any other illegal activity will also not be tolerated. You will be banned without notice.

Search! it's out there. Hardware independent image universal image/imaging

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/18/

your user account and directory do not exist yet at the time that the files would be copied to the hard drive when using the $OEM$ folder. Then a 'USER' folder would be created. When later in the install the actual 'USER' account is created and the profile directory structure is made windows sees the existing 'USER' folder and thinks it is an existing account profile but since it is not related to the account being created it will create a new profile appending the computer name to the end of the profile directory 'USER.XP' You see this frequently on machine which have been joined to a domain after the machine was used by someone with a local account with the same login name as the domain login and the profile wasn't moved/merged you will have 'Username' and 'Username.domain' folders created for each profile with the same name.

There has been no totally secure solution provided yet that anyone has proposed that still allows for the functionality required for an UA CD. There is the option to encrypt the license key in the answer file but it limits the use of the UA CD to 60 days before you have to do it again. And I'm not sure how well encrypted it is, hopefully better than how it is stored in the registry. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328356

Right(string,y) function to get the right side of string to len y Left(string,y) to get the left side of string for len y Mid(string, x, [len y]) to get substring from the point x to len y, if y is omitted go to end of string.

Where is that option? Sorry, they appear to have removed it in the current version. Or maybe I have gotten confused. Is the massstorage list already populated in your sysprep.inf when you are running sysprep -bmsd? If so you do not need the -bmsd switch.

moved

Actually it is a problem with permissions in the registry in XP where sysprep puts the critical device settings for the mass storage controllers. Easiest way to get around it is as follows: Open CMD window. type: at 13:06 /interactive cmd.exe where 13:06 is one minute ahead of the current system time. A new CMD window will open which is running under the SYSTEM account header will be 'c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe' run sysprep with your desired switches from the new CMD window.

There isn't one you have to find the cd and create one yourself. There are numerous ways to do it anything from a batch script to applications that create permanent variables.

Once wasn't enough this thread need to be resurrected twice since 2001? Well as long as we are at it. Look for broken shortcuts in the startup folder and missing apps in the registry's run keys.

Yes, WSUS would definitely be a good idea, but I was under the impression he didn't have it and just wanted to pushvia AD only which would require either a startup script, or publishing it as an app but that is more work in my opinion.

install it silently via a startup script.

What file is in use? or is it different each time you have run it?

Appendix C in the guide has to do with putting additional drivers into the PE build and has nothing to do with creating a base XP image. Yes you will receive errors when integrating any of the driverpacks into PE 2 since some of them contain 2000 drivers and some of the XP drivers are not compatible. Until Bashrat has a Vista only set you will get errors integrating into PE 2. As far as sysprep and XP you should be able to download the driverpacks and run DPBase and select the sysprep option and you should have no problems.

The newest versions of Ghost handle Vista just fine. I use the Ghost Solutions Suite 2 and have no problems with it whatsoever. I'm not sure what the equivalent home version of Ghost would be, but I'm sure the latest works fine too.

Sorry, missed that sentence somehow. My guess is that HFSlip has added something. Moving to HFSlip Forum.

Post your answer file winnt.sif, or check it for a 'DetachedProgram' setting

It has to do with Microsoft having changed the format of the partition and format and boot table. I believe if you format the drive ahead of time to the XP format it should work fine.

I believe you just need to get a newer version of Ghost. I don't believe 2003 was compatible with Vista. Maybe not the cheapest route but definitely the easiest.

If you have one image that woks on all then you would benefit little from an unattended install. The possible advantages are ease of updating windows and drivers and the fact that you don't have to do anything for it to work across differing system HAL's.

you should have a product key for your installed OS. You can retrieve it from your installed OS using KeyDecoder (http://www.msfn.org/board/Decoding-Microsoft-keys-t55041.html&view=findpost&p=383775) or any number of similar other applications.