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Where comes "applying personal settings" from?


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Hello,

i'm just creating my first unattended windows xp cd (well, it became a dvd), and everything goes pretty well, except for one thing:

I use a self-written batch-file to apply some tweaks to the file system and the registry. Now this script is well-tested and works fine in normal use (e.g. by manually running it, right after the installation.), but when i run it trough RunOnceEx (like explained in the guide), there's another dialog coming up later. This dialog is entitled "persönliche einstellungen einrichten" in german. I could not find a proper translation, but i guess it's "applying personal settings".

The problem with this dialog is, that it overwrites my settings.

Obviously i searched for a way to run the script later, which would be possible by only writing the real call for my script to "HKCU\...\RunOnce", when in RunOnceEx.

All fine, but this does not work for other users that are created later. They get that dialog too. But adding a call to my script to their RunOnce isn't possible, and everything in "HKU\.DEFAULT\...\RunOnce" seems to get ignored. :(

I'm toally perplex. Why doesn't windows copy those settings from the default user, when it's applying the personal settings? And where is that dialog coming from anyway? (Google cant help me here, i searched for 3 hours straight.)

The optimum would be, to add my script right to that ominous dialog, so that it's getting applied at the creation of every user.

Has anyone done something similar or does anyone know more about this (e.g. where are the registry settings to control this dialog and add my own script?)

P.S.: Please excuse my bad grammar. English is not my first language, but my third from four. And i worked trough the whole night to solve this problem.

P.P.S.: Any help would be greatly appreciated, of course... and seeing how rare this information is on the internet, this would probably help even more poeple. So, many thanx in advance! :D

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===== Post Nº 1 =====

Hmm... I read the stuff and I now understand where the calls come from.

But what I don't understand is, why I would want to completely get rid of it.

As far as I understand it, this are components that get installed in the new user's registry-hive (or their user-specific parts to be exact).

So they're needed, aren't they?

The best way would be, to add my script as one of those components, so it gets called every time the other components got installed.

This opens two questions:

1. What GUID can I take? just generate one? Are there rules, like adding the guid somewhere else in the registry?

2. How can I enforce my script to be the absolutely last to be called?

If I've no better option, I think I could just

1. Ignore the GUID-stuff alltogether and

2. Call the new key "zzzzzz" or something alike.

Except that it sounds veeery spaghetti-code-hackish. ;)

Has anyone got a better idea? *hopes* ;)

===== Post Nº 2 =====

Ok, i've got it to work. Thank you.

Well... it works... partially...

I can't make my entry in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftActive SetupInstalled Components" the last.

So the other things are still called after my script.

I'm beginning to understand why someone would want them to be removed.

But if i remove them, then i still want them to work. I don't want to lose their changes.

And an additional problem arises.

I have to restart explorer.exe (or run everything before it gets started and without it being overwritten) to make the registry changes of my script visible.

Unfortunately, doing this in my script, creates an infinite loop of recursive runs when running in "applying personal settings". (Because it re-runs that thing everytime explorer.exe is started without my script being finished.)

I don't even know remotely, how to solve that. :(

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Actually, I don't know anything about unattended. I just know this from 'live' install where it's already applied, but I don't want to revert all the time. Sorry if I can't help you more. That was just a pointer...

Good Luck

GL

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That's ok. I'm thankful for any help. :)

We'll see... for now I've given up.

--- EDIT:

Ok, i think i found a solution...

- I use RunOnceEx.cmd to write ste StubPath for some helper script to "Active Setup\Installed Components".

- The helper script then writes the real user-specific script to "RunOnce" while "Active Setup" runs.

- This user-specific script fixes the things that got overwritten in "Active Setup".

Of course this only works if there's nothing in RunOnce, that's executed late, and that's overwriting it again.

I'm creating my test-installation right now. Let's see how it works...

Edited by BAReFOOt
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Hello, i'm now trying to solve same thing - did you tried that "zzzz" thing?

edit:

I tried it myself and foud out that zzzzz is the way to go and it think that zzzzzz is also very clear way how to do it!

Edited by Lolita
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===== Post Nº 1 =====

I tried it myself and foud out that zzzzz is the way to go and it think that zzzzzz is also very clear way how to do it!

Hmm, unfortunately, for me, zzz did not work! :(

Can you maybe show me the part of your script, that did it?

===== Post Nº 2 =====

I'm going crazy here... I have one script, which, when run at HKEY_CURRENT_USER...RunOnce, does have another behaviour than when run manually. WTF? It's a sample batch script. Just some registry imports and file moves (if they aren't moved already).

As long as the global variables aren't different, this can't be, can it?

This is madness...

And, Leonidas, you're not helping very much... even if "THIS IS SPARTAAA!" :P

Edited by Yzöwl
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Sorry my bad - i tried it on working windows with a,b,c,d,z,zzz and it worked as it should, but in real installation it do not work. Sorry once more for missinformation! :(

Runonce don't work 100% for me too - first i need somehow to hide taskbar and desktop icons[so there will be no user interaction during it], but mainly when i do restart after it complete (import registry tweaks) visual effects are not applied, only after next MANUAL restart \: But registry import seams to work ok - it IS imported, but don't apply, ehm WTF.

Don't write me that noone solved this before ...

Edited by Lolita
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But registry import seams to work ok - it IS imported, but don't apply, ehm WTF.

Don't write me that noone solved this before ...

I've no idea too. Right now there are too many possibilities.

I just with there were a way to get it to run last.

I may try the follwoing dirty trick: Put my script in Autostart.

I've tried RunOnce already, and it does not help.

But I saw many poeple complaining that their registry keys don't "stick", watever that means.

Maybe we can search for this, to get a solution...

Or else i will just stop caring, and put a link in autostart or on the desktop. :P

This part of windows really sucks.

(Unfortunately installing gentoo sucks just as much, when you have to set 200 badly described USE-flags, and emerge is failing on every other packet. ;))

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