mmarable

SIM needs the Vista WIM file to generate the catalog of options available for the unattended file. Without the catalog you SIM is pretty much useless. What version of Vista is your VMWare session build with? You can take the catalog file that someone else generates and use it in SIM I believe. It'll warn you that it cannot find the corresponding WIM file, but I'm pretty sure that it'll get you going.

I like the idea. The transparancy is a bit distracting, but other than that it looks interesting.

That KB article just points out the shotcomings of using ImageX as a backup tool and the grounds on which they will not support it's use to do backups. There's nothing techically wrong with using ImageX to do backups. The fact that you lose NTFS permissions makes it an issue if you rely on that (i.e data stores on servers or locked down workstations). For the typical home user that really won't be an issue. If ImageX works for you to do your backups and retores, then by all means use it.

You can't. LogonVista files are for Stardock's LogonStudio for Vista and won't work on XP. Now, many of Stardock's file formats can be opened by WinZip or WinRAR. You could pull out the graphics in the logonvista file you want and create your own logon screen following this: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/78/

For the partitioning, you will have to mofify the ZTIDiskpart.txt file found in the scripts folder. If you take a look at the Task Sequence in your build properties you will see all the scripts that are run. ZTIDiskpart.wsf performs the partitioning of your hard disk. It basically calls diskpart and feeds it the ZTIDiskpard.txt answer file. So, you have a couple of options. The easiest is to modify the answer file to set up the partitioning that you're looking for. The other would be to modify the WSH file to call a different diskpart answer file (or use a different partitioning tool like GDISK).

Yes, it's quite simple too. Just copy the contents of the DVD directly to the flash drive (or USB hard drive) and boot from it. Nothing special or difficult to make it work.

Here is all the info you need: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/77/

Very interesting. I'm thinking that it won't work, but I could be wrong. I do remember our Microsoft telling us that XP will be repackaged as a WIM when SP3 comes out and that it would utilize Vista's setup. Who knows? I don't know. I haven't tried it, but I am working on creating a new XP image, so now is probably a good time to try.

Here is everything you need: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/v...051f7e2c15a9c9/

There are several options to do what you're looking for. A search of the forums will turn up command line utilities, VBScripts and Registry keys to do this.

GDisk from Symantec is the only partitioning tool that I know of that allows you to set the size as a percentage. How you're going to incoporate that into you build process will be difficult or simple depending on what your build process is.

I'm just going to warn you that running multiple VMs on a single drive is going to get painful very quickly. I would really suggest getting at least 2 (preferably more) drives into a stripe set to hold your VMs.

Yes, you can install from an external hard drive. You will need to use WinPE or BartPE to boot from, prep your target drive and start the install. I've done it and it worked like a charm.

The order doesn't really matter. unatteneded.msfn.org has a short section on doing exactly this. You can use a batch file to cycle through your collection of downloads and run each with the /integrate switch to slipstream them into your source files. Here's the link to the page. http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/v...7cccb94a530952/ I've used RyanVM's packs and they're very good. I commend you for wanting to do it yourself. It's an excellent learning experience. I wouldn't avoid what RyanVM has put together though, it's rock solid and very useful.

You can drop the shortcuts into the All Users's startup group. That way they'll start at the login of any user.

Microsoft doesn't have a solution like that right now, although I'm told the next version of SMS (SCCM) is supposed to have this sort of functionality. Ghostcast Server might fit your need, if Ghost is something you want to use.

You need to copy the Broadcom drivers to the i386 folder of your flat image. Microsoft's Knowledge Base has a couple of decent articles on adding additional 3rd party drivers to RIS installs.

Nice collection. What's your plan? What is the ESX server for? You won't be able to use it. ESX is an enterprise class of VMWare software. It has its own OS (Linux based) and will only work with SCSI disks, so it will ignore your PATA or SATA drives. If you're using Workstation, you don't need VMWare server. Either one will fit your needs, it just a matter of the cost of the license. Workstation will cost you money, while Server is free. (Although if you can afford ESX server, then money isn't a question for you.) Looking at your setup, get more memory, a lot more momory. I'd max out your system if possible. The two things that will make working with a VMWare lab setup (or any virtualizer for that matter) a nightmare are disk and memory. You may also want to add a couple of hard drives and build a stripe set to store your VM sessions on too. So, what is your plan? What are you hoping to accomplish?

I've done it. There are a few "gotchas" that carry over from version 2.5, but it works. What problems are you having?

It can also be corrected within VMWare. I ran across this on MyITForums. It's specific to the BDD2007, but it's still WinPE2.0. Here is the link: MyITForum - BDD2007 and VMWare Server

Put a shortcut to the company home page in the startup group for All Users. On the site have an OK button that links to the home page they've choosen. You can have the button execute a small script that pulls the home page value from the Registry and opens it. There may be an HTML variable that you could just link to, but off the top of my head I don't know. It can be done, Microsoft does it when you install a new browser like IE7. You first open it and it goes to the config page and there's a link that takes you to your home page.

What OSes are we talking about here? How exactly do you have it installed with the new systemboard? Is it an IDE drive? When you say that it is not accessable, what exactly is happening? What the old drive working before replacing the systemboard? All things being equal, you should be able to set this drive up on either the secondary controller, or a slave on the primary (if it's an IDE) or on the secondary SATA controller if SATA. You can then install your OS onto the new drive and access the data stored on the older one. Or, you can buy an external USB drive enclosure to house the older drive. Set up your new system and then plug the USB drive in to get to your data. When you're done, format and use the USB drive to backup the new system. Right now, there are too many unknowns in your situation. Are you trying to boot from the old drive and it's crashing?

I'm afraid you would have to capture each individually and treat them as unique images within the WIM. You'll have 1 WIM with one image being your C drive and another being the D drive. It would take 2 imagex commands to do. I could be wrong, but I don't believe there is any way of capturing 2 drives into a single image using just one command.

SMS can run anything, not just MSIs. The silent installation options with other EXEs will work with SMS as the deployment tool.

Did you get the permission of the original creators of these wallpapers to redistribute thier work?