[McoreD]

footswitch,

Why did you cross out "you can delete the old Program Files folder!" in
5. After rebooting successfully, you can delete the old Program Files folder! you're ready to go!

afterwards?

[footswitch]

McoreD, on Nov 28 2006, 11:58 AM, said:

footswitch,

Why did you cross out "you can delete the old Program Files folder!" in
5. After rebooting successfully, you can delete the old Program Files folder! you're ready to go!

afterwards?

--> The old post is now re-edited.

Well with RTM I found out that AT LEAST Win Internet Explorer and Win Media Player are installed with absolute paths, that is, when you click their links, you're trying to reach "%SystemDrive%\Program Files" and not %ProgramFiles% itself. I suppose that other Windows pre-installed products will have the same behaviour, and I preferred to leave those ~500MB there rather than deleting them, to avoid future issues.

BUT anyways one has to copy at least the "Common Files" folder to the new location, but I copied the whole Program Files folder for the same reason. This is all due to lack of knowledge about what exactly it needs in one side and in the other.

This post has been edited by footswitch: 28 November 2006 - 08:02 AM

[Daedlus]

Hi there,

What Im trying to do is do an unattended install with D:\Users. Problem is that after the first install it will not point to the old folders if I reinstall, it only appends the computer name to user folder. Example:
first install:
D:\Users\Daedlus

Second install, it takes my computer name and appends it to my user name, if the first installs user files have not moved:
D:\Users\Daedlus.mshome

What I want it to do is point to D:\Users\Daedlus after every install. Anybody have any ideas. I have tryed coping the files to a temp dir and deleting the D:\Daedlus, but I cant get it to work. Any help is appreciated.

This post has been edited by Daedlus: 28 November 2006 - 09:54 AM

[footswitch]

Daedlus, on Nov 28 2006, 03:53 PM, said:

Hi there,

What Im trying to do is do an unattended install with D:\Users. Problem is that after the first install it will not point to the old folders if I reinstall, it only appends the computer name to user folder. Example:
first install:
D:\Users\Daedlus

Second install, it takes my computer name and appends it to my user name, if the first installs user files have not moved:
D:\Users\Daedlus.mshome

What I want it to do is point to D:\Users\Daedlus after every install. Anybody have any ideas. I have tryed coping the files to a temp dir and deleting the D:\Daedlus, but I cant get it to work. Any help is appreciated.

Hi there,
AFAIK, you should respect this behaviour because each user has a sort of unique I.D. within its O.S., so many of the settings contained in the first folder wouldn't be compatible with the new installation. To avoid that problem, I suggest the following solutions:

a ) boot into some Live O.S. or a different O.S. that you have installed in your system;
b ) plug your hard disk as secundary in another system

After doing ( a ) or ( b ), rename the old folders (users and programdata).

Then:
Reinstall windows
Move the old documents, downloads, pictures, etc. to the new location
Remove the rest...

This post has been edited by footswitch: 28 November 2006 - 11:02 AM

[wng_z3r0]

This is what I did:

1. I installed vista.
2. On the desktop, right click and make a shortcut
3. In the path type in CMD
4. Hit next until the shortcut is made
5. Right click and hit run as admin
6. type in cd..
7. keep doing that until you are at c:\
8. type in

mklink /d /j "Program Files1" "D:\This is the new location for my program files"

Repeat for the other directories you want to move.
ex:

mklink /d /j "Users" "F:\coolest people ever"

Then boot into another operating system. I used Bart PE.
Move the c:\program files folder to D:\This is the new location for my program files"
Then rename ProgramFiles1 to ProgramFiles

Boot into Vista

If you want, you can now make symbolic links to your files instead of junctions.
Since c:\program files is actually a junction, you can delete it without trouble.
the code for a symbolic link is the same thing without the /j switch:

mklink /d "Program Files" "D:\This is the new location for my program files"

Now you can change these registry settings if you want:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

and
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\shell folders
wng

This post has been edited by wng_z3r0: 29 November 2006 - 07:16 AM

[footswitch]

wng_z3r0,

that's nice... really

but you can do that same symlink right into another Windows NT O.S., in order to do all the steps without restarting, right?

