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I do what you seek to do using WPI in the following fashion: cmd1[pn]=['%cdrom%\\Programs\\WMP10\\MP10Setup.exe /Q:A /R:N /C:\"setup_wm.exe /Q:A /R:N /DisallowSystemRestore\"'] cmd2[pn]=['%cdrom%\\Programs\\WMP10\\Energy.exe /q'] cmd3[pn]=['REGEDIT /S %cdrom%\\Programs\\WMP10\\prefs.reg'] Using the "/q" swithch does the job of installing the renamed Energy Bliss theme. Set Bliss as your visualization, then search your registry and grab the info related to your Media Player preferences. Merge those last, and all should be well. If not using WPI, you should be able to adapt this install to your preferred method. Good luck.

Try the DRIVERS forum? Nice choice in systems, BTW, I have the same. So, if after searching and reading for a few hours you REALLY can't figure out how to add your sound drivers unattended, do post back. But try workin' it for the love first. You can do it!

@ripken204 BEE-AH-UUUU-TEE-FUL! Nice job. @coucou I'm workin' it, you get to see the warts along the way.

@kukris I think this is what you are looking for in the form of a registry entry imported during the install: ;change Recycle Bin info [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\BitBucket] "PurgeInfo"=hex:48,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,\ 00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,\ 0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,0a,00,04,00,00,00,00,00,68,4e,f5,\ bf [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer] "ShellState"=hex:1c,00,00,00,67,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\ 01,00,00,00,0a,00,00,00 Bonus: the HKLM entry reduces the size of the Bin to 4%. Make your changes to a test machine then consult these keys. You may have to reboot before the changes take effect.

@UncleBuck This information comes from Step 4 of the Beginner's Guide: vs. "manually choose a partition during text-mode setup with full control on choice of file system...."And that's how I lost my hair: I like to partition drives as a percentage with a bottom line 10GB for the C: drive, so during the manual partition I calculate and proceed. Diskpart.exe allows for creating a primary partition sized in MB only, but in my case one size does not fit all. Check the "AutoRun" plugin available for Bart's PE builder, however, that may be what you are looking for.

Makes perfect sense to me now, durex, but I'm no programmer. Maybe play with it, try it out, and post back...unless hasi001 or others have an idea?

@steve007: From The Elder Geek on Windows XP, a dynamite site I'm sure most have stumbled across.

Yeah, I'm bald on top and I blame this very issue for the dramatic hair loss. My understanding is that AutoPartition= can be set to "0" or "1" in the [Data] section and Repartition= can be set to Yes or No in the [unattended] section of WINNT.SIF and that's it: you either repartition and format the entire drive automatically or you set up (and format) the partitions manually. There must be some sort of utility that could be added to the install to perform this type of action, but I've never run across such a beast. Anybody?

@rikpen204 Ooooh, nice background. There's a new set of ObjectDock buttons at WinCustomize, you can preview HERE. Add a black background and you should be all set, I suspect it would look pretty sweet. @jelli I've been getting a few PMs on what I did specifically to create my WPI, so I thought I would detail the process at my web site. Haven't spoken to hasi001 or anyone else about this and hope I don't ruffle any feathers. I just got the javascript tree working to my satisfaction and will start creating some pages. You can preview the bare-bone start of this endeavor HERE. Follow the white link to the main discussion, expand the tree, and click the "config.js" link to get a sense of where I am going with this. This could take days, weeks, or months given my work schedule, sorry for that. If you have specific suggestions or requests for HTML-related help, please PM me. FYI, my web site is a disorganized mess at present, hope to revamp it during the summer months. About the logo "One Teacher's Web Site," I'm an elementary school computer instructor and the site was set up mainly to let my students contact me easily.

@durex I don't know about anybody else, but I'm a little confused by the question: not sure what is meant by "add additional variables." Can you provide an example of what you are trying to accomplish? Thanks.

@Yazowl Very nice. I'll be incorporating that trick into all of my batches, thanks.

Be advised that the method is a little more involved if you are working with an OEM version of Windows 98SE (and ME?) vs. the retail version. You will need to refine your msbatch.inf to include an [OPKInstall] section as seen in the example HERE.

There are more than a few threads discussing the issue. I suppose I could perform the search, spend time reading through the results, then create links to the ones I believe most relevant, but that takes all the fun out of it for the person most interested in the solution. No pain, no gain.

In the left navigation column, click ObjectDock and enter search terms. You will end up downloading .zip files, look for the .png files packed inside and discard any .ico files.

@kelsenellenelvian As mentioned earlier, I found them at WinCustomize. I later used Photoshop to modify them, resizing and matching the background colors.

