User Accounts in RC2

[kelaniz]

I posted a similar topic in the RC2 sticky thread, but that thread's not getting much traffic, so I'm re-posting it here. Sorry for the duplicate.

Bascially, in RC2, I simply cannot get user account creation to work. Specifically, the only users being created are Administrator and Guest. I have 2 more I want to create. In the previous version, the user would be created, but the password (blank or not) wasn't added, so autologin failed. In RC2, these accounds just don't create. I've tried everything from making the Guest account an Admin account, renamed to what I want it to be, to manually editing the INI and moving my 2 accounts above Guest, to setting the username/full name/description to "kelani/kelani2/kelani3" to see what, if anything would add.

Nothing does. I know I can do this via command line, but I'd like to avoid that if I can help it, as it'll force me to setup XP, then reboot (I have secondary user/logoff, etc.. removed) to login under the Kelani account and run my silent installers.

So, has anyone gotten this feature to work in RC2, and if so, how? This problem is the last kink that remains to iron out in my build.

Thanks in advance,

KZ

[nuhi]

Please do this:

set it in nlite how it doesn't work, save that preset, go to the nlite\presets folder and copy presetname_u.ini file of the preset you just created.

But edit it and change all the sensitive (private) entries like passwords and cdkey to something else for me to try, attach it here.

Keep it in the format how it was written, just change the letters or numbers so that we don't see your real password or cdkey.

[rado354]

No user account creation problems with RC2 here.

[kelaniz]

Here's a few of the recent configs I tried. In all cases, Administrator and Guest were created, but Kelani wasn't..

Autologon section is the same on all presets. Side note, if you remove autologin from your config, the LogonCount=1 line stays in there. Dunno if that has any side effects..

[Unattended]
 ComputerType = Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC
 HibernationNo
 AutoLogon = Kelani
 LogonCount = 1

1st example: Renamed admin account, Renamed and disabled guest account, Kelani account with blank pswd and No password reqd.

[Users]
 Adminibator|AdminAccount|AdminAccount2|True|Administrators|x|False|False|True
 NotGuest|GuestAccount|GuestAccount2|False|Guests|x|False|True|True
 Kelani|Kelaccount|Kelaccount2|True|Administrators||True|False|True

2nd example: Same as above, except Kelani account has password and Guest account enabled.

[Users]
 Administrator|Adminaccount|AdminAccount2|True|Administrators|x|False|False|True
 NotGuest|GuestAccount|GuestAccount2|True|Guests|x|False|True|True
 Kelani|Kelaccount|Kelaccount2|True|Administrators|x|False|False|True

3rd example Same as #1, except no Full Name or Description on any accounts

[Users]
 Adminibator|||True|Administrators|x|False|True|True
 NotGuest|||False|Guests|x|False|True|True
 Kelani|||True|Administrators||True|False|True

That's 3 of the last 15 versions I've tried. The rest just contain more combinations of Full name/Description/ Must have password/Blank password settings. Most don't create any accounts other than Administrator and Guest. I've tried just about every variation I can think of; including not renaming Administrator or Guest.

The only config that actually added the Kelani account was #3 (leaving Full Name and description blank), but the password didn't work no matter if I set it or left it blank, so autologin still failed for the added account (always works fine for Administrator, though).

Is including the full name and description still an issue in RC2? If so, you may want to consider mentioning that somewhere in the forum. I had to dig around for quite awhile to find a post where it was mentioned, but that one seemed to say that problem was fixed as of RC2. So, I dunno.

In the interim, I migrated account creation to a GUIRunOnce batch file, which does work fine, but I'd (naturally) rather use nLite

Any ideas? other than this quirk, nLite definitely gets 2 thumbs up from me. Nice job

-Kel

[nuhi]

Just tried the #1 and it worked...so there must be something else rather than a specific setting that is messing it up for you.

I removed all in my test to go faster, used clean xp sp2 with nothing integrated.

Check your windows\setuperr.log file.

[kelaniz]

Ok, I'll check that tomorrow. Also, can you tell me what specific setting causes the item Unattended="No" to be set in the WINNT.SIF? The first couple of builds I made, this was set to "Yes", (which I wanted), but recently, no matter if I start with a clean Corp SP2 or OEM SP2 source, it always ends up being set to 'No" (which causes the OOBE to run). I've been changing it back manually, and can't find anything in nLite that affects it.

