gosh

In less than a month the xp security rollup will come out and the issue will be mute anyway. I've run the msba on unattended installs and it said all files were fine. Windows update also looks at file versions, if i somehow had the wrong version of a file installed, windows update would want me to redl the update. -gosh

qchain is only for win2k, it has no purpose in XP. I've made cd's that install hotfixes from cmdlines.txt and guirunonce; ive never once had a problem. -gosh

Really tosk? That must be news to microsoft, since SP1 does NOT have dimaps.inf. I have sp1 extracted on my 2nd computer. I searched it for DIMAPS.inf, DIMAPS.in_, DIMAPS*.*, and even looked in the .cab files for dimaps.inf, and didn't find it. Looking at my dimaps.inf, it looks like it has nothing to do with installing dx9: ; ; Installs DirectInput device image and configuration files and adds ; flags to adjust the behavior of particular game controllers. ; Yes, that's right. It installs game controllers. I also searched google and found nothing on dimaps. So where did you get this info from? I assume you got that info from some source, right? Why does everyone on this site think dosnet.inf is important? IT'S WORTHLESS. It has nothing to do with slipstreaming anything. Let me explain the function of dosnet.inf: dosnet.inf is used to copy files for text mode setup. The problem is text mode setup doesn't have network access or long file name support. So dosnet.inf insures the text mode has all the files it needs locally. dosnet.inf is ONLY Processed when you run setup within the GUI. If you boot from CD, it is not touched. I've made a bootable XP cd that doesn't have dosnet.inf on it. Run winnt32.exe /noreboot. When setup closes, look for c:\~$win_nt$~.~ls\i386. This is the local copy setup copies. If you search this folder, you will NOT find dosnet.inf. It is not copied at any point of setup. If you don't believe me, delete a bunch of stuff under [files], then run setup in the GUI - you'll get file copy errors. Once text mode setup runs, it uses txtsetup.sif (as the name implies) to copy files. So to sum up, dosnet.inf is only used by winnt32.exe to copy files to c:\~$win_nt$.~ls\i386. Once this is done dosnet.inf isn't touched by setup. I've only been to this site for a couple days, but already ive been impressed by what ive seen. Is there no one here who can find out how directx is installed? This is the 3rd time ive asked and i would like an honest answer. -gosh

I never said you couldn't use a modified shell32.dll, i just said setup will prompt you that the file is unsigned, and setuperr.log will have errors. -gosh

All the files on the XP cd are digitally signed by a catalog file (nt5.cat and sp1.cat). If you edit one of the xp files and put it back in the i386 folder, nt5.cat and sp1.cat will see it's not digitally signed (because it isn't, the whole point of digital signing is to make sure the files are from the original source, not tampered with). When a file is not digitally signed, xp setup will tell you this, and ask you if you want to retry copying the file, or continue anyway. setuperr.log will log the invalid files. If you don't believe me, copy a modified shell32.dll to i386 folder and install without an unattend file, you'll see what i mean. When you use an unattend file and have FullUnattended, xp setup will not give errors. -gosh

dosnet.inf is just used to copy files for text mode setup, it's not used for finding stuff. When you boot from the XP CD, dosnet.inf isn't even used. There are 2 files you want - layout.inf and txtsetup.sif. Layout.inf is used to find stuff. INF's use layout.inf to see what cd a file is on, things like that. txtsetup.sif is used by setup (and windows pe). It's used like layout.inf, but it's only used for setup. You probably want to edit txtsetup.sif. -gosh

The"Rememeber each folder's view settings" is the bagsmru key. XP keeps track of each folders setting in a bagsmru. There's a bug in SP1 that causes you to lose customizations. The fix is to increase the bagsmru limit to a higher number, such as 250. By default xp will only track changes made to the first 100 folders or so. I thought about including this registry key into my unattended cd, but it'll be fixed in sp2. -gosh

Has anyone figured out how to make the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer tell you what critical hotfixes are released, rather than needed? The MSBA will only scan your computer or a remote computer and tell you what hotfixes you need. What i need is it to tell me what critical hotfixes have been released since SP1 came out - i see no switch or anything to do this. I guess i could do a clean install of XP Sp1, then run msba, but that seems kinda pointless. Anyone have some thoughts? -gosh

