Does the nLite 'unattended' page break previous OEM activation

[visa tapani]

I have an Asus laptop with just recovery discs and I'm trying to do a clean install without the bloat coming with them. For this I got a retail Windows XP cd of the same type and language as the one shipping with my laptop and extracted it to my HD. I used Bezalel's method to overwrite the OEMBIOS.BI_, OEMBIOS.CA_, OEMBIOS.DA_ and OEMBIOS.SI_ files in the I386 folder of the XP installation directory and to write a winnt.sif file there. Then I ran it through nLite, added SP2, removed a couple of components, and filled the unattended page.

Now, I'm wondering did the unattended setup in nLite maybe overwrite the OEMBIOS.BI_, OEMBIOS.CA_, OEMBIOS.DA_ and OEMBIOS.SI_ and winnt.sif files again, 'cause it at least warned that: "Previous unattended settings were detected in your installation and will be overwritten. Disable 'Unattended' page if you want to keep your previous settings". I though this just affects the unattended configuration and is not a problem to me. However, when I was trying to install Windows from the disc it not only asked for a product key, but refused the key written in winnt.sif. I also tried the key from the bottom of my laptop and the generic OEM preactivation preserving key, neither of which worked.

So I reinstalled from my recovery discs and am now typing this. Should the Bezalel's method even work in my case? Would it work if I skipped the 'Unattended' page in nLite? Am I being clear in my problem description?

Is there any other way to install fresh from a retail XP Pro and retain the OEM activation information embedded in my laptop?

[nuhi]

Of course it doesn't touch the oembios files.

If you want to keep your previous Winnt.sif then just don't enable nLite's unattended page.

And above all first try your modifications without nLite before blaming it for the errors (not offended just saying) because it could be that that method is bogus.

You can use nLite to make bootable ISO while testing that method, it won't influence the outcome like that (just select ISO page, nothing else).

[visa tapani]

Thanks, yes I'm confident now that the problem had nothing to do with nLite but was my own mistake. Sorry if I sounded like I was blaming nLite for the problems, that wasn't the intented tone.

It seems that in addition to the oembios files and the winnt.sif file, I need to replace the setupp.ini file of the retail XP cd with the one from my recovery disc for it to accept OEM activation...

[nuhi]

Don't worry, you just asked and I see now that I came a bit hard even though I didn't feel anything except the rush to explain as fast as possible that it is not nLite's fault.

[kf_man]

The missing link in this operation is the SETUPP.INI file which needs to be gotten from the same location of the OEMBIOS files. Just overwrite the one in your slipstream directory. This file controls which CD-Keys the installer will accept.

Sorry if this was in the wrong place, but I figured that it did indeed prove that this isn't any fault of nLite.