computerguru

Nice guide CalBoy, this helps a lot installing apps which mayn't be installed at audit mode. Just a recommendation, if you use WinInstall LE to capture your installation routine, use a fresh, untouched windows 7 as reference OS, I mean if your OS already includes .netfx, ms visual C ++ redistributable, updated directx, the app simply overlooks installing them, but when to use those msi's on a win 7 which doesn't include them, then the apps may not work properly. @CalBoy you may also include something about WPI (Windows Post Installlation), or simply creating a autoplay menu, which let the user to choose what apps they like to be installed. Thanks a lot for your guide.

Now I am describing the core part. As this part covers custom setup environment, there a plenty of platforms avaliable. All these called as preinstallation environment or PE. Famous of them are BartPE, Windows Live CD, Norton GHOST, Farstone recovery console, Windows PE. Among of them WinPE seems to me as much more useful than the others, THOUGH MY EXPERIENCE SAYS THAT NORTON GHOST IS THE FASTEST OF ALL. But winpe at the same time can provide a huge of functionality we needed. WinPE is an operating environment but it just contains a command prompt by default, where X:\ refers to the %systemroot%\system32 directory of the mounted PE image. WinPE is not a real operating environment and automatically restarts in every 24 hours (though we can disable this by disabling system clock by a batch script). WinPE lacks of many more windows default functionalities. Note that we can gather winPE from both windows 7 setup disk or from Windows Automated Installation Kit, we must should gather it from WAIK. To create a winpe boot iso do the followings: (I assume your machine is x86) click start, all programs, deployment tools command prompt, then type the followings, press ENTER after a line; copype.cmd x86 C:\winpe_x86 copy C:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim C:\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\ImageX.exe" C:\winpe_x86\ISO\ now we have the winPE wim file from WAIK, and this is our reference wim file. As winpe lacks of some functionality by default; we have to remove this lackings according to our needs. We want to perform the setup task by winpe, so we have to add the following functinality; 1. imagex to expand and apply the install.wim file to a partition 2. diskpart to perform partitioning tasks, though diskpart is included in winpe, but it is not so user friendly, so we have to add a GUI front of diskpart which may be collected from the net. 3. Necesary files to run any GUI application, also have to make batch commands to perform the partitioning and imaging process. To be continued:)

Thanks a lot calBoy for your interest. Offcourse as I said knowledge and happiness increases by sharing, so don't mind posting a guide here. You're appreciated forever.

So, thanks to everyone who read, practised, advised on this topic, finally I want to start the second part of my guide. Not that knowledge and hapiness increased & sorrows dicreased by sharing, so if any one have any useful correction, do this without any hesitation. I try to cover my guide in two parts 1. VHD boot method (simpler to those who pratised a lot, have many useful features like no limitation of wim file size, very fast and secure but NOT SO GOOD METHOD TO END USER). I'll explain this method later (though its recommended for the experienced user). 2. Custom setup environment method. It's 'custom' so the method may vary from user to user, it's uefulness depends on it's adjustments but frankly to say you have no troubles understanding windows setup routine after practising this. Windows setup routines: There are two methods of installing windows, pre vista (or pre longhorn) & vista. 1. Pre vista: Previous versions of windows includes setup routine, which have windows files compressed (mainly LZX compression methods were used). Such as explorer.exe was compressed as explorer.ex_, each files were compressed and in setup time it had two parts; a. text mode setup. Start from loading hal, kernel debuggers and other massstorage drivers. Then uses fdisk or format.com to format partitions. Diskpart to modify, create, delete, rebuild partition table (just a moment, would you point that diskpart of win2k,XP is much more efficient than vista or 7, specially creating primry and logical partitions at the same time). Then loading setupp.ini from the i386 directory of intallation media, reading the txtsetup.sif file to make the lists of files to be copied, copying files to the %systemdrive% drectory, loading registry hives, and then performing oemdetachedcommand if provided. b. graphical mode setup: installing the devices detected, installing network, installing startmenu items and at T-13 stage, perform the svcpack.inf provided tasks. Then at 1st logon runs the runonceex commands if provided. Intallation usually takes 30-35 minutes and if large number of drivers are integrated, huge applications called to be installed unattendedly, may take hours to complete, but a good thing is can be performed on a very very slow p-3 machine, and setup CD doesn't include tons of unnecessary apps. 2. Vista (or longhorn) setup routine: Mainly insisting on deployment, specially server deployment, the breakthrough in windows setup was invented, the silence breaking imaging format .wim (windows image) was came to light, in this format a single file contains all files and it's just a image of a drive or a partition, so takes longer time to build the .wim file but takes a little time to mount and expand. In this method there are two parts; a. WINPE: loads all necessary massstorage drivers, then use diskpart to modify partition (doesn't seem so much useful to me). Then mount the install.wim file, expand it to the selected partition, mark this partition as active. b. SETUP: as the install.wim file is integrated enough to perform the rest of the setup procedure (including driver installation), then oobe (or audit) part is performed, user dektop initialization process completes and then... thats just enough for the time, you may think that I'm o much elaborate, but I think it is required.

