XP and Multiple Yet Differant Computers

[NicolausUsry]

I have a computer lab that I help keep up to date. The problem I am having is that we setup our labs with the latest software because of the need our school has. One of the labs has Dells and works fine when we ghost the software and OS to each (Windows XP SP2, Office XP, Acrobat Reader 7.0, Ultimate Zip 2.5, Microsoft Works 2003, Wordperfect 8.0, OpenOffice 1.9m51, iTunes, Windows Media Player 10, Real Player 10, Musicmatch, Movie Maker 2, and other software packages).

The other lab has been a huge hassle though. The other lab is also a Dell lab, but when the systems were purchased, they came from a discounter who gave us slightly differant chipsets which XP hates to ghost from one to another (going through repair, replace icons, install Novell again, and with 20 machines, this is saying something). The school has hit the budget for the year (meaning no windows servers or anything that could help in the situation (as far as I have been trained)). I have also had trouble with the unattended disk because all of the icons are reinstated by windows, and the school has requested things like the star background when you login (why? don't ask me), SO, since the screensaver files are installed after the 12 minute mark (where all my batch scripts came in) I seem out of luck with this possiblity.

Does anyone have any idea on how I could go about ghosting systems that have similar yet differant chipsets without it taking a two day lab shutdown (and me 6am-6pm during those days). Suggestions would be greatly appriciated, or a suggestion on some type of script I could write to make windows xp release its hardware identification. (I have tried Microsoft's Knowledge base, and they say the factory mini setup will do this, but all I get with the mini setup is upon restart is the ever so infamous (to me anyway) ntoskrnl.exe missing?

You can presume I have:

Windows XP (No activation licensing)

Windows XP Preinstallation CD

Windows XP SP2 integrated update cd

Office XP

All programs listed above and in .msi form.

Ghost 2003

Ghost 9.0

Symantec Antivirus 9.0

DeepFreeze (Latest Version)

80gb external drive to transport ghosts and files

System Specs:

Celeron 500-900 mhz

512 mb SDRAM

12gb HDD

32mb Dedicated graphics (1024x768)

10/100 and or Gigabit Ethernet Cards

Sound Card

Ask me to get something else and I will (under 200.00 USD) if you are absolutely certain.

Thanks again in advanced.

[jfmartel]

Doing RIS installation would be easier than Ghost

My corporate environment is using a lot of different system. 3-4 dell different system, clone intel based desktop, laptop....

Right now im working on RIS install

Using unattended Ris installation this is a goos first step

Then using RunOnceEx command line, u can install all ur apps easily. Just get the unattended installation switche and you're done

I think the harder part is to get the tweak so your system is tweaked the way you want it.

This forum has a lot of stuff on this....

you can do it!!!!

[amd64]

I dont think it's a good idea to use windows xp for those spec computers, they will probebly grind to a halt after a couple of weeks. You might be better off using windows ME or 98SE then setup 1 computer and do a ghost. Windows ME and 98SE are not that fussy about Ghosting to different spec computers, as long as you have the drivers. If it's for accademic purposes Microsoft are quite resonable about volume licencing.

[jfmartel]

Windows XP could run perfectly if you just disable all those useless visual effects...

All doable with registry tweak. Again, this is time consuming, but this is very usefull tough.....

Still working on this right now...

[prathapml]

Your best bet then is to make an unattended disk.

You can install all the apps you want, delete all the icons you want, configure and set it up exactly the way you need, add games or whatever - all in just an hour for each machine.

My disk that totals up to almost 4 GB of installs, finishes within 28 mins. If you have a CD-drive on each PC in your lab, you could easily start the install for all of the machines at once and go out for a half-hour of coffee. When you come back its done.

read the guide, and also you'll find lot of useful info in this forum.

[IcemanND]

@NicolausUsry - I have a similar problem and found the easiest thing to do was to build the initial image for the most prominent machine and then modify it and create additional images for each different model i wouldn't ghost to. As the lab is a mix of dell and gatewaste I had to have at least two.

@amd64 - I've run XP on a PII 300mhz w/ 512mb memory, 20gb hard drive and 8 mb video card since it was released and have never had a problem with it. In fact it runs XP better than it did 98se. This is no slimmed down os this is a standard install and I use it for my software develoment machine.

[NicolausUsry]

I like the idea of the unattended, but I am having sizing problems, and especially with the installation of Novell client because it replaces system files and crashes when windows is restarted after I install with my unattended disk. Any tutorials on this I could have missed when I was searching?

Thanks,

Nicolaus Usry

Also, an RIS server would be lovely but unfortunatly money won't permit this, unless someone can explain how to run one with samba, or novell 6.5.

Again thanks for the replies.