OK, I finally got this pig working. I have to say, although I want an unattended Windows 98 disc that loads the OS and post-installs some programs, I DO NOT want to spend an inordinate amount of time learning the nuances of the msbatch.inf. Although I found references to using msbatch.inf to place items in StartUp (HERE, for example), I'm going to rely on batch files and AutoIt. My goal was to get a compiled AutoIt script into the StartUp folder. That script will perform the program installs, customizations, and cleanup. I drew on Bachus' OEMApps.INF file posted earlier in this thread (big thanks, Bachus ) to utilize RunOnce. RunOnce fires up a batch file (HKLM,%KEY_RUNONCE%,AppsInstall,,"%10%\PIwiz.bat") that copies the compiled script, in this case test.exe, to the StartUp directory: PIwiz.bat: @echo off Copy "%systemdrive%\Files\test.exe" "%windir%\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp" cls exit The compiled script was copied over to the hard drive earlier, along with the Windows setup files, using a batch file: Setup.bat: @ECHO OFF REM Locate the CDROM drive, where PIwiz.bat exists at the root... FOR %%d IN (c: d: e: f: g: h: i: j: k: l: m: n: o: p: q: r: s: t: u: v: w: x: y: z:) DO IF EXIST %%d\PIwiz.bat SET CDROM=%%d ECHO. ECHO Creating installation directories on the hard drive... ECHO. ECHO C:\FILES ECHO C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS ECHO. md c:\files md c:\windows md c:\windows\options md c:\windows\options\cabs ECHO Copying setup files to new installation directories... ECHO. xcopy %CDROM%\files\*.* c:\files /s copy %CDROM%\win98\*.* c:\windows\options\cabs copy %CDROM%\PIwiz.bat c:\windows ECHO. ECHO Preparing to run setup... ECHO. REM Now run setup from the local hard drive keyed to an .inf answer file. c:\windows\options\cabs\setup.exe /IS /IV /IQ c:\windows\options\cabs\msbatch.inf CLS EXIT Tools like xcopy, JO.SYS, and IBM's WIPE utility are placed on a customized Win98SE boot disk, which is used to make a bootable CD (no need for a floppy on systems that support CD boot). So I can boot from CD, wipe the drive, partition the drive, format the drive, and then type "setup[ENTER]" and away she flies! Oh, yeah, anyone know how to bypass the "Add New Hardware" wizard? Those plug-and-play monitors are a bit of a pain.

Oh...my...heavens. You are soooo gonna get flamed. Try searching for "Quick Launch" (not Quick Luanch) and I think you will find more than a few posts that answer this question thoroughly. Good luck.

@jelli I am not using any of the customization features that hasi001 and others have so graciously been building into more recent versions of WPI. At the end of the day, WPI is an HTML Application (HTA), and if you know HTML then you can fully customize the .hta file. That's it: HTML, one of the most basic programming methods available. Children do it. Not to say, of course, that a child or HTML newbie like myself could build an app like WPI, but building it is one thing and understanding it enough to tweak it is quite another. There are tons of HTML guides on the Web, but if you are spankin' brand new to it then how about Lissa Explains It All. No joke, check the "html help" tab. She has information on tables, colors, css and javascript files...lots to keep you busy. There's no magic bullet here, 'fraid to say, but if you pursue this you will encounter new adventures. Take care.

@Swimming Bird The file structure is the same as the original version downloaded from hasi001's site back in December 2004. The graphics were changed, the CSS file found in the "common" folder and .js files found in the "wpiscripts" folder tweaked, and the .hta file revamped. You can find my first cut at this--back in December/January--on page 2 of this thread. I added the hyperlinks to the files found in the RMNow folder at a later date. Like many an MSFNer, I played with this on an almost daily basis. Borrowed ideas from bonedaddy, Pezzie, hasi001, and FuNKeR especially, worked on the installs, messed with the interface, searched the forums, contributed to the forums, etc. Also, please note that some features are missing by design, for example, the ability to create dependencies (uid[pn]=['***']/deps[pn]=['***']). In that case, I disabled the DebugLayer to stop the screen from bouncing when a user was making choices between "Select All" or "Select None," stuff like that there. I said it before and I'll say it again: you need a knowledge of HTML and the ability/comfort level to tweak javascripts if you are going to customize this fine app to your heart's content. No way around that. As for a tutorial, I don't know where a person seeking to write such a beast would begin. "Just mess with it" is the best advice, I think. OK, let's see some new stuff from others, feed those creative juices!

@ Lost Soul If you are talking about the tooltips that appear when you mouseover the list of applications, the colors can be changed by editing the values found at the top of the "config.js" file. They appear to be arranged in sequence: //tooltip style //Style[...]=[TitleColor,TextColor,TitleBgColor,TextBgColor, Style[0]=["black","black","#FFb200","#FFD980", So, to change the title color (the first value in "Style[...]=") from black to white just change the first value in the "Style[0]=" section. Several colors are denoted by their hexidecimal values, you can use a tool like ColorPic (a must-have utility freebie) to mess with the hex values to your heart's content, pretty fun once you get the hang of it. Good luck.

Sure, glent, happy to oblige a hard working MSFNer such as yourself. You can grab it HERE (~1.2MB). The "RMNow" directory holds the hyperlinked info for "Read Me First" and "Maintain Your Computer," so it's important to maintain the directory structure. It took me awhile to write those pages in terms that are comprehensible to the average computer user, if you know what I mean. Would appreciate a feedback PM with any thoughts that you (or anyone else) might have on how this could be improved.

This msbatch.inf entry works for me: [AddRegistry] HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Network\Real Mode Net","autologon",1,00000000 Question: Does anyone know how to use msbatch.inf to copy a file to the Startup directory? If this is possible (it must be), then I could copy an AutoIt script that would install about a dozen programs and run a few cleanup batch files when the installation hits the desktop, with the necessary reboots.

@oystercatcher Nice script. Not to poop on all of your hard work, but can't most of this (all of this?) be accomplished through registry settings and a simple batch file? I remember doing all of my post-install tweaking via AutoIt before discovering MSFN, always cool to watch it work, but merging the reg settings and setting off a batch seems quicker, more efficient. Again, nice job, I for one will study it as I continue to bone up on my AutoIt skills.

Heck, yeah, Mike, I'd love to see you do your stuff! Let 'er rip! It would be a good idea to ensure that the tweaks are valid, and at what stage they need to be applied.

All done! Huge thanks to you, Hasi! The interface includes image rollovers (images shamelessly borrowed from WinCustomize), two hyperlinks to separate html pages (Read Me First and Maintain Your Computer), a link to my "Contact Me" page on my personal Web site for users with any remaining questions, and a link to a small executable that 'repairs' the sometimes corruptible ObjectDock.