XP = 350 megs 95 = 80 megs 98 = 100 megs 98se = 110 megs ME = 120 megs It seems you could make a cd with xp, 95, 98, and ME. I've made one in the past. -gosh

You'll need to delete shell32.dl_ from the i386 folder, and copy your shell32.dll to the flat. In your unattend file you'll need to have driversigning=ignore otherwise it'll tell you during setup that the file is not digitally signed. Another way is you could do an OEMPreinstall and put shell32.dll into the $OEM$\system32 folder, and in your unattend file put OEMPreinstall=Yes and OEMSkipEULA=Yes -gosh

I have a hexed dxsetup.exe that allows you to silently install any version of directx9. Anytime microsoft updates directx9, i just extract the files to a folder and use the old dxsetup.exe works fine for me. But no one has answered the question of how directx is installed by xp. Doesn't anyone know what .inf is used? -gosh

That's what i meant: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...4&Product=winxp Installing Recovery Console During an Unattended Install In order to install the Recovery Console during the unattended installation of Windows, it is necessary to use the [GuiRunOnce] section of the unattend.txt file. Command1="path\winnt32 /cmdcons /unattend" For more information about how to use the Unattend.txt file, see the Deployment Planning Guide of the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit. -gosh

cmdlines.txt - it's not good for installing hotfixes because it runs under system account and has no access to desktop. Even if it appears the hotfix installs fine, it might not. If the hotfix tries to add something to the RunOnce key it will silently fail. cmdlines.txt was mainly good for nt4, it's not really needed anymore. svcpack.inf - same as cmdlines.txt. guirunonce - it's a good way to install hotfixes. However, it's not perfect. For one, it takes a long time to install the hotfixes. For another, if the computer restarts while it's running guirunonce, guirunonce won't run again. It's also very slow. And it causes registry conflicts. If you use guirunonce then repair the registry, you're going back to before the hotfixes were installed. dosnet.inf - the file is used by text mode. Since text mode doesn't have network access or dos access, the file is used to copy files locally so text mode won't need to use dos or the network. It's only used in the GUI. It's possible to bypass dosnet.inf with a cd install... -gosh

There's a hard way and easy way to remove movie maker from XP. The hard way is mentioned in this thread. The easy way is to extract moviemk.in_ from the XP cd. Then delete everything under [DefaultInstall]. Now delete moviemk.in_ from the cd, and copy your moviemk.inf to the i386 folder. Now when you install, no more movie maker. I made a thread on <<spam>> about this. -gosh

It should be winnt32.exe /cmdcons /dudisable, i believe. MS has an article called "how to install recovery console", and at the bottom it gives that command. To change the timeout, use the command bootcfg.exe. This command is only installed on XP Pro (don't ask me why). Just type bootcfg /?. I used this command to specify the kernel on an unattended install (/kernel=) And you HAVE to install recovery console via Guirunonce, it just won't work in cmdlines.txt. If youre installing win2k you could also use rconsole.exe. rconsole.exe was the redistributed package for recovery console, but it's very hard to find. I've used it once. -gosh

The reg key is HKCU\Desktop and HKDU\Desktop. There is a bug in xp that converts the wallpaper wrong. If you want to make the wallpaper a .bmp, xp actually converts it to a .bmp. The bug results in a .jpg not being converted to a .bmp, which means your wallpaper won't show up right. Make sure you're using a .bmp for wallpaper, and check those 2 registry keys. -gosh

The beta of sp1 installed the version on the desktop by installing a test root certificate. If you extract sp1 you will see testroot.cer. The beta versions of sp1 installed that cert, causing the message. So if you want the message, you can install the cert. If you want another message, you can edit the cert or make another cert. -gosh

I only used an unattend file to speed up testing. I probably installed xp about 20 times before i got this method right. Using an unattend file saved me about 5 mins per install. But you can slipstream the rollup without using any unattend file. Just like you can use cmdlines.txt without any unattend file; xp simply looks to see if the file exists, and if it does xp processes it. There's also a switch, i believe autopartition=1, that makes xp setup prompt you for the install destination (i believe the switch is right). -gosh

