New In Nlite! Please help... Various issues...

[go4saket]

Hello friends!

I am new, both to this forum as well as for Nlite. I have severel doubts which I am sure all you experiences guys can help me with...

1. As I want to integrate many softwares in Windows XP Installer, the size foresure will run above 700 MB thereby not allowing me to fit everything on one CD. Is it possible to make a Windows XP Installer DVD instead of a CD.
   
2. I made a few AddOn with help of Nlite Addon Maker. The problem is that most of these softwares, when installed, creates a shortcut on the desktop. How can I stop that from happening.
   
3. As I want to add some softwares which needs keys, is it possible to do that while making an add on for that and if yes, how can I do that.
   
4. It seems like "/S" is for Silent. What other options are available. Please state the use of them as well if possible.
   

Thank you.

[LeveL]

...the size foresure will run above 700 MB thereby not allowing me to fit everything on one CD. Is it possible to make a Windows XP Installer DVD instead of a CD.

Yes. All you do is make the ISO and if its too big for a CD, burn to DVD, thats all there is to it.

Do you really need to put it on a 700Mb CD?

If so, the first things you should remove in nLite are:

Languages:

Chinese + Korean + Japanese (watch out since theres 2 Chinese entries there: simplified and traditional) 100Mb

Networking:

MSN Explorer 17Mb

Operating System Options

Manual Install and upgrade (unless you need to do that) 44mb

Help and Support 23Mb

Tour 17Mb

So look, all you remove is 8 items.

4 of those are languages and 2 of those are both Chinese,

4 languages listed above, MSN Explorer, Manual Install and upgrade, Help and Support and Tour - all 8 items adds up to a total of approx 200Mb, give or take 1Mb.

Considering that it is this easy to take off 200Mb from Windows (almost half the size of the OS on the CD!!!) without actually losing anything you would ever need.

MSN Explorer - I have no clue what this is, don't want to know, have never needed it or used it, never will need it or use it. Did not even know this was in Windows until nLite displayed it in the removal options. It is 17Mb being wasted.

Manual install and upgrade - only a retarded monkey would ewver do an "upgrade" from Windows 98 or 2000 or whatever. You do not get a clean install if you upgrade - its far harder to cope with the abortion that is an "upgrade" installation, than it is to just save all your C drive stuff somewhere else and wipe it all. The trick is to keep a small partition for Windows, then backing it up is not so bad. When I make an Acronis backup of my 20Gb C drive the backup is about 2Gb as a file, the other 480Gb of my 500Gb single drive is all set to a D partition wioth all my other stuff, downloads, game installs, big installs liike WAIK etc. All smaller programs I still install to C like Antivirus, Firewall, anything that might not quite work if its installed to D. The other thing with installing games to a D drive is you do not have to install them again after a Windows re-install, most times all the game needs is the serial in the registry - ummmm you did back up the registry before formating? lol.

Help and Support - no point in this even being there. all it has ever done for me is waste my time when i could have really been finding the answer on Google. Its years since I used "Help and Support" in Windows, or it used me more like, but all I remember of it is being asked about 12 questions to be told at the end of it all "Sorry, the knowledgebase cannot find a solution" blah blah blah well no - it NEVER has once found a solution to anything I have ever tried to find an answer to, its a total waste of time, RAM and space. 23Mb plus it runs a service all the time too.

Tour - You know about the "new" features in Windows XP by now considering that it was released almost 7 years ago. get rid, another 17Mb of redundant crap gone!

The languages are self explanatory. If you do not speak Chinese, Korean or Japanese then just remove them. YOU personally will not notice any difference apart from your CD is 100Mb smaller. Yes you could in theory remove all languages except your own but that does not save any space as far as I know, because the characters are all based on English letters, it can fit in dozens of languages and the ISO is no bigger. Its only by experimenting and looking in vLite to see what nuhi starts off with, I know its pretty much JUST those 4 languages taking up 99.99% opf the space the languages are taking up.

I made a few AddOn with help of Nlite Addon Maker. The problem is that most of these softwares, when installed, creates a shortcut on the desktop. How can I stop that from happening.

Shortcuts to local files are ".LNK" files.

Like SCF and URL files, you cannot see the extension but it is LNK believe me.

Run a BAT file or put in the end of your current bat file...

DEL "%UserProfile%\Desktop\Program Name.lnk"

OR it can also be...

DEL "%AllUsersProfile%\Desktop\Program Name.lnk"

Right click the shortcut and see where the file actually is, there are two desktops - your own username and "all users". The icon you see is identical on your desktop - but could be in either desktop folder so be careful.

Also, if deleting some massive filename like "Acronis True Image Enterprise Server.lnk" it tends not to delete it, even with quotes in the filename like this:

DEL "%AllUsersProfile%\Desktop\Acronis True Image Enterprise Server.lnk"

So in this case you'd use:

DEL %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\DESKTOP\ACRONI~1.lnk

As I want to add some softwares which needs keys, is it possible to do that while making an add on for that and if yes, how can I do that.

Use InstallRite to monitor where the program stores the serial in the registry.

If it is an added file like with WinRAR it does not have reg serials it just has a "rarreg.key" file so yeah, you'll have to work some way into it so it either runs a reg file to put the serial in the registry or XCOPY the correct file to the destination DIR to keep the program working as the full version. It is possible with any program almost.

It seems like "/S" is for Silent. What other options are available. Please state the use of them as well if possible.

/S is only for some programs, possibly the majority, just about.

It can be such crazy stuff like "/v /qn" etc etc.

Best way is look here at MSFN for the switches, theres a massive list somewhere.

MSI nearly always uses "/quiet /norestart" on all MSI files.

But then theres other MSI where in addition to that you can also add "PIDKEY" which would be your serial, even tell it to set up users a certain way for the program but only really good apps like Acronis have that built into the MSI. Nero is the same, you can specify the serial in the actual batch file in the command to install the program, although Nero is not an MSI but, side issue.

Hmmm, when you said "new in nLite" I thought you were reporting some new bug(s) with the 1.4.5 final.

Edited May 31, 2008 by LeveL