I want to build many PCs of differing hardware with RIS and so wish to keep all the drivers (apart from the NICs of course) on a network share. I think I've almost done it, but just can't quite get the last bit to work.

I've created a share which holds all the drivers I need. I then use a cmdlines.txt to alter the registry path for devices to point at that location as well as the default Windows\INF folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath

\\servername\drivers$

On bootup I get quite a few unknown devices in device manager, however if I check the registry location, it is pointing in the right place, so I know that the cmdlines.txt ran ok. Also, if I now delete all the unknown devices and hit the "scan for hardware changes" button, then all the devices are found immediately

Why do you think this is happening?

Is the cmdlines.txt ran too late in the install? i.e. after all the drivers are already found. If so, is there a way to automatically tell XP to rescan for hardware changes?

Thanks for your replies.

Networking is not available during device enumeration (T-39). What I do is use Bashrat the Sneaky's Method 2 with RIS. I detail it in my RIS guide.

Thanks for the fast reply. I'll try that.