Another issue I wanted to make you aware of (if it hasn't already been mentioned). If you re-edit a source that you've already completed, and and added drivers to, if you neglect to uncheck the drivers tab, or remove those drivers rom the list, they're copied to the source and listed in the SIT twice, where it's then impossible to remove the duplicate entries. Are you planning to add an "Already added" check to prevent that, like the Themes section has? Just wondering.

I'll check another buld with #1 tomorrow and post back. Thanks a bunch for checking that for me.

[nuhi]

I don't know of any Unattended="No" option, are you sure it's nlite who is setting it?

Can't check for already added drivers, they are compressed while integrated. I could only put some sort of list of added folders but then still what if you updated your drivers there.

As I said earlier when you want to do some change to the CD best is to start over, load your preset, add the change, make the ISO...fast and safe.

[kelaniz]

I don't know of any Unattended="No" option, are you sure it's nlite who is setting it?

As I said earlier when you want to do some change to the CD best is to start over, load your preset, add the change, make the ISO...fast and safe.

On the Unattended="No" setting, my WINNT.SIF doesn't even exist until it's created by nLite, so I assume it must be what's setting it. Basically, here's my process: I have a XP Corp SP2 CD, (VRMPVOL_EN). I start by adding one RVM UpdatePack (RVMUpdatePack2.1.6.7z) to integrate a few missing hotfixes and a DirectX 9.0c addon. Then, I nLite the resulting I386. Since I''ve been testing a variety of builds with different things removed, I always start each time with a brand new nLite config, especially since it seems each time I run nLite on the same source, certain things disappear and reappear (like Clipsrv service). Since RC2, these builds have had this in the resulting WINNT.SIF

...
   [Unattended]
   UnattendMode=DefaultHide
   UnattendSwitch="No"  <---------Here's the switch in question..
   OemPreinstall="Yes"
   OemSkipEula="Yes"
   ComputerType="Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC", Retail
   FileSystem=*
   WaitForReboot="No"
   NoWaitAfterTextMode=1
   NoWaitAfterGUIMode=1
   DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
   NonDriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
   Hibernation="No"
   ...

That setting (apparently) makes what I asssume is OOBE run run at the end of setup. (I assume it's OOBE. It includes the Welcome animation, and 3 pages of setting up the Network and other stuff) I've been changing it to "Yes" manually, so it'll not load. I just wondered why it was now doing this. It appears on direct CD copied-nLited only builds from both my OEM and CORP CDs. If nLite doesn't do this, then how it appears on a build untouched by any other application really *is* a mystery!

Actually, could that possibly be due to the "Enable IP Setup" button at the top of the Custom IP/Network Adapter Page. One one early build, I clicked that to see what it did, it vanished, and that's when the problem started. Even though I did later builds with completely new settings, and didn't click that button again. (It also appears about 1 out of 10 times)

No problem on the drivers issue. Guess I'll just have to be more careful there. Going to try the usercreation here in a few mins. If it fails, I'll post the settings_u.ini here.

[nuhi]

Ok I looked and it does set UnattendSwitch to No if no Autologon, it's set to None.

Which makes sense. But separate option to skip OOBE would be in order I must say.

[kelaniz]

OK, thanks for the reply. That's good to know what causes it, and it makes sense. When I couldn't get nLite's user creation to work, I did it through a batch file, and unchecked everything in that section. That's when the OOBE problem started, but I was furiously making changes, so I didn't notice it.

As for the user creation problem. Well, it works now. I have *no* idea why. All I did differently was disable my temp-fix batch file and re-add the userinfo to nLite. Worked like a champ ever since. The next build I'm making, I'll re-add the 2 users as I had originally and see what happens.

The only possible cause I can think of is, when I first installed nLruntimeR3, it defaulted to install in \nLite however, nLite itself was installed in \nLite_1.3b (or something like that). Maybe that had something to do with it. Everything else worked, so I didn't think about that. I eventually reinstalled both into the same dir, though, and everything's working fine. I'll try the build with the complete userlist when I wake up today and see how it goes.

An OOBE option would be most excellent, since I'm sure more than a few people don't use Autologon for various reasons.

-Kel