Finally installed, but with a few questions

[Octopuss]

So I finally managed to finish my image, but still need a few points cleared.

Firstly, this is rougly what I do:

1) copy the source somewhere and extract just Professional edition, copy/pasting it back.

2) run my pretweak.bat batch file which mounts the image, deletes some files, import reg tweaks etc.

3) install it, go to audit mode and customize the system a bit, generalize and capture

4) add autounattend.xml and install it....

It finally got through but now come the questions:

1) Is it possible to have the local admin account log in just once? I don't need any other local users cause the machine will go straight to a domain, plus I got the product key page to show up when I normally created a user, which is something I do not want to do.

2) Some IE settings did not carry over, any ideas why? Namely the trusted sites, but not sure if there weren't any others.

3) Is it possible to change all the stuff I get asked about by the configuration wizard that pops up when I run IE for the first time? I found some in SIM, but not all.

4) Is it possible that some apps cannot be installed in audit mode? I installed Eset antivirus and while it worked, it screwed up the final installation which halted with an error. Checking logs revealed it was causing it...

5) The activation through setupcomplete.cmd didn't work, but I hope it's because I am installing the system in VM instead on Lenovo system. I got a message which says like "Check the errors by running slui.exe "0x2a 0xBBA" on non-core edition of Windows". Uhuh?

6) Is there a way to change some settings globally for all users when there is no HKCU hive created yet? Like in one case I need to change visual effects to pure windows classic, but the image is set for full aero (will be for two different company departments)

Please check my files for anything that could use some improvements or some obvious nonsenses. If you can answer any of my points, please do so

http://www.mediafire...wj64ckhk27k0cyy

Thanks!

Edited August 8, 2011 by TheWalrus

[Octopuss]

no ideas?

[Tripredacus]

no ideas?

2.a Use some common sense. Do not create identical topics or make identical posts in more than one forum. Think before posting and choose the right topic for your question or answer. Do not "bump" newly created topics until at least 24 hours have passed. If a topic is been "bumped" three times without any new replies, please consider reviewing and editing your original post and adding any information which you think may help other members in answering your question(s) or concern(s). When posting, have something to say, not just "My First post!" or "Cool site!!!" We sort of have the idea by now. :-)

You have to realise that the forum is not as active on the weekend, and notice the trend that it is most active during "business" hours.

Is it possible to change all the stuff I get asked about by the configuration wizard that pops up when I run IE for the first time? I found some in SIM, but not all.

There is an option to hide the IE First Run screen altogether. Would that be helpful?

I installed Eset antivirus and while it worked, it screwed up the final installation which halted with an error

Contact your ESET rep. They can provide you a version of their software installer that is designed to be installed in Audit Mode. This version will remain dormant and only because active once the appropriate registry settings indicate that the OS is no longer in Audit Mode and has completed OOBE.

Is there a way to change some settings globally for all users when there is no HKCU hive created yet? Like in one case I need to change visual effects to pure windows classic, but the image is set for full aero (will be for two different company departments)

Since these systems are destined for use in a domain, you can specify these settings in your AD GPOs. For the visual effects, you can create a theme and specify it in the unattend.

The activation through setupcomplete.cmd didn't work, but I hope it's because I am installing the system in VM instead on Lenovo system. I got a message which says like "Check the errors by running slui.exe "0x2a 0xBBA" on non-core edition of Windows". Uhuh?

Ugg this. I am wondering why you are needlessly struggling with this at all. I can't speak for your volume or purchasing department, but you should be purchasing systems with Win7 Pro and then upgrading them to Enterprise. That way you just build an Enterprise deployment that uses MAK/KMS for activation instead of trying to reverse engineer Lenovo's image.

[Octopuss]

Answer to the last question is simple: because that's the only option. The machines are bought with Pro edition and there's no reason whatsoever to upgrade to Enterprise. There is and never will be any deploy environment. By the way this all started only because of the default local profile (guess you remember my original question) problem, and naturally I couldn't use pre-installed machine or bloated recovery DVDs for that. It works now btw, thanks to Maxx (was pretty **** simple really, only I didn't know where to start).

On top of that, I am doing all this in my spare time and only because I want to do stuff right. Colleague solved the default profile problem by some awkward 3rd part utility that messes around with file/folder security and then simply copied profiles over just like in XP. Yuck. Not my cup of tea.

(and sorry for spamming, I am pretty short of time, already behind a schedule with several machines )

[Octopuss]

Hm, for some reason I still am getting the user creation screen even though I set the local admin to log on. What do I need to set in the answer file? I set autologon, password and administratorpassword in the oobe phase and still getting user creation and product key screens at the end of installation.

[Tripredacus]

Hm, for some reason I still am getting the user creation screen even though I set the local admin to log on. What do I need to set in the answer file? I set autologon, password and administratorpassword in the oobe phase and still getting user creation and product key screens at the end of installation.

OOBE is designed to create a user account, even if you have enabled the built-in Administrator account. Just have your XML create a user, but still log in with the other account.

[Octopuss]

Gotta love MS... After a few tries I managed to do it though. Skipuser(machine)oobe keys did the trick (along with other minor things I think), and even though MS says these are deprecated and should not be used, they work like a charm. I am sticking with it.

Still puzzled about IE settings. Can't get part of them to activate despite having them in the answer file.

Oh and I noticed something else - after I install the language bar is floating on the desktop instead of being docked in the taskbar (or is it called superbar or something in W7?), which is pretty surprising, because I am not aware of messing around with this stuff anywhere.

[Octopuss]

Is it possible to customize the language bar in different way than just adding locales? I wanted to use czech - qwerty as default and english as the other one. I also wanted the "US" keyboard instead of the international one,but it doesn't seem to work.

This is what I put in the answer file:

<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<InputLocale>0405:00010405; 0409:00000409</InputLocale>

<SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>

<UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>

<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>

<UserLocale>cs-CZ</UserLocale>

</component>