WinXP Product Key

[toffo]

hey all.. I've been working loads with getting an unattended dvd to work like it should..

I have fixed loads of things like, silent install on symantec AV and FW, zend studio, firefox, xvid.. loads of things that you

guys probably have already completed..

but I'm pretty satisfied with myself

however.. I have problem with my product key.. the key itself is a valid retail key works perfectly.. but it doesnt work

in unattended mode.. the window still comes up

I've tried two differnent versions of the key "line" like these;

[UserData]
ProductKey="xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"

and like this;

[UserData]
ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

difference is these => " "

don't know the name for them in english

none of those two works.. should it be without the - or how should it look like?

everything else works just perfectly, its only the product key window that appears.. please help me out

Edited September 18, 2007 by toffo

[TheSickman]

[userData]

ProductKey="xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"

must do the trick

but

[userData]

ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

should wurk either

[zakum]

Remove the space in Product Key, it should be like this

[userData]

ProductKey=

[VCC]

Remove the space in Product Key, it should be like this

[userData]

ProductKey=

zakum, there is no space in his example. It may look like it due to the CODE window though.

toffo,

maybe you can list the rest of your winnt.sif or unattend.txt file so we can get a better idea of what you're dealing with.

What you have already, in your post, should be working in my experience.

Here is an example of mine and it works fine:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=1
    MsDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
    AutoActivate=No
    CrashDumpSetting=3
    DisableVirtualOemDevices = Yes
    DriverSigningPolicy="Ignore"
    DUDisable = No
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    OemPnPDriversPath=
    Repartition=Yes
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    FileSystem=ConvertNTFS
    UnattendSwitch=yes
    WaitForReboot=no
    NtUpgrade=No
    Hibernation=No

[Backup]
EnableBackup=No

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword=password
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    AutoLogon=Yes
    AutoLogonCount=2
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    OemSkipWelcome=1
    TimeZone=4

[UserData]
    ProductKey="xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"
    FullName="Default"
    OrgName="Oganization"
    ComputerName="personal"

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=24
    Xresolution=800
    YResolution=600

[TapiLocation]
    CountryCode=1
    Dialing=Tone
    AreaCode=805

[RegionalSettings]
    LanguageGroup=1
    SystemLocale=00000409
    UserLocale=00000409
    InputLocale=0409:00000409

 [Identification]
    Joinworkgroup = workgroup

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Proxy]
    Proxy_Enable=0
    Use_Same_Proxy=1

[Components]
     dialer=on
     freecell=on
     hearts=on
     minesweeper=on
     pinball=on
     solitaire=on
     spider=on
     zonegames=on
     msmsgs=off
     msnexplr=off
     media_clips=on
     OEAccess=off

[Branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[URL]
    Home_Page=http://website
    Quick_Link1_name="website"
    Quick_Link1=http://website
[FavoritesEx]
     Title1=website.url
     URL1=http://website

You'll want to focus on the [Data] and [unattended] sections.

[toffo]

thanks for the info VCC.. you have a lot of, for me, new stuff in your sif file always fun to see new stuff,

even though I dont know what some of them do

anyway, it feels like my file should be ok.. dont you think?

; Generated by nLite 1.4 beta

[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"
AutomaticUpdates=yes

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
UnattendSwitch="Yes"
OemPreinstall="Yes"
OemSkipEula="Yes"
WaitForReboot="No"
NoWaitAfterTextMode=1
NoWaitAfterGUIMode=1
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
NonDriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
Hibernation="No"
Repartition=No
FileSystem=*
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
ProgramFilesDir="C:\Program"
OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers00_intel;Drivers01_intelraid;Drivers03_nvidia8800"

[Display]
Xresolution=1280
Yresolution=1024
BitsPerPel=32
AutoConfirm=1

[SystemRestore]
DisableSR=1
CreateFirstRunRp=0

[GuiUnattended]
EncryptedAdminPassword="No"
AutoLogon="Yes"
AdminPassword=*
OEMSkipRegional=1
OemSkipWelcome=1
TimeZone=110

[Components]
Iis_common=Off
Iis_ftp=Off
Iis_inetmgr=Off
Iis_internetdataconnector=Off
Iis_nntp=Off
Iis_serversideincludes=Off
Iis_smtp=Off
Iis_webadmin=Off
Iis_webdav=Off
Iis_www=Off
Iis_www_vdir_scripts=Off
Iis_asp=Off
msmsgs=off
msnexplr=off
freecell=off
hearts=off
minesweeper=off
pinball=off
solitaire=off
spider=off
zonegames=off

[UserData]
ProductKey="xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"
ComputerName=INTEL
FullName="My name"

[RegionalSettings]
Language= "041d"

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents="Yes"

[WindowsFirewall]
Profiles=WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall

[WindowsFirewall.TurnOffFirewall]
Mode=0

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup="MSHOME"

[URL]
Home_Page=http://www.google.se

Edited September 18, 2007 by toffo

[mmarable]

You said it's a valid retail key, correct? Are you source files from a retail, OEM or VLK XP CD? When your unattended install prompts for a key, if you enter the one you have, does it work?

