Another batch of questions

[Rambler]

Hi again guys,

i still have some problems/questions regarding unattended install and i hope you can help me with them.

Here we go:

1) Has anyone successfully used UDF file? I've been trying to use an UDF file to select a computer which is gonna be installed - meaning i have various computer name and product key entries in my udf, but it never worked. I have the syntax right, the udf file has correct format, but it always fails at the product key stage of setup. I've also tried all the combinations of ProductKey, ProductID etc, none worked.

2) I'm applying my reg tweaks from cmdlines.txt - they all work fine except for tuning the visual effects. To understand me - i want to set visual effects to "Adjust for best performance" - so i used regtweaks from this forum plus i also played around with exporting coresponding entries from registry. Now the problem - after the installation the proper radio button is selected (ie. Adjust for best performance), but it seems all or some portion of it is not applied, because my start menu shows with that fade effect which goes away if i manually select the radio button and click apply. Any ideas here?

3) I'm trying to set paging file size to "System managed size" via the MS' pagefileconfig.vbs script, but it won't allow setting MIN and MAX values to 0, which would correspond to this option. I'm aware that there's another way of doing this via inf file, but i'd like to avoid that as i don't use them at all.

4) General question regarding scripted apps installations - if i need to install applications with custom options/selections during the app setup, is my only possibility to use VBS or other scripts? I assume so as normal/silent switches doesn't allow for much customization in most cases.

Another question regarding this - i've made some VBS scripts for my apps which i install via runonceex, but it seems they're not always installed properly as the runonceex process thinks the setup of give app already finished and continues with next entry, but that causes trouble to those VBS scripts apparently - any solution to this? Use the VBS script as last entries in runonceex? Or other method?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Takeshi]

3) Can you give the link to the MS vbs?

Max and Min PF 0 is actually disabling the PF, not Sytem managed size.

Try the DisablePagingExective =1 reg tweak.

[Martin Zugec]

1.) UDF is not working quite well - use script instead and modify your unattend.txt BEFORE installation. This is working quite well for me.

2.) I dont use regtweaks - I just disable Themes service. If this advice is not enough for you, run RegMon and monitor changes made after you select radio button and click apply. Or you can use InstallRite or similar tool.

3.) Try settings this via WMI classes - this is working quite well.

4.) If you can, use MSI installations, you can modify everything there. Vbscript with ROE should work fine.

[Rambler]

3) Can you give the link to the MS vbs?

Max and Min PF 0 is actually disabling the PF, not Sytem managed size.

Try the DisablePagingExective =1 reg tweak.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The information came from here http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...60entry115460 and subsequently from http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=122246, but I guess I was assuming too much similarity between reg entries and that mentioned script.

I'll look at that tweak, thanks.

1.) UDF is not working quite well - use script instead and modify your unattend.txt BEFORE installation. This is working quite well for me

Well, that persuaded me to dump UDF Btw. - you mean modifying unattend.txt via some vbs before the installation? Any chance you have such script? Or can you link to some? I can do simple sendkeys scripts, but not much more I'm afraid.

3.) Try settings this via WMI classes - this is working quite well.

Doesn't ring a bell right now. But that might be because it's early in the morning and I just got up.

4.) If you can, use MSI installations, you can modify everything there. Vbscript with ROE should work fine.

Unfortunately I can't use MSI installations, because (most of) the applications don't come in a form of MSI (nor can be extracted from the installation file). Just a quick question - what is ROE?

[Martin Zugec]

1.) You must create some script for DOS I am using personalized one, I can post it if you would like to see example.

3.) try Wmic pagefileset set /?

4.) ROE - RunOnceEx I encountered only few applications, that had really big problems with this - it depends, sometimes you need to monitor processes, or log files etc...

[Rambler]

If you could post an example that would be nice, thanks.

Regarding the WMI classes - I guess I was living on a tree that I didn't know about wmic I've read the article on your site, it's been useful.

ROE - as I said, it seems that the process assumes the previous entries in my RunOnceEx have already finished and continues with next ones, which messes up the VB scripts. Anyways I'll try tweaking it some more.

[Martin Zugec]

WMI is the main management tool for windows (not registry:)) - for example migrating printers is not possible through registry, but it is really easy through WMI. Specially if you like vbscript, I am surprised you dont know WMI/ADSI scripting.

About my article, how did you read it? I wrote it in my native language

About ROE - strange... After you call VBS, it will launch wscript/cscript, which will last till the code exited.

Example:

wmic pagefile where "name='c:\\pagefile.sys'" set initialsize=0,maximumsize=600

[Rambler]

Well I know what WMI is, but I've never heard of wmic before.

I could read your article, because i'm Czech, so that was no big task

ROE - might it be the case, because I'm simply calling the vbs file instead of calling it via w/cscript?

As for the page file - do you (or anyone else) know what should i set the sizes to when I want the System managed size option? The example you provided would correspond to the Custom setting? Or am I wrong here?

[Martin Zugec]

Heh, in that case U missed great source of informations

http://www.wug.cz/cs/archiv_meetingu/archiv_meetingu_3.xtml - I had presentation about WMIC not long time ago - Meeting 18.11.2004 Praha

About ROE - this shouldnt be the problem, Windows use the default (I am using cscript, most people use wscript).

If you want to use system setting, you dont need to set anything - it is default option.

[Rambler]

If you want to use system setting, you dont need to set anything - it is default option.

Unfortunatelly that is not the case - at least not with the OEM version I'm using - the default option after installation is the Custom setting ("Vlastní velikost").

Btw. the WMI script sample you provided doesn't work either - analogously to pagefileconfig.vbs, it reports value out of range for the min value (initial size).

Edit: I guess I'll stick to the registry tweak for the time being, as it seems to work (ie. setting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PagingFiles to C:\pagefile.sys 0 0).

[Martin Zugec]

Well, most simple solution is to use RegMon from SysInternals and watch the changes... BTW WMIC command is working quite well on my PC