A New Cd-switching Utility

[Takeshi]

I meant in Unattended Tools

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=32957

As to this one:

http://unattended.msfn.org/global/downloads.htm

I find having two lists somewhat inconsistent.

[Alanoll]

I meant in Unattended Tools

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=32957

As to this one:

http://unattended.msfn.org/global/downloads.htm

I find having two lists somewhat inconsistent.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here's the difference....

One is maintained by a forum member, where as the other is by me. Also notice, that BESIDES CMDOW, all the others are hosted on MSFN's servers.

[Nanaki]

Hmm, implementing CloseTray shouldn't be to hard, neither should ejecting all drives. I'll work on it later. I can't make it work in DOS tho, CDswitch needs Windows API's to run.

I'm open to suggestions by the way. (but don't ask for alpha channel support, it can't be done [yet] )

[Nanaki]

0.4b (22-03): download

- Resaved base JPG, now optimal quality

- Cut size by more than half

- Integrated base JPG into executable, it is now single-exe app again. When no supplied image is found, the base image will be used.

- File properties are now correct ^^

Well, now it's ONE file again, and smaller than the previous. It's nothing "spectacular" (as far as possible for a utility like this ).

Edited September 19, 2007 by Nanaki

[bober]

thanks for your work.

[Nanaki]

Thanks I always appreciate that

<span style='font-size:9pt;line-height:100%'>

0.4 (23-03):download -- --

- Added label support with everything customizable

- Adjusted base image to support the above

- New parameter system

- Most of the stuff can now be configured

- New GUI-core to support transparent labels

- A lot of code has been replaced or rewritten

- Added silent mode. This allows to eject/close all or one drive(s) with no GUI.

- New function to support the above

- A custom picture can now be defined via a parameter

- Transparency. Alpha channel between 0 and 255 can be defined

</span>

New base-GUI:

Showing transparency:

Well, it's a pretty big release this time. First, I think about everything can be configured now, check the first post for an updated "tutorial".

Second, you can now close/open a tray or all trays without any window spawning. This is what CDR does I think.

That's about it, enjoy

Edited September 19, 2007 by Nanaki

[Rekenaar]

Sounds very nice!

Thank you for sharing it with us.

[idbirch2]

Wow, this is a great utility! If and when I breach the 4.37GB mark with my current unattended disc, will CD-Switch work in conjuntion with WPI? i.e. can it be made in such a way that the 2nd disc is only requested if you have selected to install anything from disc 2 with WPI?

[Alanoll]

Wow, this is a great utility!  If and when I breach the 4.37GB mark with my current unattended disc, will CD-Switch work in conjuntion with WPI? i.e. can it be made in such a way that the 2nd disc is only requested if you have selected to install anything from disc 2 with WPI?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that would have to be internal programming of WPI itself, and not this program.

[Nanaki]

Well, I don't know much about WPI, but if it's linear like XPlode 'n stuff it would work like a charm.

See, I use it like this:

- I install programs from the first disk as normal

- Next, I use this program as "an installer", making XPlode/whatever launch it.

- When the second disk is inserted, this program closes, whereafter XPlode continues with the next installer, now reading from the next disk.

If you can work with conditional statements in WPI, perfect! If not, you'll just have to place a checkbox "CHECK THIS TO MAKE SURE THE FOLLOWING APPLICATIONS CAN BE INSTALLED"... or something like that.

Oh, PNG and animated GIF are supported in the next version. I just have to get rid of one lousy bug, but it's vacation now and I don't feel like looking at code. ^^

[totoymola]

Nice work.

[idbirch2]

See, I use it like this:

- I install programs from the first disk as normal

- Next, I use this program as "an installer", making XPlode/whatever launch it.

- When the second disk is inserted, this program closes, whereafter XPlode continues with the next installer, now reading from the next disk.

If you can work with conditional statements in WPI, perfect! If not, you'll just have to place a checkbox "CHECK THIS TO MAKE SURE THE FOLLOWING APPLICATIONS CAN BE INSTALLED"... or something like that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Great, that makes sense I just hadn't thought of that. Only problem is all my apps are copied to %systemdrive%\Install right at the start of setup so the 2nd disc's files wouldn't be copied. I guess I'll have to learn how to install from the actual DVD instead of copying to C:\Install first....

[Nanaki]

Indeed, I got rid of the $OEM$ folders quite some time ago. It's even faster.

I can't pause the copying to insert anoter disk, I even think it's technically impossible. Sorry :/

[aussiecanuck46]

I've found the cdswitch utility very helpful. But I still have some issues, which I'll try to describe briefly.

I'm trying to install Office XP from a second disc using RunOnceEx.cmd. It calls Office.cmd which is to install Office XP, slipstreamed with Office XP SP3, and a patch referenced in KB885884.

A snippet of my RunOnceEx code follows:

cmdow @ /HID
@echo off

FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\CD.txt SET CDROM=%%i:

SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx

REG ADD %KEY% /V TITLE /D "Installing Applications" /f

(portions omitted)

REG ADD %KEY%\060 /VE /D "Microsoft Office XP SP3" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\060 /V 1 /D "%CDROM%\software\Office.cmd" /f

(more portions omitted)

EXIT

After Office XP is installed, I want to return to the Windows XP installation CD and continue with other progam installations.

The issue I'm having is with Autorun. When I insert the Office XP CD which contains autorun.inf it automatically runs the setup.exe file contained within. This is not what I want. I want it to run setup.exe with the "TRANSFORMS=%CDROM%\Unattended.MST" and "/qb-" parameters, as per the Unattended Office Installation Guide.

I have learned that I can disable Autorun through a registry tweak:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 
;Disable Autorun on CD-ROM drive
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000020

And I've coded this tweak into a batch file, executed by Office.cmd, so that before installing the Office XP CD Autorun is disabled. However, application of this registry tweak requires stopping and restarting explorer.exe. Hence, I have also added:

taskkill /im explorer.exe
start /wait %SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe

into Office.cmd

When the Office XP installation is complete I use cdswitch to return to the Windows XP installation disc. And then I wish to retore Autorun functionality, which again requires stopping and restarting explorer.exe. Therefore, Office.cmd contains:

REGEDIT /S %CDROM%\restoreAutorun.reg
taskkill /im explorer.exe
start /wait %SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe

at the end. FYI restoreAutorun.reg sets

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091

This seems to me to be a lot of stopping and restarting of explorer.exe, with alerts being generated across the screen every time this basic function of Windows is shut down ungracefully.

Permanently disabling Autorun through regtweaks.reg (applied via cmdlines.txt) is not appropriate. I only want it temporarily disabled.

Am I over-complicating things? All I really want to do is temporarily switch to another CD. cdswitch helps me do that, but doesn't get around the Autorun issues. To get around them I seem to be pressed to modify registry settings and stop and restart processes multiple times. Can anyone think of a simple way to temporarily disable Autorun, or have cdswitch ignore autorun.inf?

[Nanaki]

I see if I can implement that.

But just so you know, can't you just taskkill the spawned process for now? You first taskkill the setup.exe or whatever it spawns, and then launch yours!