pinion

A few weeks ago, when looking for an answer to this very same problem, I came across a Microsoft KB article that mentioned something along the lines of the [components] section not being supported (i.e. it is ignored) in the WINNT.SIF file when starting up an unattended CD. It is only parsed when used in UNATTEND.TXT and called as a commandline parameter for WINNT32.EXE with the /u:UNATTEND.TXT switch. It is also supported in WINBOM.INI when used with SYSPREP.EXE. I accepted that as fact and decided to do it the other way. I unpacked SYSOC.IN_, edited SYSOC.INF to comment-out ( the lines of all components I didn't want installed, and then and repacked to SYSOC.IN_. This worked and I haven't looked back. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time a Microsoft KB article has been wrong so perhaps [components] *is* supported in WINNT.SIF. But I never got it to work and it appears I'm not the only one.

I too have the same problem with WFP popping up everytime I need to perform a driver install. It happened first with just plugging in a USB thumb drive, something that doesn't even require a driver install per se (it should've already been included in Windows). And then again with Nvidia driver install for a Quadro 3400 and Intel drivers for PRO1000. I used to create my own SP2-slipstream discs (manually) and never had problems with WFP. I stumbled upon nLite while searching for a list of all post-SP2 hotfixes for XP. I found RyanVM's hotfix pack website and that led me to nLite. Funny because I been to MSFN many times before for help when doing my own slipstream discs, never noticed nLite I guess. Anyway, I decided to use nLite since it would allow me to easily use RyanVM's hotfix pack and also integrate the Adaptec CERC 2s HostRAID and PRO1000 drivers onto the disc saving me the F6 during install and giving me immediate network access following setup. As I started using it I was impressed with the other things it could do. Maybe I got a little carried away with all the options it gave me but I KNOW nothing was removed that I'd need (I errored on the side of caution for those I wasn't sure about). My question is, does anyone know WHY installations from nLite-created CDs exhibit these WFP warnings? Is it a specific action (e.g. removing components, tweaks, service modification, etc.) that is responsible for causing this? I would be happy to skip whatever is to blame if it would just let me create a CD (containing all the hotfixes from RyanVM's pack and my RAID/network drivers) which I could use to setup new systems without having to deal with the annoying WFP warnings. I don't want to disable WFP. I didn't modify anything on the 'General' tab except renaming the Administrator account. If this is just a shortcoming of nLite, the CDs it creates will always have this problem, I will just return to making my slipstream CDs manually but could someone explain to me how I can integrate my drivers? I already know how to do RyanVM's update pack manually (it's on his site). Or is RyanVM's pack responsible for the WFP warnings? If this is the case I'll integrate the hotfixes manually one-by-one.

Okay, but I'm not using CMDLINES.TXT. That is my point. I wanted to insert my tweaks into the HIVEDEF.INF file (which is used to create the Default User NTUSER.DAT file during install). I converted format from REG to INF and copied into the HIVEDEF.INF file but XP SP2 install always fails at T-39 mark.

Is merging .REG files from CMDLINES.TXT the only way of modifying the Default User profile during XP installation? I attempted another way, editing the HIVEDEF.INF before burning my XP boot CD. I converted my custom .REG file from .REG format to .INF format and added the lines to the HIVEDEF.INF file under one of the AddReg sections but I receive errors at the T-39 mark (beginning of GUI setup) about no digital signature or something like that. Currently I perform my XP install with, other than the slipstreamed SP2, a typical XP installation disc. Then, after first login I load the Default User NTUSER.DAT into REGEDIT (mounted as 'Default' under HKEY_USERS) and then merge my custom .REG file. The first login is done with a throw-away account created during OS installation so I don't care that it doesn't have the new default user profile settings. It gets deleted after joining the machine to our domain anyway.

Enabling Win95TruncatedExtensions (which is unnecessary since it is already enabled by default) doesn't do anything for performance. It simply mimics the behavior of Win95 when it comes to file operations (via command prompt) performed on long file extensions. It ONLY affects the command prompt. With it enabled (as you've done, and by default) running the command... DEL *.HTM ...will delete all files ending in .HTM as well as .HTML (and .HTM*, etc.). With it disabled (as I do, and strongly recommend) that same command will ONLY delete *.HTM files. Now you probably don't do anything from the commandline so it may not affect you. But power users will certainly want this disabled to avoid accidental file operations. Want more information?