blinkdt

Yeah, I'm for keeping it "as-is" so that it better blends with the windowless Windows XP install process.

Very cool. I was also looking at adding a JavaScript fader for the text links--not a cheezy fader but something I found with a polished look--that changes the color of the text when moused over. It's nice. And I just learned that I have a gaggle of nieces and nephews arriving tomorrow, gonna spend a few days catching up with them, but I will look at the category issue as time allows. I give myself less than a 50% chance of pulling it off, but I'll try.

My WPI "Take 3." Three column install routine with some changes under the hood. DOWNLOAD

Roger that. I think everyone would enjoy that feature, I will make an honest effort at it this week. Good to have you back in the saddle, K--.

You have a whole host of errors and without access to the system we can go on guessing from now until forever. for example... c:\documents ??...tells me you are missing quote marks around the path. But your problems with "main.js" are a bit of a mystery. The real problem here, I think, is that you have a system where IE was removed (?) and then reinstalled (?). WPI is an .hta that runs off of the mshta process. IE and mshta go together like peas and carrots. If IE is screwed up, all bets are off. Troubleshooting IE can be a bear, even with access to your system. You can spend weeks Googling for a solution using trial-and-error techniques, or you can scrap it. Again, I don't have access to your system, so I can only wonder whether it was set up as Firefox only. Firefox has it's benefits, but working with WPI ain't one of them. It's a Microsoft world, my friend.

It sounds like things are really screwed up. If I were in your position, I would probably bite the bullet and reinstall Windows: scrub the drive and start over. Don't flame me, please, as that's the best suggestion I have at this point.

Quoting myself here. In the version of WPI that I use the last section of the generate.js file can be removed to accomplish this feat: //Launch the last RunOnceEx process we just wrote keys for and exit WshShell.regWrite(KeyBase + "\\TITLE", getText(txtRunOnceExTitle), "REG_SZ"); window.moveTo(10000,10000); if (!debugOn) WshShell.Run("rundll32.exe iernonce.dll,RunOnceExProcess", 10, false); window.moveTo(0,0); if (!debugOn) window.close(); programs = null; Any checked entries are written to the registry and WPI closes. The entries do NOT run until the main WPI window is closed (the RunOnceEx process is NOT launched). I have not tested this with a working example, but it should be a simple matter of hyperlinking to a "sub" WPI with the target="_blank" attribute from within the "main" WPI. Gonna take a stab at that category selection issue later this week. Could you live with the notion of a small green check mark (select all) and small red X (select none) at the top of each category, preferably aligned to the right side of the category header, vs. a check box?

@AHJAHJ Is Internet Explorer 6 installed on your system? Somebody check me if I'm wrong, here, but you need IE to run an .hta like WPI.

Good, good, good, good!

I have seen that happen on machines that have a hidden restore partition. Is that true in your case?

Yeh, me too, I think I've seen that request in the past for a category header check box. I can see where that might be a beast to implement, given that the category names are created by the user, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Completely agree with you re WAIT, I prefer the ability to customize the WPI interface. I was reacquainted with a cousin last week who is a bit of a guru, but I don't think he does JavaScript. But he might know someone who is, let me check. Haven't heard from hasi001 or kelsenellenelvian in a long time. Guess they have these things called "lives."

Yeah, I really like the autorun feature, very professional looking. But I'm probably never going to go the DVD route because I handle too many machines lacking a DVD read capability, so my WPI is a separate beast. But on a similar note, why couldn't a feature something like the autorun you have be incorporated into a standalone WPI. Just stream of thought here, but why couldn't you run an instance of WPI from within WPI? Maybe just place the second instance in a subdirectory and call it from there? For example, I see that lots of folks have their reg tweaks broken out into individual entries. But I have like 30-60 tweaks, too many to list together with the programs unless you want to do a LOT of scrolling. Wouldn't it be great if you could click a button on the WPI interface to open another WPI that has them ALL listed cleanly on a single page?. Most would be checked by default, but a user could scour the list and make their own selections. When finished they would click a "done" button and be returned to the main WPI screen, where they could finish and then click "begin" to start the whole install. Guess I'm not as familiar with WPI as I should be as well as the subtlties between RunOnce and RunOnceEx. I know that when the "begin" button is clicked the entries are generated, but.... There must be a way to generate the entries without initiating the install routine until later, like when the main WPI GUI closes. Maybe we'll do some poking around during the upcoming 4th of July holiday. Hope this makes sense.

On the "cosmetic" issue, it's been asked in this forum and others with no solution forthcoming. The only "fix" is to keep the entries short with some creative editing. And remember that they will expand when bolded during the install, making things even worse.

