Question of possibilities

[newdles]

Hello everyone.

I'm interested in having a few things done a certain way with a semi-unattended installation cd. What I'd like to be able to do is just install Windows and all the service packs and/or hotfixes that I wish to use plus Windows of course. But I'd like to not have to install any extra software like Adobe software and other 3rd parties.

What I'm wondering is can I make the installation to where it asks me to format or not and allows me to choose how to but the rest is automated? Then have it setup so that it allows my already installed software (to another partition) still work and have their proper settings and shortcuts still intact when the operating system gets reinstalled?

If it's not possible then is it possible to be able to install all added software to a different partition? I literally have nothing on C drive except for Windows. The desktop is the only thing that changes on that drive. All my documents and such are on another partition as well as my software.

I've looked through all the contributed software but am not really sure "where" to start. I've done all the slimming down of the source and have not added any hotfixes past sp1. Would anyone be willing to point to a good starting point and even maybe a "process" to go through?