[TIP] give plug-in capability to your CD

[prathapml]

Add the ability to plugin to your unattended CD.

It so happens that you don't really have the time to keep your uA CD updated to the micro-second with the latest versions of everything. And also, if you need to do roll-outs in a corporate environment, you have specific categories of users who have special needs - but sometimes you have a single desktop which needs to be different from the others in terms of what you install (but you can't waste your time to customize for that machine). And then, of course, you might have a standard CD that you use for everybody (if you do OS installs all day long) - but you want your *OWN* PC to be a bit different.

So in such cases, you'd add this code to your CMD (batch-file) which runs at first-logon:

if exist D:\uA_XPSP2\install\script.cmd start /wait D:\uA_XPSP2\install\script.cmd

(modify it if you use RunOnceEX or XPlode)

What does that code do?

It gives you a hook into the unattended CD to add things later. It will run a batch-file from a known location (we can't keep the CMD to run from C: drive as you will have formatted that partition before install). So that, if you are re-installing windows from CD onto a machine you can make use of that CMD to do tasks peculiar to only that machine.

Therefore, let's say you are installing from that unattended CD onto your Home PC and you probably have the Age of Empires (game) installer in your H:\ drive - which you anyway keep re-installing all the time (but because you can't fit the game onto the uA CD you did not include it in the silent installs). This plugin (script) can run from the D:\ drive and install the game as well - so that while everybody else sees your stock unattended install, you will take benefit of a few special features. Similarly, let's say you need to use this same CD to install at a PC that demands Visual Studio too - so you can have the VS.net installer somewhere on the hard-disk, and the plugin will install it for you (but other PCs where you use this CD will not install VS.net unnecessarily!). Continuing the possibilities, let's say you like Adobe Photoshop (because your work demands it) - but others don't need it - in such a case as well, you can just employ the plugin to customize your unattended setup for yourself. Having such a plug-in to be run from hard-disk.... also helps in another way - for example, I have opera 7.52 on my unattended CD, but having the CMD plugin, I install the newer version (7.60) from HD. So this way, you can have micro-level per-machine unattended configurations, but still use the same CD to install on all machines (thereby saving you time in preparing the CD).

If you use your imagination, the plugin can open up many new possibilities for you.

Please reply in this topic if you found this suggestion useful, or if you have any corrections to this (or any questions).

[gunsmokingman]

Nice post I found it usefull.

Here is a ping cmd that will echo back a message

echo off
cls
color f8
mode con: Cols=45 Lines=3
Title Ping Test
echo.
ping -n 3 127.0.0.1 | Echo     TEMP STOP TEST SCREEN
cls
echo.
Set /p =     Press Any Key To Quit

Edited December 27, 2005 by gunsmokingman

[prathapml]

You don't need the ping commands.

You can use "sleep.exe" for that - easier too.

[gunsmokingman]

That from This page

Ms Cmd Processor Page

The Windows 2000 Resource Kits provide sleep.exe to allow a batch file to sleep for n seconds. 

You can emulate this behavior by using the PING (Packet InterNet Groper) command: 

ping -n seconds+1 127.0.0.1>nul 

To sleep for 15 seconds, type: 

ping -n 16 127.0.0.1>nul

The sleep cmd is not included in XP Deploy Tool

So what would you do if you didnt have sleep?

Edited March 3, 2006 by gunsmokingman

[prathapml]

So what would you do if you didnt have sleep?

No chance of not having that!

In any case, if at all I somehow lost it, its just a 15 KB download from here. Far prefer simpler commands.

Hey, in all this I don't mean to say using the ping method is bad at all. In fact, for your info, I used to use it till a year-and-half ago (that's when I stumbled on this site). But once I saw sleep.exe, I see no reason why more complex commands should be used for simpler purposes. Ping has far more uses, and sleep is a straight-forward tool with a single use (which it fulfils well) and nothing more.

[gunsmokingman]

I agree with you all the way

I forgot I had the sleep cmd it was just an alternative is all

keep up the good work

[prathapml]

incidentally, i have found the ping for n seconds + mode con command to be useful on vista, for a different purpose - and i'd like to thank gunsmokingman