Those both look great, Lost Soul. For converting between .ico and .png file formats you can also try AveIconifier2, just drag and drop and all done, very intuitive. Don't know how well this will work in preserving image clarity, lionhrt, especially if the icons are 16x16 or even 40x40 and you are trying to take them up to 128x128. I can almost guess. Another option: many proggies have a setup.bmp file in the CD root (or the application data directory after setup is started), those might work well--and be consistent--for you. In fact, you will probably want to reduce them in size. Edited for typos.

WOW! I've bookmarked this thread and will be coming back here often. Hands down the best guide I've ever seen at MSFN, kudos to you!

Looks like you need to edit the ".side" class in the wpi.css file found in the Themes-->Default directory. You can specify the size, color, font, etc. Trouble is, the changes will be applied to all button labels unless you create a new class specifically for the "Exit" text. From the code block posted by lionhrt above, taken from wpi.htm, this line defines the text: <font class="side" onClick="onExit()"><b><script>document.write(getText(lblExit));</script></b></font> You could change that to: <font class="exit" onClick="onExit()"><b><script>document.write(getText(lblExit));</script></b></font> ...and then add a new ".exit" class to the CSS file. Hope this helps.

The extra graphics really sweeten things up. I think it's going to be a lot easier convincing someone to install Azureus if they find the blue frog than to simply describe the program as a BitTorrent client ("oh, sounds geeky, think I'll pass"). Couldn't find icons for a few programs, notably Belarc Advisor and Acronis True Image, but substitutions are better than nothing. @Lost Soul Don't know how it's working on your end, but the .png transparencies produced a grayish background in contrast to the rest of the white tooltip background. Maybe it would work well as a transparent .gif? I stuck with the .png format and used Photoshop to add an underlying layer, colored it white, saved it as .png and all is well.

Sweet! Just finished revamping my WPI and it looks great. Thanks lionhrt for suggesting this mod, and thanks Lost Soul for bringin' it home!

Wow! OK, so WinCustomize has tons of 128x128 .png files for use with the ObjectDock. Most are transparent backgrounds, so a little Photoshop work to resize and add a white background produces this: The corresponding entry: desc[pn]=['<img src="./icons/RKLauncher.png" width="64" height="128" align="left">Convenient and fun way to organize your Desktop icons.'] And another take using the center tags: The entry: desc[pn]=['<center><img src="./icons/spybot.png" width="128" height="128"> Eliminate spyware/adware.</center>']

@Thinkster Yes, I take it back, I just looked at a client's machine today, one of a handful on dial-up, and they had not updated Norton in over 4 months (>8MB of fresh definitions to install!). Unlike a Cable or DSL connection, the auto-update had not done its job at all despite being scheduled daily at prime usage time. They'd also neglected to let Windows do it's job and install the already downloaded critical updates (that yellow shield was a mystery). So, short of a boot in the butt, I like your idea of a nag. Maybe on systems like this the Task Scheduler, as smashly suggested, is a good candidate. I can envision an AutoIt script near the end of the install that prompts you whether to set up the task scheduler, would fit nicely with my "Rename Machine" schtick, which also runs at the end. Simpler solutions? Edit: Asta, can you elaborate on your "outlook or "post it" program for computers" suggestion? Appreciated.

No, not amateur, ronin2040, there are many amateurs here, myself included. The word is laaaaaaaazy. Kelsenellenelvian's guide, hasi001's examples, theme templates up the wazoo. He couldn't be "bothered" to ask or do the homework? It's the fact that he comes back into the forum to whine about it that torques me. At the end of the day WPI is an .hta app built from HTML and JavaScript. When you are ready to move beyond changing a few entries in the config.js file to really customize this app, I think you will agree that a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript familiarity will come in reeeeeaaal handy. And, yeah, I need to lighten up.

Yeah, looks like there have been some significant changes in the newer version. I would start playing with these numbers to determine whether fewer of more apps can appear in a given column. Make changes to the "maxentries=" value depending upon your preferred resolution: switch (winheight) { case '600': maxentries=21; break; case '768': maxentries=28; break; case '1024': maxentries=38; break; case '1200': maxentries=40; break; } I think you are going to have to edit the .hta file directly. As djbe said, "learn HTML," as that is the best route. Then you can put the buttons in a different column or create a new row altogether. Let me look at the newest version in the days ahead and maybe see what's going on. Haven't heard from kelsenellenelvian in a while, hope all is well.

Albert, take a look HERE. I have spent a lot of time trying to make something of a customization tutorial and would appreciate any feedback. This entire forum serves as a tutorial, but I've tried to outline my own experiences in customizing an earlier version of WPI.

No offense ever taken, Asta, simple is always good.

Oh! Good thinking, putting it in "desc[pn]=" to produce the effect! No need for any image map.