Well if it works with absolutely no flaws, then it's a great workaround to those who don't want to care about XML autoconfig files!

Anyways it's a good parallel solution to the one I provided for changing %programfiles%. The difference is this changes it without changing it

Nice idea, I had never thought of it!

[wng_z3r0]

No, other NT operating systems only understand hard links and junctions (not true symlinks)

And hard links don't let you jump across drive letters, thus I had to use junctions. (trust me I tried everything to make it work )
and other OS's don't have the tools to make junctions by default. They are in the SDK, and I didn't feel like downloading anything. Since I already had Vista installed.... I just used it.

This post has been edited by wng_z3r0: 29 November 2006 - 05:03 PM

[alantangcs]

Hi all,
I'm probably not adding any new knowledge to this post, but I've been tracking this discussion as I too am very eager to install Vista on my new laptop (coming soon) with Program Files and User Profiles on separate partitions.

After reading all your responses, I *think* this might be the closest I could get to have ProgramFiles, ProgramData and Users on their own separate partitions. Let me stress that I haven't tested this yet so I wouldn't recommend anyone try this until someone's confirmed it works.

1. Use WSIM to create an answer file to install ProgramData and ProgramFiles on their own partitions.

2. Install Vista.

3. Boot into Vista and XCOPY C:\Program Files to another partition. XCOPY has options to preserve permissions and file ownerships which I'm not 100% a copy in Windows Explorer does.

4. Change the keys in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\* to point to the new locations (including Common Files.

5. At this point it's probably worth a reboot to see if the programs are working properly.

6. As someone mentioned before, some default Windows programs are installed with a reference to "%systemdrive%\Program Files" so I'll probably have to manually change some links. On a fresh install of Vista, there shouldn't be too many. Also this step is optional because of step 10 (see later).

7. Again, reboot and try some default apps like WMP.

8. Boot into a BartPE CD and *rename* "C:\Program Files" to something else (I wouldn't delete it yet). This step is probably necessary because if you are in Vista, some files will be in use and you will not be able to touch the folder.

9. Boot back into Vista and make sure some programs work. It's probably not possible to test every single program in Windows so I recommend step 10.

10. Create a symbollic link on C: to your new Program Files, Program Data and Users folders on other partitions. The reasoning for this is, if I missed anything in step 6, at least C:\Program Files exists and links to a location that contains the actual files. Also, you never know what naughty developers might hardcode paths in their setup files.

11. Use Vista for a few weeks and when I'm happy with the system, delete the renamed Program Files folder on C:.

If I've missed anything, please do let me know. After I've tried this on my laptop, I'll let everyone know my results.

[wng_z3r0]

Yep, that's pretty much it.

Quote

some files will be in use and you will not be able to touch the folder.

No, the reason is because Vista will NOT give you the necessary permissions, regardless whether the folder is in use. Only 'trusted installers' have access to the folder, and I don't know if those trustee rights are enough. It's vista DRM at it's finest Same reason why you can't replace c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe


Also change these keys:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\shell folders

The names are self explanatory.

One last comment. If you are using vista x64, you have to edit the WoW6432Node registry mirrors too.

wng

This post has been edited by wng_z3r0: 07 December 2006 - 07:20 AM

[footswitch]

-- WARNING -- Currently unsolved issue

Alright, I got a good one

If we follow these steps (changing the Autounattend.xml to place documents and settings in another partition), the "preinstalled" symlinks will be ruined.

Try to open your Documents folder and then, inside it, open My Pictures, My Music or My Videos. These links are actually (or were supposed to be) symbolic links.

My Pictures should link to ../Pictures
My Music should link to ../Music
... and so on.

The system will display an error dialog like "access denied bla bla bla", but the fact is that the symbolic link isn't working properly. Just right-click the link and choose properties. The properties window should provide the absolute path, but it does not.

Try to create a simple symbolic link in vista, and see the difference in the properties window of your symlink.

UPDATE: Open "cmd" and "cd" into your documents folder. "dir /AL" its contents.
my pictures, my music and my video are listed as <JUNCTION>, but they don't act likewise.
Also, when you access "This User\My Documents", you should be redirected to "This User\Documents", and so on.
There's a LOT of symlinks going inside the Users folder.