Thanks yesnovato, you shouldn't be worried about the deletion process if you follow my method, if you use firtlogoncommands method then execute your clean.cmd as the last command, so tweak2.reg then looks like Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "Final"="regedit /s C:\\Windows\\setup\\scripts\\tweak1.reg" ;you may put your another entries here. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "Final9"="C:\\Windows\\setup\\scripts\\clean.cmd" clean.cmd will be executed at your first logon, setupcomplete.cmd will be executed before first logon commands. So, no worry. For inbox drivers, windows 7 contains a lot of drivers included in the image by default (mainly the graphics & sound card drivers). If your integrated driver is not better or up to date, then it won't be installed. Also, I read some problems with Nvidia display drivers, you may check them from www.driverpacks.net.

Hello CalBoy, you can restar ur pc before syspreped and Daemon will continue, after that u can syspreped ur image. I hope that helps, good luck Yesnovato No no, sorry i didn't explain it correctly. Its not the installation thats the problem. Daemon tools installs fine in audit mode, but after its installed and i take the image of the drive. When its being installed it has trouble. I'll take a screen shot when I have a moment and show you what i mean. Thanks Calboy @ CalBoy, thanks for the suggetion, I'll add it shortly. Also thanks a lot for mentioning Daemon tools, it helps me a looooooot understanding your problem dude. Daemon tools or any virtual drive emaluator (such as ultra ISO, Magic ISO, etc) may and in most cases offcourse break the intallation routine. As it is suggested that programs like this SHOULDN'T BE INSTALLED IN AUDIT MODE. They'll create problem at driver detection stage. If you follow the next part of my upcoming guide, you may then do this, but not yet. Rather you may install them via setupcomplete.cmd or runonce at this time. I requet you to stay in touch with this topic.

Thanks a lot Yesnovato for testing & posting your results. But YOU TOTALLY MISUNDERSTOOD MY POST ABOUT HKCU REG ENTRIES. You called your tweaks1.reg to be merged via setupcomplete.cmd, which included HKCU entries. You was totally wrong, you have to call it to be merged via RunOnce (which you know as FirstLogonCommands) not from setupcomplete.cmd. Setupcomplete.cmd just puts a runonce (firstlogoncommand) entry to merge it which may be : regedit /s "%systemroot%\setup\scripts\tweak2.reg" put this line into your setupcomplete.cmd, and then create a .reg file with the entries below; Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "Final"="regedit /s C:\\Windows\\setup\\scripts\\tweak1.reg" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "Final2"="rd /s /q C:\\Windows\\setup\\scripts" save the file as tweak2.reg, put it in your scripts folder. Remember if you follow this method, you don't need clean.cmd. If you like to use clean.cmd run it from firstlogoncommands via autounattend.xml NOT FROM setupcomplete.cmd. But I am happy as you have already done this (merging HKCU registry entries) via autounattend.xml via firstlogoncommands, note that firstlogoncommands refers to RunOnce. For drivers, if windows 7 inbox drivers are updated than your integrated drivers, they wont be installed. Also you should use winintegrator instead of waik for driver integration as I have tested and found it much more efficient. Also in your clean.cmd, you used %system% which is wrong, it should be %systemroot%. Thanks, PLZ REPLY IF YOU UNDERSTAND OR NOT. I'll start posting the second part of my guide after some hours today.

