[HorseloverFat]

Hello. I'm new to this forum, and just started learning about how to do an unattended setup. Using the boot from CD with WINNT.SIF on a floppy disk method, and I'm having a few minor problems:

1. My keyboard layout settings aren't working. In the winnt.sif reference page here on this website, it says that "by setting your Keyboard Layout, this prevents the Language icon appearing on the taskbar when you've logged on." However, I have my keyboard layout set up as per the instructions in my answer file, and not only does it still display the language icon in the taskbar when I first log on, it also defaults to the WRONG keyboard layout (US). The keyboard layout specified in my answer file (which I'll paste below) is "Canadian English (Multilingual)" but when setup completes and I get into Windows for the first time, I see the EN icon of the language bar, and next to it a keyboard icon. When I select the keyboard icon I see the options US, Canadian Multilingual Standard, and English (Canada), and by default it is set to US. I don't understand why this is happening, as I've set up my answer file exactly as all of the instructions I've read specified. I should also mention that the LANGUAGE options from my answer file install perfectly, just not the keyboard layout.

2. The other problem is a bit simpler - my display settings are not taking effect. When the installation procedure is finished and windows starts it still prompts me to change my resolution, and when I hit okay it defaults to the usual 800x600.

3. The workgroup I specify isn't taking effect (ie. when I go into the properties of My Computer after setup completes it is still set to the default WORKGROUP). I think the reason for this, however, is simply that the XP CD doesn't contain drivers for my ethernet controller and thus doesn't prompt for network settings during installtion. Once I get the basics of this unattended setup business under my belt I plan on integrating some OEM drivers into my XP CD to take care of that, but I would just like to ask, in the meantime, if I'm on the right track - ie. would adding OEM drivers solve this issue, and allow my answer file to change the workgroup?

4. One last, very trivial question - I created my WINNT.SIF file using setupmgr.exe and I'm sort of curious why it put quotes around some of the values (MsDosInitiated="0" and UnattendedInstall="Yes") and not others? When adding additional keys that setupmgr.exe didn't create, I left the quotes off. Should I remove the quotes that it added, or should I add quotes to my own entries, or does this just not matter?

These should, I imagine, be easy for you guys to figure out, since they seem pretty much like entry-level issues. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Here's my WINNT.SIF as well, so you can see exactly what I'm doing:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEula=Yes
OemPreinstall=No
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
KeyboardLayout="Canadian English (Multilingual)"
Repartition=No
UnattendSwitch=No
WaitForReboot=No

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=35
OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
FullName="Matt Stata"
OrgName=""
ComputerName=MS1

[Display]
BitsPerPel=16
Xresolution=1024
YResolution=768

[Components]

Msnexplr=Off
Charmap=On
Rec=Off
Fax=On
WMAccess=Off
Msmsgs=Off
OEAccess=Off
Pinball=Off
Freecell=Off
Hearts=Off
Zonegames=Off
Minesweeper=On
Solitaire=On
Spider=Off

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1
Language=00001009

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup=FEDERATION

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Bolus123]

Hi,

Don't know all answers to your questions, mut I might give you some advice. I removed the language bar by using a register string:

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{540D8A8B-1C3F-4E32-8132-530F6A502090}]
@="Language bar"
"MenuTextPUI"="@%SystemRoot%\\System32\\msutb.dll,-325"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

I can recommend you to run a register script, because you can get rid of all the annoying things at once, like the "tour bubble", etc. There are thousands of these kind of scripts. You can run it from runonceex.cmd.

I never managed to change the resolution myself, xp just refuses. Maybe because of safety issues, because you could damage your monitor if you set the wrong resolution/refreshrate.

Good luck, and if you find a way to get the resolution right, I'm very interested.

[Yonderboy]

I dont see a point of trying o set the resolution in winnt.sif...schedule the svga drivers installation silently...find some cmdline resolution change tool..put it into a batch file an let it chage the resolution.

Regarding the regionals..I think it should be>

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1
InputLocale=1009:00001009