[rado354]

This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating an unattended Windows installation CD with the latest hotfixes, drivers, DirectX, IE7, WMP11, Office 2007 and any other software that you would like to include on the CD. Remove useless components, apply tweaks and system hacks for the highest possible performance and productivity.

Don’t miss the video version of this tutorial where you can actually see the whole process of creating a fully customized, unattended installation CD and the result tested and running in VMware Machine.

Requirements:
- nLite 1.4
- Net Framework 2.0
- WinXP CD

1. Copy the entire content of your WinXP CD in some local folder.

2. Install .Net Framework 2.0 and nLite.

3. Choose your preferred language on the first screen:


4. Tell nLite where are your WinXP files. Select “Browse” and navigate to the local folder you created in step 1:


5. Choose what you want to do. You can choose only one operation, all of them, or any combination. For example, you can choose to create an ISO and skip the rest:


6. Service Pack: Slipstream a Service Pack into the installation. Just download SP2 for WinXP and nLite will do the rest. If you integrate SP2 you will not need SP1 because SP2 supersedes it.


7. Hotfixes, Addons and Update Packs: Add hotfixes and/or update packs to your installation. Any addons for nLite that you add here will be installed silently during Windows Setup also.


How to get all hotfixes after SP2:

* Use RyanVM Post SP2 Update Pack.
* Install WinXP. Run Windows Update and write down all the required hotfixes. Download them manually from Microsoft.
* Windows Updates Downloader - let this program download all hotfixes for you.
* Information about the hotfix releases could be found here: MSFN, TheHotfixShare and SoftwarePatch



* Windows Media Player 11: Download WMP11 Integrator and the WMP11 installer. Use WMP11 Integrator to slipstream WMP11 into your WinXP CD before making any changes with nLite. Once WMP11 is slipstreamed you can proceed with nLite.
* Internet Explorer 7.0: Just download IE7 and slipstream the .exe with nLite.
* Office 2007: Work in progress!
* Addons: Download more than 350 addons for nLite from WinAddons. These .cab addons will be installed silently during Windows Setup.

Video tutorial: Slipstream Windows Media Player 11
Video tutorial: Slipstream Internet Explorer 7 with nLite
Video tutorial: Integrate addons with nLite

8. Drivers: Integrate drivers into the installation. Browse to some .inf files and nLite will do the rest. Thanks to http://driverpacks.net/ you can create an installation CD with drivers for almost any piece of hardware. During setup Windows will only use the drivers required and will ignore completely the others. Unused drivers won’t be copied on your hard drive.


Video tutorial: Integrate drivers with nLite

9. Components: Select the components you want to remove from the installation. Make sure to read the short info before removing components especially those in red. Check the Components Removal Example to get an idea about the most important components you should not remove.


By clicking on Advanced you will be given the opportunity to keep some specific files. For example you can remove “Command Line Tools” but you can preserve ping.exe, ipconfig.exe, etc. which are part of this component by adding them to the Keep Box:


Power users could ignore the Compatibility Wizard:

This post has been edited by Kelsenellenelvian: 04 December 2007 - 11:20 PM

[rado354]

10. Unattended: Set personal settings in advance so you don’t have to during the installation like Users, CD-Key, Regional settings, etc. Here you can also add Windows themes:


Video tutorial: Unattended installation CD with nLite

Adding themes: you’re using some neat Windows theme and want it on your CD as well? Here is an example how to slipstream Luna Element 4 and set it as a default theme:
Video tutorial: Integrate themes with nLite

11. Options: You can pretty much ignore the General tab and go directly to Patches:


* Maximum unfinished simultaneous connections (TCP/IP patch): Set it to 100 or 1000 for max P2P performance.
* USB Port Polling Frequency (Hz): Increase for smoother USB mouse movement. Not for wireless mice or any other USB device, use with caution! Works on Logitech MX, MS IntelliMouse Explorer 3, Razer Viper and possibly others.
* Unsigned Themes Support (Uxtheme Patch): Set it to enable and you will be able to use a 3rd party themes (from DeviantArt for example).
* SFC (Windows File Protection): Set it to disable to stop the automatic recovery of replaced or deleted system files and folders. Although it might sounds like a useful feature, it’s highly recommended to disable it. The duration of your installation will be reduced drastically.