Would you mind posting how you make the image (via winPE or from desktop using WAIK), also provide your imagex command. There may be another possibility, from the image you provided it seems to me that D:\ is your DVD drive (make me sure, was I right or wrong), your DVD may be corrupted. As windows setup displays this type of error message when- 1. The install.wim file can't be found in %installationmedia%\sources location (make right if you name your image file install.wim, recheck it). 2. Your install.wim file is corrupted (to check whether it is corrupted or not, just run setup from your desktop, untill you get the product license page, if it appears, your image is ok). 3. Your installation media is corrupted (to check it copy the contents of your DVD to any temporary location, if the copy process is successful then delete the copied contents from the temp location). But from the image you posted, I assume you wasn't get the product license page (even you might not get the install options page), so case 1. is the most possibility. Check it and post here if your problem is solved or not very soon.

Hello Computerguru The same problem, now i test with my x64 tweaks, it doesn't work and I get the $windows-bt and $windows-ls at C:\ i dont know what is the problem, I follow the tutotial. Please could you help me. Thank in advance @ Yesnovato, you MUST check the generalize checkbox, otherwise your installation traces, and the $windows-bt and $windows-ls at C:\ won't be removed. Make it right and let me no if it works. for tweaks, just use a registry file instead of tweaks.reg, which previously worked with your x64 machine, it will helpful to determine which part isn't working, tweaks.reg or RunOnce. 32 Bit machine means x86 machines. Post your result soon.

You are right in one point, really there are no text mode in windows 7 installation routine. But about hardware independent setup, the file setup.exe is totally dependent on halacpi.dll( checked through dependency walker), and whenever windows setup runs, it modifies the file according to machines hardware configuration. And about what is happening during setup, I planned to post the procedure in the 2nd part of my guide, but for ONLY your case you can run procmon (a freeware process monitoring utility) during setup. Just copy the file to boot.wim, index no.1 %mountlocation%\windows\system32\procmon.exe. You can then run it from startnet.cmd (executed before setup.exe executes). Just add this line to it: procmon.exe then you can monitor processes running during setup. Note that the setup environment (windows 7 setup OR WinPE) x64 machines, is totally different from x86 machines. But the tricky one, you could point it. Yes, if you made the partition bootable using windows 7 x86 media then if you add it to a x86 machine, installation should must go (no matter the partition or disk is prepared in a x86 or a x64 bit machine), and for the x86 media this is all the same. Thats just the end, I'll be happy if you inform me that if I can help you or not.

Actually you might have some mistakes yesnovato. 1st I've experimented the method, and in my case the folder c:\windows\setup\scripts was deleted (the 'rd' command removed the directory). But I think you were wrong because you had C:\$windows-LS and C:\windows-BT, as if you performed a fresh installation (from any bootable media) then there SHOULDN'T these folders (they had been created for temporary purpose, when you run setup from your desktop). For 2) I'm thinkinng about it, but just a question, do you applied my provided tweaks.reg( they only works with 32 bit os), or your own?

Your question isn't so clear dude. If you wanted to mean 'keys' as 'product keys', obviously they won't be wiped out. If you wanted to mean application settings (office customization including options whether to download product updates or not), then just follow the method I previously posted. Reply if it can help you. @Yesnovato, what about you? Did you face any problems understanding?

