Why No Option To Specify Destination Directory

[therube]

Why is there no option in nLite to specify a destination (output) directory, rather then having it end up in source?

(Or is there, & did I miss it?)

[Martin H]

Well, people should be wise enough to have a backup folder of the source and just make copies of it for each new job... That's just my oppenion, though

[therube]

I do do that already.

Nevertheless, IMO it would make it easier/cleaner if a destination directory option existed.

[strotee76]

In the case of nLite & vLite, as odd as it may sound, the destination is the source.

I don't quite understand what you're asking. You want nLite to make a copy of your entire source CD that is on the hard drive? One word: inefficient

Now, if you are using an illegal copy of an XP ISO, then I would hope you'd be smart enough to make a copy of the extracted files from the ISO when you run nLite through it.

[therube]

In the case of nLite & vLite, as odd as it may sound, the destination is the source.

Yes I understand that.

You want nLite to make a copy of your entire source CD that is on the hard drive? One word: inefficient

If you are only running nLite once & then you're done with it, then yes, it may be inefficient.

If you are trying to understand the processes & why & how something works or doesn't work, & you wish to start out fresh each time, then by running nLite, your source is no longer "gold".

I'm just starting out with nLite & update packs & whatnot, & over the last number of days, I've done a LOT of integrating, made a lot of changes, compared lots of files - & still haven't gotten to where I want to be.

What I do now, is to copy my XP CD to HD (called XP_gold).

I then make a copy of that (called XP_nLite) to use as my nLite source (& as is now destination).

Experiment.

If I need to try something different, I go back to XP_gold, copy that to another directory, say XP_nLite2, & proceed again.

Difference is whether I end up copying the files manually, or whether nLite does it in an automated fashion when it runs. Neither way is hard.

But it does make it less confusing when you can point to a known source & know that it is "gold", that nothing has been added or removed or changed in any way.

RyanVM Integrator gives that option & I find it convenient.

When I look down my list of directories that I've created - with varying names, XP_gold, XP_nLite, _Deploy, _NLITE, _NLITE2, _NLITE3, _RYAN, _RYAN2, _RYAN3, _RyanVM, ... after a while it gets confusing. Did I copy "gold" to a new directory already? Or did I just start out with an already nLite'd directory, were there changes already made in there? ...

And I have yet to investigate VirualPC & such. (As it is, so far, I'll integrate, save to ISO, & burn to a CD. Use that CD to do an actual install & see what worked or didn't. Yes I'm probably making things much harder on myself, & taking far too much time also, but that is where I am at currently.)

[nuhi]

I agree it would be nice to have that. I'll try to put it into the 1.4 beta.

[strotee76]

At least you're being somewhat honest with yourself. Using VMWare ( I recommend ) or VirtualPC would save a TON of wasted CDs and time. I just leave my original (virgin source) XP SP2 (in ISO format) on my hard drive. When I'm ready to reload my system, I extract the files into a folder on my desktop and point nLite to that folder and "go to town", so to speak.

On average, I go through 3-4 different ISOs (which you can boot from in VMWare) used in VMWare before being satisfied with the end result. Only the final end result will end up on a CD-R, not my previous 4 "screw-ups".

Bottom line: Use virtualization software, it'll save you a lot of grief. Good luck.

[Dark_Diver]

I agree it would be nice to have that. I'll try to put it into the 1.4 beta.

Nuhi, may be in that case [n/v]Lite can deal with .iso file as source?