I've been looking into slipstreaming directx myself. The biggest problem i have is i have no idea how directx is installed by xp. Does directx use an inf or something? If i can find out how it's installed, i could probably slipstream it. -gosh

Couldn't you just use the setupreg.hiv from an xp cd and modify setupp.ini to reflect an xp install, and maybe modify setupsys.inf to make sure the productoptions is right? Or do i have that wrong? All ntswitch does is change the product options registry key. -gosh

cmdlines.txt is run at the same time as svcpack.inf (13 min mark). I know that if you try installing wmp9 using cmdlines.txt it gives error (i think it says system restore needs to be enabled). Usually it's not a good idea to install things via cmdlines.txt, because cmdlines.txt runs under the system account and because we have no desktop. For these reasons i would say if it fails using cmdlines.txt, it'll probably fail using svcpack.inf. If you really wanted to, you could extract the files from the wmp9 setup file and slipstream it using the .inf, but that would get very complicated. -gosh

I always use cdimage.exe to make a cd image (*.iso) file, then i burn the image using nero. Some software doesn't process the long file names xp and server 2003 use. if you have the server2k3 reskit you could use cdburn.exe to burn the iso image. -gosh

Why do you need to make a username to be auto logged in? In win2k and XP you are auto logged in after setup completes. The only reason i see why you would need to make a username is if your installing in a corp environment. -gosh

That's vague. Are you trying to copy wpa.dbl from a cd after you formated to bypass activation? wpa.dbl contains many variables, such as disk size, amount of ram, etc. When you format you get a new digital id, and other things that might make wpa.dbl not work. The only time wpa.dbl will work is if youre restoring it to the same install it was made in. -gosh

Just to be clear, this is a true slipstream of the beta rollup. The tradional way of using svcpack.inf is NOT slipstreaming. Even though the rollup is in beta, it contains the same files from windows updates. So doing windows update will accomplish the same thing. The only "beta" part of the rollup is the actual installer. The tradional way to use svcpack.inf is to extract the hotfix files into the i386 folder, then run the actual hotfix using svcpack.inf. So let's say you have a 3 meg hotfix, and when you extract the hotfix the files are 5 megs big. With the tradional way of using svcpack.inf, you would be using 8 megs (3 for the hotfix and 5 for the extracted files). So as you see that's not slipstreaming. In my example, what i am doing is only using the extracted files, im not using the original hotfix. So in this example, i would be using around 5 megs (5 megs for extract files, plus 250k for setup.exe). Let's compare the size of doing this the tradional way, and my way for the rollup: Tradional way: 27.6 MB (sp2 files) + 8.96 MB (rollup installer) = 36.56 MB My way (true slipstream) 27.6 MB (sp2 files) + 512k (rollup installer) = 28.1 MB So doing it my way saves you about 8 megs of disk space. Also, during testing i noticed the xp install took about the same time as it took without the rollup slipstreamed. Although to be fair, i didn't test to see how long it took to install xp with the full rollup not slipstreamed, but i imagine i would take much longer than my method. For example, it takes 22 mins to install xp on my computer, or about 18 mins with an unattend file. Awhile back i made an unattended cd that installed every critical hotfix (at that time) using cmdlines.txt. When this CD hit the 13 min mark, it took about 20 mins to install the hotfixes, making my install time around 37 mins (17 mins+20 mins). With my method of slipstreaming the rollup, it took about 17 or 18 mins to install XP using an unattend file. So not only does the install have all the critical hotfixes integrated, but the install time is about the same. to un4given1: If you actually read what ive done, you'll see it's different from other people using svcpack.inf If you don't believe im the first person to do this, search google on svcpack.inf. In every single website/newsgroup you'll see everyone named the folder in svcpack.inf as svcpack. I'm the only person to name the folder anything but svcpack (you have to name it Update because xp service packs are hard coded to be run in a folder called Update). And im the only person to truely slipstream using svcpack.inf (the other method makes you run the original hotfixes). I did a brief search on this forum for svcpack.inf, and in every case i saw the svcpack.inf folder called svcpack. -gosh