blinkdt

Look HERE.

Posts like this baffle me...it's the Microsoft Software Forum Network, right? MSFN, baby.

One way to skin this cat is to select a base theme, choose a wallpaper, configure a screen saver and save it as a .theme file in $OEM$\$$\Resources\Themes Then, apply the theme via WINNT.SIF: [shell] CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\BigBlue.theme" Works like a charm.

Um, yeah, that's nice, but after you have made changes to your expanded file and need to recab as a .xx_ file, how can you do it with the utilities mentioned in this thread? EXPAND and MAKECAB still have their place in my unattended world.

Yes it is, extremely different in my experience. Server 2003 is soooooooo locked down that you will need to invest a good deal of time learning how to make it work for you. It arrives in "ultra-paranoid" package mode. Good luck.

Yes, their Web site is less than intuitive at times. I have difficulty navigating it even when trying to locate an item that I know is there. Having said all that, you are on your own. Use the site support features to determine what works best for you in terms of purchasing, shipping, returns, etc. There is no substitute for access to an actual store, however. Good luck.

I use AutoIt to install the update immediatley after installing (and activating) PSCS2: SplashTextOn ("", "" & @CRLF & "Updating Adobe Photoshop CS2..." & @CRLF & "" & @CRLF & "Please wait..." & @CRLF & "", 320, 90, -1, -1, 1, "Arial", 12, 12) Sleep (5000) SplashOff () Run ( @ScriptDir & "\901update\setup.exe") WinWait ("Adobe Photoshop CS2", "Installation was successful") Sleep (500) ControlClick ("Adobe Photoshop CS2", "", "Button4") All done.

I don't get it. I have been using Outlook and IE for years. I have not seen a virus/trojan/spyware/malware item on my machine in all of that time, and have watched the Firefox/Opera hooplah come and go. I am not impressed. People who bring their machines to me with problems have been visiting naughty Web sites or clicking silly links or failed to update their OS in all cases. The basics. We all learn, but some learn the hard way. Maybe they should have, like, a test similar to a driver's license test. If you don't get 17 out of 20 correct, you can't operate a computer. Naaaaah, then my side income would disappear.

OK, I just came back from Sam's. I returned my 19" Samsung 913T, which I had purchased for $348.74 on 12/12/05, for a full-and-complete refund no-questions-asked, tax included. Then I walked over to the shelf and pulled a 19" Samsung 960BF for $319.87. It is a work of art. I bought some steaks with the extra ~$30 . As an aside, not too long ago the Samsung 204T was available at Sam's for a price in the range of $1,000. A beautiful, 20" pivoting model, truly ground-breaking at the time and worth the money if you could afford it. I could not. A few months later, to my astonishment, it was on the shelf for a "mere" $520. So I began saving my pennies. When I returned to buy it, the price had dropped again to $480. And it is now available for ~$425! Do I need to spell out the rest? If you where the guy who bought the monitor at $1,000 eight months ago, would you: A. be an upright individual and suck it up, or B. bring back the original, buy two (2), and pocket the extra $150 Is this a trick question? I still have the original and will keep it, but it is good to know that Sam's offers price/product protection like no other vendor in the world. Buying a Dell? Don't buy it from Dell, buy your Dell at Sam's. If the power supply blows three years from now (well out of warranty), bring the whole thing back and upgrade the entire system? Then again, you have to live with yourself.

Not familiar with a 965 series, but I just picked up an ASUS P5WD2-E Premium with a 975, should be arriving shortly. I plan to mate it with the low-end Smithfield dual-core and overclock the s-n-o-t out of it. Check the review at Tom's Hardware about this combination. They claim it is the fastest computing experience on the planet today, I'm hoping to get 3.8 or better out of my new system.

Get a Zalman copper cooler in your hands and you will feel the difference. Thermaltake is a cheap toy in comparison, noisy as well. One of my students recently brought his rig in, lots of Thermaltake components. I was not impressed, but he seemed happy so....