Edited September 19, 2007 by mmarable

[VCC]

You're welcome. Glad I can spill some new settings your way. The only thing that raises a question to me at the moment, the brain is a bit tired at the moment and I'll have to look at this again tomorrow when I'm fresh, is the [userData] being toward the bottom of the file. I thought I read somewhere about the positioning of the sections. I don't know if you've tried this already, but it might be worth a try to reposition it a bit.

I'm also catching that you do not have an OrgName listed. Try including that, even if it is blank, I think setup wants to see something there. You can just put OrgName="" for a blank setting.

If I see something else later I'll pass it your way. I know it can be frustrating when this stuff doesn't work. Hope you find the answer soon.

For settings in my sif I pretty much searched in many different sif files and checked Microsoft's site and different forums for what they were used for. Also trial and error.

[toffo]

You said it's a valid retail key, correct? Are you source files from a retail, OEM or VLK XP CD? When your unattended install prompts for a key, if you enter the one you have, does it work?

well thanks for the question mate, I think I forgot to answer that in my first post..

anyway, yes it is a retail WinXP Pro disc, bought standalone.. not bundled or anything, so just a retail..

and yes, when I manually enter the product key it works perfectly..

You're welcome. Glad I can spill some new settings your way. The only thing that raises a question to me at the moment, the brain is a bit tired at the moment and I'll have to look at this again tomorrow when I'm fresh, is the [userData] being toward the bottom of the file. I thought I read somewhere about the positioning of the sections. I don't know if you've tried this already, but it might be worth a try to reposition it a bit.

I'm also catching that you do not have an OrgName listed. Try including that, even if it is blank, I think setup wants to see something there. You can just put OrgName="" for a blank setting.

If I see something else later I'll pass it your way. I know it can be frustrating when this stuff doesn't work. Hope you find the answer soon.

For settings in my sif I pretty much searched in many different sif files and checked Microsoft's site and different forums for what they were used for. Also trial and error.

ahh ok, will try that.. is there any special position or just in the bottom? I'll try the bottom first and see what happens..

I'll add the OrgName variable as well..

hehe, well thats what I've been doing with RunOnceEx for example, loads of testing to get the installers to work

but I'll try to reposition the [userData] part and see what happens..

thanks for your answers guys!

[toffo]

hey again.. didnt work with moving the [userData] part to a different position in the WINNT.SIF file =/

I also filled in the OrgName but that didnt make any difference either..

So what may be wrong now? I'm going to try with a friends key just to see if the setup works.. if it does it must

be something wrong with my key.. but hopefully and probably it wont change..

any new ideas for me to test?

[silacomalley]

Ok, you have created the winnt.sif file with nLite 1.4. So.....maybe you could try creating the answer file with setupmgr.exe, microsofts proprietary solution.

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en and download, unzip and run setupmgr.exe.

There is a ref.chm and deploy.chm file within the zip folder, which are a good reference to most all of the basic unattended options that can be used to automate an unattended install, though there are plenty more options out there that can be inserted into a .sif file, this just covers most of the basics. And it should give you an idea of how to compile a successfull winnt.sif answer file.

Copy the .sif that setupmgr.exe creates into the i386 folder of your unattended compilation, which I presume was also created in nLite. If you still get the same results, use an exact copy of your XP disk without any nLite modifications and with the answer file created with setupmgr.exe, again - placed in your i386 folder.

It's a long winded elimination type approach, but I have had some custom installations go pear shaped using nLite, with no logic or reason why, that I could see anyway. I swear by nLite for the amazing standalone tool that it is, but sometimes a file just gets corrupt and goes unnoticed or a setting is out somewhere.

If the above works with setupmgr.exe......then you may just want to start again from scratch with nLite and maybe there was a bug originaly when you compiled using nLite.

[Arie]

Might not be the cause of your problem, but worth to give it a try: in what format/with which encoding do you save the SIF-file?

[gosh]

You only need ProductKey="xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx" in the unattend file, however as a good practice you should also used productid, which was used in win2k

productkey="(key)"

productid="(key)"

It doesn't matter where in the unattend file it is located.

What you need to do is post your setuplog.txt and setupact.log so i can see what is being logged. Also, try the product key doing a regular install and see if setup accepts it.

-gosh

[toffo]

hi guys, thanks for all your replies!

I actually got it to work with my friends key, so now its really unattended.. but..

something really is strange with my own key, cause it works if I enter it manually..

maybe I just have to enter it manually

Arie, normal text from Notepad.. without the .txt file ending of course hehe

silacomalley, doesnt matter if I use nLite or the setupmgr, its the same.. I have tried, not just guessing

I did use setupmgr from the beginning, but saw all the additional stuff in nLite so thats why I tried it..

however, nLite makes or changes a dll file that is executed in commands.txt right?

so all those options that you can make throughout the setup of nLite, you can do those through registry access too?

[ZaForD]

Hi Toffo,

One more idea for you to try, if your still stuck.

Delete your CD Key from your winnt.sif and then type it back in.

I remember having some problems before by "cutting and pasting" CD keys.