Hi there!

[mistaecko]

Hi there!

Found myself in the need of creating my own Windows XP boot CD - kind of awkward since we have 2010 and Windows 7 saved us from Vista quite a while back..

I get kind of a sentimental and depressed looking around the XP sections - many have moved on and tools have been abandoned. Thanks for keeping the older forums up and running though!

I wonder if this is the right place to let my noobness hang out and ask if anybody is willing to give me a short feedback on the state of XP slipstreaming/modding.

I did quite a lot of reading during the last couple of days, still I wonder which is the way to go nowadays with XP's glorious days being over.

Both nLite and RyanVM are no longer maintained, but both should still do the job, right?

RyanVM's update packs are no longer maintained, but others jumped in and now there are 2 or 3 update packs for XP post-SP3.

Tried the one from USER_HIDDEN with RyanVM first but ran into troubles, then switched to nLite and was successful. I assume both tools should still work. Currently I am sticking with nLite - I remember reading somebody recommending RyanVM for service packs, update packs and addons, then use nLite for tweaks. Then use DriverPacks last. Obviously this person thought RyanVM is better at integrating additional stuff, not sure why. It seems nLite does not well at removing previously added addons. For now I am using nLite because it worked for me so far.

WPI is an alternative approach that allows installation of software, registry teaks, etc AFTER installation. WPI has been picked up by mritter and Kel and a new major update has been released just recently. I guess because the software is not tied to XP but works with Vista and 7 as well. That's of course great!

Some of the addons for slipstreaming applications with nLite/RyanVM are outdated. There is a list of addons at wincert. I personally prefer the WPI way anyway for non-system related apps - makes the installation more flexible. The WPI addons sub-forum seems mostly outdated as well, but I guess everybody is doing his/her own config since it is not too hard. I am still in the research phase when it comes to WPI.

Another topic that puzzles me is themes. There are various (slipstreaming) addons at wincert, nLite can obviously slipstream any locally installed themes as well, and there is XPtsp which has a fancy website but I see only 6ish themes for it. And of course some of those are standard themes, some include boot screen and start screen mods, and some even patch some of the system dialogs. I'm a bit lost where to go...

I also wonder whether it's worth to get into .SIF files.

I appreciate any feedback, hints and advise. Did I get anything wrong? Did I miss anything (any tool)? Should I post in the Windows XP forum? Where is the bathroom? ...

mistaecko

[Tripredacus]

If it is specifically about nLite, we have an nLite forum. If it is about making Unattended XP installs, we have a forum for that. Otherwise general XP is available too.

[mistaecko]

Thanks, I've seen those. I will try in the Unattended XP forum though, hoping that they will not bash me for asking noob questions (even though I think it is a valid question considering that so many tools are outdated).

mistaecko