Go to samsclub.com and check for locations. Odd, I just visited the site and did not see the monitor listed that I saw in my local store about a week ago. Good quality white plastic, matches my Shuttle SB86i perfectly. I am going out there tomorrow and will post back. As for the auto-adjust feature, no drawback as far as I am concerned. Just pivot the monitor and the OS responds, no need for pivot-pro software or nVidia's rotate feature. And the image is never out-of-place on the screen. Edit: correction: the LCD does not automatically adjust for pivot, the "MagicRotation" (formerly Pivot Pro) or nVidia software is required. And the darned thing folds up and the base acts as a carry handle as well. Smart.

Not necessarily, in my experience. I ALWAYS find a cooling difference when exchanging the stock thermanl pad with Arctic Silver-brand Ceramique. The 22-gram syringe is good for many, many builds.

Best PSU on the market today: SeaSonic. Nothing but quality. I like Thermaltake when I build systems for OTHER people, but mine are pure SeaSonic.

Get a Samsung. I use them in all of my builds without disappointment. New model just out, 19" rotating/pivoting with only one control: the power button. Everything elase is auto-adjusting, about $320. Unbelievably sharp images. The model number escapes me, sorry. Better yet, if you are fortunate enough to live near a Sam's Club, get it there. Their return policy is incredible: "If you are ever disatisfied with a purchase for any reason at any time, bring it back for a full and complete refund." That includes the tax. Dead pixel? No problem. Big price drop in the last three months? No problem. A new model is released 6 months from now and you are lamenting your past purchase? No problem. Keep the box, accessories, and receipt and you are good to go. For the lifetime of the item. In the checkout line, they ask if you want to purchase the extended warranty..I just smile and say, "no, your warranty is better." I kid you not. Only in America, baby.

Yep. Gotta love MSFN.

I gave up on StarDock some time ago. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but the products are not reliable, in my experience. For example, Stardock's ObjectDock writes settings to a simple .ini file. The file is easily corrupted rendering the utility useless. In contrast, Punk Software's RocketDock writes it's settings to the Windows registry and is therefore much more reliable. They both serve the same purpose. Punk has the superior product in several respects, but StarDock's program is more "popular." Go figure.As for WindowBlinds, the program is quite involved and the visualizations varying widely in quality. Some designers create quality visualizations, some do not. Most importantly, the program can interfere with a user's ability to work with other popular programs like Kodak's EasyShare software unless configured properly. The average user will not take the time to learn how to configure the program, in my experience. If you are installing for yourself, great. But if you are installing for friends and neighbors, anticipate receiving a lot of phone calls for help and support. Or not. When you install difficult-to-use software on other people's machines, word gets around and at the end of the day your reputation suffers, whether you know it or not.

"not a big fan of AutoIt." Say what? AutoIt rules! I've converted all of my batch files to AutoIt routines, the splash screens are a nice addition to the install routine. IMHO. "Where did you get the MSI's from?" As I explained, I used WinRAR to extract them directly from the original installer downloaded from Microsoft (right-click, Extract to...) or ran the installer, then snatched them from the Local Settings directory. Plenty of information on this board explaining how that is done. "Why work with the .msi files?" The ability to edit the .msi directly with Orca or another editor is awesome. I haven't figured it all out, but I now know just enough to be dangerous and continue to learn. That's what it's all about.

