Mystery of the broken $$Rename.txt

[fladnag]

Vague references to this feature exist in a number of MSFN topics, Usenet newsgroups and Microsoft's Technet itself. Available documentation on this feature is incomplete and even contradictory. As many others have apparently experienced, this feature seems to quickly fall apart.

I have re-installed Windows (winnt.exe, network-based) at least a dozen times, trying to get $$Rename.txt right, thinking I must have missed something in available documentation and making a minor tweak each time.

Here is a sample of the latest attempt:

[]

Resource="Resources$$"

[Resource\Themes]

Royale.The="Royale.Theme"

[Resource\Themes\Royale]

Royale.mss="Royale.msstyles"

[Resource\Themes\Royale\Shell]

NormalCo="NormalColor"

[Resource\Themes\Royale\Shell\NormalCo]

ShellSty.dll="ShellStyle.dll"

[Web]

Wallpape="Wallpaper"

[Web\Wallpape]

NewBliss.jpg="New Bliss.jpg"

The above is saved as i386\$OEM$\$$\$$Rename.txt.

Also within i386\$OEM$\$$ are the folder/file structures:

The Web folder and contents are copied appropriately. After install, the file “C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\New Bliss.jpg” exists. However, instead of merging the contents of i386\$OEM$\$$\Resource with C:\Windows\Resources, a directory C:\Windows\Resources$$ is created (the files beneath this directory have been converted to long file names appropriately). Before you reply stating that the syntax Resource=”Resources$$” is incorrect, read the entry Converting Short File Names to Long File Names in deploy.chm from the XP SP2 Deploy Tools. Specifically, refer to the following:

If Long_name_x is the name of the Profiles directory and has a "$$" appended at the end, Setup merges this directory with the current Profiles directory.

For example, if the $$Rename.txt file contains these entries:

[\]

D = "Documents and Settings$$"

then files listed in this section are placed in the "Documents and Settings$$" Profiles directory.

If I use the following for the Resources directory instead of my above example, I get a C:\Windows\RESOURCE directory:

[]

Resource="Resources"

I have also tried

[\]

Resource="Resources"

and

[\Windows]

Resource="Resources"

and simply (omitting brackets for the Resources directory)

Resource=”Resources”

Again, from deploy.chm:

A section can be unnamed, or it can have a backslash (\) as its name. The backslash indicates that the section contains the names of the files or subfolders that are on the root of the drive.

I even tried moving $$Rename.txt to i386\$OEM$\$1 and the folder structures (Resource, Web) to i386\$OEM$\$1\Windows and adjusting paths in $$Rename.txt as appropriate. From deploy.chm:

To restore any file names in 8.3 format to long file names during Windows Setup, include the $$Rename.txt file in the distribution share. $$Rename.txt must be located in the $OEM$\$1 folder.

For example:

[Windows]

Resource="Resources"

[Windows\Resource\Themes]

Royale.The="Royale.Theme"

[Windows\Resource\Themes\Royale]

Royale.mss="Royale.msstyles"

[Windows\Resource\Themes\Royale\Shell]

NormalCo="NormalColor"

[Windows\Resource\Themes\Royale\Shell\NormalCo]

ShellSty.dll="ShellStyle.dll"

[Windows\Web]

Wallpape="Wallpaper"

[Windows\Web\Wallpape]

NewBliss.jpg="New Bliss.jpg"

Results were the same as before.

I even tried creating a $$Resource.txt for each directory containing files/folders that needed to be converted to long file/folder names, all to no avail.

From Microsoft Technet, Designing a Distribution Share:

$$Rename.txt lists all of the files and folders in a specific folder that need to be renamed. Each folder that contains short file names that need to be renamed must contain a separate version of $$Rename.txt.

This is an apparently broken feature! Unless you can provide specific, detailed examples that “work as advertised” (even Microsoft can't), please stop making vague references to $$Rename.txt in forum responses.

Thank you!

Edited July 17, 2007 by fladnag