Stuff you do after install Windows

[mritter]

This is along the lines of the main Feature Requests thread, but I am going to narrow it down a bit.

What would you like to see automated by WPI that you always do after installing Windows?

I have already added for v8.0.0:

CreateWindowsUser()

SetFirewall()

SetFilePrintrSharing()

SetPageFileSize()

MapNetworkDrive()

ShareFolder()

JoinWorkgroup()

Anything else you would like to have WPI do so you can truly come back to a fully installed, ready to go, system?

Edited September 7, 2009 by mritter

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

I have a few ideas for expanding on CreateWindowsUser()

• I would like to see an option in CreateWindowsUser() to store the password with some kind of basic encryption (nothing special -just not readable)
  Im currently adding a user using a .bat file fired by wpi with the password in plaintext (yeahyeah ill bring it up at the next nobody-cares-but-me-meeting) so anything would be an improvement
  
• would be kinda cool if it had an option to hide the user from the welcome screen as well by inserting this key:
  

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]
  "NAMEOFACCOUNTTOHIDE"=dword:00000000

  
  

• if Autologin could be set for the user created by CreateWindowsUser() until WPI runs then automatically removed after WPI runs which would then require at least 1 local login before the PC was joined to the domain (which is how i wanted to do it but I set the autologin in the registry on my last build but I typod a key and it wasnt worth rebuilding the ISO for it at the time)
  

since you have SetFirewall() will you also have MakeSecurityCenterNotNagAboutFirewallBeingDisabled() and DisableSecurityCenterService()?

the relevant keys/cmds for this plus the others I run are:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center]
"FirstRunDisabled"=dword:00000001
"AntiVirusDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
"FirewallDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
"UpdatesDisableNotify"=dword:00000001

and

sc stop wscsvc > nul
sc config wscsvc start= disabled > nul

EjectDiscWhenDone() might be nice to. maybe with a parameter to beep 2-3 times to lemme know when its done so i can grab the disc before the auto reboot I use

PromptWPIUserToChangePCName() (mine is currently set randomly during setup)

of course my function names are ridiculously long but its easier to explain it that way

[midiboy]

Hi Mark,

just came back from vacation and reading about so many cool new features in WPI !

Let me ask you a question first:

How will this "create new user" feature work ? Or let me tell you how I would need it to work:

First, Windows is installed unattendedly, on next reboot wpi starts and shows what apps can be installed. The user can change things or leave the default selection, after 10 minutes, installation starts automatically.

Next, windows reboots and then I would like WPI to start again, showing only the "new user creation" wizard and not the default view so that the user cannot accidentally reinstall any apps again.

Would this be the way you planned this ? Otherwise, if the new user creation dialog would just be one more wizard to choose from during app selection, I could not make sure that the users attention is brought to that wizard.

So I guess we would need some commandline switch to start WPI in "user creation mode".

Next, here are 3 suggestions for the user creation wizard:

1. Please allow for a way to change the default user folders of the new user. I mean folders like Desktop, Documents, Videos, etc. I don´t mean the whole user directory under C:\Users although other people would probably like that too.

2. Give us a way to set default settings for the new user creation wizard. For instance, the above mentioned user directories default to D:\Users\%username%\%Folder% instead of going to C:\

3. If possible, give us a way to quickformat the drive where userfolders are going to be created. For instance, usually if you set up a new PC, you create two partitions during windows setup but the second partition won´t be formatted yet. So if the user tries to create user folders on D:\ in WPI, you should check if that drive is accessible and if not offer to quickformat it. If no drive is available ther user should get a message that D:\ is not acceptable as a drive for user folders.

Any ideas on that ? Possible or too much to ask ?

Bye, and thanks in advance !

Alex

Edited September 11, 2009 by midiboy