har-vas

Hi again. First of all, thank you all for your ideas. Now I will stop dealing with my unattended CD (3 weeks of full work is enough) and I will restart the improvements at my next format. But I thought as a proper act to give my feedback: To Gunsmokingman: I was ready to test your solution, but finally I didn't, because I saw a simpler method posted by MHz. I see that you know very well to code in vbs and write more precise scripts (with more checks, better error catching etc), but personally I am in the beginning of the road so I prefer to go step-by-step. I will keep your posts as a reference and maybe I will re-bother you for an explanation. To MHz: With your help, I finally made possible to have all my programs being executed from the CD. Your code has worked excellent. I understood that the problem was with what the script was considering as the current directory. These 5 lines fixed my .vbs. Thank you. To Jaclaz: Finally, with this version of tee command, I managed to have it worked. Thanks for the link. I used your syntax and the log file was being created, having inside of it all the screen's output. But another problem came up. The error messages or (more precisely) the stderr stream is not being logged. I see only the standard output. At this moment, I don't remember if the stderr was being showed on the screen, but I think no. Maybe this command filters all the input it takes and gives as the final output (duplicated in the screen and the file) only the stdout stream. But this is not exactly what I need. I want a log file with the full output of my script including any errors. Is it possible to improve the code in the tee.bat so the stderr stream is also being logged? To Yzowl: I have also tried your solution, but with the same results as above (again, I don't remember if the stderr was being showed on the screen). Any error messages are hidden (the counting of the lines is very cool though). It would be very useful if you added to your .vbs support for the stderr stream (at least in the log file).

Hi. Gunsmokingman, can you help me with this script? It is just for closing the "Found new hardware" wizard during Alcohol 120% installation. I want to run Alcohol195.exe from my CD (from the same folder as .vbs) like all the other applications. But if I use the WshShell.Run ("Alcohol195.exe"), it pops-up an error in line 2 (during the first logon from GuiRunOnce) saying that the system cannot find the file. Now I put the exe in my systemdrive (using $OEM$) and I use the following syntax. Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.Run ("%systemdrive%\Alcohol195.exe") WScript.Sleep 8000 WshShell.SendKeys "{DOWN}" WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}" WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys " " WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WScript.Sleep 300 WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}" WScript.Sleep 2000 WshShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}" WScript.Quit The strange is that if I use the WshShell.Run ("Alcohol195.exe") command from the HDD (both .exe and .vbs in C:\), it starts the installation normally. Can you help me? Maybe this is the correct syntax: WshShell.Run (".\Alcohol195.exe")? Is there any way to convert the following code to .vbs, so I can use the %cdrom% variable in the .vbs and give a full path? Thanks. set tagfile=\WIN51 for %%i in (c d e f g h) do if exist "%%i:%tagfile%" set cdrom=%%i:

Of course. I just want to skip them.

Hi all. Is there any safe way to get rid of those messages? I have all the drivers needed in my CD and I don't like to see them in every setup. I am also trying to reduce the setup time to a minimum, so I want back every second. Those messages last 10 seconds, but I also find them annoying. I think that the txtsetup.sif is the relative file, but I don't know what to change. If somebody else knows, is welcome. Thanks.

Hi all. Jaclaz, I think that this tee command is very useful, but I can't get it worked. As I said, the best solution would be to copy everything both in the screen and in a log file. Can you please help me with the syntax? Give me a real example if you can. I am using this simple .cmd but no log file creation. I get the "file not found" error, after the dir results and if I create myself an empty mylog.log file, it keeps to be empty after the batch execution. Keep in mind that I am a new scripter. I have installed the GNUwin32 package and copied the tee.exe into system32. The description of the command didn't help me. @echo off dir F:\ ¦ tee -a C:\mylog.log sleep 5 EXIT Yzowl, I understood that when the system cannot find a file to copy (or whatever), it's not a stderr but a stdout. That's why when I run my test.cmd from run box I see this message in the command prompt and not in the log. But why during the execution of my script (GuiRunOnce) these messages were being logged in my errors.log? I had 3 lines with the error "The system cannot find the file specified". Also, what I gain if I use the "if exist" command? I tried it and find out that the message "The system cannot find the file specified" is not displayed anywhere. The good point whould be to have a log entry: "The file E:\To Be Copied\A File.ext doesn't exist". So I would know that I have to put that file there. If I use this method, I won't even know about any errors. Here is my test.cmd: @echo off Echo ready for the step one. if exist "C:\yo.rm" COPY "C:\yo.rm" "F:\" 2>errors.log sleep 5 EXIT

