Favorites

[Daimao]

Now to add favs to your unattended install,you have to add

[FavoritesEx]

Title1 = MSN.url

URL1 = http://www.microsoft.com/

f.e

but what if i want some folder in my favs folder,do i change it to

[FavoritesEx]

Title1 = MS/MSN.url

URL1 = http://www.microsoft.com/

f.e where MS is the folder in the fav folder?

[buletov]

where do we add it?

[SiMoNsAyS]

where do we add it?

WINNT.SIF of course

@Daimao, sorry i dunno if create favorite folders works

[Daimao]

Nobody knows or ever tried it?

[Anderz]

Favorites added via winnt.sif is only applied to administrator (or is it the first one that (auto)logs on?)

[willpantin]

I have been also wondering about whether the folders get added using that method...!

Anyone tried it yet? If no one answers this question, I will run my next Unattended test tomorrow on VirtualPC, but it takes me about 2 hours... It crawls along, even though I have 1 GB of RAM Memory...

If anyone knows of good tweaks that will allow VirtualPC 2004 to run faster on these tests, please let me know!

Especially annoying, is that VirtualPC slows down almost completely when using the computer to surf the web, or do anything else at all that does not keep the VirtualPC Window active...

[glent]

I also found 2004 editon much slower than older version and make sure u using alt tab to swict to full screen as this also speeds up the installion

[willpantin]

@Daimao,

After a couple of minutes of thought, and without any actual testing, I arrived at the conclusion that using:

[FavoritesEx]Title1 = MS/MSN.url

URL1 = http://www.microsoft.com/

will only name the Favorites link as "MS/MSN.url", but will not create any folders...

There must be a good a command someone out there knows for this...!?

@glent,

Thanks, good tip. Still, ideally I would like a way to speed up VirtualPC while multitasking...!

[SiMoNsAyS]

@Daimao,

After a couple of minutes of thought, and without any actual testing, I arrived at the conclusion that using:

[FavoritesEx]

Title1 = MS/MSN.url

URL1 = http://www.microsoft.com/

will only name the Favorites link as "MS/MSN.url", but will not create any folders...

there is no file name that can contain the symbols /\:*?><|

[war59312]

Here is mine.

CopyFav.cmd

@echo off

ConsoleTool /HIDE

COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites" "%UserProfile%\Favorites"

CD %UserProfile%\Favorites

DEL /Q "Links"

MKDIR "Links"
MKDIR "Download"
MKDIR "Games"
MKDIR "Image Hosting"
MKDIR "IRC"
MKDIR "Music"
MKDIR "My Web Site"
MKDIR "News"
MKDIR "School"
MKDIR "Search"
MKDIR "Urban Terror"
MKDIR "Windows Problems"
MKDIR "WinXP - Tech News"
MKDIR "WinXP Forums"

COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Download" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Download"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Games" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Games"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Image Hosting" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Image Hosting"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\IRC" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\IRC"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Links" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Links"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Music" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Music"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\My Web Site" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\My Web Site"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\News" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\News"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\School" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\School"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Search" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Search"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Urban Terror" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Urban Terror"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\Windows Problems" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\Windows Problems"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\WinXP - Tech News" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\WinXP - Tech News"
COPY "%systemdrive%\install\Favorites\WinXP Forums" "%UserProfile%\Favorites\WinXP Forums"

EXIT

hehe

Or just rar it all up and create a sfx for it.

[Jito463]

I have been also wondering about whether the folders get added using that method...! 

Anyone tried it yet? If no one answers this question, I will run my next Unattended test tomorrow on VirtualPC, but it takes me about 2 hours... It crawls along, even though I have 1 GB of RAM Memory...

If anyone knows of good tweaks that will allow VirtualPC 2004 to run faster on these tests, please let me know!

Especially annoying, is that VirtualPC slows down almost completely when using the computer to surf the web, or do anything else at all that does not keep the VirtualPC Window active...

Just go to Options for VirtualPC and under Performance select:

Run Virtual PC at maximum speed

Note that this MAY SEVERELY reduce performance for the rest of your PC while VPC is running, but it will run faster. It all depends on your system config. I used to think it would lag any system run at full speed, but it seems to work rather well on my system configuration:

AthlonXP 3200+

1GB PC3200 Corsair LL (dual-channel)

nForce2 Ultra (GA-7N400 pro)

WinXP Pro

440GB of HDD space (between 4 HDD's)

[DisabledTrucker]

For my extensive list of favorites, I use the export function to make an .htm file out of the entire list then when the computer boots the first time, I import that list and copy it to the default user file, which allows for it to be used systemwide. Since I have yet to find a way to import it into the default users section while installing, yet.

[MHz]

Why not try to put them into $OEM$\$DOCS\Default User\Favorites

I insert my templates, Application Data, etc via Default user this way. This should work for favorites as well? Folders and urls?

[willpantin]

@Jito463,

Thanks! Your tips helped me vastly improve the speed of Virtual PC 2004, while still being able to multi-task...!

To summarize:

1. Ideally, choose a drive for the Virtual PC file for your tests other than the one that hosts your main operating system.

2. Instead of the expanding drive option, choose the set size option. In my case, it set aside about 16 GB. This was important too, I believe, in improving speed.

3. Choose the options Jito463 mentioned.

@MHz,

You said:

Why not try to put them into $OEM$\$DOCS\Default User\Favorites

I believe most of us have tried that already, aeons ago, perhaps even on our very first Unattended CD attempts...! Unfortunately, it just doesn't work.

[Jito463]

There is another option. I setup my preinstall to copy two batch files to the All Users desktop (which could also be applied to do what you want). The actual batch files are in $OEM$\$1\OEM\*.bat. To copy them, I created another batch file that I placed in $OEM$\$1\Windows\System32 that is called from [GuiRunOnce] in winnt.sif. I know there are better ways, but this works for me. Below is the code:

COPY C:\OEM\bit.bat "C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Desktop"

COPY C:\OEM\Sysprep.bat "C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Desktop"

REGEDIT /S ChngOwnr.reg

The first two copy bit.bat (Burn-In-Test) and Sysprep.bat to the All Users desktop (this could be modified to copy to the Default Users profile). The third line creates a runonce command to execute a file that let's me modify the Customer's name/org when logging in for the first time - nothing that relates to the project at hand, just explaining the commands. Mind you, a zip/rar file that contains the path to the all users desktop (or default users favorites) would work just as well, but this does what I need it to.