WinNTSetup v5.3.3

[JFX]

BootToDesktop might have been set somewhere else but not by WinNTSetup.

1) added the return hotkey for setup button

2) yes new bug and fixed again

WIP 08/31/2013 Rev 1 uploaded!

[Atari800XL]

Thanks JFX, looks like W8/W8.1Preview/W8.1WIP is sorted now, at least as far as I can see. Congratulations! I think the bits are now pretty much "burnt-in" to the partition (you know, like an old CRT) after a bunch of test-setups.

So that's partition 2 covered. Leaves p1 for Windows 7 and p3 for XP. I'm testing XP first. Uh-oh, doesn't work. After the first reboot I get "not enough memory for iastor.sys". So I'm on to figuring out what's going on there. I rebooted in Win8PESE and copied all files from C: to a folder on another drive in a folder called "new" (for comparison). Then I formatted C: and started the *old* WinNTSetup with the same source. Right before reboot I copied everything to another drive in a folder called "old". Those two folders look quite different! I'll let you know the details later, but right now XP is installing with the "old" files on C:, just to make sure it installs OK! (which it does...)

I'm not trying to take up all your time, just telling you how my test is going. Please take your time! If you already have an idea about what's going on, I'd love to hear it, otherwise I'll come back here later and pass along some more details about the differences in dir structures between "old" and "new". Seems like one has the driverfiles extracted while the other has them compressed. This might have something to do with it, but first I'll await the successful "old" XP install (to rule out errors in my XP source).

EDIT1: OK, old setup went OK (as expected). Now back to new WinNTSetup again.

Some details:

(1)I launch it with commandline options, had to change

-drivers:"L:" back to

-drivers:L:

(this was discussed before in this thread)

(2) I see a yellow exclamation mark on "NTLDR PBR" which I never saw before. Not sure what that's about (never have trouble with booting, I use Grub4Dos after OS install, so I can boot from 3 primary partitions).

OK, that's it for now, on to more checking and testing...

Edited August 31, 2013 by Atari800XL

[JFX]

I changed the driver integration and bootfolder stuff a bit and it worked with my notebook.
I'll change it back to the old version.

(1) -drivers:"L:" and -drivers:L: are the same, the quotes get's stripped in the very beginnig.

The problem I remember was L:\ is a valid windows path, but dism wants L: (which is actully wrong)

(2) yellow exclamation replaces the red cross for MBR and PBR now.

like a traffic light:

- green means drive
- yellow is just a warning but means drive
- red means stop

[Atari800XL]

Thanks. The quotes did cause some problem somewhere, but that's not important. Thanks for the explanation, I will use L: from now on without the quotes.

Please take your time for the next update, enjoy your weekend. (For me it's actually kind of fun to "play around" with this!).

I will take this time to test W7, I don't expect any problems there.

One question that was still on my mind:

For W7/W8 I use -runafter:CopySetupScripts.exe (which is a silent WinRAR SFX) which I find very convenient (easy to maintain etc). I notice that "runafter" is launched from a cmd prompt (is that correct?) so a console window is briefly visible. Is it possible you could make some kind of "RunAfter" that doesn't show a window? No hurry, and also not superimportant, I was just wondering!

Thanks!

[JFX]

Don't worry I enjoy my weekend. Next version will have to wait a few days.

For RunAfter I'm wonder too, should have been hidden (maybe forgot it while debugging).

[amitri]

Hi JFX

just tried latest v3 rev1 with latest leaked 8.1 RTM iso and gives me "BFSVC error: 0X1F" in GUI at Updating boot code (Failed to create Bootfiles).

v2 works OK with the same configuration.

Thanks in advance

[JFX]

Hi amitri,

don't tell me you still use WinXP!?

XP support will be re-added, but you should upgrade to Windows 7, if you want full functionality.

[click-click]

Please keep XP in there - at least until it goes out of support in April. I still use WinNTSetup to build a new XP every patch-tuesday. For those of us that have multi-boot systems, it would be nice if the XP code were left in there.

On another note, I recently did a new Win8 install and thought I would try the Boot to Desktop Option. I was a bit disappointed because after booting, the desktop only showed up briefly before the metro start screen took over again. Is there any way to make it stay with the desktop?

Edited September 1, 2013 by click-click

[Atari800XL]

- click-click, you're aware that BootToDesktop is for Windows 8.1 only, right?

- I agree with you on XP, please keep it around. I need it on several PC's that control weighing systems, etc. My tiny usb stick with Win8PESE, several OS install iso's and WinNTSetup are perfect for installing any OS anywhere/ anytime. XP will live on for years and years on similar systems, never mind the support. People seem to forget that some of these systems are offline, so even on XPSP3 without any further updates, they run perfectly fine. But of course, reinstalls always will occur due to hardware/ user failure, etc.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Atari800XL

[JFX]

I didn't mean support for installing WinXP.

The problem is running (winnt)setup from inside XP to install latest windows version.
I can fix the BCDBoot.exe incompatibility like I did in v2.

However driver integration is another story.
You can't integrate driver to Win 8.1, if you run from Vista or earlier.

[amitri]

Hi amitri,

don't tell me you still use WinXP!?

XP support will be re-added, but you should upgrade to Windows 7, if you want full functionality.

True, I was using some unofficial tiny "Mini XP" just to boot and run WiNTsetup - faster than any of my WinPE versions and good for older PCs.

[click-click]

- click-click, you're aware that BootToDesktop is for Windows 8.1 only, right?

Now that you mention it, yes 8.1 lets you do this via settings. I assumed this was a reg tweak that applied to 8 also.

[Atari800XL]

- click-click, you're aware that BootToDesktop is for Windows 8.1 only, right?

Now that you mention it, yes 8.1 lets you do this via settings. I assumed this was a reg tweak that applied to 8 also.

If it was in 8.0 already, there would have been no reason to release 8.1

[JFX]

WinNTSetup v3 (WIP 03/09/2013)

- changed XP boot folder creation back to v2 version
- fixed BCDBoot XP compatibility
- fixed buffer overflow in Product key decoding

http://sdrv.ms/13YWwCY

[Atari800XL]

JFX, thanks for the new version. I just got home from work, but just had to check this new version out. Everything seems to work OK, tested XP setup on my testlaptop. One thing I wonder: what was the new method of installing XP all about? I now feel kind of "guilty" that you had to revert back to the "old" method? I hope you didn't have to do a lot of work for nothing?

It's not that I tested on some weird config or something, I mean 512mb may be not be a lot for Win8 (even though it still installs fine, as you might recall), but for XP 512mb is OK, isn't it? Just wondering what your new method was...

But as a conclusion from me, testing the new v3WIP version, everything seems to work great for installing XP/W7/W8/W8.1 from USB using Win8PESE. Again, congratulations on this new version, I hope it will take WinNTSetup into many more productive years!!!

THANKS!!!!

EDIT: Seems I spoke too soon. After the full XP setup, after the last reboot, Windows doesn't boot and errors out. So I tried again and noticed that -SaveDriveLetters didn't set the checkbox for "Use migrate.inf for driveletter preaasignment". So I manually ticked that box and thought that was it. After another full setup still no luck, no boot. I'm not sure what's going on, looks like the SATA drivers are not installed?

(BTW: as I mentioned before, this exact same setup works with 2.6.x)

Edited September 3, 2013 by Atari800XL