Quote

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch>cd documents

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Documents>dir /al
Volume in drive E is DATA
Volume Serial Number is 4444-CDF0

Directory of E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Documents

15-11-2006 16:50 <JUNCTION> My Music [E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Music]
15-11-2006 16:50 <JUNCTION> My Pictures [E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Pictur
es]
15-11-2006 16:50 <JUNCTION> My Videos [E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Videos]
0 File(s) 0 bytes
3 Dir(s) 1.086.521.344 bytes free

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Documents>cd my music

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Documents\My Music>dir
Volume in drive E is DATA
Volume Serial Number is 4444-CDF0

Directory of E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Documents\My Music

File Not Found

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\Documents\My Music>cd..\..

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch>cd my documents

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\My Documents>dir
Volume in drive E is DATA
Volume Serial Number is 4444-CDF0

Directory of E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\My Documents

File Not Found

E:\VistaUsers\footswitch\My Documents>exit

Any ideas to overcome the issue? I have none. This could be a bug in Vista Unattended Install.

EDIT: typos and incoherent info

This post has been edited by footswitch: 12 December 2006 - 07:11 AM

[footswitch]

wng_z3r0, on Dec 7 2006, 01:17 PM, said:

Also change these keys:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\shell folders

That worked in Windows NT version 5. All my tries in Vista produced no results.

[alantangcs]

Still working on my Vista Unattended.

Here's a little gotcha/bug with the Vista setup.

I used the profile path G:\Profiles\Vista in the answer file (G:\Profiles\XP is for the XP Documents and Settings - I'm dual botting).

However, in the VM where I installed vista, I perused the hard drives and found G:\Profiles\Users instead. I think this is a bug with the Vista setup. Has anyone else seen the same problem when using not placing the Users directory on the root of the drive?

Also, I noticed that in the registry

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell folders

the values for the paths are all for C: as they would be without the customized paths. That is, the profiles folder key is still C:\Users, even though Vista has been set up with G:\Profiles\Users. I go into explorer and all the Documents, Music, Pictures links work correctly.

Here's even more strangeness... the environment variables are all set up correctly according to my unattend. I.e. %UserProfiles% is pointing to G:\Profiles\Vista!!! Even though that folder doesn't even exist?

So in summary, for the user profiles folder:
- Physical hard drive : G:\Profiles\Users
- Registry settings : C:\Users
- Environment variables: G:\Profiles\Vista

Anyone experiencing the same issues?

This post has been edited by alantangcs: 13 December 2006 - 08:01 AM

[footswitch]

alantangcs, on Dec 13 2006, 01:50 PM, said:

(...)
However, in the VM where I installed vista, I perused the hard drives and found G:\Profiles\Users instead. I think this is a bug with the Vista setup. Has anyone else seen the same problem when using not placing the Users directory on the root of the drive?
(...)

Like I said, that portion of the registry seems to be just trash for windows vista. Changing those values never changed anything at all, at least for me.

Regarding that sort of "bug", your folders are correctly named. The thing is, Vista is displaying a different folder name and accepts both the original and the new names. If you want to show only the original name, delete the desktop.ini file (it's a hidden file) inside your Users folder (in your case, located in G:\Profiles\Vista, if I can recall)

EDIT: details

This post has been edited by footswitch: 13 December 2006 - 09:41 AM

[alantangcs]

footswitch, on Dec 12 2006, 11:49 PM, said:

-- WARNING -- Currently unsolved issue

If we follow these steps (changing the Autounattend.xml to place documents and settings in another partition), the "preinstalled" symlinks will be ruined.

Try to open your Documents folder and then, inside it, open My Pictures, My Music or My Videos. These links are actually (or were supposed to be) symbolic links.

My Pictures should link to ../Pictures
My Music should link to ../Music
... and so on.

The system will display an error dialog like "access denied bla bla bla", but the fact is that the symbolic link isn't working properly. Just right-click the link and choose properties. The properties window should provide the absolute path, but it does not.

I had a quick try on my VM last night. Those My Pictures and My Music links seem to work for me.

