Posted this on another couple forums but still waiting on a reply as yet. I forgot the memebr's name who tried helping me with code, but it left me stumped.

DISCLAIMER : sorry if i don't understand your reply, but i'm not too good with a whole heap of jargon, code & such like



It's the bit with all the $$ symbols that confuses me. I know the "\" signifies a new folder or directory, but there's no "$OEM$" folder on my XP Pro CD, there's also no "$$" folder.


IN ADDITION:
I wouldn't mind knowing how to install other apps at the same time as installing XP Pro ... Office XP, Shockwave, Java, Windows Live Messenger, WinRAR, Cool Edit Pro, Power DVD, DVD X Copy, Nero, Real Player, Quicktime <-- these are all things i have installed on the PC now & wouldn't mind installing them all at the same time as XP.
But i don't know how.
I saw a piece about installing progs, but then there was talk of batch files?? And more $$$ symbols for folders.
As i obviously don't know any of that, is there any chance i can install these progs?

1st things 1st though .... the activating win xp automatically question....?

Thanks.

You have to create the folders yourself...

Copy your XP CD-Rom to a folder on your HDD and create a folder named $OEM$ and inside that one create a folder named $$ and add the above files... Now create a bootable ISO of the XP CD files and done

You can also check out this tool by siginet called the OEM A.C.T. http://siginet.ryanvm.net/forum/viewforum....21d7839ae9552de

Installing program automatically you should download nLite and/or the RyanVM Integrator and here is a small list of addons/programs you can add to your XP CD http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511
More addons http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=132
More addons http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?showforum=88

thanks for the reply.

So to double check i have this understood....

in the folder i've copied all my XP files to, i create a NEW folder [$OEM$] in that folder theres a [$$] folder in THAT folder there's a [system32] folder and then i put the wpa files in there??

I have read a bit about these OEM machines straight out of a specific shop, say, dell for example. Mine isn't one of those though. I just bought an OEM xp pro as it was cheaper than the retail version.

If you could just confirm i've now understood the auto-activate thing, then that'd be great. Thanks for your help.

Yes.

So your wpa files should be in:

C:\xpcd\$OEM$\$$\system32

where C:\XPCD is the folder you copy your CD to. In case you wanted to know what this all means:

$OEM$ is a folder that Windows setup automatically scans for files and copies what is in there to C: from a couple of folders:

$$ means anything in here gets copied to C:\Windows (so because you have system32 in $$ and wpa files in system32, those files get copied to C:\Windows\System32

$1 means anything in here gets copied to C:\

This is handy for installing applications, running registry tweaks, etc after install, as it is all on your C drive for you.

k, got ya. thanks for the help there fellas.

I've kept meaning to come back to reply here for the past few days but keep forgetting

Well, i put the backup files in said folder & basically just a note to anyone reading this who is feeling like trying it ... DON'T

I did it as said in the above posts, formatted & went to install again, and i STILL needed to activate Windows manually. Infact when i came to go to my desktop for the first time, i was told at that point i needed to activate as well.
I restarted in safe mode, put the files into the System32 folder manually, and it still didn't work.

Intergrating the packs etc was fine, but this method to get round activation does not work.