Hi. I made an error and I understood it later. I have removed the WMP9 with nLite and now I can't install in any way the WMP10! I also tried to slipstream the latter with two relative tools, but neither worked. I read then that for the slipstreaming process to work, the WMP9 is needed. Here is my question: How can I now step in surgically to recover WMP9 in my I386 folder? Which files (and file entries) should I copy from a Windows XP SP2 CD? I have already copied one file which was needed for the "WMP10 Slipstreamer v3" to work (WMP.IN_ or something), but despite the successful message of the program and the presence of WMP10.cab in my I386 folder, the player is not actually installed. As you understand, I don't want to start the whole process from the beginning, just want to erase that mistake and then slipstream the WMP10. Please help.

Hi all. Thank you for your support. Here is my feedback after a real format: I am using the line "%systemdrive%\Installations.cmd 2>%systemdrive%\Errors.log" (quotes are necessary) under [GuiRunOnce] section of Winnt.sif and I have the result I want. During the first logon, I can see the real-time output of Installations.cmd in the command prompt, except from any errors that are being logged to the Errors.log. Indeed, after the load of the shell, I can see this file in my C:\ (systemdrive) which does have the error messages only. Jaclaz, if I use your commands, I will redirect the standard output so I won't be able to see the progress of my installations. I want only the errors from my batch to be logged in the Errors.log file for troubleshooting purposes. What is really strange is this: When I was making some tests from the run box with the command "test.cmd 2>Errors.log", I was using a copy command in it to copy a non-existent file. Despite the 2> operator, the created error "The system cannot find the file specified" was displaying to the command prompt window and not to the destination file (errors.log), which was empty. When I decided to add more errors in my test.cmd ("ech Hi all" and "del C:\yo.rm"), I ascertained that these error messages was not being displayed in the prompt but in the errors.log ('ech' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Could Not Find C:\yo.rm). So I understood that my syntax was correct, the file was being created and it was recording the errors normally, except from the error with the copy command. This screw-up made me to post here and now I know that Jbm's reply was correct. As I said, during the first logon at my real windows setup, the command worked great and redirected the standard error stream to the Errors.log file. Under those circumstances, the error message "The system cannot find the file specified" is normally being logged in my log file. I can't understand why it's not the same from the run box.

Hi again. Thanks for your answers. The "mybat.cmd 2>errors.txt" doesn't work, at least from the Run command box. So I think that it will not work during the first logon. What it does is to create the errors.txt file which is empty though and display on the screen both the output (in my case an echo message) and the error (in my test.cmd the error is "The system cannot find the file specified"). But I want the error messages to be (only or even better also) in the file. As I said, I have searched the net and tried many different combinations with >>, 2> or 2>&1, but none of them work. I believe that maybe the ability to redirect only the stderr is not supported in Windows XP. As for the .vbs, I am a new scripter and I don't know this language. So I prefer to keep things simple and use some standard commands and methods. The only .vbs I have made is for closing some windows which opens at the end of some silent installations (AppActivate, SendKeys etc). But if you want to explain me the logic of your method it is welcome.

Hi all. I have a batch file which runs from GuiRunOnce during the first logon. This script is long and makes many things (installations, copy, delete etc), so I want to redirect to a log file any error messages (eg from a failed copy or delete command), because I need the output for troubleshooting purposes. Now I am trying to note down any errors I see, but I haven't the time needed (as the script is being executed quickly) and I don't want to add any pause or sleep commands in it. I read a lot in the net about redirection (stderr stream) but strangely nothing works for me! Whatever I type in the run box (eg C:\a_script_with_errors.cmd 2>Errors.log), either ALL the output will go to the screen or to the log file. What I want is to be able to see my echo messages (and other commands, eg "1 file copied") on the screen and only any erros to be logged. Is this possible under Windows XP? Which is the correct syntax I should use under GuiRunOnce section in Winnt.sif? Now I have written "%systemdrive%\Installations.cmd 2>> C:\Error.log" (without quotes) but I think that it won't work. Of course, the ideal would be to have all the output (with errors) both on my screen and in a log file, but I think that this is impossible with common dos commands. But maybe a specific utility can make it... Irrelevant: Is it possible to disable the press F6 and F2 messages from my unattended CD? I have all the necessary drivers and I would like to reduce the text mode portion by 10 seconds. Thank you.

