I used to use GuiRunOnce for my Unattended XPcd then went to RunOnceEX for the proffesional look, now ive gone back to GuiRunOnce for 2 reasons.

1) too many entries in the RunOnceEX ment the dialog box went off the screen

2) i can now use nice pretty colour text!!

Now to the point. Converting back i thought would be easy, but no.

this is my Winnt.sif:

;SetupMgrTag
[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    ExtendOEMPartition=0
    OemPreinstall=yes
    UnattendSwitch="yes"
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    WaitForReboot="No"
    Repartition=Yes
    DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
    KeyboardLayout="United Kingdom"
    Hibernation=No
    FactoryMode=Yes
    OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\001\AGP;Drivers\001\IDEWinXP;Drivers\001\Inf\WinXP;Drivers\001\WinXP;Drivers\002;Drivers\003;Drivers\004;Drivers\005\win2k_xp\enu\Drivers;Drivers\006"

[Data]
    MSDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"
    AutoPartition=1

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword=changed
    EncryptedAdminPassword=no
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=85
    OemSkipWelcome=1
    
[UserData]
    ProductKey=the-key-has-been-removed
    FullName="bl"
    OrgName=""
    ComputerName=Deep Thawt

[RegionalSettings]
    LanguageGroup=00000809

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=32
    Xresolution=800
    YResolution=600
    Vrefresh=65

[Identification]
    JoinWorkgroup=games

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=No

[NetAdapters]
    Adapter1=params.Adapter1

[params.Adapter1]
    INFID=*

[NetClients]
    MS_MSClient=params.MS_MSClient

[NetServices]
    MS_SERVER=params.MS_SERVER

[NetProtocols]
    MS_TCPIP=params.MS_TCPIP

[params.MS_TCPIP]
    DNS=No
    UseDomainNameDevolution=No
    EnableLMHosts=Yes
    AdapterSections=params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1

[params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1]
    SpecificTo=Adapter1
    DHCP=No
    IPAddress=147.258.369
    SubnetMask=255.255.0.0
    WINS=No
    NetBIOSOptions=0

[Components]
    AutoUpdate=off
    msmsgs=off
    msnexplr=off
    freecell=off
    hearts=off
    minesweeper=off
    pinball=off
    solitaire=off
    spider=off
    zonegames=off
    mswordpad=Off
    rec=Off
    chat=Off
    deskpaper=Off
    dialer=Off
    media_clips=Off
    mplay=on
    WMPOCM=off
    WMAccess=off
    OEAccess=off
    IEAccess=off

[Shell]
    DefaultStartPanelOff=no
    DefaultThemesOff=no  

[Branding]
    BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[SystemRestore]
    MaximumDataStorePercentOfDisk=5%

[GuiRunOnce]
   %systemdrive%\batch\Install.cmd
   %systemdrive%\batch\register.cmd
   %systemdrive%\batch\Cleanup.cmd
   %systemdrive%\batch\SortingSM.cmd
   %systemdrive%\batch\Finalizing.cmd

The problem is when the Install.cmd is running, the other cmd's dont wait for it to finish, they just start as well? Whats going on?

You can easily fix that by calling your batch files from a main batch file. Just use the 'start /wait' command.

winnt.sif

[GuiRunOnce]
  %systemdrive%\batch\runonce.cmd

runonce.cmd

start /wait %systemdrive%\batch\Install.cmd
start /wait %systemdrive%\batch\register.cmd
start /wait %systemdrive%\batch\Cleanup.cmd
start /wait %systemdrive%\batch\SortingSM.cmd
start /wait %systemdrive%\batch\Finalizing.cmd

Hope that helps.

drmarvin, tryed your sugestion with no joy. All cmd's ran at the same time.

Modded Winnt.sif

[GuiRunOnce]
    %systemdrive%\Install\runeonce.cmd

I remember reading a post about this some time ago, but can't remember the out come. Does it mater that the batch files are being run from the CD(%CDROM%) and not copied to the hard drive (%systemdrive%)?

you can call one cmd from the previous cmd so before one is finished the next one doesn't start

e.g.

install.cmd:

------

xxx

xxx

xxx

register.cmd

------

register.cmd:

------

zzzz

zzz

zzz

cleanup.cmd

------

this must work

but could you also post all those cmds so we can see what's going on