I install TweakUI, SyncToy, and Power Calculator as part of my unattended routine. All of these can be extracted using WinRAR to reveal the .msi file, which can be edited with Orca (to remove the stock shortcuts) and installed using standard /qb or /qn switches. The HTML Slideshow is another easy .msi extract/install, but the Raw Viewer extracts to Local Settings --> Temp (as an .msi) and can be grabbed there. I suspect other powertoys can be similarly installed. The Image Resizer toy is a .dll that could probably be copied to system32 and registered, for example. I use AutoIt to perform the actual installs: SplashTextOn("", "" & @CRLF & "Installing Calculator PowerToy..." & @CRLF & "", 500, 55, -1, -1, 1, "Arial", 12, 12) Sleep(1000) SplashOff() RunWait('msiexec /i "' & @ScriptDir & '\Extras\PowerToys\PowerCalc.msi" /qb') Sleep(100) FileCreateShortcut( @SystemDir & "\PowerCalc.exe", @ProgramsCommonDir & "\Accessories\Power Calculator.lnk") Sleep(1500) SplashTextOn("", "" & @CRLF & "Installing Synchronize Folders PowerToy..." & @CRLF & "", 500, 55, -1, -1, 1, "Arial", 12, 12) Sleep(1000) SplashOff() RunWait('msiexec /i "' & @ScriptDir & '\Extras\PowerToys\SyncToy.msi" /qb') Sleep(100) FileCreateShortcut( @ProgramFilesDir & "\Microsoft\SyncToy\SyncToy.exe", @ProgramsCommonDir & "\Accessories\Synchronize Folders.lnk") Sleep(1500) SplashTextOn("", "" & @CRLF & "Installing TweakUI PowerToy..." & @CRLF & "", 500, 55, -1, -1, 1, "Arial", 12, 12) Sleep(1000) SplashOff() RunWait('msiexec /i "' & @ScriptDir & '\Extras\PowerToys\TweakUI.msi" /qb') RunWait("REGEDIT /S" & @ScriptDir & "\Extras\PowerToys\TweakUI.reg") Sleep(100) FileCreateShortcut( @SystemDir & "\tweakui.exe", @ProgramsCommonDir & "\Accessories\System Tools\TweakUI.lnk") Sleep(100) DirRemove( @ProgramsDir & "\Powertoys for Windows XP", 1) Sleep(100) DirRemove( @ProgramsCommonDir & "\Powertoys for Windows XP", 1) Sleep(1500)

Wow, I feel like I'm just waking up from a loooong nap. Summer is almost here. This looks great, K-, gotta make me a theme for this and get in the game--I'm still using my old version (2.x or something like that!).

Wa Salam. English, please.

@D8TA This thread is about customizing an Acrobat install, not installing/patching. Another comprehensive thread exists on that topic. @Glen I recognize that there are those who require the mighty functionality that only Adobe Acrobat offers, but I ain't one of 'em. I'm going with PrimoPDF and dropping this nightmare.

I think that just keeping track of the shortcuts created by the handful of programs I use is headache enough. If you do make this effort, may I suggest that you include an accompanying newbie-proof batch file command for removing each shortcut? For example, if program X creates 5 shortcuts and a directory in the Start Menu's "Programs" directory, then an accompanying command line for removing each would be included. Or maybe that would get too messy and you could just leave it to the user, your call. Some of us are pretty fastidious when it comes to cleaning up after shortcut droppings and could contribute our findings quickly, but it would probably fall to you to maintain the whole thing. I give you an "A" for effort just for suggesting such a project.

K-, I do it through Cmdlines.txt using a utility called renuser.exe. You can grab it HERE. 1. Drop it in your $OEM$ root with Cmdlines.txt. 2. Add these entries to Cmdlines.txt including the quotes of course: "renuser.exe Administrator YOURNAME" "AutoLogon.cmd" 3. Place this batch file (AutoLogon.cmd) in your $OEM$ root with Cmdlines.txt as well: @echo off :: Set username (and password, optional) for admin user. set AdminUser=YOURNAME set AdminPass=YOURPASSWORD reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v "DefaultUserName" /d "%AdminUser%" /f reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v "DefaultPassword" /d "%AdminPass%" /f reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v "AutoAdminLogon" /d "1" /f CLS exit The batch autologs the newly renamed administrator account, believe that came from BoardBabe. You can also run the third entry as a separate batch later in the install to disable autologon functionality (change "1" to "0") if you so desire. Works like a charm.

Awesome app, CF. I plan on adding it to my unattended routine, no doubt. In my case, I rename the admin account via WINNT.sif and supply the password there as well. The install runs and boots to the Desktop, where I install other apps and such. A batch file then runs to capture the settings, copying them over to the Default User profile. I would like to use your tool at that point to create additional users so that, upon reboot, all of the users would appear on a Welcome Screen. So my questions: 1. Is there anything that would prevent me from running the tool multiple times to create new users? 2. To what group is the user added if the "Add to Admin group" is unchecked? Sorry but I have not had time to try your tool, I know the answers would present themselves at that time to me. But if you know off the top of your head...? Thanks in advance.