bn2hunt

Thats what I was telling the supervisors here. We are moving from a primarily cd based installation to RIS installs. We think it will be easier to keep the images up to date with Virus definitions than to burn a new CD every two weeks for each pc model and then hope that we get all of the old CD's destroyed. We will just have to keep a backup ISO of the installs to burn to DVD when needed. Thanks for the info Dan

Could I set up a local account on the RIS Server and use that log-in to get the ball rolling? My guess is it would fail when it couldn't create the computer account. Is there a way to stop the computer account from being created?

I have just started setting up a RIS server for the company and a question was posed to me about a Disaster Recovery Plan. If I take a Windows 2003 server joined to the domain but not a DC. This server has DHCP running on it and has RIS and all of the images on it. Can I connect the server to a switch, connect the pc's to have windows installed on and be able to install windows to these pc's? We do not join the pc's to the domain during the RIS process. Is it possible to have RIS work without being able to access the domain? Don't know if anybody else has run into this but thought I would ask here before I started the process of setting up a testing lab if we know that it won't work. Thanks Dan

I am working on my 3rd RIS setup and first on a laptop. It is an IBM T60 and here is the problem. We set up 2 different local users meaning we change some desktop settins to meet company standards. The first time it logs is as the local administrator account we change all the settings and then I run a registry file from runonce.cmd Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] "DefaultUserName"="user2" "DefaultPassword"="password2" "AutoAdminLogon"="1" "ForceAutoLogon"="1" "AutoLogonCount"=dword:00000001 The registry settings are all set correctly. I know this becuase in trying to figure out what is going wrong with the laptop immediately after importing the registry settings I export them to a .reg file . The next command I send is a reboot command. shutdown.exe -r -f -t 60 -c "Windows XP will now restart in 1 minute..." Now I export the registy agian and it is set to log in as the local admin account. I notice an additianal command windows flashes after the reboot that we don't get during the desktop setup. During the next reboot as a test I added the registry import from above to run using a runsecond.cmd file which install some more PC model spefic apps and it will reboot using the correct user2 username and password. I have checked the run and runonce registry settings and the start menu - programs - startup and I can't figure out what is cuase the registry to revert back to logging in as the admin. Any help will be appreciated as this problem is cuasing me to get a headache Rissetup.sif ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated="1" UnattendedInstall="Yes" floppyless="1" OriSrc="\\%SERVERNAME%\RemInst\%INSTALLPATH%" OriTyp="4" LocalSourceOnCD=1 AutomaticUpdates=no [setupData] OsLoadOptions="/noguiboot /fastdetect" SetupSourceDevice="\Device\LanmanRedirector\%SERVERNAME%\RemInst\%INSTALLPATH%" [unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemPreinstall = Yes OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\sata;Drivers\chipset;Drivers\network;Drivers\graphics;Drivers\modem;Drivers\system;Drivers\touchpad;Drivers\wireless;Drivers\FPS\Drivers;Drivers\high" DriverSigningPolicy = ignore TargetPath=\WINDOWS Repartition=Yes NtUpgrade=No OemSkipEula=Yes OverwriteOemFilesOnUpgrade=No UnattendSwitch="yes" [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword="pass1" EncryptedAdminPassword=NO AutoLogon=Yes AutoLogonCount=1 OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=20 OemSkipWelcome=1 [userData] FullName="Insurance Companies" OrgName="Insurance Companies" ComputerName = %PCNAME% ProductKey="xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx" [Display] BitsPerPel=16 Xresolution=1024 YResolution=768 [TapiLocation] CountryCode=1 [setupMgr] DistFolder=C:\windist DistShare=windist [branding] BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes Home_Page=http://www-int1.website.com/esource [Proxy] Proxy_Enable=0 Use_Same_Proxy=1 [identification] JoinWorkgroup="RISWORKGROUP" [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes ProcessPageSections=Yes [RemoteInstall] Repartition=Yes [Components] msmsgs=off msnexplr=off freecell=off hearts=off minesweeper=off pinball=off solitaire=off spider=off zonegames=off oeaccess=off [shell] DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes DefaultThemesOff = Yes [GuiRunOnce] [iEPopupBlocker] BlockPopups=No [WindowsFirewall] Profiles = WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall [WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall] Mode = 0 [OSChooser] Description ="IBM T60 testing" Help ="Automatically installs Microsoft Windows XP Professional IBM T60 testing" LaunchFile = "%INSTALLPATH%\%MACHINETYPE%\templates\startrom.com" ImageType =Flat Version="5.1 (0)" Thanks Dan

I have added a variable to the login.osc file where I have the individual performing the installation assign the pc a name. The variable is PCNAME. We are not joining the computer to the domain during the install since we can't get the domain to accept a passed password. If we hardcode the user and password in the SIF file it joins but it won't using the varialbe from Login.osc. We are not allowed to use a hardocded username and password. My questions are How do I set the computer account that is created via RIS to this variable name? If I am unable to set the computer account to this variable, at what point in the install can I remove the account? Thanks Bn2hunt

We copy the I386 folder to all pc's and laptops since we have alot of remote offices across the country that we are responsible for. And we don't want the pc's phoning home everytime we add a component. This is how I have been trying it so far. The RunOnceEx.cmd runs but either I have the source.cmd coded incorrectly or it never executes, I'm not sure which. Does anyone else copy the files this way? CMDLINES.TXT [Commands] "rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 128 .\OEM.INF" "cmd /c start /min cmd /c .\OEMLink.bat" "cmd /c start /min cmd /c .\USBS3KB.BAT" "RunOnceEx.cmd" "source.cmd" "REGEDIT /S regtweaks.reg" "rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection nLite.inf,nLiteReg" "admin.cmd" ; Customized by nLite - www.nliteos.com SOURCE.CMD cmdow @ /HID @echo off set cdrom = "\\SERVERNAME\REMINST\Setup\English\Images\DellGX620" c:\windows\system32\xcopy /E /H "%cdrom%\i386" "%systemroot%\i386\"

Yes, the I386 folder is created on the RIS Server but we need it copied to the new pc's as they are installed. Unless I am doing something wrong, very possible, the folder is not created on the new pc's, so when we add a component it asks for the c:\i386 folder, which unless we add it to the $oem$\$1 folder it doesn't get created. bn2hunt

So far the only way I can figure out to create the c:\i386 folder is to place it in the $OEM$\$1 folder. Is there a more disk space efficient method, such as creating it from the \remoteinstall\setup\english\images\imagename\i386 folder. The method that we have come up with seems terribly inefficient. Thanks for the Help Bn2Hunt