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"Program Files" directory problem


CyberPhunk

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Hello!

I have the same problem.

I just wanted to change the Program Files folder to just Programs. The reason is simple, I don't want to deal with the +8letters path and the whitespace, because I'll be probable I'll have to script something or some exotic program will have trouble with that.

So, using NLite, in the unattended options, I've done several tries.

I've tried:

\Programs

C:\Programs

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Programs

This is always correctly displayed in the winnt.sif.

The type of unattended mode was on fully automated.

Yet, whenever I install it, the default directory always revert do C:\Program Files.

Things to notice:

- I've also changed the Documents and Settings directory, but that worked out ok.

- I've not created a user, what I have done was rename the Administrator to admin and put a password (the actual users will appear later via a AD, I would like to use the admin to install the programs first thou), this worked with limited success. The Administrator was renamed to admin, but the password became blank. (I can live with this, but just wanted to let you know).

And I think this is it for now. Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks!

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Hello!

I have the same problem.

I just wanted to change the Program Files folder to just Programs. The reason is simple, I don't want to deal with the +8letters path and the whitespace, because I'll be probable I'll have to script something or some exotic program will have trouble with that.

So, using NLite, in the unattended options, I've done several tries.

I've tried:

\Programs

C:\Programs

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Programs

This is always correctly displayed in the winnt.sif.

The type of unattended mode was on fully automated.

Yet, whenever I install it, the default directory always revert do C:\Program Files.

Things to notice:

- I've also changed the Documents and Settings directory, but that worked out ok.

- I've not created a user, what I have done was rename the Administrator to admin and put a password (the actual users will appear later via a AD, I would like to use the admin to install the programs first thou), this worked with limited success. The Administrator was renamed to admin, but the password became blank. (I can live with this, but just wanted to let you know).

And I think this is it for now. Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks!

bjhs, welcome. Please attach your Last Session.ini as requested in BOLD RED letters above. Have you run nLite more than once against the same source?

. Always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders and run nLite only once. Enjoy, John.

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Hello!

(...)

And I think this is it for now. Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks!

bjhs, welcome. Please attach your Last Session.ini as requested in BOLD RED letters above. Have you run nLite more than once against the same source?

. Always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders and run nLite only once. Enjoy, John.

I'm sorry.

Here it goes my last try.

*Edit*

I've tried the nLite ISO with VMWare, in both SCSI disks and IDE.

Same results.

In regard for the Windows Source, for each iteration i've started with a fresh copy.

last session.ini

Edited by bjhs
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I'm sorry.

Here it goes my last try.

*Edit*

I've tried the nLite ISO with VMWare, in both SCSI disks and IDE.

Same results.

In regard for the Windows Source, for each iteration i've started with a fresh copy.

bjhs, I see a number of problems, so I will ask you to run some experiments on your VM. First, please see my attached Help (very useful, see ? in circle next to many options) for the ProgFilesPath option in Unattended section. Environmental variables are not permitted. You are running nLite under Vista (or W7) and this can be a problem especially if you are integrating a Service Pack. I don't see your doing this and if you started with a fresh copy of you source, as you say, it already contained SP3 - true? A big problem is that you have included updates to IE8 but did not include IE8. To make the nLite run faster, please remove all updates and all the (very excessive!) drivers (not needed on VM, anyway), change your ProgFilesPath parameter to meet the requirements and try the ISO on your VM. Please let us know the result and we'll go from there. Enjoy, John.

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I'm sorry.

Here it goes my last try.

*Edit*

I've tried the nLite ISO with VMWare, in both SCSI disks and IDE.

Same results.

In regard for the Windows Source, for each iteration i've started with a fresh copy.

bjhs, I see a number of problems, so I will ask you to run some experiments on your VM. First, please see my attached Help (very useful, see ? in circle next to many options) for the ProgFilesPath option in Unattended section. Environmental variables are not permitted. You are running nLite under Vista (or W7) and this can be a problem especially if you are integrating a Service Pack. I don't see your doing this and if you started with a fresh copy of you source, as you say, it already contained SP3 - true? A big problem is that you have included updates to IE8 but did not include IE8. To make the nLite run faster, please remove all updates and all the (very excessive!) drivers (not needed on VM, anyway), change your ProgFilesPath parameter to meet the requirements and try the ISO on your VM. Please let us know the result and we'll go from there. Enjoy, John.

Thanks for the input!

Indeed i've saw the thing about enviromental variables. But i've read somewhere that using that solved the user problems. I've also tried as i've said before, without it.

