WinNTSetup v5.4.1

[JFX]

Ok, BOOTICE could show such a message. I wanted to remove that option anyway.

The "updating boot code" will be shown for bootsector update and/or BCD creation.

Edited July 21, 2016 by JFX

[toyu20102000]

At first I want to thank you very much for A wonderful tool

and i have I have a problem  in the last days  When I use WinNTSetup  to help my friends in Setup windows 7

On their external hard disk By putting on my computer And use "Great tool" WinNTSetup but  i have new error 

{
File: /boot/bcd
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: an error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.}

when i add bcd to "c" and uptodate bootmgr by BOOTICEx i have  The same problem

I do not want to Installation usb to Repair the windows every time

and i need ways to install supplemental language support  and east asian languages in win XP directly without " add files and go to control panel and chose date and time   then regional and  language options" to install it

please please please help me

Edited August 10, 2016 by toyu20102000

[steve6375]

I am using 3.8.6 and I find the ISO mount support confusing. I am booting to WinPE from a Windows 10  ISO. I spent about 30 minutes trying to discover if it could use an ISO file...

I was beginning to think that WinNTSetup could not mount ISOs because...

1. If I just left-click on the Search button, the 'Files of type' box lists 'Wim images (*.wim.*.swm,*.esd)'  however the all files are listed in the file list (including .iso files)

2. The Files dialog has a title of 'Choose the install.wim file'  - it does not mention .swm or .esd or .iso ?

3. If I left-click on the Search button and then right-click on an ISO file, I get a 'Mount' option - but this does not work and it says 'Sorry, there was a problem mounting the file' - I suspect that it only works under full Windows and not WinPE? Could it be suppressed if not supported by the OS?

If I manually install ImDisk under WinPE, then when I right-click on an ISO, I get a 'Mount as ImDisk virtual disk' option as well as the 'Mount' option. Could WinNTSetup automatically install ImDisk and give us this option?

4. If I left-click on the Search button and then right-click on an ISO file - why does WinNTSetup not mount the ISO in that same way that a right-click on the Search button does?
It would be much more logical if the Search button listed only *.wim, *.swm, *.esd and *.iso files - if a ISO file was selected, then mount and find the install.* file in the same way that a right-click on the Search button does.

5. The help balloon for the Search button takes about 3 seconds to appear. This meant I did not see it because I always clicked on the button within 3 seconds. Could the help balloons appear immediately please?

Thanks for a great utility and I hope my comments help to improve it.

[steve6375]

sorry - double post!

Edited August 30, 2016 by steve6375

[steve6375]

sorry - double post!

Edited August 30, 2016 by steve6375

[steve6375]

sorry - double post!

Edited August 30, 2016 by steve6375

[JFX]

Hi steve,

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder that nobody brought that up til now.
Not much time currently, but let me try answer the point quickly.

1) Yes, in default WinPE the file filter of dialogs does not work, caused by some missing dll files.

2) I will add all extensions to the tool tip in next version.

3) Yes, the system context menu invokes explorer.exe to mount the ISO. This will not work in WinPE.

4) Yes, the right button click doesn't make much sense. I will add the iso mount to the normal left click option.
   Also Imdisk integration is an good idea, certainly better than the WinNTSetup_iso.cmd.

5) Yes, Tooltips should use system default show time, but they don't do this currently.

[steve6375]

P.S. Another useful addition would be a 'pick a diskpart script' option so we could pick a diskpart script text file and then run it

i.e. 

Windows File Open dialog for *.txt, *.scr  (??)

when file picked by user, run  'diskpart /s <file>' in command shell.

You could even provide some .scr files for standard situations with the download - e.g. disk0_MBR_1PTN_MAX.scr, disk0_MBR_20GB_plus_MAX.scr, disk0_GPT_MAX.scr, disk0_GPT_WinRE_Max_15GBRecovery.scr

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-GB/library/hh825686.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#RecommendedConfiguration

Edited August 30, 2016 by steve6375
added example scr

[JFX]

Beta 4 is online.

See Tools\diskpart, I think it's better to have it disabled by default.