Hey thanks for the quick answer! Yeah i have a genuine product key so thats fine. What else with the generalize setting do? Also when i run sysprep with the generalize will it wipe all of my application settings? As a few of my applications i setup before hand therefore not having to do it everytime i install windows. I have to install windows across quite a few computers as i take care of multiple computers on a site, so i dont want to have to put the applications settings in for every computer. I've looked into WinPE but I would like to see if this method would be any quicker. Thanks in advance No, none of your application settings will be wiped out. But if your application settings include HKCU registry values (I assume you know what it meant for), such as shortcuts, windows media player customizations, then you may lost them, as for ONLY YOUR CASE, you want to keep this settings once applied, you have to do the following (Personally I DON'T like this, as every of your customer have differrent choice, you shouldn't DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE SURE THAT YOU ARE RIGHT). 1. Install windows, enter audit mode, install apps, customize application settings (known as application data). 2. Go to %systemdrive%\users\Administrator. 3. From the organize tab, select folder and search options, select "show hidden files and folders" uncheck "hide protected operating system files". 4. Select all contents of this folder (alternatively you may just select the application data (and or AppData) folder). 5. Copy them to %systemdrive%\users\default folder, overwrite any file if required. 6. Then run sysprep, select the generalize checkbox, your application settings will be saved and applied to every computer when you reinstall windows using this sysprepped image. Thanks PLZ Don't forget to post your response.

There is just a one question; do you have a genuine windows 7 product key? If your answer is yes then offcourse you can run windows update during sysprep. Windows update just requires your windows 7 product key to be genuine and also requires it to be activated, you can then run windows update. Don't worry about your product key, it won't be stolen. When you run sysprep and also select the generalize checkbox, all traces of your activation will be removed at sysprep DTC cleanup stage. Also your SID (which uniquely identifies your machine) will be removed. But if your answer is no, then you have to buy a genuine one or have to take non-genuine steps which may also violate your local law. I'm waiting for your response.

Thanks Yesnovato for your quick response. I think you shouldn't be frustrated, what you (and I) have done isn't programing, it's just a fun and trying to make our operating system according to our sweet wil, so don't judge yourself as a less quality person, just keep practising and it will make you perfect (not a programmer, but a person who knows what he wants to do). You are a bit wrong. Also I was wrong the file STARTNET.CMD WON'T BE STARTNET.CMD it is SETUPCOMPLETE.CMD(CORRECT THIS, OTHERWISE YOUR SCRIPT WONT WORK, sorry for this silly mistake) I'm calling my 1.reg file from setupcomplete.cmd (setupcomplete.cmd is a command script, not registry script), 1.reg file saves RunOnce entries to be executed. tweaks.reg is your (or my) HKCU reg. RunOnce execute the following command to merge your HKCU REG (TWEAKS.REG) to registry. "regedit /s C:\\windows\\setup\\scripts\\tweaks.reg" 1.reg file just saves the RunOnce entry to registry to merge tweaks.reg(HKCU REG). To delete the folder, you have to add another RunOnce entry. For example I'm attaching your required 1.reg, tweaks.reg(HKCU REG), setupcomplete.cmd. Note that you will have 2 reg files and a .cmd file on your C:\windows\setup\scripts directory (1.reg, tweaks.reg, setupcomplete.cmd). You need tweaks.reg(HKCU REG) file at c:\windows\setup\scripts directory when runonce is executed, so the command to remove the directory should be executed via runonce after merging tweaks.reg. Just right click my attached 1.reg file, select edit and you'll find the commands (including command to deleting c:\windows\setup\scripts). You shouldn't be worried about the final script to keep it out from c:\windows\setup\scripts. If you still can't understand post it very soon. 1.REG SETUPCOMPLETE.CMD TWEAKS.REG