As for the hotfixes, indeed you are right. But that doesn't do the program files error, what it does is a complete failure in the windows install. If i recall correctly, the error was something close to, "A write operation was attemped in a unmounted volume." or something close to it, then the computer rebooted and the cicle just started again ad eternum .

Nevertheless, what i've done was to ignore hotfixes, skip that part of nLite and after that the windows install started to run smoothly. Don't know if that is there because of the first time i've tried this.

As of the windows source, it's a win xp sp3, you are correct, however i'm done the iso in a win7. Is that a problem?

As for the drivers, a little context is needed. I'm a sysadmin at a college. (That isn't considered a commercial use of the nLite Eula right?)

We have a kinda big computer park and i need to do a universal (sort of) image for all the labs. That explains a little the necessity of the mass storage driver packs, and the LAN ones.

For the thing you asked me to try, I've already tried it. I've tried to do a iso with only drivers, tweaks and unattended install with the program files change to \Programs, and that resulted on the same thing.

I'm sorry for all the hassle, but can I do something else to help diagnose this?

(Do you think its necessary the INI of the those tries?)

Thanks!

Edited by bjhs
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bjhs, I am not an attorney, but I should hope that a moderator will rule on the EULA question. As I read it (found in nLite folder in Program Files), only personal use is allowed. We have seen several posters working for non-profits with this problem and I do not remember the answer. Why don't you PM cluberti and ask his opinion. I should point out that nuhi (nLite author/owner) has not participated here in over a year. Users of nLite are always in some danger (perhaps little) of nLite simply disappearing some day. The support you get in the forum is all you can hope for and may not satisfy management. Please let us know what cluberti has to say. There are other ways (not automated) to accomplish what you are trying just using MS tools. At the bottom of this page is a link to the Unattended Guide and there is an Unattended forum here also. Enjoy, John.

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Using this as an image engineering solution via your role as a sysadmin for a college technically would be a violation of the nLite or vLite EULA - the college *may* pass the non-commercial clause depending on whether or not it's for profit, and/or whether or not it's a private enterprise or a public institution, but that is all fairly elementary as this most certainly fails the "personal-use" clause if this is being done on any scale larger than an installation for one singular PC to be used primarily, or only, by that sysadmin; I know this is not the case by reading this thread and noting the following:

We have a kinda big computer park and i need to do a universal (sort of) image for all the labs.

It is also worth stating that modification of Windows using nLite or vLite will void any supportability contract you have with Microsoft for that installation of Windows, and if the school is large enough it probably does have a volume license and/or academic licensing scheme for MS software that includes support - doing this would put you in violation of that agreement (and possibly the Windows EULA itself), so it's not just the nLite licensing you and your management should be aware of.

This discussion was taken offline, but the nLite and vLite EULAs are *VERY* specific about this particular point, and I'm just not sure why some folks are having such a hard time with it. It's only legally licensed for use for personal non-commercial purposes and any company or business purposes are explicitly called out as a violation of the license (this is stated explicitly in the EULA itself, I am not taking this out of context or paraphrasing it); you have to pass *both* tests to meet licensing criteria. Just because you are using it for an organization that is non-commercial or not-for-profit does not absolve you of being in compliance with the other 50% of the requirement that the tool only be used for personal use. If you're unsure, ask if this is going to be used to assist you in doing a job for your employer, or if you are going to be using it to create an image that will go somewhere other than *only* your own personal PC. If you answer "yes" to either of those questions, you cannot use nLite or vLite, period, and be in compliance with the EULA. Also, an additional question - if the copies of Windows you're modifying are licensed under any sort of volume licensing deal with Microsoft (whether that be academic, charity, or business), or if you have a support contract with Microsoft for those copies of Windows, you will be violating the agreements for those if you use nLite or vLite to modify the Windows source, so avoid it at that point as well.

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Thanks for the clarifications.

Nonetheless, as a future reference, nLite program has a problem with the modification of the Program Files path.

Yes, thanks cluberti for providing a reference argument for all of us.

For future reference, I do not think nLite has a problem with modification of the Program Files path. I have gone to the bottom of the drawer and found an old CD XP Pro from a very old machine and run nLite against it. I used my XP x64 host to run nLite. Changing the Program Files path proved to be no problem (once I remembered how to run VMware Player again). Attached are my Last Session.ini and Last Session_u.ini (expurgated). I only added SP3 and ran the Unattended Task. Please let me know if there are any questions. Have fun, John.

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