Have you tried to do a "dir" in \VistaUsers\footswitch\Music as well?

Thanks for your reply above. I shall give that a try tonight and try out your issue more thoroughly as well.

[alantangcs]

Ok I'm getting the same problem too.

At the worst, you could remove those junctions and recreate them.

I did the following steps.

1. Use mklink /J "My Videos 2" "G:\Profiles\Vista\Alan Tang\Videos" to create "My Videos 2".
2. Change the icon to that junction by right-clicking on it in explorer and choosing properties.
All the icons that the original short cuts use reside in Windows\System32\imageres.dll

3. While you're in the properties, make it hidden as well since the original ones are hidden.
4. Test out the new links. If they work, delete the original and rename "My Videos 2" to just "My Videos".

Seems to work good for me.

The interesting thing is. The moment you rename them to "My Videos" "My ___", Vista will take over them... by that I mean, they will no longer be normal shortcuts where you can edit the target and all that but will resume the behaviour of the original links.

Now, I don't know what will happen when you add a new user to the computer. You may have to fix up the links that Vista automatically creates for them as well. This could get annoying.

This post has been edited by alantangcs: 14 December 2006 - 05:49 AM

[alantangcs]

Ok guys, this has really got me stumped. Could anyone help me out?

Here's my AutoUnattend.xml file, placed into the root of the Vista ISO. The answer file is generated by WAIK RTM and the ISO is built with oscdimg.

Quote

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="windowsPE">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<UserData>
<ProductKey>
<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
<Key>XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX</Key>
</ProductKey>
</UserData>
</component>
</settings>
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<FolderLocations>
<ProfilesDirectory>G:\Profiles\Vista</ProfilesDirectory>
<ProgramData>D:\ProgramData</ProgramData>
</FolderLocations>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:Z:/sources/install.wim#Windows Vista ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

I've already got Xp installed on my laptop and I've mapped the drives as follows:

S: Page file and boot partition
T: Temporary files
C: Vista OS
D: Vista Apps
E: XP OS
F: XP Apps
G: Profiles
Z: DVD drive

I know the ISO works because I set up a virtual machine and installed Vista on it.

Then I thought I had the perfect image so I burnt it to DVD and tried it on a real computer - my laptop.

First I tried booting from the DVD and installing. After it has finshed extracting files, it would throw an error "Windows could not apply the unattend settings in pass (null)". There are no more details, no indication as to what may be wrong, nothing.

Next, I tried to run setup from within XP. Same thing happens.

So the thing that has me stumped is, what's going on differently between the laptop and the VM that's causing the unattend settings not to be applied?

[alantangcs]

WOOT! I've fixed it!

Basically, in case any of you run into this problem, it's to do with the disk space you have.

I logged into XP, removed the page file on the first partition of the drive (Vista naughtily assumes that the first partition of the disk will have enough space to copy and extract it's files. When it doesn't, it'll fail with the obscure message that it can't apply the unattended settings for pass (null). It's (null) because it technically failed before it even had the chance to start the setting up of the OS).

When I've freed up enough space, Vista installed fine with no problems. phew...

All good now.

[hyde]

can any one paste the unattended file with c:\window d:\program files e:\profiles please

[Ashimema]

Anyone worked this one out?

[McoreD]

Conclusion:

hyde, on Jul 5 2007, 11:15 PM, said:

can any one paste the unattended file with c:\window d:\program files e:\profiles please

I think it should be clear by now that Microsoft has NO interest in splitting system folders this way like they did for Windows XP.

I still believe this would have been a great feature to have so that the System Images (Symantec Ghost, Backup Exec etc.) would be considerably lower in size. I am talking of sizes as small as 4 to 5 GiB).

Windows 7 introduces a 100 MiB boot partition. Its recovery mechanism is pretty powerful. Unless it is for Data backup, I no longer find it as useful to make system backups anymore. Therefore, the need to have 3 partition has gone down over the time.

I am pretty much used to C:\Windows with C:\Program Files and D:\Users now. The C: partition size I keep at 50 GB (~ 48.8 GiB) and D: partition takes up rest of the free space.

This post has been edited by McoreD: 22 May 2009 - 08:35 PM