Testing an Unattended Install

[motordude]

I was just wondering how you guys test your install while developing it. I am really looking for the best way to test my runonceexe installs. Currently I add the apps or tweaks to all the required file, burn my DVD then install it on MS Virtual PC. This whole process take anywhere between 1-2 hrs. The problem is if something doesn't work I don't know of a good way to troubleshoot it. I goes through all the log files that I can find in the windows directory but I never find anything helpful. Do you guys have a log for just the customizations that you made? I read Gosh's tips and tweaks and tried his method for creating a .log file on a test .bat file but I couldn't get it to work very well. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[XtremeMaC]

1'st i think vmware is a little faster than vpc

second if u're using bat files u can put "pause" commands in between to test if an application has installed and if it has given any problems.

after 1 stage of install press shift + f10 to go to cmd prompt and u can manually check if the program has been installed or not.

also what kind of customization are u talking about?

[gosh]

if you just want to test runonceex, there's a command you can run to run the commands. The command is listed on my site and msfn's site.

-gosh

[[BM]Crusher]

for the log file, just use command line redirection...

for example:

@echo off
echo This is the start of my log file >%systemdrive%\install.log
echo Installing Nero
echo Installing Nero >>%systemdrive%\install.log
start /wait %systemdrive%\install\Nero\Nero6.exe /SILENT >>%systemdrive%\install.log
echo Nero install finished >>%systemdrive%\install.log
echo Nero should be finished now, press any key to continue
pause >nul
echo Registering Nero >>%systemdrive%\install.log
echo Registering Nero
regedit /s %systemdrive%\install\Nero\nero.reg >>%systemdrive%\install.log
echo Nero Registration finished, press any key to continute
echo Nero registration completed >>%systemdrive%\install.log
pause >nul
echo Copying shortcuts
echo Copying shortcuts >>%systemdrive%\install.log
copy %systemdrive%\install\stuff\links\*.lnk "%allusersprofile%\Start Menu\Programs" >>%systemdrive%\install.log
echo shortcuts copied >>%systemdrive%\install.log
echo shortcuts copied, press any key to continute
pause >nul

As you can see, to create a log file, you just redirect the output to the file.

If you want to create a new log file (or overwrite an existing log file), make the first redirection use a single >

If you want to append an existing log file, make the redirection use double >>

If you want to hide output altogether (like hiding the pause message) you can redirect to >nul

@gosh - i'm looking on your site now I cannot find the "how to test runonceex" in fact i cannot find anything at all to do with runonceex and i've been looking for a few minutes now

[[BM]Crusher]

oh... is this what you mean by testing runonceex?

You can test your RunOnceEx.cmd file by executing it. All it does is import the registry entries into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx\. So you should open up Registry Editor to check that everything is correct. Once you have verified its all correct, you should delete all the entries there as you don't want it running on next boot up on your production system!

is there any way to run the runonceex list without rebooting windows?

[GreenMachine]

RUNDLL32.EXE IERNONCE.DLL,RunOnceExProcess

[motordude]

Thanks guys, I will try most of these tonight. I apologize for asking something that seems to already be on one of your sites. I must have over looked it.

@GreenMachine -

RUNDLL32.EXE IERNONCE.DLL,RunOnceExProcess

I'm really not that good at some of this stuff, so I'm not sure how or where I need to execute that.

@[bM]Crusher -

As you can see, to create a log file, you just redirect the output to the file.

If you want to create a new log file (or overwrite an existing log file), make the first redirection use a single >

If you want to append an existing log file, make the redirection use double >>

If you want to hide output altogether (like hiding the pause message) you can redirect to >nul

Can this stuff be placed in a RUNONCEEX and ran from there?

@XtremeMaC -

second if u're using bat files u can put "pause" commands in between to test if an application has installed and if it has given any problems.

after 1 stage of install press shift + f10 to go to cmd prompt and u can manually check if the program has been installed or not.

I was trying to go mostly the runonceexe from the DVD route unless I really had to go with .bat files. I had a working DVD using .bat but Im trying to convert it all to runonce then from there eventually .inf. When you say manually check to see if the program installed, are you saying to navigate to that directory and check to see if the files are there?

also what kind of customization are u talking about

I may have used the wrong term. Basically a complete unattended DVD with everything that I use. If you want I can post my runonce

The other day I added NIS 2003, WinRar and Alcohol120. When everything was all said and done while the shutdown timer was counting down I had about 3 error windows flash on the screen. This happened so fast that I couldn't really see what they said. That is where the logging question came from. I thought about removing the 3 newly added apps and running the whole install again, adding one app at a time(3 different OS installs) but I was looking at 4-6 hours with that method. So when I started looking for alternate methods I didn't find a whole lot.

Thanks again

[motordude]

cmdow @ /HID
@echo off

IF EXIST D:\CD.txt set CDROM=D:
IF EXIST E:\CD.txt set CDROM=E:
IF EXIST F:\CD.txt set CDROM=F:
IF EXIST G:\CD.txt set CDROM=G:
IF EXIST H:\CD.txt set CDROM=H:
IF EXIST I:\CD.txt set CDROM=I:
IF EXIST J:\CD.txt set CDROM=J:


SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx

REG ADD %KEY% /V TITLE /D "XP Unattended Install - Installing Applications" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\005 /VE /D "Adobe Reader 6" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\005 /V 1 /D "%cdrom%\Applications\AdobeReader6\AR6.msi /qn" /f

REM REG ADD %KEY%\005 /VE /D "Adobe Reader 6" /f
REM REG ADD %KEY%\005 /V 1 /D "%CDROM%\apps\AdobeReader6\adobereader6.cmd" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\020 /VE /D "Office XP Professional" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\020 /V 1 /D "%cdrom%\Applications\OfficeXP\setuppls.exe TRANSFORMS=Unattended.MST /qb-" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\025 /VE /D "Lavasoft Ad-Aware 6 Build 181" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\025 /V 1 /D "%cdrom%\Applications\Adware\aaw6181.exe /s" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\030 /VE /D "NVMixer" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\030 /V 1 /D "%cdrom%\Applications\NvMixer\setup.exe -s -f1\"%systemdrive%\Applications\NvMixer\setup.iss\" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\040 /VE /D "AquaMark 3.0 Video Benchmark" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\040 /V 1 /D "%cdrom%\Applications\Aquamark3\AquaMark3.exe /s" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\045 /VE /D "Nero Burning ROM v6.0.0.0" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\045 /V 1 /D "REGEDIT /S %cdrom%\Applications\Nero\register.reg" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\045 /V 2 /D "%cdrom%\Applications\Nero\setup.exe /silent /noreboot /NOCANCEL" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\050 /VE /D "WinRAR 3.30" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\050 /V 1 /D "REGEDIT /S %cdrom%\Applications\WinRAR\Wrar330.exe /s" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\055 /VE /D "Norton Internet Security 2003" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\055 /V 1 /D "REGEDIT /S %cdrom%\Applications\NIS03\NIS\NIS.msi /QB" /f

REM REG ADD %KEY%\060 /VE /D "Alcohol 120" /f
REM REG ADD %KEY%\060 /V 1 /D "%CDROM%\Applications\alcohol\setup.exe /qb Reboot=Supress" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\065 /VE /D "Cleaning Up and Rebooting" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\065 /V 1 /D "%systemdrive%\install\cleanup.cmd" /f

EXIT

Here is my runoncexe