[Whimsy]

July 24, 2004 - WPI 2.0 Now Available! Click to see what's new!

November 28, 2003 - The file has been updated. Be sure to get the new version!

:: A Hello ::
Hey everyone!
A lot of you are building Windows XP Unattended CDs, but if you are like me, you've done this to simplify installation. Stripping out default features is an incredable plus, as well! But, if you're like me, you really liked adding your own features to the installation routeen. Now Winrar installs itself, as does every patch, and most all program updates.

But I'm old school, and as much as I like my automated updates, I also like my options, dammit!

:: A Script ::
So I created Windows Post-Install Wizard (See Attached).

Using this Hypertext Application, you can add whatever options you wish. The Readme is incomplete, and I consider this a "beta", but most everything is there. I've tested this at 800X600, which is the resolution that Windows XP will switch to after the install, and everything appears to fit. If you modify it, bare that fact in mind!

As HTA files are not executed directly by windows, you will need to add a CMD file to your GUIRUNONCE.

[GuiRunOnce]
%systemdrive%\install\wpi.cmd
%systemdrive%\install\install.cmd
%systemdrive%\cleanup.cmd

If you want a cleanup.cmd, place it in the $1 folder, NOT the install folder. Mine looks like this:

@Title Finishing Installation...
@if exist c:\install rd /q /s c:\install
@if exist c:\drivers rd /q /s c:\drivers
@del %0

My setup calls WPI.CMD, which contains these lines:

start /wait %systemdrive%\install\WPI\WPI.HTA

To run, execute the HTA file from Windows 2000 or XP. Windows 98 should run it, but I don't guarantee, nor recommend it.

:: A License ::
I've chosen to make this public, because it would be a shame to keep it cooped up. I encourage people to hack it, customize it, and make it kick a**.

:: Addendum ::
Please, do not email me. I developed this, and I'm happy with it. If I add features that I feel will benifit other people, then I will post updates. If you create good addons, post the source code in this thread, so people can select what options they like, and add it to their source. This application is not geared for casual, "normal" people. But then, what "normal" people would customize their windows install

:: Finally, a Warning ::
If you have Norton Anti-Virus's script blocker feature on, then this will detect virus-like activity. This is because this file will write to %systemdrive%\install.cmd. I've made the script files as easy to browse as possible, so feel free to dissect this in any way you want. The HTA File is HTML, and it calls the JS files. The longest one is Generate.js, which creates the install.cmd file.

This is my first publically available, useful program that I've ever released! I hope it's a success
Enjoy, everyone!

Attached File(s)

•  WPI_December_12th_2003_4_12a.rar (80.77K)
  Number of downloads: 4263

[gosh]

Welcome to the forum Whimsy. I can't look at your program now, but i will later. It looks well done. Good job thanks for sharing.

-gosh

[Gism0]

Sounds cool, got any screenshots?

[Whimsy]

Gism0, on Nov 27 2003, 03:55 PM, said:

Sounds cool, got any screenshots?

Screenshots aren't a problem.

remember, it will look different if you run it in any resolution higher or lower than 800X600.

Attached File(s)

•  wpi_ss1.GIF (50.01K)
  Number of downloads: 4861

[Aaron]

****, that looks pretty nice

[Gism0]

wow that's nice!

does it run full screen or in a window?

[Whimsy]

Thanks
MSPaint messed up my second screen shot, so I'll take it again...

Gism0, it runs full screen, and has no title bar.

Feel free to open the HTA file in notepad to see the coolness of Microsoft HTA files

[Gism0]

yeah, I hadn't really looked into them until seeing that, pretty cool!

[Whimsy]

Here's the second screen shot.
Not much difference. The checkboxes are in the same HTML page as the help. This is designed to prevent someone from clicking "check all" or "continue" if the wrong site is loaded in that frame.

By the way:
Gism0, nice use of Mike.jpg.

Attached File(s)

•  wpi_ss2.GIF (46.9K)
  Number of downloads: 1936

[knewman01]

And to think I was gonna waste my Friday writing this app in VB...

Good job, Whimsy. And I have the perfect application for this. I want a comprehensive XP install disk. My definition of comprehensive is:

1. Can be used to install MY customized workstation config on my main desktop, resulting in a ready made system that I have to do minimal tweaking on.

2. Can be used to install XP unattended on any system that I run across, be it my secondary workstations, my wife's PC, my Dad's, or my Mom's.

