Is it possible to make profiles for each pc ?

[Neat]

I have a few PC's at my house.

I have mine, my brothers, my laptop and my other PC dedicated for things that are time consuming (movies converting, dvd burning compiling etc)

I would like to make a choice batch file so when the windows xp cd boots up, it gives me 4 choices.

1...Neats profile

2...Brothers profile

3...Laptop profile

4...spare pc's profile

5...No profile (Not Unattended)

Im sure i can make the batch file (just passed a test for DOS Batch files )

Im guessing i have to tell the batch file to start setup with the right WINNT.SIF file ?

Thanks

[Neat]

****.

I guess no one knows

[yronnen]

Well, I saw a thread in this forum regarding naming a PC differently according to its MAC ID. It's in this forum, however I couldn't find it,so you need a little work to find it here.

However, in this thread there is a small utility which identifies a computer according to it's MAC ID, so you can decide what to do next in a batch file. I know that this is not a winnt.sif file, but you can add a batch during installation or at runonce, and configure your computer according to your needs.

Hope it helps a little.

[dcrowder32]

Try putting winnt.sif on a floppy in A: drive. I read in a post that setup looks for floppy before looks in i386. I haven't tried it yet but give it a shot. Please post back with results.

[Neat]

Try putting winnt.sif on a floppy in A: drive.  I read in a post that setup looks for floppy before looks in i386.  I haven't tried it yet but give it a shot.  Please post back with results.

I tried doing the thing with the floppy but it still used the WINNT.SIF from the cd. (i wonder if its just Vmware stufing me around )

I whent down to the library and i came across a book called "Windows XP proffessional resource kit" and it has some info about the unattended setup.

Ill have a read through it. You wouldnt believe how thick this book is If i find something interesting, ill post back.

[mmarable]

What I've done for multiple configurations is to use the compname utility (it's the one mentioned above) to name the computer based on it's MAC address.

Since I use XPLode at first login to install my apps, I just have the batch file rename the PC, and import into GUIRunOnceEx the entry to run XPLode using the matching XML file.

So, on my disk, I have 4 different XML files for XPLode to use. One for my desktop, one for my laptop, one for my wife's machine and one "generic" in case something bombs with the MAC address.

If you're not using XPLode and installing via RunOnce the same would work. Just have your batch file rename your PC and then call "Laptop.cmd" which would import into GUIRunOnceEx those program and such you want for your laptop.

[big_gie]

I use CDShell to boot the cd and give me choice between:

-Unattended for my laptop

-Unattended for my desktop

-Unattended (generic)

-Normal for my laptop

-Normal for my desktop

-Normal (generic)

-Default info entered

I then copy from the cd one of two XPlode .xml's config to the hd, depending on the computer name. This is done with a tool of mine, mt39 to do this. mt39 is launched from winnt.sif's [GuiUnattended] DetachedProgram.

At t-12, XPlode is executed with C:\setup\xplode.xml to install programs. Each .xml file launch .js script file to import different configuration for different computers.

Hope its not to confusing

[dcrowder32]

Put your winnt.sif on a floppy, but do not put one on the cd in i386. It will install from floppy. I did it, it works. That way you can use a different floppy for each computer but use same cd. You can put an several different install scripts on the cd, and let your winnt.sif pick the proper one to use for each computer. Simple !

Need to set bios boot order so it does not try to boot from floppy, or you get error for not being system disk.

If winnt.sif on both cd and floppy, setup uses cd first (so I am told - have not verified this)

And...yes I know every computer does not have a floppy anymore. And...yes I know this is probably not the most elegant way to do this, but it is easy and reliable. Also if you have another computer to install, you may not need to burn a new cd.

[Anikan]

I would like to make a choice batch file so when the windows xp cd boots up, it gives me 4 choices.

1...Neats profile

2...Brothers profile

3...Laptop profile

4...spare pc's profile

5...No profile (Not Unattended)

You can use 5 different boot folderS with its winnt.sif configured for each setup such as PRO1, PRO2 ETC...

and in your cdshell.ini:

1...Setup for Neats profile

2...Setup for Brothers profile

3...Setup for Laptop profile

4...Setup for spare pc's profile

5...Setup for No profile (Not Unattended)

you could name your boot folders:

if ($lastKey == key[1]); then chain PRO1.DAT

if ($lastKey == key[2]); then chain PRO2.DAT

if ($lastKey == key[3]); then chain PRO3.DAT

if ($lastKey == key[4]); then chain PRO4.DAT

if ($lastKey == key[5]); then chain PRO5.DAT

And just one I386 folder for all 5 setups, however you might need to have a value license or corporate key since I'm not sure if a single license xpcd would work for all 5 setups using different keys.

More info here:Multi-Boot DVD