Thanks Yesnovato for practising. It's a universal truth that whenever you enter into an experiment you can notice it's instances, usefulness and weakness. But without experimenting you can't just declare a method as good or as bad, which some of users have declared. HKCU(HKEY_CURRENT_USER) values must be applied under an administrator or a limited or a guest user and settings applied via HKCU keys are only applicable to the user account, under which they are applied. setupcomplete.cmd is executed just after finishing the setup and before user desktop environment initializes, so I was wrong, a .reg files including HKCU values shouldn't be applied via setupcomplete.cmd, rather it should be applied via RunOnce. As RunOnce commands are executed after finishing user desktop environment initialization, all settings necessary for HKCU values have been applied. There are differrent methods to run a registry scripts via RunOnce, in my case I've created two registry files, one for setting RunOnce values, second is the tweaks.reg. First registry file looks like: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "Final"="regedit /s C:\\Windows\\setup\\scripts\\tweaks.reg" And I named this file as 1.reg, then added it to my setupcomplete.cmd by typing: regedit /s %systemroot%\setup\scripts\1.reg Note that setupcomplete.cmd, 1.reg, tweaks.reg files should be on "C:\Windows\setup\scripts" folder when windows setup executes them and %systemroot% refers to C:\Windows. You may add these files via $OEM$ method. Just make directory UnattendedDVD\SOURCES\$OEM$\$$\SETUP\SCRIPTS and copy all three files to the directory( to SCRIPTS folder). The other method is mount your install.wim with write access. Go to mount location, navigate to windows folder create two folders as the directory structure will be %mountlocation%\windows\setup\scripts, copy your setupcomplete.cmd, 1.reg and tweaks.reg to the scripts folder, now unmount the wim file after applying the changes. Maybe it's just enough for you. If you need further information, post it here. Oh! and about the 2nd part of my guide, I'm very very busy with my study (as my exam is just knocking at the door), but I'm trying my best to post, now I'm collecting necessary screenshots (as I think they are required to understand my post), and if everything will ok, I'll start posting within two days. Thanks for your interest.

Thanks 2 everybody. Today I am going to start posting complex part of this guide. In this I will try to cover various sections, such as custom setup.exe, reducing setup time & appearance etc. You may know that we can use our custom setup environment instead of the MS provided default. Which will be much more efficient and useful. In the default windows 7 setup routine, we can't install windows on USB hard disks (or R-Driver linked SATA hard disks), IEEE 1394 connected devices, which I think a big disadvantage (cause if you are using netbooks on most cases your SSD must not be more than 16 GB). And also we can't even use USB drives during setup, further more I don't think it provides much more support for recovery. But if we can use such an setup environment which gives us oppurtunities to install windows on a USB hard disk or on a network share it will be great (I think so). Also it will gives us much more oppurtunities for branding and helps us understanding the setup routine clearly. What we need: 1. Windows AIK for Windows 7 2. Any software or programming language to create executable and binary and library files. I'll start posting later today.

Ok, what method you used to install windows 7? I mean did you install windows XP from CD/DVD. Then boot from windows 7 installation DVD and install windows 7 from the DVD? If you have done this then this is your problem. You have to install windows XP from CD/DVD and then FROM YOUR WINDOWS XP DESKTOP RUN WINDOWS 7 SETUP VIA SETUP.EXE FROM WINDOWS 7 INSTALLATION DVD, SELECT D:\ AS THE INSTALLATION LOCATION, PERFORM A CLEAN INSTALLATION (NOT UPGRADE), then WHEN YOU WILL BE DONE INSTALLING YOU WILL SEE WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER DISPLAYING TWO OPERATING SYSTEMS, "Earlier version of Microsoft Windows" & "Windows 7". You must follow the routine if you like to have dual boot with XP and Win7. This is because when you install windows XP, ntldr will be the boot loader file and the bootable drive will be C:\, also an 8 Bytes entry will be written to your C:\ drive system volume information. Then you boot from the windows 7 installation DVD, install windows 7 on partition D:\ (on the same HDD), then your boot loader file will be bootmgr and windows loader will be w7ldr, a 8 Bytes boot entry will be written on drive D:\. Then whan you restart your PC. It tries to boot from the C:\ and D:\ drive at the same time, but an HDD only can have one bootable partition at the same time, so chkdsk thinks it may be a file system error but fails to boot. If you follow my method your bootable partition will be only the C:\ drive (though windows 7 is installed on partition D:\). And bootmgr replaces the ntldr as the boot loader file (ntldr will still on the C:\ drive as this is the loader file for windows XP & w7ldr as the windows 7 loader) but if you boot from windows 7 DVD(not from your desktop), install windows 7 on D:\ drive, bootmgr doesn't save windows XP boot entry. MBR (Master Boot Record) can only store 8 Bytes data (boot data). Thats the end, please post if my answer is helpful or not.

