Bezalel

All my Dell CDs have the same key per SKU.

Actually I never heard of that switch either. It doesn't appear in the winnt32 documentation. It appears only in the Tablet PC deployment information. I think /makelocalsource just copies all the installation files for textmode and /makelocalsource:all tells the GUI portion of the setup that all of the CDs were copied to the localsource.

After searching through the System Builder site with no sucsess I decided to look into Tablet PC which has a simular folder structure. Apparently you need to place the CMPNENTS folder beside the I386 folder and run winnt32 with the /makelocalsource:all switch. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...y/tpcdploy.mspx If you try this before me let me know if it works.

I am interested in making my unattended CD into a network install. My question is where should I put the CMPNENTS folder, in the I386 directory or beside the I386 directory?

Currently the only proprietary filetypes and codecs that the extenders support are MS's own formats. On the computers you can get MCE to play almost any file that you can play in WMP 10.

Take a look at this post: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=63258

Thanks, but I prefer to use built-in features of the OS or stand-alone applications for OS deployment and management.

Have you used this program during setup? The output looks more like WMI than SMBIOS.

You are right I've fixed that post Is HPQSI.EXE publicly available? I know I have a copy of IBM's SMBIOS.EXE, I'll try to see if I can do anything with the output of these files. I don't want to build my script around files that are not freely available to the public.

I've been having some problems with WFP so here is a temporary solution. In order for this to work WFP must be disabled on the machine you are building. SetEnvVar.vbs strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colComputer = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem") For Each objComputer in colComputer MfgHex="" for i=1 to len(objComputer.Manufacturer) MfgHex=MfgHex & Hex(Asc(Mid(objComputer.Manufacturer,i,1))) Next Next Set Shell=CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") Shell.Environment.item("MFGHEX") = MfgHex CollectOEMFiles.bat setEnvVar.vbs copy %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\OEMBIOS.BIN .\%MFGHEX%.BIN attrib -s %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\OEMBIOS.CAT copy %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\OEMBIOS.CAT .\%MFGHEX%.CAT attrib +s %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\OEMBIOS.CAT copy %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\OEMBIOS.DAT .\%MFGHEX%.DAT copy %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\OEMBIOS.SIG .\%MFGHEX%.SIG RestoreOEMFiles.bat %SYSTEMDRIVE%\oembios\setEnvVar.vbs copy /y %SYSTEMDRIVE%\oembios\%MFGHEX%.BIN %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\OEMBIOS.BIN attrib -s %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\OEMBIOS.CAT copy /y %SYSTEMDRIVE%\oembios\%MFGHEX%.CAT %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\OEMBIOS.CAT attrib +s %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\OEMBIOS.CAT copy /y %SYSTEMDRIVE%\oembios\%MFGHEX%.DAT %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\OEMBIOS.DAT copy /y %SYSTEMDRIVE%\oembios\%MFGHEX%.SIG %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\OEMBIOS.SIG To collect your files put SetEnvVar.vbs and CollectOEMFiles.bat in the same directory and run CollectOEMFiles.bat This will create 4 files whose names are hex strings representing your PC manufacturer. On your CD put the files SetEnvVar.vbs, RestoreOEMFiles.bat, and all the files created by CollectOEMFiles.bat (from each manufacturer) in the \$OEM$\$1\OEMBIOS\ directory and run %SYSTEMDRIVE%\oembios\RestoreOEMFiles.bat from GUIRunOnce or RunOnceEx. This will not work from cmdlines.txt. You need to use the CD-Key used by your PC Manufacturer (or any other manufacturer) or one found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...y/oempreac.mspx.

WMI is not functional enough at T-12 (that is proving to be the biggest hurdle to my oembios issue). You can run such a script from GuiRunOnce. I'm using a simular technique and running my script to find the manufacturer's name then converting it to a hex sting and looking for (or in your case launching) files with the hex string as its name.

Why don't you put all your drivers on the CD and let Setup detect what devices you have installed. There are 2 problems with installing drivers based on the computer model. The first issue (which is two issues in itself) is you need to create a database of what each model contains and that can alway change when hardware is upgraded. The second isuue id that WMI is not fully fuctional during setup so you won't be able to see the model. Take a look at http://www.driverpacks.net/Projects/DriverPacks/

Where is the list of files protected by WFP stored? I made a CD without the OEMBIOS.* files and all referances to them removed from txtsetup.sif and dosnet.inf yet at T-39 I was prompted to provide the OEMBIOS.CAT file. Filemon reported that at this stage the .CAT files were being copied to the dllcache folder. Also after setup was completed I copied the OEMBIOS.* files to their proper locations and WFP informed me that system files had changed (even though they were previously not there) and asked for the origional CD.

