Tripredacus

Well I see you are booting into Audit Mode, then running a command that syspreps the system... but I have some questions regarding this process. 1. Are you manually doing anything with the system? 2. Your batch file doesn't kill the existing sysprep.exe that would be already running in Audit Mode. I'd recommend using naming your unattend.xml as autounattend.xml. Also you have some extra info you don't need to have in there, such as the Specialize pass, those settings would be better off in your custom.xml. And you don't need to specify AutoLogon for the built-in Administrator for Audit Mode. Based on your custom.xml, I can't see why you'd expect to NOT get the Windows Welcome pages. OOBE wants to create an account and you aren't creating one with the XML.

You can try to "get out" of the window by using ALT+ENTER which I "believe" will change Quake into Windowed mode. You can try ALT+F4. As far as your specs (and even QuakeWorld) I don't have any experience in that. I had only used GL WinQuake with the 3dfx patch. I haven't played it since those good old days, except for running it on a Notebook to test a specific Open GL version on Vista.

The only times I have see a CD drive show up in Windows but not in the BIOS is when RAID is enabled on the board.

I would just hide the update so it doesn't show. The only time I update drivers is if there is a specific reason for me to do so, such as a game needs something or I am having problems related to video. I never update just because one shows up in WU or a new version comes out. Some people do, however but I don't know the reason for it.

Yes. I was copying commands from my own installer scripts and changing their specific names. My installers always sit in C:\temp (a folder that by default does not exist) so I can delete it later.

Does this mean that you were caught committing an "actual crime" in the past? jaclaz Yes well it was more of a "why are you using that?" and "you need to start using this instead"

Sysprep makes a copy of your answer file and names it "unattend.xml" which it uses as a log file. This is why you see "wasProcessed" and "Sensitive Data Deleted" values in it. What is in your Generalize pass? Did you try an XML without a generalize pass in it?

This "last line" is only for WSIM, since it will end up giving you an error. But if you aren't using WSIM to edit it, it shouldn't matter. All of my answer files (win 7 and 2008) have this: <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/sources/install_windows vista business.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />

Merge to form....

Are you running QuakeWorld? I was surprised to learn that there are still servers up for that game.

Aside from the fact that nLite isn't allowed to be used for business use... Why not just use the answer file to not install the different packages?

So you can't boot of the drive, did you try both a CD and a DVD?

Of course we all know not all hardware is really the same, even if they have the same model number. Why it worked on most isn't a concern really, but it is obvious there are still VM files in the image if they are being referenced in the log file. Anyways, you can just try to redo those 10 again to see what happens. Please remember to use code tags (even though you left a character out at the beginning of your paste)

This is caused by a virus or by a leftover file remnant that a service or startup program uses. I'd check for outdated items in the Startup folder as well as in the registry.

We have a section for questions like that. Ask it there. http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/169-hard-drive-and-removable-media-issues/

So this Setup.exe I am presuming you didn't make it? You may want to try this too c:\temp\app\setup.exe /s /sms /f1"c:\temp\app\setup.iss" If still error, try this c:\temp\app\setup.exe /s /f1"c:\temp\app\setup.iss" /verbose"c:\temp\app\verbose.log"

Ah that tool Yes mass-deployment is viable under certain circumstances. Notice that is an "OEM" tool, which is typically licensed to either OEMs or System Builders. If you have a Microsoft Partner account, you can email your rep and ask if your company is licensed to use this tool or not. Honestly, I was sad to find that tool... could have used it years earlier. Microsoft licenses different tools (and OSes) for the different channels. The Enterprise Channel is to use MDT and SCCM for deployments. Anyways, about being "software police" its a good point but there are a couple reasons for it. One is to make sure we keep within the law as far as forum content (to the best of our ability) without angering any of the software companies. Another is to make sure you are using the right tools for your specific task depending on what channel you are in. I can tell you its not a good thing when someone at Microsoft calls you up and says you're using the wrong tools (licensing requirements) and you have to change.

OK in that case (ugg licensing is so hard! ) You should be able to install your OS into Audit Mode using an Unattend. Then when you do your sysprep (to prepare the PC for the end-user) you can specify the product key in another answer file. This should hide the product key prompt for the end-user during OOBE. Here is how to pre-activate: How Sysprep Works

That's entertaining to know! We often will incorrectly assume that an XP computer will have a relative aged recovery partition... although it is technically possible to use a Vista WinRE (or SoftThinks Vista version) to run recovery for XP as well. It was likely common during the period that Vista to XP Downgrade Rights were available. Of course I wouldn't have gone through the trouble to adapt a Vista WinRE to do XP but maybe IBM has more people on hand to do these things...

Pre-activation on a resellable system can only be done as an OEM. It is an expensive and time consuming process! Pre-activation can be done in the Enterprise channel, however there are specific licensing requirements in order to be allowed to sell a computer with Windows 7 Enterprise on it. I don't have info on the rules for the Retail SKUs, but I'd be very surprised if that were legal. The fact that you have a contract that requires this ability is concerning. You can find the following in the EULA: Either way, Retail isn't meant for this purpose. It is to be installed by the end-user.

VML is deprecated. See this.

That's quite an old system! Considering it comes with a 4GB drive. Does that HDD work in another PC?

See the I want to manually control my partitioning and formatting options... here, but also there may be more information in another part of the guide.

Its a tough situation because large OEMs won't build custom images for their customers even tho they are allowed to. Its fine to build an image from a recovery disc, but you still need to have licenses per machine! If each has a Dell COA on them, that should be fine. But if you end up start putting this on systems without COAs then that is an actual crime.

Its funny, I can search the CHM for netbios and not get any results, yet there is an option. It can't be done "globally" but when you add an interface. NetbiosOptions