Hello to everyone again, I was busy with my study and so I can't able to read your responses. @maxxpsoft and others I have given autounattend.xml & tweaks.reg only as framework or as a sample, you may use your own scripts instead of mine. You ask me how I didn't use vista/se7en ua DVD creator or any other software. sorry ar_seven_am your tool may be helpful to someone but NOT TO ME!!! If I use the method of installing applications via your appswitch.dat method it will take at least 1 hour to install windows, AND THE TIME TO INSTALL WINDOWS IS THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN XP AND VISTA/7 INSTALLATION ROUTINE. I integrate office 2010 professionalplus, nero 9, mozilla firefox, adobe acrobat with my installation DVD image, if I use your tool I've to spend more than 1 hour to install windows everytime I want to install windows also I have to make silent installation packages which is so much bogus and time spoiling method to me. Why you spoil your time? If you follow my method INSTALLATION ONLY TAKES 12 MINUTES & YOU WILL SEE YOUR DESKTOP WITHIN 14 MINUTES!!! And guyz who adviced me, most possibly didn't read the start of my post carefully. I've written I've done a lot of research, and off course I was tried vista/se7en ua DVD creator and IT SEEMS NOT SO HELPFUL TO ME. And for the unattended setup I am now going to attach my autounattend.xml which I used with windows vista(installation time takes longer if you try to install long sized apps through it), IF U NEED EXPLANATION PLZ POST IT HERE, OTHERWISE I'LL ASSUME THAT U DON'T NEED EXPLANATION. Again thanks to everyone to read my post and posting responses. AUTOUNATTEND.XML

Thanks for your reply, actually I've given the wrong link, now I've corrected it. If you or anyone feels any need of explanation or correction, please post it here, I'll try my best to satisfy you.

