The Perfect Combination

[xb00t]

I'm talking about the way you install your apps/regtweaks/settings during the XP installation. I must have read a hundret posts about this and all were different and none of them explained "why?". Please tell me which methods are the best (flawless) to install

- my apps

- the regtweaks

- accounts and win settings

P.S. Please give an explanation WHY do you use it like so. Did you enconter any problems in the past with any other ways of order? Thank you...

[Alanoll]

I'm not going to tell you the numerous methods to use, but it's better to tell you WHEN during the install to do them.

Apps are safer from GUIRunONce/RunONceEX (first logon

Regtweaks it depends. If they are HKCU, and you want them to be applied to all users, then CMDLINES.TXT. Otherwise, it doesn't matter. HKLM can be from almost anywhere.

Accounts, assuming user accounts. If you want the user you create to install apps as well, CMDLINES.TXT, otherwise this can also be done anywhere.

Windows settings? these are most likely more registry settings, so refer to my above statement on that.

[Denney]

Here's how I do my setup:

At setup (cmdlines), I create my user accounts, import my registry edits.

At first boot (RunOnceEx), I install my applications and import my registry edits again.

At second boot (RunOnceEx), I cleanup my installation and import my registry edits once more to make sure they get applied (some won't apply until second boot).

This method works flawlessly for me. But it depends on your personal preference.

[xb00t]

Regtweaks it depends. If they are HKCU, and you want them to be applied to all users, then CMDLINES.TXT. Otherwise, it doesn't matter. HKLM can be from almost anywhere.

If I have my HKCU and my HKLM in the same .reg and installed them from CMDLINE.TXT they will be applyed for all the users, righ?

Accounts, assuming user accounts. If you want the user you create to install apps as well, CMDLINES.TXT, otherwise this can also be done anywhere.

If I create user accounts from CMDLINES.TXT all my users will have the same apps I installed from GUIRunONce/RunONceEX, right?

P.S. Thank you for bearing with me...

[xb00t]

At second boot (RunOnceEx), I cleanup my installation and import my registry edits once more to make sure they get applied (some won't apply until second boot)

When does the 2nd boot occur? Does this mean have to restart manually and then cleanup and run the regtweaks again? What do you mean by "cleanup my installation"? Do you delete your $OEM$ copied folder from the HDD?

[benners]

If I create user accounts from CMDLINES.TXT all my users will have the same apps I installed from GUIRunONce/RunONceEX, right?

Not necessarily, some programs will work for allusers some won't, I dont have the specifics.

If you run from GUIRunOnce or RunOnceEx there are sometimes files copied to the Application Data folder and the path to %AppData% will be different for each user, there are also some reg entries that will be applied to the HKCU hive that may not work for future accounts, Paint Shop Pro and HKSfv are two programs that spring to mind.

After I have installed my software, some of the programs require a reboot to initialize or replace files in use, program switches can delay this reboot and at the end of the install you can force the machine to reboot, using xplode I use this command

	 <item display='Shutdown'>
 	 <execute display='Initiating Shutdown' program='shutdown' arguments='-r -t 90  -c "Finishing Windows Installation and Rebooting"' nowait='true'/>
  </item>

Cleaning up the installation means to me deleting things like empty directories, quick launch icons, shortcuts, user accounts and applying more tweaks and yes deleting the $OEM$ folders like drivers

[xolox]

When does the 2nd boot occur? Does this mean have to restart manually and then cleanup and run the regtweaks again? What do you mean by "cleanup my installation"? Do you delete your $OEM$ copied folder from the HDD?

I think what RaveRod means is that he first (during setup, e.g. cmdlines.txt) apply's regtweaks and makes user-accounts, then on the first boot into the created user-account (RunOnceEx, e.g. through the setting in winnt.sif/unattend.txt) he installs his apps and apply's the regtweaks once more, and then uses the command "shutdown -r -t 0 -f" to reboot Windows, and after booting again apply's his regtweaks once more, and removes all traces off the unattended setup, so not exactly $OEM$, but "$OEM$\$1\anything"... Edit: (Where the directory "anything" would be copied to the systemdrive's root, for example C:\)

For example %systemdrive%\unattend (Which would be my setup, so that I can remove everything related to my unattended setup with one command "RMDIR /S /Q %SystemDrive%\Unattend")

I think for the "second reboot", the third and last step, you would have to manually add your batch to the Run or RunOnce key of Windows...

Edit: And about installing apps for all users: There's no simple way to do this... Some programs use user-profiles (In C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\), others use registry settings user-specific, instead of system-wide (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\), so they will only set these settings for the current user (And possibly be accessible to that user only).

One way of solving this would be to install the applications for all users, but then things would get real complicated. You would have to create all user-accounts during setup, and then use registry-settings to auto-login each of these users one after another, installing the apps. But then you may still run into problems like the need for admin-rights to install applications.

The other way of solving this would be to copy all settings, profiles and shortcuts to all users on the system.... For this you would of course need admin-rights.

Anyway you do it, you'll first have to find out which applications install system-wide, and which install per-user. Good luck on that one....

Edit 3(!): Just for the possibility that you are talking about for example scripting-tools to use instead of when and where to do stuff: I use KiXtart, and am very pleased with it! Suitable for all your scripting-needs . See my previous post "KiXtart-scripts instead of Batch-files" for info.

