Hacked Shell32.dll Will Not Stick

[idbirch2]

Hi, I have a bit of a wierd problem and hope someone here can help.

I have created an unattended SP2 slipstreamed Windows Media Center 2005 DVD. I've been steadily building it up for almost a year now and know the ins and outs of resource hacking, modifying the CRC header and then using makecab to inject the hacked files into your XP CD/DVD - its been working fine for ages.

In the last flurry of Windows Updates was an update for shell32.dll. No problem I thought, I just re-hack it and slip it back in - thats exactly what I did. For some reason though, after the install is complete I have a standard shell32.dll - no fancy icons. If I check the version it is the new one but with none of my modifications. I can't figure out where this file is coming from as the SHELL32.DL_ file in the i386 folder on the DVD is my version and no other versions exist on the DVD (I am not installing any Windows Updates as part of the unattended install and I have searched through all the *.cab files on it aswell)

Does anybody have any idea where this rogue shell32.dll file could be coming from?

[bucketbuster]

WFP probably copies the original one back.

Try again, but with WFP turned off.

[Alanoll]

from the hotfix exe itself

Search, and you'll find a thread on this VERY topic, infact I believe TWO THREADS in the last week.

[Madhits45]

I had a simular problem. I could never figure out where the shell32.dll was comming from. I was able to fix this issue buy handling the whole process differently.

Here is what i did its a dirty solution but does work.

I let the windows install have its dump shell32.dll and I have a batch file call up the unreg command and atrib command. I unprotect the file and replace it. You have to have WFP off for this to work. I have it turned off earlyer in the install. Sometimes it remains protected so I rename it crap.dll and have a batch del it later. Then I rereg my version and this is all done before first reboot. Now whenever I make a change or a new version of shell32.dll comes out I edit mine and throw it in the cab I have.

That should work for ya. If you find out where the other shell32 is comming from I would like to know also.

[idbirch2]

Sorry Alanoll, you're right, I should have spent a bit longer searching

Looks like integrating updates doesn't actually update the files directly, just dumps the hotfix executable in a folder called "i386\svcpack" on you unattended CD. I was never aware of this till now - I thought the newer files were directly integrated, this explains why I could not find this elusive copy of shell32.dll.

Thanks to Shark007 on this thread who clears it up quite nicely (at least I hope so - I'm burning my new ISO with an ammended svcpack.inf as I type) Fingers crossed.....

Edit: Isn't there an easier way to do this - this is going to be a major pain in the a** everytime M$ replace certain files - can't hotfix exes be extracted, hacked and then recompiled?

[gunsmokingman]

Use This In The RunonceEx.cmd

This Is What I Did

CmdLines.Txt

[COMMANDS]
"REGEDIT /S 000.reg"
"REGEDIT /S 020.reg"
"REGEDIT /S 040.reg"
"REGEDIT /S 060.reg"
"REGEDIT /S 080.reg"
"UserAcount.cmd"
"UaPrestart.cmd"
"RunOnceEx.cmd"
"MyStop.cmd"

In My Stop Cmd I Have This

start /w replacer.exe

This is a cmd script that ment to replace the

Windows Files.

This Is SFX Of The Cmd

Replacer

Hope This helps

[idbirch2]

I removed the reference to the hotfix that updates shell32.dll in svcpack.inf and it worked fine. I had already got the new shell32.dll and editted it and cabbed it up into my i386 directory but this stupid hotfix was running after this and overwriting it. I'm going to have to keep a real close eye on updates from now on and what files they contain.