Hello guyz, I've done a lot of research about windows 7 unattended installation, and a month before, I was able to make an unattended windows 7 DVD including useful apps, device drivers, a lot of registry tweaks, brandings, some really cool themes, and the most anticipated windows dreamscene. I'm posting the proceedings here just in text format, without any screenshots or attachments, if someone becomes interested, I'll post them later. What We Need: a) an untouched windows 7 DVD resource editing software like reshack, restuner etc. c) WAIK for windows 7 d) winintegrator e) .net framework 4 beta 2 f) vmware or virtualbox for testing g) any burning software Proceedings: 1. Copy all contents of the DVD to your local hard disk, for instance we assume it's D:\w7. 2. Download and install resource editor or pe explorer. 3. Download & install waik for windows 7. 4. Download gimagex for windows 7, extract it copy gimagex.exe in the same directory of imagex.exe. 5. Run gimagex, in the mount tab select a mount location(no prob what directory to be chosen), then browse to D:\w7\sources select install.wim as the wim source check the box "read and write", then go to your mount location, you will find a folder named windows, for branding you have to modify the following files- a) explorer.exe for the start orb (you may download some stylish orbs from the net), open explorer.exe with pe explorer under section bitmap replace the 6801, 6805 & 6809 resource with your orb %mountlocation%\windows\system32\bootstr.dll also %mountlocation%\windows\system32\en-US\bootstr.dll.mui c) %mountlocation%\windows\system32\imageres.dll you have to modify this for login screen d) %mountlocation%\windows\branding\basebrd\basebrd.dll also %mountlocation%\windows\branding\basebrd\en-US\basebrd.dll.mui e) %mountlocation%\windows\branding\shellbrd\shellbrd.dll f) %mountlocation%\windows\system32\shell32.dll g) %mountlocation%\windows\system32\uxtheme.dll h) %mountlocation%\windows\web\wallpaper\windows\img0.jpg 6. If you want to add themes copy them to %mountlocation%\windows\resources\themes also you have to copy patched uxtheme.dll to the directory previously stated. 7. Go to gimagex check the box "commit changes", select your wim file then click unmount. 8. Make an iso file by using the command- "%systemroot%\program files\windows aik\tools\x86\oscdimg -lW7DVD -h -n -m -bD:\w7\boot\etfsboot.com d:\w7 d:\w7.iso" your iso file should be saved as d:\w7.iso. 9. Install any virtual machine, I strongly recommend using vmware (I'll tell you why we don't use a secondary partition on the later part of this post). a. For vmware, install it, run it, from the menu select create new virtual machine. b. You have to choose these settings, number of processors: 2, RAM: 512 MB, virtual hard disk: 60 GB. c. From the advanced menu for virtual hard disk, select Independent & Persistence. d. From the cd-dvd choise, select "use iso image". 10. Select d:\w7.iso as the iso source. 11. Create a virtual hard disk with 60 gb of size. 12. Start your machine, windows installation will be started normally, accept license, and then create two partitions. 13. Windows setup will complete the process and will give you a page where you can enter your product key, do not type anything just press ctrl+shift+f3 which will reboot your pc to audit mode and a default sysprep window will appear, do not close this. 14. Install your necessary applications, reboot if necessary, apply registry tweaks, note that registry keys having value "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" won't work, you have to run them via setupcomplete.cmd. 15. On the sysprep window select Enter system out of box experience, select shutdown and then run sysprep. 16. I suggest using vmware as this gives v2p (virtual to physical) feature, mount your virtual hard disk with the drive letter z: 17. Click start-windows aik tools command prompt type imagex /compress fast /check /flags "Ultimate" /capture z: d:\install.wim "Windows 7 Ultimate" "Windows 7 Ultimate x86" note that "Ultimate" is flag and it may vary according to your windows 7 version 18. Now you have a wim file as D:\install.wim replace D:\w7\sources\install.wim with this one. 19. Download and install winintegrator (it requires .net framework 4 beta 2 to be installed). 20. Run winintegrator, select your location of windows 7 media such as D:\w7. 21. You can integrate drivers (can be downloaded from driverpacks.net), remove unnecessary packages via winintegrator (but once you have finished removing packages these can never be added). 22. Create an autounattended.xml file following my attachments (I've done this to cover product key check). 23. Copy this autounattended.xml file to D:\w7. 24. Make an iso image of your windows 7 installation files using commands we used at step 8. 25. Burn this iso image to a DVD, then you will get your unattended DVD!!! N.B. We can't use a secondary partition such as D:\ as we will have some problem with some software because of this. Specially if you install windows on partition D:\, and install programs that make directory D:\MSOCache then whenever you imaged your pc, make an unattended DVD, setup windows on partition C:\ by this DVD, you will face problems. Useful links: a) windows aik: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26D3B3B34&displaylang=en pe explorer: http://www.heaventools.com/download-pe-explorer.htm c) win integrator: http://forum.driverp...c.php?pid=35940 d) .net framework 4 beta 2: http://www.microsoft...73-2171b61fe982 e) vmware: http://www.softpedia...nload-5341.html f) gimagex: http://www.autoitscript.com/gimagex/ g) necessary driverpacks: http://driverpacks.net/ h) uxtheme patcher for 7 RTM (you have to use it at audit mode): http://rapidshare.co...r--x86.rar.html Attachments: AUTOUNATTEND.XML TWEAKS.REG And that's the end, if you have problems post it here, I'll try to resolve them.

Hello studio48, I guess, I can understand the reason of the error, go to your Autounattend.xml file, and remove all entries under section "offlineServicing", plz note that WINDOWS 7 INSTALLATION DOES'NT SUPPORT OFFLINESERVICING IN AUTOUNATTEND.XML. Think this will help you solving your prob.