Trying to speed up my UA install time

[ng12345]

i've been a member of the forums for a while, but this is my first post

started thinking about a UA cd a long time ago but never actually made one

spent some time these last three days and put one together, this forum was great for learning how to do it and putting everything together

my main question is whether i can speed up my overall install time in any way and if so how

right now, most of the programs are compressed and take up 2.2gb; was wondering if the setup would go faster if files were uncompressed on dvd - might as well use the whole dvd

i want to install all the programs (listed below); currenlty they are being installed off the dvd; is it faster to copy to hd first and then install of hd? right now i'm using an iso so ihaven't factored in the dvd read time

also i was wondeirng if there is any way to integrate the 5 microsoft patches into the windows install

i couldn't find anything on kb887998 in the forums

i know some work was being done on getting 900325 to integrate but some parts needed .net first - has there been any progress on getting around that?

any other suggestions/improvements to my cd are welcome

thanks for reading

config:

windows mce 2005 with sp2 is the base install

i'm using wpi 4.3.5 to do the silent installs

program list:

.net framework 1.1

.net framework 2.0

AIM 5.9 w/Ad Hack

Acrobat 7.0

Photoshop

Copernic Desktop Search

Crap Cleaner

DVD Idle Pro

DVD Shrink

Diskeeper

Expertool

FFdShow

Flashget

Gmail Notifier

KCEasy 1.6

Konfabulator 3.0

Limewire

MSN Messenger 7.5

Java VM Build 3810

Java 5.0.6

Firefox 1.5 w/extensions integrated

Thunderbird 1.5

MyMovies 1.55

Nero 6.6

Nvu 1.0

Office 2003 Pro w/sp2 integrated

Real Alt 1.46

Quicktime Alt 1.68

Spybot 1.4 & Spyware blaster 3.51

ultraiso

vlc player 8.4a

winrar 3.51

itunes 6

nvidia purevideo dvd codecs

and all hotfixes integrated except:

ndp1.0spe (kb887998)

MCE RU2 (kb900325)

kb900930

kb908250

wmcsetup (win media connect 2.0?)

[Doc Symbiosis]

Integrating the hotfixes I do this way:

Put the install-CD into c:\XP-CD and all your hotfixes into c:\Hotfixes. Open commandline. Change to c:\Hotfixes. Type the following command

for /F %i in (*) DO start /wait %i /integrate:c:\XP-CD

Add the /silent switch, if you don't want to get any answer.

[Anderz]

For convinience I WinRAR some applications, but if I can I keep the applications uncompressed on the DVD. Saves copytime and unpacking time. It's a pretty significant timesaver.

Edit: And it saves editing time not needing to prepare and compress WinRAR archives.

Edited January 17, 2006 by Anderz

[jonathan_314]

And to integrate without thinking you could use Nlite ofcourse. your cd is quite big. I used nlite, and now the windows installation takes only 15 min. So you can speed it up just by removing some components. If they are not there they don't have to be copied to the harddisk during the setup.

[Doc Symbiosis]

Best timesaver is, if you install the apps directly from a network share, of course only with an adequate network.

I split up the installation to this of the system to that of the software. As last point of installation a simply call WPI from a network share, so that I can choose the Apps to install, naturally you also could simply install a default set of apps without calling WPI.

So I don't have to burn always a new CD, when an update to an app is released.

Just silly that it leaves to create a new CD after everytwoweeks-MS-Patchday.

But there any nearly no other changes, I make to the CD, cause I puzzled quite a while on it, and have set all other things , like I want 'em.

Just a thought...

Edited January 17, 2006 by Doc Symbiosis

[ng12345]

thanks for the responses

with regard to comments about the hotfixes:

-nlite does not allow the .net hotfix to be installed (ndp1.0sp3)

-the windows media center RU2 has issues with installing all aspects of the fix (according to this forum) - since it requires .net to be installed

- the rest of the fixes are MCE related

i dont have a network to do network shares off, so it has to be on a dvd

currenlty all my installs run off the cd (with wpi)

do any of you copy the installs onto the hd first and then have wpi install off there -- is this faster?

with regard to the install win xp in 15 minutes comment - which components did you remove to cut the time down so much (more than 50%)

thanks again for your time

[jonathan_314]

with regard to the install win xp in 15 minutes comment - which components did you remove to cut the time down so much (more than 50%)

Everything that is not realy needed. So windowstour, msn explorer, messenger (I use msn, and yahoo messenger) games, the stupid songs , wallpapers, themes (I put my own theme), screensavers, keybord languach that I will never speak. (I just keep French, Dutch and English)

There's also one big component (44 Mb I think) that makes you install winXP when you are in XP. (you know, the splash screen when you put your xp cd in your pc while your still in XP) It lets older xp systems upgrade,... It has also the repair feature. But this repair stuf is not so good, and I never update, so I removed it.

Also wordpad,...

So I removed stuff. And now there is 330 mb still there. But the installation is much faster. 15 to 17 minutes. It will be longer if your harddrive still full, and big. The formatting part takes also time. (and that is not in my 15 minutes )

I never copy to my harddisk. I prefer to keep my install as clean as possible.

Edited January 20, 2006 by jonathan_314