does anyone know if WMI is up and running during the gui portion of an xp install? I have a script that will check the model of a machine and then install certain drivers (which are being troublesome and won't install properly without the setup file being run) based on that machines model. it works fine in a full blown already installed windows xp box, but it doesnt run properly when put into the commandlines.txt. it starts to run but fails. I am thinking this is because WMI isn't up and running yet there... any thoughts?

It's not available yet. This is a well documented issue.

You'll need to consider WinPE to deploy your images then, as WinPE 2005 includes WMI support. You can also use BartPE, as I believe there's a hack to get most WMI working there as well.

*mgrin* yeaaaah... my boss thinks i "overcomplicate" things, so i think introducing either bartpe or winpe isn't an option. They are just going to have to understand that not everything can be done exactly like they want

Well, you need to explain it to him in terms "management" can understand, live with it, or find a new boss . Any boss that actively hindered me from doing my job in the past was no longer my boss.

i'm going with the "live with it" portion i'm really new here, and still feeling out the way things work.

- just keep nodding...

I've had to do the following to get WMI working. Follow these steps exactly:

1> Set the following registry key:

Key: 'HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup'

Value: 'SystemSetupInProgress'

Type: DWORD

Data: '0'

2> net stop winmgmt /y

3> net start winmgmt

4> <Execute your WMI script(s) now>

5> Reset 'SystemSetupInProgress' to '1'

6> net stop winmgmt /y

7> net start winmgmt

NOTE: I've only queried 'Win32_ComputerSystem' for 'model'. Not sure if all functionality is available.

Edited August 2, 200620 yr by sgraves66

That's similar to process required for installing .NET 2.0 from svcpack.inf. I would use it sparingly. I've seen some spectacular failures when something goes wrong with that little reg hack.