How to suppress the R2 disk 2 prompt (cd2chain.exe)

[csears]

Greetings all,

I recently figured out how to suppress the prompt that pops up asking for Disk 2 (CD 2) when you log into a Windows Server 2003 R2 install for the first time. The popup is from an app called cd2chain.exe and it's supposed to help you complete the install by adding the extra R2-only components that are shipped on the second CD for Windows 2003 R2. In my case, I don't need these R2 components most of the time so I wanted to suppress that popup for my NLite'd unattended installs. When I do need them, I can add them later, post-OS install.

The trick is simply to create the following registry entry during setup:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\R2Setup\cd2chain = dword:00000000

I did see this key mentioned in some other posts, but it wasn't entirely clear how the key worked or what the value should be. As far as I can tell, Windows uses this key to know not to keep prompting for Disk 2 every time you log in.

There are a few ways to actually set the registry value during setup. I created a little .reg file that I import using regedit from cmdlines.txt. Both files are in my $OEM$ directory.

cmdlines.txt:

[Commands]
"REGEDIT /S no-r2d2.reg"

no-r2d2.reg:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\R2Setup]
"cd2chain"=dword:00000000

I tested it and confirmed it works. No popup on initial login.

Hope that helps someone else out there.

Also, since this is my first post, I wanted to say thanks for a great resource. I'm constantly Googling obscure Windows issues and MSFN is often the only place I find an actual answer.

- Chris