Tripredacus

PuntoMX and I are tied in the birthday battle... until now... Happy Birthday PuntoMX!

It certainly is. And the worst part is there is no setting you can use to pick the "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them" setting. What had the permission before? Was it TrustedInstaller?

Previously mentioned "SMSC LAN9500 USB 2.0 to Ethernet 10/100 NIC" has been found capable of doing a UEFI PXE boot! BUT there is a problem. Server 2008 R2 gets the arch value from the NIC and reports it as 7. Now it is already known that Server 2008 R2 does NOT support UEFI PXE boot, but seems to understand what to do with Arch 7. So it ends up serving out the Itanium EFI boot option (bootmgfw.efi) to the NIC. While this appears to work, the PE is loaded with the Itanium EFI rom and the actual hardware is using UEFI. The expected result (as with BIOS based PXE boot to UEFI/GPT systems) is that BCDBoot is unable to write to the BCD Store. Interestingly enough, if you disable the UEFI Boot option in the BIOS, it automatically will disable the onboard NIC and boot ROM. It does not appear that this system is capable of doing a BIOS level PXE boot. Even if you enable the LAN Option ROM, the other networking related pages in the BIOS are unavailable (grayed out) and it won't even attempt to boot from LAN even if you set LAN as the first boot item and disable everything else. This NIC is included in the CZC U116T Ultrabook. Unfortunately, this product is out the door, so while I have built a new system with Server 2012, I won't be able to test this functionality until another one comes in or something else shows up that can do a UEFI PXE boot.

Are you in Audit Mode? You can tell by going to the Desktop and you will see the Sysprep box on the screen.

Intel Desktop boards DH77KC and DH77DF have new BIOS version 0100 that adds BGRT support. Note from the PDF they speak of an error you get using the ITK 5: http://downloadmirror.intel.com/21846/eng/KC_0100_ReleaseNotes3.pdf

I'm getting "Bing points" every time I click on that link.

Well you can definately use it for onsie-twosies... plus then you'd already have the ability to scale up your operation in the future.

Have you looked into using MDT and a deployment share? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx

I can't really find any pay products, but these 2 IBM apps: IBM version of EZ-Smart http://www.techrepublic.com/article/get-smart-to-predict-hard-drive-failures/1055303 IBM Feature/Align Tool: http://download.chip.eu/en/IBM_Hitachi-Feature-Tool_1573833.html http://www.hgst.com/support/downloads/#FeatureTool But those aren't for files. Maybe something on the UBCD, which has a lot of hard disk related programs included: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

It picks from the 3 Update options in OOBE. I can't find a good picture of it, but it is equivalent to "Install Updates Automatically (Recommended)" option in the "Choose how Windows can install updates" page in Control Panel.

Are you using one of the pre-built solutions as listed here: Or are you using your own method?

When Test Mode is on, does it say "Test" above "Windows 8" and the build number on the desktop if the OS is not activated?

I can't wait to use the hottest selling OS of 2013 to do my taxes from 2011!

UEFI PXE driver found for SMSC LAN9500 USB 2.0 to Ethernet 10/100 NIC. http://www.smsc.com/index.php?tid=145&pid=137&cid=&tab=5 NIC is used in the dock for the CZC U116T Ultrabook/Tablet: http://www.czctech.com/en/t3c/U116T.html SMSC requires registration to download. Have not tested this device to see if it is capable of doing a UEFI PXE boot or not. Update: The UEFI PXE "driver" as the website mentions is actually a .EFI file to be used to flash the EEPROM on the NIC itself. It can be done via the EFI Shell (if present) or presumably a utility. It contains 32/64bit Itanium and 32/64bit UEFI types. UEFI PXE code added to BIOS version 0089 for Intel DH77EB motherboard: http://downloadmirror.intel.com/21749/eng/EB_0089_ReleaseNotes.pdf see also: Update: Intel (apparently) added UEFI PXE support to the DH77KC and DH77DF boards in BIOS version 0100. http://downloadmirror.intel.com/21846/eng/KC_0100_ReleaseNotes3.pdf

This project is dead and left open for historical reference only. The current project is here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=138048

If this disk was originally formatted on another computer (or possibly user) then you will get messages about it. It is because you are not the owner of that disk as far as Windows is concerned.

Welcome to the MSFN!

See MagicAndre's post above.

All you need is to modify your winpeshl.ini to launch a wrapper that prompts for a password. Then if the password is correct, then it will launch whatever application your normally would. Here is an example of a credential prompt I had built for WinPE to restrict access to cmd.exe:

There are some protected locations in Windows 7. Where are you working with these files? Are you using a limited user account? Are you using a foreign disk?

I am error:

You'll need to add a (or replace the) winpeshl.ini to launch a script of some sort. It can be .cmd or something else you make. This script needs to be able to determine the drive letter that the DVD resides in. Create 2 answer files. The first one is your Unattended one. The second one should be blank but with the correct XML elements so that Setup can parse it. Name it Attended.xml. Your script will have 2 options: 1. Unattended 2. Attended Presuming your DVD drive is D:, then the two option above would have the following commands: 1. Unattended setup.exe /unattend:d:\autounattend.xml 2. Attended setup.exe /unattend:d:\attended.xml There does not appear to be a command line parameter to instruct Setup.exe to NOT look for an answer file. This is why you would need to use a relatively blank one. Here is an example (not tested): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SetupUILanguage> <UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage> </SetupUILanguage> <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale> <SystemLocale>en-us</SystemLocale> <UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage> <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/sources/install_windows vista business.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /> </unattend>

This change to OS has to be done by the OEMs. Microsoft is not technically responsible since they do not actually sell any of these computers, or even set them up. Microsoft would have made an announcement to their European Partners concerning required changes to how the OS is deployed. Those Partners are required to make these changes... I am sure that Microsoft isn't taking it lightly that some of their partners were not following the rules. I'm not sure what the penalties would be tho. Can you use different browsers on Android or Apple devices? What about Amazon's Kindle? Aren't these devices the choice themselves, rather than what you can install on them? You could always just Ask Jeeves... The Nokia Lumia phone is a great example of why the common excuse of Samsung vs Apple in the "how different can you make it?" It is refreshing to see a different type of phone design. Most phones just look way to similar as it is. This Lumia, and the original Droid X are examples of how a phone design doesn't need to be so generic. And I'm not referring to what shows up on the screen. Maybe the Android is more like Windows than Linux. Typically most people who use Linux are beyond power users or at least enthusiasts. I have an Android phone and while it could be complicated if I dug into it, I don't use it that way. So I consider that to be closer to Windows than Linux. Maybe if Linux had more marketplace standing I would change my mind. But I can say that none of my relatives have a Linux computer. You don't HAVE to unlock the thing you know... The Windows 8 Hardware Certification replaces the previous Windows Logo Program. It is NOT a requirement in order to sell a product with Windows 8 on it. It is only a requirement to acquire the Certification... which basically means you can sell a product that has the "Windows 8 Certified" sticker on it. So basically, this limitation should only exist on Windows RT systems with the Certified Sticker, and NOT be a problem on non-certified Windows 8 ARM systems. The problem is that for the first year, only the 3-5 ODM/Partners has access to Windows RT. Once that grace period is passed and the other OEMs can build RT systems, you will then see the non-certified Windows 8 RT systems hit the market.

I don't think I've seen a "don't lean out the window" sign before. Is it common near mountains? Some places have a "Warning falling rocks" signs... While it makes sense in the middle of Pennsylvania (mining towns) other places it seems to be in places or poor planning of putting a road through a hill with steep walls.