Lower the volume during unattended?

[Tomcat76]

Ever since SP1 (I think), Windows XP natively supports the Creative SB Live 5.1 sound cards. The problem I have with that is that Windows always puts both the Master volume as well as the WAVE volume controls on the maximum, which is exceptionally annoying during the post-install wizard and the logon sound after the first log on; in both cases, the volume control panel isn't reachable yet. I'm usually testing slipstream installs during the night, so.....

I could lower the volume on the cabeled remote that comes with my speaker set (Cambridge SoundWorks Digital 2.1), but it's a pain getting the knob in the right position again once everything is properly set up in Windows. I'm also too lazy to go around and unplug the speaker-out cable.

I searched around a bit and came across this NirCmd tool. I could use a command line like nircmd.exe setsysvolume 30000 and wrap it in a silent installer, but would that work from SVCPACK? Or would Windows crank it up again when the post-install wizard kicks in?

[RogueSpear]

You don't really need to make a switchless silent installer. Just make sure Nircmd is in the system path by the time cmdlines.txt is run and execute it from there. If the volume cranks up once again after the GUI setup is done, just run it again from RunOnceEx or GuiRunOnce.

[Tomcat76]

If the volume cranks up once again after the GUI setup is done, just run it again from RunOnceEx or GuiRunOnce.

I could do that as an extra step for the first logon, but what about the post-setup wizard (activation, firewall, etc.)? That portion takes a while to complete so I want to be sure Windows doesn't put the volume on max again before entering that final wizard.

[RogueSpear]

I think what you're going to need to do is a bit of trial and error to determine when Windows is cranking up the volume on you. Then you'll know when it is appropriate to execute the command. It's a pain in the butt I know, but I've done a half dozen VMware installs before just to nail down one problem like this.