unattended perfomance XP + applications + autoconfigured

[tetsuo55]

Hello Everyone, i have been a lurker for quite some time now, and i have tried a lot of unattended installs, but i have never been able to achieve what i really wanted.

What i am trying to do is fully automate setup, install and configuration of windows and applications.

Currently it can take me up to 5 hours to get everything fully working, i would like to reduce that to a fully automated system where i only have to be there for 2 screens, and the rest is automatic.

Below i have listed the requirements that i need to be met

User

The user is a heavy multitasker, maintenance should be automated, the pc will not be running any other apps during maintenance

The user mostly uses the pc for multimedia, gaming, internet and office

Windows itself

Windows XP service pack 2
Must be fully updated with all the latest hotfixes
newest DirectX, Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Live Messenger and all .NET updates

Default windows applications(the following applications must stay, all the rest can be removed and at least should not appear in start)

On Screen Keyboard
calculator(updated to calcplus)
notepad
wordpad
paint
Disc cleanup
Windows update
Windows media player 11
Search for files and folders
Default games
Volume control
command prompt
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Live Messenger
Picture and fax viewer

Windows use and hardware support

Printing
Scanning
Internet
Internet connection sharing
File and printer sharing
NTFS is the only needed filesystem
Usb  many usb devices are used, usb stick, portable harddrive, mouse etc.

Applications (The following applications should be auto installed, auto configured and of course must work, also they must be individually selectable and selectable in preconfigured groups)

Avisynth
CCleaner
Comode Firewall
Daemon Tools
firefox with Adblock plus, g filter updater, NoScript
Newsleecher
Peerguardian + blocklists
Quickpar
Unlocker
Winrar
PerfectDisk 8
Ms office
Nero
ImgBurn
PowerDVD
Photoshop
Mediamonkey with Minilyrics
Asquared Free
K-Lite Mega Codecpack + advanced ffdshow and mediaplayer classic settings
Bulk Rename Utility
VMware
Utorrent
Emule Morph
FlashFXP
foxit Reader
Everest
Vista games pack
Kyodai Mahjong
MediaCoder
Mirc
X-Fi Mode changer
Java
MKVmerge
NT regopt
Regsupreme Pro
Spybot search and destroy
Spyware Blaster
Acronis true image

It will be important for me to be able to update manage and change each individual component and preferably i would like to be able to access the auto install and configuration of applications from an already installed pc, so i can add applications that where not installed the first time

finally i would like to create 2 versions, 1 for pc's with low ram, and another for pc's with high ram.

The last thing that would be very helpfull is some kind of script that would run and close all the maintenance applications i included, so that this would be fully automated also.

I would very much appreciate some help from you gurus, so i can complete this project, of course the resulting settings files will be available for everyone, so maybe some other people can gain from this too.

Edited June 28, 2007 by tetsuo55