when are you going to allow silent install cab's, or Program Addons, ala nLite? I would love to integrate Avast Home directly into Vista... help!

I can not be done because in xp they would actually install the operating system but in vista all it does is extract the operating system from the install.wim

I can not be done because <blah blah blah>

OK, I'll agree that it can't be done in the same way...Nlite allows all sorts of fancier stuff using the inf file based install process in addition to running silent installers....

But it sure seems that there should be a way to either invoke WPIW or some other "post install" process to run a "silent" product install. I think that was all they were looking for...

Personally, I suggest that you give tools like the Windows Post Install Wizard a look... http://www.wpiw.net

You can certainly invoke many commands in the install of Vista, you may not be able to incorporate addons into an install but can use many progs such as wpi, I have successfully used wpi with Vista for the past 18 months.

Actually, there is 2 'barbaric' methods to integrate software into Vista.

The first, the most 'barbaric', is to mount install.wim content to the empty partition (or, as I suppose, you can use Vista's SUBST command instead of creating an empty partition), then connect this partition to the VMware Virtual Machine, restore the boot on it (using Vista DVD), then install your software, disconnect the partition from VMware, and then create a new .wim, excluding unneeded files (the most unneeded files are in the exclude list of imagex by default, but you can mount the new wim in some folder and delete the rest).

The second method is the main point of the first method. Here, you can manually add to the .wim your app's folder, but then you must manually collect from the registry all necessary data for your program. Why only the necessary? Because, I think, you would like to manually configure your application after install. Additionally, many programs add their files to such folders, as Windows and System32, so you also should use some dependency scanner or find all program files manually. This method is less 'barbaric', but it takes a lot of time and patience.

BTW, nuhi, you are a very good programmer, so you could add to vLite the ability to monitor installation of software and add those necessary registry entries and program files.

But it's all a theory.

Edited September 19, 200817 yr by Sgt.Riggs

Simple addons would be a nice 1st step...Like adding simple programs (that don't need installing) an their shortcuts, themes, gadgets or replacing DLL's in System32 (uxtheme.dll, etc)

All one would need to do is create a folder structure (the same way it is if you mount the image) and put the files you want added/overwritten then zip and integrate them

Edited September 19, 200817 yr by ricktendo64