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XP "Manufacturer Link"


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On new Compaq/HP and Dell Computers they have an extra button on the start menu that points to the manufacturer support app or site.

Using the information from a Dell XP CD I discovered a simple method for adding your own Manufacturer Link to the start menu during Install.

First add the following line to the CMDLINES.txt (or equivilent) file.

rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 128 .\oem.INF

Now create your oem.inf file with the following lines:

[Version]
Signature=$CHICAGO$

[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=OEMLabel.AddReg, OEMHTML.AddReg, OEMIcon.AddReg, OEMLink.AddReg, Volume.AddReg

[OEMLabel.AddReg]
HKCR,"CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}",,0000000000,"Button Label"

[OEMHTML.AddReg]
HKCR,"CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag","Command",0000000000,"Context Label"
HKCR,"CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag","Param1",0x00020000,"path-to-app"

[OEMIcon.AddReg]
HKCR,"CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon",,0x00020000,"%SystemRoot%\youricon.ico"

#Allows you to show/hide the OEM link
[OEMLink.AddReg]
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\ShowOEMLink","NoOEMLinkInstalled",0x00010001,0

#Adds Volume Control to Tray
[Volume.AddReg]
HKCU,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\SysTray","Services",0x00010001,31

This adds the OEM branding Icon to the start panel and the option to show/hide it from the advanced properties. (adds the option "Manufacturer Link" next to Help and Support)

You can also add a line in the CMDLINES.txt to copy your OEM icon to the windows directory.

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Hi openware,

Thanx for the info.

You might like to check out a .REG method for this as well:

;Link to any location on start menu (Branding)
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]
@="Internet Searching"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\system32\\shell32.dll,-15"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"CLSID"="{13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000}"
"method"="ShellExecute"
"Command"="Internet Searching"
"Param1"="http://www.google.com"

Of course, I changed it to make it worth the function - you can just as easily set the Param1 to a path on your HDD, or some other site like dell.com.

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  • 3 years later...

so can we add a Manufacturer Link after its all done like if it doesnt have the oeminfo.ini etc in the system32 directory can we also add that Manufacturers Link as an addon too ?

if so what do we need to do to have something simple.. thanks

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