WinPE post deployment App selector

[Tripredacus]

I wrote this up, but I don't have a name for it. Its highly incomplete, but if you have skills in AutoIT, you may be able to use it as well.

Goal: To be able to automate software installations in Windows XP after imaging with Imagex.

Our WinPE environment is a Vista Servicing 1.1 edition of WinPE 2.0, and uses Geezery's COM based ImageX HTA. Upon startup, the WinPE maps a drive to the WDS Server (z:) and a drive (v:) to the file server. It then registers the DLL for the HTA and then loads the HTA.

Geezery's Imagex.HTA

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=97512

I have modified the HTA by rewriting the functions for some of the buttons at the bottom. The Capture Image button now runs an app that remaps the network drives (as there is an issue with certain Intel controllers where the startnet.cmd mapping does not work). The Append button now runs the XP App installer. Here are those changes:

Changed the following function:

'****************************************************************************
'* Append Image
'****************************************************************************
Sub Append
Dim Answer
	Answer = window.confirm("Click OK to install XP apps")
	If Answer Then
		objshell.run("xp_pe_selector.exe"),0
	Else

	End If
End Sub

This is to replace the Append function. We do not let regular software deployment people do things like captures and appends, at least so they don't screw it up, but also to give us a better sense of image control. Anytime images are captured or appended, we use the command prompt, so I replaced this function. Xp_pe_selector.exe is the app install program. I have also replaced the graphic for the button that launches the Append() function.

As a test, my program will install Nero 8 Essentials Suite 2 without a serial number. There is a folder on the file server that contains the install, and there is a CMD file which actually does the install process. I had created this way before hand, but Nero is one of the programs we most install. Here is the AUTOIT Code for XP_PE_SELECTOR.

#include <GUIConstants.au3>

Local $Msg, $button1, $Checkbox1
$Form1 = GUICreate("Form1", 633, 454, 187, 113)
$Label1 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("Select a Program to install", 32, 48, 126, 17)
$Button1 = GUICtrlCreateButton("Start", 48, 304, 129, 25, 0)
$Label2 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("Nero 8 Essentials Suite 2", 112, 96, 122, 17)
$Checkbox1 = GUICtrlCreateCheckbox("Checkbox1", 80, 96, 17, 17)
GUISetState()

While 1
$Msg = GuiGetMsg()
Switch $Msg
Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
	Exit
  Case $button1
	if GuiCtrlRead($Checkbox1) = $GUI_CHECKED then 
		RunWait (@ComSpec & " /c md c:\temp\nero8ste2")
		RunWait (@ComSpec & " /c xcopy v:\software\nero\nero8ste2 c:\temp\nero8ste2 /e" )
		RunWait (@ComSpec & " /c xcopy v:\software\installer.exe c:\docume~1\alluse~1\startm~1\programs\startup" )
		RunWait (@ComSpec & " /c xcopy v:\software\cleanup.exe c:\pnpdrvrs\net" )
	Else
		MsgBox(0, "error", "Nothing was selected!")
	EndIf
EndSwitch
WEnd

As you can see, it doesn't do much. It also only has one option right now and has a lot of empty space in it. It also does not exit by itself after doing anything, but these are things that can be added later. I have already received a request to make it reboot after copying the files. Either way, when it is done, you close it and restart the PC. When it restarts to Windows, it will launch the INSTALLER.EXE that is in the Startup Folder.

#include <File.au3>
Sleep (1000)
If FileExists ( "c:\temp\nero8ste2\installnero.cmd") Then
	$nero = 1
	RunWait (@ComSpec & " /c c:\temp\nero8ste2\installnero.cmd")
Else
	MsgBox ( 4096, "Status", "There are no programs to install!")
EndIf
MsgBox ( 4096, "Complete", "The installer is finished. Click OK to reboot")
RegWrite ( "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce" , "1" , "REG_SZ" , "c:\pnpdrvrs\net\cleanup.exe" )
_FileWriteLog("c:\temp\rem.bat","taskkill /f /im installer.exe")
_FileWriteToLine("c:\temp\rem.bat", 1, "taskkill /f /im installer.exe", 1)
_FileWriteToLine("c:\temp\rem.bat", 2, "del c:\docume~1\administrator\startm~1\programs\startup\installer.exe", 1)
_FileWriteToLine("c:\temp\rem.bat", 3, "del c:\docume~1\alluse~1\startm~1\programs\startup\installer.exe", 1)
_FileWriteToLine("c:\temp\rem.bat", 4, "c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe -r -f -t 0", 1)
MsgBox ( 4096, "Debug", "Verify that the batch file is written" )
Run ( "c:\temp\rem.bat" )

The installer.exe checks to see if the Nero install CMD is present before trying to run. This will fix any issues of the files not copying, although it will still require the reboot at the end. I had known that I wanted the installer to run a cleanup program, but I couldn't figure out how to delete the program from the startup folder. Or else on the reboot it would try to run the installer again. I solved this issue by having the installer write a batch file that it could then execute. The batch file kills and deletes the installer and reboots. Prior is a registry entry that runs the cleanup. Note how the batch file deletes from Administrator and All Users. Through testing I had found that sometimes the installer will not be found in All Users but in Administrator.

After the reboot, the RunOnce runs cleanup.exe

Sleep (1000)
If FileExists ( "c:\windows\nerosetuplog.txt" ) Then
	MsgBox (4096, "Clean Up", "Now Cleaning Up installers", 3)
	RunWait (@ComSpec & " /c rmdir c:\temp\*.* /s /q")
	MsgBox (4096, "Clean Up", "Clean Up Process complete" )
EndIf

It is real simple, however it does not always delete the temp folder, and sometimes it does. It does, however, always delete everything INSIDE of the temp folder. Note that it only does this after confirming that NERO is installed by looking for the log file. The log file is created by installnero.cmd.

Well that's it!