Solution: theme not loading on unattended XP

[sleepydvdr]

I just thought I'd mention this for others who may have been having the same problem I have been trying to figure out for weeks now. My first couple hundred attempts at making a fully unattended install of XP with a different theme went great. The theme loaded perfect every time. But for the past few weeks, it started not loading the theme properly once in a while. It was getting worse and worse and for the past 2 weeks, it wouldn't load the theme at all!

I tried all kinds of stuff to try to force the theme to work (I was getting very creative ). Then I took a step back and pondered what have I been doing differently now than when it worked. Guirunonce. I have been adding more and more to my guirunonce lately and thought maybe this may be the problem. I rebuilt my last version without the guirunonce. The theme installed perfectly again.

So, what I did was put a batch in the Windows directory and a shortcut to it in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder. In the batch file, I got it to delete the shortcut to itself in the startup folder, applied a runonce registry file to run another batch file that installed the last bit of software that needed to run at guirunonce, and told it to reboot the computer in 20 seconds (I feel better having Windows fully booted before shutting down). It worked perfectly.

So, the lesson learned is that too many things in the guirunonce can prevent your theme from installing correctly. Just thought I should mention this since it has been making me pull my hair out and I finally figured out the solution. I figured that if I had this problem, others probably have been, too. I think people are sometimes too scared to ask a question because the canned answer from so many people is to use the search button. I don't recall anyone ever talking about this particular subject.

Peace, everyone!