gosh

I put how to do this at http://board.MSFN.org/index.php?showtopic=9599 -gosh

As requested by: flattspott The newest versions of ERD Commander uses windows PE (winpe). Let me first give a general background of winpe then explain the concepts behind winpe. WinPE is the Preinstallation Environment. The first version of WinPE was version 1.0, that used windows XP. The current version of winpe is 1.3, which can use the XP files or server 2003 files. The power in winpe is it allows you to make 1 tool that you can use for deployments. In the past a company might have had to make a brand new dos tool to deploy windows, then they might make another tool for upgrading computers to the newest windows version. WinPE gives you a full 32bit OS that has some API support. So the same tool you use for deployments can be used for other purposes such as upgrades, which saves time and money for companies. Despite the advantages of winpe, it's really not new technology. Install win2k then reboot. As the win2k setup comes up, you're looking at winpe. WinPE is exactly the same as win2k/XP setup at the 33 min mark. The only difference is winpe uses startnet.cmd for it's shell; setup uses setup.exe for it's shell. All microsoft did is tweak the code a little bit to make winpe work. The concept behind winpe is the same as my BOOT or VOL1 folders. When you boot from BOOT or VOL1, setupldr.bin loads files from the current folder. Once the bootup process is done, setupldr.bin passes control to text mode setup (setupdd.sys). WinPE is basically a big BOOT or VOL1 folder. When you boot from WinPE, setupldr.bin loads the boot files from the current directory. When the boot process is done, setupldr.bin passes control to the shell, which in winpe's case is startnet.cmd. Because of this, to put winpe on a cd with another OS, you need to edit it just like a BOOT or VOL1 folder. To put winpe on a cd, first copy the folder to your hard drive, it should be around ~150 megs. Let's say you copied WinPE to e:\WinPE. Rename the folder to something 4 digits long. In this example, im gonna name it WNPE. Contents of e:\WNPE (all upper case) If you have anything else then what i have, such as a DOCS folder, you can delete it.Next, hex setupldr.bin and replace i386 with WNPE (all uppercase), it should do this 4 times. Now we need to make a boot sector. If you have BOOT.DAT or VOL1.DAT, copy it as WNPE.DAT, and hex it, replace i386 with WNPE (all capital letters). Now edit diskemu.cmd, and add the option for windows PE. Here's an example of sample diskemu.cmd: So when you boot from CD and select option for WinPE, diskemu.cmd hands off control to WNPE.DAT. WNPE.DAT loads setupldr.bin in the WNPE folder. Setupldr.bin boots the computer using the current directory (WNPE). Once it's done booting it hands off control to the shell (startnet.cmd). Lastly, make sure winbom.ini is on the root of the cd. If the file isn't there, winpe ain't bootin'. Tips (also applies to longhorn and erd commander): 1 - to change the wallpaper put your wallpaper into system32 folder as winpe.bmp 2 - to edit what winpe says as it boots up, edit txtsetup.sif and edit this line: To whatever you want. For example you could put: 3 - If you want to, you could change the boot logo by editing ntoskrnl.exe 4 - By default windows PE uses XP Professional, even if you use server 2003 as source. If you wanted to, you could edit the winpe files or setupreg.hiv to make it a server OS. 5 - If you want to add custom commands edit the OsLoadOptions line. For example change it from this: To this: What /inram does it loads the whole winpe cd into memory. By default, winpe only loads what it needs, to save ram. Because of this behavior you cannot swap cd's once winpe is booted. However if you use the /inram command, everything is loaded to memory, allowing you to swap cd's. -gosh

Ya it does. Change the color in display properties and that changes your default color. It won't change the welcome screen colors, just the background color. Like he said he doesn't want to change the welcome screen, he wants to change the background color. -gosh

Display Properties > background tab > chose what color you want here. -gosh

Live i've said many times before, you DONT need a dosnet.inf file if you use my method. -gosh

say what? Are you asking if anyone has used sysprep before? -gosh

So what happens when you install, does it work???? If possible, you might want to try make everything 8dot3 compatible. I don't think you have to make everything 8dot3, but i always try to anyway. I do see a possible sfc problem with mydocs.dll, shell32.exe, etc. Did you delete mydocs.dl_ from the xp install location? Try using my .theme file and see if it works. if it works, then it's some setting in your .theme file. Try to narrow down where the problem is - is the problem in the $OEM$ folder, the winnt.sif file, or the .theme file. -gosh

What was wrong with http://board.MSFN.org/index.php?showtopic=9500 ? What errors do you get when you try to use a theme? I put step by step everything you need to do in that thread. -gosh

Using "gosh xp" you won't have winnt.exe or winnt32.exe. You can copy the setup.exe from the cd to the root of your local source, if you want to use the xp setup program (you can use it for everything but installing xp). -gosh

There's no way to set performance options via a registry file, because when you first boot into windows the registry keys are updated. You would need a vbscript that would change the performance options. For the pagefile, you could probably edit the registry key for that, i believe it's under Memory Management. -gosh

Put bootfix.bin into your BOOT or VOL1 folder to get the 'press any key to boot from cd' message. If you're using diskemu.cmd, it doesn't support it. For the $OEM$ folder, do everything first, then put the $OEM$ folder parallel to the i386 folder if you want to make a cd. -gosh

smart attitude=no help -gosh

Like i've said, the downloable version of SP1 does NOT have the .net framework at all. I have a beta sp1 cd and i've seen the final sp1 cd, the sp1 cd DOES have the framework on it. If you want to include the framework, just make a folder on root of cdrom called dotnetfx, and put the dotnet framework in that folder as dotnetfx.exe Here's a listing from network install of sp1, you'll see dotnetfx.exe is no where.

Use vmware -gosh

You need [unattended] UnattendSwitch=yes And if you want to use an $OEM$ folder you need OEMPreinstall=Yes You can compare your unattend file to mine, which works fine. http://board.MSFN.org/index.php?showtopic=9450&hl= -gosh

If you slipstream sp1 from web it won't have the .net framework. Only if you buy a slipstreamed cd -or- you buy a sp1 cd will it add the .net framework in the dotnet folder. You could create a folder called dotnet and put framework there if you wanted to. -gosh

Some guy at <<spam>> made a neat custom cd menu http://www.n.e.o.w.i.n.net/forum/index.php...pic=107207&st=0 -gosh

well why dont you post your winnt.sif file. -gosh

www.sysinternals.com Run regmon check the box to enable directx look at regmon log for the registry key -gosh

No in GuiRunOnce you need CommandX, you didn't put CommandX= anywhere. -gosh

the command should be -gosh

I am new to this site and one thing i've noticed is there seems to be a lot of international people here. I'm not trying to be racist here, but why is that? Did this site start out as a brittish site or something? -gosh usa

make sure diskemu.cmd has the correct name (VOL2.DAT). Make sure VOL2.DAT is pointint to VOL2. Make sure you hexed setupldr.bin in the VOL2 folder and changed i386 to VOL2 4 times. Make sure everything is in UPPERCASE (case matters). Read my guide again to make sure you did everything step by step. -gosh

If you use my method you can skip the step updating dosnet.inf. Dosnet.inf is just used to copy files before setup starts. Since you already have the files copied, you don't need dosnet.inf. -gosh

Nope. You can minimize it though with /start /wait switches. -gosh