Is there any way to get the manufacturer's name without using WMI? apparently WMI isn't fully functional during setup (even when the WMI services are running). I know I can replace the files using GuiRunOnce but then I'd have to disable SFP and I'd rather replace the files before SFP is fully initialized and possibly have the replaced files be protected by SFP.

If these are still in the sealed 3 pack you can sell them without any hardware. If they were purchased as a sealed 3 pack that was then opened or purchased with "non-peripheral hardware" then they can be sold with "non-peripheral hardware" or a fully assembeled PC. These situations are covered by the System Builder License Agreement. If these were purchased with a PC and the OS was used (even if the CDs are still sealed) they can only be sold with the origianal PC. This situation is covered by the End User License Agreement. If these were purchased with a PC and the OS was not used and the EULA was not accepted, you aren't bound by the terms of the License Agreement but you aren't granted any of the rights either.

In a normal install the setup files are not left on the PC when setup finishes. Your choices are to image the entire install or get replacement CDs. Only registered OEMs can order replacement CDs for OEM products from MS.

I don't think thers's anything that you need nLite for. You can take a standard intallation and just disable every unneeded service.

You need to disable System Restore, take ownership of the directory, change the NTFS security settings, and then delete the folder.

Aegis and gdogg; lets get back to the point of this thread. If mansour77 wants to make a full installation of Windows using Remote Boot what files need to be in the Remote Boot image and what files can be left on a network share. ... Or without Remote Boot what files need to be installed locally and what files can be located on a network share. Document and Settings can be moved to a network share. Program Files can be moved to a network share. RECYCLER can be eliminated. System Volume Information can be eliminated.

Sonic; I intend to install using the MS files and replace the files with vendor specific files from cmdlines.txt. I will not be providing the vendor specific files but will provide scripts to extract them from a working system. I'm not familiar with Pyron's method. gunsmokingman; thanks for the code improvements.

I don't think that's possible (when Windows boots you will lose all network connections). However you can use PXE to copy an OS image to a ramdrive and boot from the ramdrive.

Just use Windows XP embedded. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/eval/default.mspx

You can mark the file as a system file.

I origionally wanted to use the clipboard but MS doesn't let VBScript files access the clipboard. I changed the code from MsgBox to WScript.Echo so you can redirect the output to a text file cscript /nologo GetMfgName.vbs >> MfgName.txt

Do you want to use the same CD for installing Windows on multiple computer from differant manufacturers and still maintain Pre-activation? If so I can help but I need your help. I've written a VBScript file that will try to determine who the manufacturer and what model your computer is. The third line of output is the manufacturer string converted into Hex. Please reply with the output from this VBScript so that I can make a database of manufacturer's strings. Please only reply if your computer was built by a Royalty OEM. strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colComputer = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem") For Each objComputer in colComputer MfgHex="" for i=1 to len(objComputer.Manufacturer) MfgHex=MfgHex & Hex(Asc(Mid(objComputer.Manufacturer,i,1))) If i Mod 4 = 0 then MfgHex=MfgHex & " " Next ComputerReport = ("Manufacturer: " & objComputer.Manufacturer & vbCrLf &_ "Model: " & objComputer.Model & vbCrLf &_ MfgHex) Next WScript.Echo ComputerReport Sample output This code hase been modified by gunsmokingman to output the report to a text file. strComputer = "." Dim Act, ComputerReport, Fso, Dtop, Report, Ts Set Act = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Dtop = Act.SpecialFolders("Desktop") Set Ts = Fso.CreateTextFile(Dtop & "\ComputerReport.txt") Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colComputer = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem") For Each objComputer In colComputer MfgHex="" For i=1 To Len(objComputer.Manufacturer) MfgHex=MfgHex & Hex(Asc(Mid(objComputer.Manufacturer,i,1))) If i Mod 4 = 0 then MfgHex=MfgHex & " " Next ComputerReport = (space(3) & "Manufacturer: " & objComputer.Manufacturer & vbCrLf &_ space(3) & "Model: " & objComputer.Model & vbCrLf & space(3)& MfgHex) Next Ts.WriteLine ComputerReport : Ts.Close Act.Run(Chr(34)& Dtop & "\ComputerReport.txt" & Chr(34)),1,True