[Auto Installer]

Hi I have around 10 computers to manage in my home and every so often I would say three to four times a year a machine has to be re-installed.

The problem is that installing means installing the following applications:

- IE8

- Combined Community Codec Pack

- Norton Internet Security

- Microsoft Office 2007

- Skype

That's quite a lot and I have considered virtualising everything as it would make my life a lot easier but I don't think this is a viable way forward.

My question to you guys is, without setting up a domain is their a way I can run a script from a removable hdd (where the installs are located) that will look for the software and install it with relevant license keys etc if it isn't already?

I also need some of the following files copied to each new machine:

- Logon Wallpaper (Windows Vista Customised)

- DNS Settings

- Set Administrator account to active with password "12345"

- Turn off Windows Sidepanel

So any suggestions ?

Or is their a generic way to re-image a machine whilst installing this software and auto-partitioning the hdd to it's maximum size?

I would invest in software if recommended.

Any help appreciated.

[XP Distribution Share]

I am rnning a small xp pro lan with 2-3 machines connected. My master machine has an XP distribution share which I created using the xp pro cd. How can I install this onto another pc on the network ? I have no idea of how to do this and have seen it being done with a floppy disk before. This would be an ideal way to install windows, how do you do it ?

[[Help] XP Logon Script]

So, this is my problem:

My computer has been set up with two 20 gig drves, the c drive is used for the programs and the d drive is use for documents and 'My Documents' folders. The D drive also contains some startup scripts and the 'All Users' folder which acts like 'Shared Documents'. As you can see I am running a neat little standalone system. The problem is that every time I reinstall XP I have to log on as each user to manually change the location of the 'My Documents' folder from the C drive to the D drive. The script below runs when any user logs onto the computer apart from Admins and I would like to know if there is any command I could add which would change the location ofthe 'My Documents' folder. This would really save time and help me lots.

Current Batch Script:

del "c:\documents and settings\%username%\Start Menu" /s /q

cls

xcopy /c "d:\deploy\Start Menu" "c:\documents and settings\%username%\Start Menu" /s /y

cls

del "c:\documents and settings\%username%\Desktop" /s /q

cls

xcopy /c "d:\deploy\Desktop" "c:\documents and settings\%username%\Desktop" /s /y

cls

xcopy /c "d:\File System\%username%\My Documents" "D:\File System\Backups\Auto-Backup\%Username%\My Documents"

cls

"D:\Deploy\Startup\Delete Games.brs"

cls

"D:\Deploy\Startup\User Policy.vbs"

cls