Really, the only difference between the two cases is the number of secondary apps and registry hacks that get installed. With this, I can make one disk (albeit with a lot of drivers) and install on any PC.

Again, good work, Whimsy.

[Alanoll]

if you remove the line...

WINDOWSTATE="Default"

then it comes up in a "window" state and not taking up the whole screen.

and then add this somewhere in the head tags

<script Language="Javascript">
window.resizeTo(800,600)
</SCRIPT>

and it will show up in 800 by 600 like it was intended.

[Nephilim]

Hey Whismy would it be possible to ask you for a version that installs default values automatically after ten minutes idle time. I would throw away my XPES for a version like that.

[Aaron]

When using:

<script Language="Javascript">
window.resizeTo(800,600)
</SCRIPT>

and

WINDOWSTATE="Default"

Is it possible to get a fixed position of where it appears on the screen? It appears anywhere randomly.

[Whimsy]

Edit it so it looks like this:

VERSION = "1.0"
	WINDOWSTATE="default"
	>

<script language="javascript">
	self.resizeTo(800,600);
	self.moveTo(0,0);

</script>

<script
	language="JavaScript1.2"
	src="./main.js"

I've edited the first post version, and replaced it with the "current" version.

See the "changelog" section of the readme for the changes, and be sure to check out the WPI.HTA file.
You can probably upgrade the old version by extracting "timedefs.js" and WPI.HTA, though if you made any changes to the WPI.HTA file, you will need to readd them.

Edit: After going over it, "upgrading" using the process above is not a good idea, since there are 2 new graphics used and, and there have been very minor changes to how generate.js works (It no longer shows an alert box). Boxes has not changed, nor have any other files (that I can think of), so if you have a configuration already based on this, then you will need to make one quick change to the generate.js - Remove the alert on the last line.

From now on, I think I might include an "upgrade.txt" file, which will detail how to upgrade as seamlessly as possible

[ahmedramzi]

A stupid question!
you wrote in your GENERATE.JS:

Quote

if (document.inner.WPI.chkbox017.checked){
tf.WriteLine("Echo Installing Winamp 2.91") ;
tf.WriteLine("Echo Please Wait...") ;
tf.WriteLine("start /wait %SystemRoot%\\System32\\rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %systemdrive%\\Install\\winamp\\winamp.INF") ;
tf.WriteLine("REGEDIT /S %systemdrive%\\install\\winamp\\winamp.reg") ;

I have searched all the MSFN forums for how to install winamp 2.91, but i didn't find an answer.. so, what's winamp.inf & winamp.reg that you're referring to?

[Whimsy]

ahmedramzi, on Nov 28 2003, 04:00 PM, said:

A stupid question!
you wrote in your GENERATE.JS:

Quote

if (document.inner.WPI.chkbox017.checked){
tf.WriteLine("Echo Installing Winamp 2.91") ;
tf.WriteLine("Echo Please Wait...") ;
tf.WriteLine("start /wait %SystemRoot%\\System32\\rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %systemdrive%\\Install\\winamp\\winamp.INF") ;
tf.WriteLine("REGEDIT /S %systemdrive%\\install\\winamp\\winamp.reg") ;

I have searched all the MSFN forums for how to install winamp 2.91, but i didn't find an answer.. so, what's winamp.inf & winamp.reg that you're referring to?

This is a template that I use on my system, so you will need to edit things heavily to fit your system.

Since Winamp does not install silently, I created an INF file and a seperate reg file. I relize I could integrate the two, but I have a thing about keeping things far apart.

Edit out the bad parts if you need to. Just remember to use comment tags to remove it from the boxes.html file.

Edit: Just to clarify, make sure that, if you comment out the unused checkboxes in the boxes.html file, you must also commend out the assiciated lines from defaults, checkall, and generate script files, or else the associated scripts will error out. You could try visability="hidden" on the unused checkboxes to avoid the extra work, although you should also set those boxes to "false" on the defaults and checkall files.

[Alanoll]

what did you do to install winamp? as now i'm curious as to how you did it.

[Sleeper]

Im planning on suppling a recovery DVD with the pc's I build for people and was just wondering if it would be possible to add like a registration section onto this so that once this shows the User can type in the name and company so that it changes the one set on the system?

is this possible?

[gosh]

sysprep should let you do that. I think the switch is -mini or something. Consult ref.chm on sysprep.

-gosh

[Sleeper]

So i could have it that sysprep runs after everything is installed etc etc