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[Release] Windows XP PowerPacker


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It will work with NLite to a certain extent... as will a lot of things. But some things that can be removed in NLite are things that you need for the driverpacks to work... or RyanVM's pack, etc... etc...

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Looks like a really nice application, what other future developments do you plan on integrating? Or do you plan on adding unattended software installations or something with some type of nLite integration or something similar to that in your app, along with customized boot screens etc....

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Well... since I have added the capability of running .bat files at different points of the packaging process... it opens a lot of doors. Later I am going to make it capable of running custom .cmd, .exe, and .vbs scripts. Then I will work on coding .exe plugins that will do extra thing... also other users can create plugins for it as well. The possibilities are almost unlimited. I am even planning on scripting an autoinstaller that will install all exe files in a given directory at the runonceex portion of setup. This way it will make it easier for people to create application installs for their disks. I don't know about powerpacker doing everything that NLite does... NLite is probably the best tool out there for slimming an XP disk down. I don't have enough knowledge to do that. ;) But if NLite ever has (or allready has) unattended parameters in it... it wouldn't be to hard to implement a plugin to call NLite to do things as well. If all else failed.. autoit is good at automating things that normally aren't automated... so someone could actually utalize NLite in some way no matter what. I do intend to have an option to do minor NLite types of things like deleteing the "LANG" folder and the Winntupg" folders etc... but that is about as far as I may take that. There are many possibilities... and I intend to take powerpacker as far as I can... without adding too much to the main window itself. That is why I like the idea of custom plugins. ;) I think msfn.org has bigger plans for powerpacker in the next week or so... from what I have heard. Hopefully we will have a bigger place to discuss powerpacker so that we will have a more organized way to build on it... and I can post tutorials and tricks for everyone.

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It is completley different than NLite. It doesn't do any functions that NLite does. What would make you think it is like NLite? I specifically stated earlier that the program does not do any NLite features. What specifically do you mean is like NLite? If you don't mind me asking.

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This may not affect many people. What is the chance of having a possible WINNT.SIF selection. Maybe as a plug-in later. This is in case there are different .SIF files for different settings. I personally use three different ones and it would be cool to have that selection at the beginning of the setup disk just as the other selections.

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There actually allready is a winnt.sif selection. It is the first option when you make an Unattended Pack. Personally what I do is I have a folder on my harddrive called "winntsif" under that folder I have 2 folders "Home" & "Professional" then within those folders I have a folder for each different edition. (Corporate, Retail, OEM). If your question is... is there a way to have multiple instances of the same pack which allows me to pick different unattended setups? The PowerPacker program does not do this right now... but I have a few tricks on doing that... and I may create a plugin for that. ;) I don't want to add too many features to the main PowerPacker window itself... because then people may get confused. But... there will be many plugins made to do many things that you don't see in the main window. Also when PowerPacker has more than one thread to troubleshoot, ask questions, post comments... etc... etc... I will be able to post a lot of tutorials and tricks that can be done.

Edited by Siginet
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Siginet, great program that has potential.

One question,I was wondering, if you had a Bart PE cd or UBCD4WIN, can this be incorporated normally as basically it is an Win XP disc but with some extra programs. My main aim would be have the main Win XP or the Barts CD at the boot options, so that you have a trully useful tool ie, installing XP and the swiss army knife to correct any problems with the reg or spyware,viruses etc.

Thanx

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BartPE is possible. I use it on my Multiboot disk. But you would have to create it manually the first time. Just follow the tutorial Here.

Once you have finished createing your BPE1 folder... make sure to backup the filse elsewhere. You will need to backup the \BPE1 folder from the root of your disk, the \BPE1.DAT file on the root, and The \ROOT\BPE1 folder. Put it all somewhere in a directory called \ExtraRoot. Later if you make another boot disk you can just point to the "ExtraRoot" folder and your bart pack will get copied over as well. ;) Oh and make sure you edit the cdshell.ini file in the \BOOT folder on the disk. You can find info on how to edit the file here.

For now that is how you would do it. But later a plugin will probably be made. ;)

Edited by Siginet
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OK... here's a clue as to what I have planned for v2.0 (Which I have allready tested writeing code for.)

I plan for v2.0 to not only have support for Windows XP. It will have tabs at the top of the main window. Tabs like: "Windows XP", "Windows 2003", "Windows 2000", "Bart PE" and so on and so fourth. Each specific tab will open a portion of the gui that will be specific to each tab. So version 1.0 will only be for "Windows XP" but v2.0 will be very simular... except it will support a lot more OSes. If anyone finds out a way to multiboot XP64 then I will add support for it as well... but as of now XP64 support is not possible. :(

BTW I think I found a bug... It looks like in the boot menu when you select Windows XP Home The next section of the menu says "Windows XP Professional - Retail" etc...

It's just a minor bug... but I will fix it in the next release. ;)

Edited by Siginet
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Hi, had some free time todat at work, so did some tests again with nLite. Had to find what was causing the error. So first I tried the powerpacker without using nLite: It works! (great program :P )

After that, nLite: error...

So, let's not integrate the tweaks I use in nLite: same error

Ok, don't integrate the hotfixes: same error

So the only thing left : the removal of some sourcefiles.

Most of them are folders on the winXP-CD, so let's try do delete them manualy: works great, no errors.

Now I just have to find out what exactly is the file I can not remove with nLite, or is there an other file edited by nLite that makes the installation corrupt...

Here are the files I delete with nLite appart from the folders:

Music samples

MSN explorer

Windows messenger

Manual install and upgrade (winnt.exe, winnt32.exe, setup.exe ...)

Search assistant

Tour

That's it. So could it be one of these things? I will do some tests later this week. But my girlfriend (actualy ex) complains that I spend to much time on my pc :P

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