Hiya All,

after peeking briefly through all the Posts here, I see many requests for Guides on this or that....

I would like to summarize your requests here and also the answers - if such a Guide is already out there; if not who can make it or is willing to or is requesting assistance with making one...

Please tell me/us all!

Could you add INF Coder (one who makes addons by writing INFs and using cabs rather than switchless installers) and something like All-Round Coder (one who can do both)? I would vote INF Coder for myself, by the way.

Hiya all,

Poll has been updated!

THX to Martin L!!!

Edited March 16, 200620 yr by joeyeti

A vivid and creative mind characterizes you.

Edited May 23, 20224 yr by bcerhart
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With inf addons, the inf tells windows what to do to install whatever software you're integrating - with switchless installers you have to put it in a batch file (or something similar). I never could figure out how to concequently make switchless installers, but I'm quite familiar with the inf file structure now, so I just use that. Also 'true' addon packs, that is inf + cab ones, are thought to be cleaner. I'm not sure why, except that I think switchless installers sometimes create temporary files in obscure folders that they don't delete afterwards. On the other hand, switchless installers tend to be smaller than inf addons because cab compression isn't all that great.

By the way, I think inf coders are generally at guru level in that they could integrate their packs without nLite's or Siginet's Integrator's help without too much trouble; me, though, I'm too lazy

Edited March 17, 200620 yr by Ver Greeneyes

Hiya All,

Making silent installs depends on the EXE file, if it is possible or not.... Or with MSI on the Switches...

There is another possibility for silent installs without compressing them - YAWI - you just give there the EXE file, put switch entries (as many as you want) and you dont need to pack it, nor unpack in temporary Dir at install or whatever......

In fact

1. you can just make a CAB of the YAWI.EXE and YAWI.INI (after configuring the INI file accordingly)

2. integrate just that CAB

3. (before making ISO) copying all needed EXEs to the svcpack folder

4. and there you go! You can either install during T-13 with YAWI integrated into Win Install, or run the YAWI under freshly installed Windows afterwards from CD.....

Guides are nice - but what I think would be as effective (or even more so) is an index to existing projects and information.

One thread with a short description of what is being done - and a link to that thread - organized by which OS it applies to (i.e W2K, W2K3, XP, ALL, etc. I'm fairly new to using nlite and one of the biggest challenges is finding out the following:

1. What exactly is nlite capable of (and what features in topics have already been integrated into nlite - thus making that thread rather obsolete).

2. What projects are being worked on currently. Nlite wont cover everything and others are working on projects which can add a feature, streamline a process, etc. Finding these threads can be like bulldozing the way for the Panama Canal at times as one thread references another thread which references a third thread and so on.

A consolidated index of the wealth of information on this board would IMO be of more use to the general user than a guide. Guides usually end up being targeted in a specific direction for a specific OS and task. Don't get me wrong - guides have their place but an information index would be more dynamic and serve the dynamic nature of OS customization - and it also would be easier to maintain when the landscape changes and tasks become obsolete as opposed to making changes in a number of different guides where that same information is referenced.

Edited March 17, 200620 yr by fraquar

Committees have become so important nowadays that subcommittees have to be appointed to do the work.

Edited May 23, 20224 yr by bcerhart
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I recently discovered the possibility of adding the programs I use to an nlite install. This is so out of this world it is amazing. I want to be able to make my own installers for programs such as Winamp, WinRar, 7Zip, Office 2000, OpenOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird to name but a few, the only problem is I have no idea how to do this It is just utterly bewildering so a guide that tells you what to do would be brilliant.

If wishes were horses, then beggars would be thieves.

Edited May 23, 20224 yr by bcerhart
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Hiya All,

I am working on a general Guide for more types of installs, will post it when it is quite finished. I will then appreciate your comments on it and also your sending me examples of App installs for each of the category or type of silent install. I will also try to give there links for respective guides that go deeper into detail on to making this or that... Also on this your comments will be appreciated.