I recently reinstalled Windows XP on my machine using the same unattended CD I always use. The problem is that, this time, something went terribly, terribly wrong. There are two obvious symptoms to the problem I am having.

• Internet Explorer asks if you want to set it as the default browser EVERY TIME you start it. It seems as though there really is no default browser somehow.
  
• Outlook Express does not appear to be installed correctly. There are no shortcuts for it, and manually running the executable results in an error about MSOE.DLL.
  

I have tried several things, to no avail.

• The first and most obvious was to cut out all the extra stuff from my unattended disc. No extra apps, no drivers, no hotfixes. Nothing except the XP source and a WINNT.SIF file. Same problems here.
  
• The next was to try looking up the error message/symptoms on the web (e.g. MSDN, Google etc), this resulted in a KB article about how to reinstall IE6 and OE on Windows XP, which I attempted. No luck here either.
  
• Now I've resorted to examining the setup logs for any possible problems. I have found only one, which I can't explain. The error is, "Could not register OLE Control activeds.dll..." Not sure if this is normal, or even related to the problem.
  

I'm really out of ideas, and can't think of any other options, short of trying a normal ("attended") install to see if the error persists. Just wondering if anyone here has any thoughts or ideas that I could try...

Thanks,

Matt

im guessing OLE.dll is an outlook express .dll file,(i dont use it)

would u have had outlook turned off in your winnt.sif file?

what about trying sfc /scannow from the run menu?

note: u will need your XP cd handy

hope this helps

I don't have any [Components] section in my WINNT.SIF, so it shouldn't be turned off. I even recreated a new file using setupmgr.exe, but with the same results. I don't use Outlook Express personally, but it is required for Outlook to work (which I do use). Outlook gives me an error about OE not being installed.

I also tried sfc /scannow but it didn't report any problems.

Thanks for the ideas, keep 'em coming.

Matt

u sayin outlook express is required for outlook 2 work? cuz i dont think it is :S

what about reinstalling XP over itself? or testing your CD in vmware/virtual pc, seeing if it was just a bad install maybe?

u sayin outlook express is required for outlook 2 work? cuz i dont think it is :S

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Straight from ole Billy himself...

As far as reinstalling XP, I have done it about 10 times in VMWare over the last three days. I was using XPCREATE, but decided maybe that was causing a problem, so I went back to just the original CD + WINNT.SIF with the same results each time. The only thing I could really think of is a corrupt CD somehow...

Matt

i removed outlook express long ago, and im using Outlook aswell, and it works fine (i use outlook 2003)

Perhaps it is because I only have Outlook XP (i.e. 2002). But a discussion of whether Outlook requires OE wasn't really the point of the thread...

Matt

have u tried redownloading OE?

EDIT: try this http://theeldergeek.com/repair_reinstall_ie_and_oe_6.htm

From my original post...

...this resulted in a KB article about how to reinstall IE6 and OE on Windows XP, which I attempted.  No luck here either.

Which is exactly what is recommended in the link you provided.

Found something interesting about this problem. It goes away if I install windows "attended" (i.e. the normal install works perfectly). For debugging the unattended, all I did was take the attended install source and added a stripped down WINNT.SIF file. The contents of this file are below, it came directly from setupmgr.exe and I added the UnattendSwitch=Yes line. Any thoughts?

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=1
    MsDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=No
    UnattendSwitch=Yes
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword=361902e619afae135e34749e73fa9c64c37021a83fcd318d220b82eb191a53dd
    EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=35
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    ProductID=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
    FullName="Matthew J. Volkar"
    OrgName=""
    ComputerName=JOHANN83

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=32
    Xresolution=1280
    YResolution=1024
    Vrefresh=75

[Identification]
    JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

Again, the normal ("attended") XP install works as expected, while the same source with the above WINNT.SIF file added exhibits the IE/OE problems discussed in my first post. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

hi, i've experienced a strange behaviour at first startup:

the IE desktop icon dosn't have a valid shortcut to the needed path, so i have to enter it manually; does anyone know where the problem could be?!

thanx in advance

winnt.sif