Video tutorial: Patch Windows with nLite

12. Tweaks: this is pretty much self-explanatory. Apply your favorite registry tweaks and configure Windows Services. Once Windows is installed all your tweaks will be applied, no need of post-install tuning.


It’s possible to configure the services as well.
Here you will find an excellent Windows Services Guide.


13. Bootable ISO: we’re almost ready. Once created just burn on CD the ISO or test it in a virtual machine. You can burn the ISO with nLite or your favorite CD/DVD burner like Nero for example. It’s recommended to use rewritable media (CD-RW or DVD-RW) to avoid media loss in case you’re not happy with your WinXP copy and want to create another one.


Video tutorial: Create a Bootable CD with nLite
Video tutorial: Burn ISO files with Nero
Video tutorial: Test ISO in VMware Machine 5.5 – shareware
Video tutorial: Test ISO in Virtual PC 2004 – freeware
Video tutorial: Test ISO in VirtualBox 1.5 – freeware

Credits: Rado@WinAddons

[leadboots5]

http://xable.net/ is also a great source for a windows update pack. it is just the critical ones. he does a great job keeping it up to date.

Excellent guide! Really wish I had this the first time through.

This post has been edited by leadboots5: 03 December 2007 - 07:11 PM

[mahe06]

thanks for al your hard work
i really appericiate it

now i have not see how to make office 2007 install with xp together at once

i have office 2007 entriprise edition, and i have gone thru the option a in building unattended, then i i have made a cutoom .msp file i have saved this custom build msp file inside the updates folder. but there are also other updates for office 2007 which i have downloaded and they are also in the same updates folder. is there any conflict between custom made MSP and other updates.
but how can i run this while installing xp, i have seen many forums but there is no clear indicating of making office 2007 unattended install at once with xp

but now my problem is how to put inside the winxp cd so office also install at once while installing xp.

can you help me in taking the snapshot of your unattended windows xp and office 2007?

am also using dot net addon from rougespear, so i guess there wil be no problem in installing office unattended. i have build other application usins silent install using addon maker.

how can i make office 2007 to install with xp since it is a big file around 550mb, i guess i cannot make addon for it
pl help me to make it

can you post some pictures in making winxp and office 2007 unattended install? waitin for you to reply
thanks.

[Arie]

I would suggest that you install Office via RunOnceEx. See the Unattended Guide.

[Extravert]

@Rado354

An Excellent job of the most beautifull Nlite guide I ever seen.
Nice piece of work :thumbsup:

I've made so many Nlite versions for people and your explenation encounter the more close way I handle Nlite too.

Keep up the good job

One critical point about SFC.

Leave it alone! When you have a hard job to doe with rebuilding Windows and/or fighting malware it is highly recommended to leave this option alone.
Some tweaks requires that you disable SFC, but dont use these tweaks. My personal experiences with SFC disabled are not so good.
Especially on Windows X64 it is highly recommended to leave SFC checked.
Framework 2 and 3 and their updates have a long job to do without the Catroot maps in your system32 map. There they are, de fingerprints of all your system files.

This post has been edited by Extravert: 04 December 2007 - 04:30 AM

[just_laze]

An excellent guide, but I'm waiting for SP3 to be released.

The first release candidate was posted by Microsoft yesterday.

laze.

This post has been edited by just_laze: 04 December 2007 - 05:38 AM

[Bluereaper]

THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

This is the best tutorial ever!!! Mad propz!

my brain was on over load just trying to read all of the threads..lol.!

[anonymous_user]

Very nice guide rado354. Well done

BTW I second the idea of using Xable's pack.

[Diablo1123]

Nice tutorial
You could go into more detail
Overall it's pretty good

Looking forward to Office 2007

[irq]

I think this should be a Sticky!!!!

This guide

http://www.msfn.org/board/GUIDE-Creating-Ultimate-Windows-XP-Installation-CD-DVD-t108574.html&pid=716735&mode=threaded#entry716735

This post has been edited by irq: 04 December 2007 - 11:16 PM

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Yeah it prolly should be BUT there is no need for a new topic just to say that!!!

Threads merged...

[irq]

ya....ment to reply, hit new topic by mistake.....thanks for fixing.