[xb00t]

benners, if I use your xplode script to reboot what happens next? I mean - what will Windows run? Wll the LogOn screen show? Or will RunOnceEx be executed again? And if so want that make my apps be instaled again and again reboot and so on to infinity? How do I tell from xplode from the 2nd boot to just cleanup and not install my apps again? I dont know how to separate the installation of the apps and the cleaning up if they are both in RunOnceEx and must be executed at different points (1st boot and 2nd boot). I feel like a total neandertal...

[xolox]

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;179365. There's the registry-key Run, and the key RunOnce. Self-explanatory I assume. Just add/remove the runonce when your done...

You can delete stuff with a *.reg like this:

to remove a key:

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\KeyToRemove]

to remove an entry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\KeyToRemove]
EntryToRemove=-

[xb00t]

Lets see if I got this right...

1. At setup (cmdlines), I create my user accounts, import my registry edits.

2. At first boot (RunOnce), I install my applications and import my registry edits again.

3. Remove RunOnce using:

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]

3a. Reboot from xplode using:

<item display='Shutdown'>
  <execute display='Initiating Shutdown' program='shutdown' arguments='-r -t 90  -c "Finishing Windows Installation and Rebooting"' nowait='true'/>
 </item>

4. At second boot (Run), I cleanup my installation and import my registry edits once more to make sure they get applied.

And I can do 2, 3, 3a and 4 with xplode, right? If I put the cleaning up and the 3rd regtweak in the Run key will this make it execute every time Windows starts?

[benners]

I add the shutdown script at the end of my xplode.xml, so all the apps and any tweaks will have been run.The time limit of 90 seconds gives the shell time to intialize and settings to be applied.When the time specified has passed, the machine will shutdown just as if you had used the "Turn Off Computer" button on the start menu

With RunOnceEx, the entries are processed numerically, that is why you see numbers like 001, 002 etc, then after the command in the key has run, the key is removed so it will not be there after reboot.

Lets see if I got this right...

1. At setup (cmdlines), I create my user accounts, import my registry edits.

2. At first boot (RunOnce), I install my applications and import my registry edits again.

3. Remove RunOnce using:

1. Yes

2. Use RunOnceEx key or from [GuiRunOnce] in winnt.sif

3. No need to delete the key, see above.

3a. Yes

4. Use RunOnceEx again to run your cleanup, added at step 2, the only reg settings I have had trouble with not sticking after 1st boot are

1. Explorer small icons

2. Changeing the pagefile to another drive

3. Accepting The Privacy Statement For Media Player 9

4. Show Super Hidden Files In Windows Explorer

all can be done with xplode, and yes anything in the run key runs at every logon.My files are attached if you want to look.

xplode.zip

[xb00t]

Ok I think I got it -

1. At setup (cmdlines), I create my user accounts, import my registry edits.

2. At first boot I install my applications and import my registry edits again using [GuiRunOnce] from winnt.sif with the line:

"%Systemdrive%\Install\XPlode.exe"

(assuming that I have my XPlode.exe in "%Systemdrive%\Install\" and I am using the default XPlode.xml)

2a. Restart PC (in my XPlode.xml I have banner's script that restarts my PC)

3. At second boot I do the cleanup in RunOnceEx.cmd using:

REG ADD %KEY%\080 /VE /D "Importing Registry Tweaks" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\080 /V 1 /D "REGEDIT /S %systemdrive%\apps\regtweaks.reg" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\085 /VE /D "Cleaning Up and Rebooting" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\085 /V 1 /D "%systemdrive%\apps\cleanup.cmd" /f

(assuming that I have regtweaks.reg and cleanup.cmd in there representive folders)

4. I go to the fridge and get me the coldest possible beer there is(I'll slipstream it as 0. also )

P.S. One question -

2. Both [GuiRunOnce] from winnt.sif and RunOnceEx executes at the same time

Does this mean they will be both executed at the 1st boot?

[visaversa]

Ok I think I got it -

1. At setup (cmdlines), I create my user accounts, import my registry edits.

2. At first boot  I install my applications and import my registry edits again using [GuiRunOnce] from winnt.sif with the line:

"%Systemdrive%\Install\XPinstall.exe"

(assuming that I have my XPinstall.exe in "%Systemdrive%\Install\" and I am using the default XPInstall.xml)

2a. Restart PC (in my XPinstall.xml I have banner's script that restarts my PC)

3. At second boot I do the cleanup in RunOnceEx.cmd using:

REG ADD %KEY%\080 /VE /D "Importing Registry Tweaks" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\080 /V 1 /D "REGEDIT /S %systemdrive%\apps\regtweaks.reg" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\085 /VE /D "Cleaning Up and Rebooting" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\085 /V 1 /D "%systemdrive%\apps\cleanup.cmd" /f

(assuming that I have regtweaks.reg and cleanup.cmd in there representive folders)

4. I go to the fridge and get me the coldest possible beer there is(I'll slipstream it as 0. also )

P.S. One question -

2. Both [GuiRunOnce] from winnt.sif and RunOnceEx executes at the same time

Does this mean they will be both executed at the 1st boot?

Why are you still using xpinstall? xplode is more then that and can also create user accounts on the fly...

[xb00t]

That wasn't intentional. I'm using Xplode... will edit!

[benners]

P.S. One question -

QUOTE (MSFN uA site)

2. Both [GuiRunOnce]from winnt.sif and RunOnceEx executes at the same time

Does this mean they will be both executed at the 1st boot?

not sure, use a cdrw and burn the iso, time for testing .I find it useful to have a pad and pen handy to write down a list of things that didn't work