Building a Pre-activated CD from an existing installation

[gunsmokingman]

Interesting tool you produced there GSM, you never stop amazing us.

Cheers

MC.

Thank you MC

I was thinking of addding a few more things to the HTA

1:\ Build the UA work area with all the folders, for either a HD install or CD_DVD install

2:\ Copy XP to the UA work area

3:\ Intergrate SP2 and Updates

4:\ Burn the ISO

[maxXPsoft]

? anyone

Tried GSM tool and it add's this odd entry also

[params.MS_TCPIP]DNS=No

is not a valid entry as far as i can tell from ref.chm and deploy.chm

[params.MS_TCPIP]DNSDomain=fabrikam.com

is valid

only place DNS= located is under

[NetOptionalComponents]

and Comments Valid only for the Windows Server 2003 family.

My ? are is this some odd thing that work's or mistake not needed

Edited July 29, 2006 by maxXPsoft

[valerian_cafe]

new to this forums, I have an HP Pavlion Media m7470n, I had the recovery dvd's and 1 cd tools. I'm trying to make one dvd too install windows MCE 2005 , I used the code to make the dvd, I couldn't unlock the HP_RECOVERY hd so I used the dvd1 of the hp recovery disk's. I backed up my hd with Acronis True Image . Then I installed the new boot dvd I thought everything was fine, then it ask for another cd with a program, I think it's the mce part of windows to run the media center ? How do I merge that part ? is it a msi file ?

[lil nublet]

Instead of activating, can you just remove activation? I see in NLite that you can remove this, what does it do?

[Bezalel]

Instead of activating, can you just remove activation? I see in NLite that you can remove this, what does it do?

If you remove activation with nLite you won't be able to activate your PC. If the PC requires activation you won't be able to use it once the grace period runs out.

[tkmadison]

Here's the problem with my system.

It's running an OEM XP Home. There never was any recovery media (available from the manufacturer at a price) but it has it's own recovery and reinstallation features. It's a lenovo (IBM) and absolutely royalty oem.

It's got a hidden partition with what i think is some form of a winpe pre-boot setup set of files, and some of the ram seems to be dedicated as a hidden drive as well to facilitate the recovery.

Now, there is a I386 folder in the root directory which seems to have everything I would need.

I've cultivated the OEM files and the windows serial from the registry through the methods shown in this thread.

I've created bootable cds from these files and burnt them to CD.

The only problem is that when i get to the "Press any key to Boot from CD" message, and press any button...it just hangs.

now, if everything (possibly a big if here) is in that I386 folder, and technically speaking, I don't need any other files (except for the identifying files in the root of a setup cd).

nLite tells me that I'm missing one of these files, but if I fabricate one (i.e. copy of of the other existing ones and rename it to what nLite is looking for) it goes well.

i can't think of any reason why it should hang. perhaps i should try and get another copy of home (oem, of course) and try using those files?

[Bezalel]

perhaps i should try and get another copy of home (oem, of course) and try using those files?

Thats probably the best idea. Lenovo may not have included the nessasary files for the text mode setup to run. I personally have the Hologrammed CDs and designed these scripts for use with those CDs.

[Tbone2]

Bezalel

YOUR THE MAN....

It worked great for my sony lappy

and none of the oem bull has to be installed

Thanks again SIR from one happy oem owner.

[canadianfigor]

I followed this method for my Sony VAIO and upon installing windows it prompted for a cd key. I tried entering first the cdkey that was generated using the above method and then the COA key. Both were invalid. Any ideas? My system came with MCE 2005 and I'm installing with MCE 2005 as well. Any help will be much appreciated.

I also noticed that in the title bar of the product key window it says "Windows XP Professional Upgrade". Is this normal for a MCE 2005 installation?

Edited August 21, 2006 by canadianfigor

[Randy Rhoads]

I also noticed that in the title bar of the product key window it says "Windows XP Professional Upgrade". Is this normal for a MCE 2005 installation?

Maybe the SETUPP.INI file ?

Does it read like:

Pid=76487OEM

[twig123]

I also noticed that in the title bar of the product key window it says "Windows XP Professional Upgrade". Is this normal for a MCE 2005 installation?

This IS normal for XP MCE, because it is basically Pro with some extra features.

As for the other issues, make sure that the key that that was generated is NOT the same as the one on the system's COA sticker...

[canadianfigor]

Maybe the SETUPP.INI file ?

Does it read like:

Pid=76487OEM

Well first off tyvm for your help. At the time there was no reply here yet, so I did some digging around. Found some cool info I never knew in the process, but yes it was the setupp.ini file that I needed. I used the one i got from start > run > %systemroot%\i386\setupp.ini

[Pid]
ExtraData=786F687170637175716954806365EF
Pid=76487OEM

you were dead on =)

This IS normal for XP MCE, because it is basically Pro with some extra features.

As for the other issues, make sure that the key that that was generated is NOT the same as the one on the system's COA sticker...

Well when I started playing with the PID, the title bar started changing, now it says "Windows XP Professional Setup". The number I got was not the one from the COA sticker, but if I read correctly from my snooping around, Microsoft has keys on their website to use instead of the COA sticker keys.

Thx again for all your help! =D

Only problem now is finding out if it will actually be pre-activated, since I don't want to format at this point in time. I hope that when I need to, it won't bail on me.

Edited August 22, 2006 by canadianfigor

[nadav]

If you use the key from the Registry (or the key in your Dell CD) you will not have to activate it at all. If you use the key from the sticker you will have to activate by phone. The CD Key is not tied to any manufacturer, the OEMBIOS files are.

What would happen if I try using the OEMBIOS files on a computer from another manufacturer? How do the files "know" if the computer is from this manufacturer or that?

Non-Dell: (System Builder - Not yet activated)

WPA creates a hardware inventory and saves it as WPA.DBL

Using the OEMBIOS files WPA checks that the PC is manufactured by Dell and is using a factory key.

Verification fails - proceed to next step

WPA.DBL is compared to WPA.BAK to determine how much hadware has changed

Verification fails (WPA.BAK doesn't exist) - proceed to next step

User is prompted to activate

User attempts to activate online

Activation fails (factory keys can't activate) - User is informed that the key must be changed

User enters key on sticker

User attempts to activate online

Activation is sucsessful - WPA.DBL is signed and copied as WPA.BAK - Have a nice day

At what stage of the setup (or post-setup) proccess does the wpa check occur? Can I swap the OEMBIOS files after the system has booted for the first time?

[Bezalel]

What would happen if I try using the OEMBIOS files on a computer from another manufacturer? How do the files "know" if the computer is from this manufacturer or that?

The OEMBIOS files containg a encrypted list of strings and memory ranges. In the case of Dell, WPA searches a particular portion of the BIOS for "Dell Computer", "Dell Inc", or "Dell System". If you were to uses these files on a non-Dell the check would fail. The MGADIAG tool from MS will show you the first 4 strings in the list but will not show the memory locations.

[severach]

At what stage of the setup (or post-setup) proccess does the wpa check occur? Can I swap the OEMBIOS files after the system has booted for the first time?

Google "NtLockRegistryKey Inside the WPA-CALL"

You'll need to read it out of the Google cache unless you can find the current AntiWPA site.