Hi again. Thanks for the link, Benners. To tell the truth, I was impressed by the material I found in Ryan VM's website (I had skipped the relative reference when reading the guide and continued with the "official" ways of integration). I think that I was bedeviling myself, by manual installing all these hotfixes. I learned many things although... The result of course is OK, because now I have ALL the hotfixes installed (both critical and optional), but I think that the Ryan's method is easier and more efficient. I will try it at my next format. Generally, I understood that there are many different ways to achieve something in an unattended setup. Of course, I will read before trying the Ryan's method but now I want to ask this: Do you use the update packages for both Windows and WMP? If yes, is the integration (first of all) and installation of all these patches reliable? In other words, are you completely satisfied? Thank you.

Hi Benners and thank you for your answer. Sorry for the delay, but I don't like to re-ask again and again without any real try first. Here is my feedback: Yes, one of the updates (the first) is Media Player-related so this was the cause of the warning. I tried to find a switch to suppress it but nothing was working! I also tried to suppress it by making a new package with iexpress but no result. I think that the only way is to change (with an editor) the appropriate file in the package but I don't know which. A guy in this forum I think, had written a step-by-step guide about how to disable the appearance of the result window of the installation of the GDI tool. It was decompressing the package, changing some switches in a file and then repackaging it with iexpress. I read it and I managed to solve my problem then (also at T-13). But I couldn't find it now to try something similar so I decided to solve my problem with another way: I put the kb891122.exe out of svcpack.inf and now I am installing it from the GuiRunOnce at first logon (when the System Restore is actually enabled). I am using the /passive switch and that's all. Of course, before this I am installing the WMP10 from the silent package (no /DisallowSystemRestore switch or any other needed because the SR is on). And in the end of the script, I merge a tweak to disable SR. It works fine. In the same way, I will install two other security updates for WMP to be sure that no id*** messages will come up. I hope them to work also. As for the shortcuts, thank you for your help with Alcohol. Yes, this was the solution: a double %. For the Outlook Express (which is only in user's folder, not All Users), I am getting this error during the script: "The system cannot find the file specified". I don't know why; maybe this shortcut is created after the load of the shell and not when my script is running, so there is nothing to copy. Of course, when I run it from cmd all is fine. So I decided to change my way and create this shortcut just as I create all the other shortcuts in my batch file: with the help of the excellent XXMLINK command-line tool. That's all. Hope to be understandable.

Hi. After many weeks of reading the guide (intermediate) and testing over 10 installations, I am in a satisfactory point in the road of making a full unattended setup DVD for Windows XP. But now I have some strange problems and I decided to ask for help. First of all, my installation stops at T-13 minute (svcpack.inf) and pops-up the known System Restore warning ("System Restore is turned off..."). The strange is that in that point I am NOT installing the Windows Media Player 10! This error message was always there from the first time, when I was actually trying to install the WMP10 from the silent package the unattended.msfn.org guide was giving. Due to this error message and because my unattended installation was being stopped, I decided to put WMP10 off and try to install it later (first logon) as a preinstalled software (with the help of AI Snapshot). This is what I do now. So my question is: Why this annoying warning message, which is relative to the WMP10 installation, is still there? Is there any reference to my svcpack.inf file? Here is my svcpack.inf: [Version] BuildNumber=2600 MinorVersion=1 MajorVersion=5 Signature="$WINDOWS NT$" [setupData] CatalogSubDir="\I386\svcpack" [ProductCatalogsToInstall] KB896344.cat KB908519.cat KB910437.cat KB912919.cat KB891122.cat KB900930.cat [setupHotfixesToRun] kb891122.exe /q /n /z /o KB890830.exe /q KB873374.exe KB896344.exe /q /n /z KB908519.exe /q /n /z /b:SP2GDR KB910437.exe /q /n /z /b:SP2GDR KB912919.exe /q /n /z /b:SP2GDR KB905915.exe /q /n /z /o KB890046.exe /q /n /z /o qchain.exe [CatalogHeader] Is there any switch to suppress it if I decide in the future to return to the silent install package at T-13? My second problem is with two shortcuts: One I can't delete it and one I can't copy it! Note that when I am copying the corresponding commands to the command prompt and execute them, they both do work smoothly! Also, all the other copy and delete commands which are relative to shortcuts work. The problem is only with those two commands when running from the script at the first logon (of course after the installations). Here is the code from my script: copy "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Harris\Start Menu\Programs\Outlook Express.lnk" "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Harris\Desktop" del "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\Alcohol 120%.lnk" Please help me if you can. I don't see any errors in my code, but I am not very skilled scripter. Thanks.