[steve6375]

Thanks for Beta4. ISO selection is now much better.

re. diskpart - is ctrl+shift+D a secret key press? How would the user know to press this key (unless they read text inside the enabled=0 file) - not mentioned in F1 Help? Perhaps  the 'F' button 'Show format dialog for this drive' Tool tips can  also include the text 'Tip: Use Ctlr+Shift+D to run a diskpart script'.

What is harm in enabling it by default?

Also, after diskpart script .txt is selected, I think a warning would be best (in GUI mode) - e.g. 'WARNING: Diskpart can erase all data on a drive. OK to run this diskpart script now (xxxxxx.txt) - Yes/No/Edit'    (Edit=Launch Notepad)

If diskpart script is run, Boot and Installation OS  boxes should be cleared as drive letters will be changed.

P.S. another suggestion - a 'Reboot' option (perhaps after successful 'Setup' file copy has occurred), would be handy (e.g. wpeutil reboot or shutdown /t 3 /r  depending on OS??)

Edited September 1, 2016 by steve6375

[steve6375]

P.S. For backwards compatibility (videos, instructions on web sites, etc.) I think you should add back the right-click feature to select an ISO because it may confuse current users.

Also Help (F1) button would be useful for new users.

Exit button in Tweaks form would be more 'Windows' compatible.

Under Win10 x64 PE, ImDisk was not installed. How do you see users using ImDisk?

Edited September 1, 2016 by steve6375
extra comments

[JFX]

There are to many users, who have trouble understanding simple things like the 
difference of boot and installation drive.

Giving them such an option by default, will certainly be dangerous. So I think it will be better to hide it.

There is already a reboot option on the "Ready?" page.

ImDisk will not be installed in Win10(PE) as the native driver works.
Incase the imdisk service is present, the control panel item is added to the sysmenu.

[steve6375]

I prefer to manually reboot rather than tick the box to auto-reboot, so an option to reboot at the end of the Setup phase would be useful - also useful to reboot without needing to run setup successfully - or maybe add a hotkey to reboot and add help text. ;-)

I think if you warn the user before executing the diskpart script, then there is no need to disable it by default. Only advanced users (who know about SHIFT+CTRL+D) will use diskpart scripts anyway.

Some sort of tip or clue for the user about F1 should be present on the main forms somewhere - otherwise useful info is hidden from the new user.

P.S. If I accidentally set a .ISO file or some other random file as an Unattend file, it is accepted by the dialog box and the field is populated - could you check the extension is .XML ?

Edited September 1, 2016 by steve6375

[steve6375]

Personally, I also found the term 'Installation drive' confusing and had to double-check when I first saw those words.  

MS refer to the volume containing the boot manager files as the 'system' drive and the volume containing the Windows OS files as the 'boot' drive - which is also really confusing (even the MS techs agree it is confusing!). 

I think it would be clearer to say

'Select partition for boot files'

'Select partition for Windows files'

F1 help text could contain some text about 'The boot files and Windows files can both be placed on the same partition'

I don't know if it is possible, but when a drive letter is chosen and selected by the user, can the field say something like 'C: (disk0, partition 1)'  instead of just  C: - this would be helpful on multi-drive systems.

Edited September 1, 2016 by steve6375

[loveyoumario]

22 hours ago, steve6375 said:

Personally, I also found the term 'Installation drive' confusing and had to double-check when I first saw those words.  

MS refer to the volume containing the boot manager files as the 'system' drive and the volume containing the Windows OS files as the 'boot' drive - which is also really confusing (even the MS techs agree it is confusing!). 

I think it would be clearer to say

'Select partition for boot files'

'Select partition for Windows files'

F1 help text could contain some text about 'The boot files and Windows files can both be placed on the same partition'

I don't know if it is possible, but when a drive letter is chosen and selected by the user, can the field say something like 'C: (disk0, partition 1)'  instead of just  C: - this would be helpful on multi-drive systems.

Maybe the dangerous part is most of the mormal users don't know how to use the diskpart (I often use PartAssist to change the partitions)