dunkie12

If you slipstream SP3 into your windows installation source you'll need a new Product Key... Microsoft changed the product Key structure when they implimented SP3 so that if you're installing from a slipstreamed media you need a new CD Key. You can still install from your SP2 Source and then install SP3 afterward though...

Hi there, I've successfully created a complete unattend build which creates a complete install of our Company's SOE. This works fine if I start the install when booting from the DVD; however I've recently added a utility partition for the purpose of reminding users to plug a network cable into their new out of the box machines. This partition can only be ghosted onto the disk else I can't get it to work, so the manual process is as follows: 1 Boot into BartPE 2 Using diskpart, partition the disk as follows: a 100mb primary partition b 15-20gb primary partition; set this partition to active c remaining disk space to extended then logical partitions 3 Ghost the "Network reminder Screen Utility" into the first partition 4 Reboot and insert Unattend disk, run the unattend install to the 15-20gb OS partition I'm hoping to automate this process; I've had no problem getting BartPE to boot and start the partitioning, ghost and formatting... And I can get it to start a windows XP setup from winnt32.exe - however... That's about as much success as I can get. I'm running into either of two problems: When the Windows Setup commences, even though I've put in the /unattended tag and pointed to my answer file only the GUI setup from BartPE and the first Text-Mode setup screens are unattend, then windows goes back to a stock standard attended install asking me ALL the questions during GUI mode setup. If I add in the /setuplocal and /tempdrive tags, I can get windows to install unattended; but it then ignores my $OEM$ distribution folders even if I pre-copy them to the hard drive in the same location the windows source files are copied to... Because of this my cmdlines.txt doesn't execute to add registry tags in for windows customization and application installation via runonceex. Does anyone know how to initiate a windows unattend setup from a BartPE disk with the same level of automation and depth as one started from a Boot CD has? Thanks in advance for any assistance you may be able to offer!

Thanks for your replies - I guess I forgot to mention the command prompt also displays a message that says "Please wait while your antivirus software is updated". Whilst this message isn't essential it's nice to have it there so the user's don't panic at not being able to use the desktop or interact with their PC. The utility that regenerates the SID's in our antivirus is also closeable so I guess it doesn't make much difference... Thanks for your suggestions!

Hey no worries, thanks for your suggestion anyways!

I know how to enable the Windows Version number on the bottom right hand corner of the screen - and I know how to modify this under Windows Vista... I'm hoping to modify the Windows XP version number displayed at the bottom right corner of the screen to use as a watermark telling users what SOE version the machine is running for easy identification. Does anyone know how to modify the version number information - or know of any other tool to add a desktop watermark that is not movable around the desktop or removable? I have tried BGINFO by SysInternals, but it butchers the background image in use and makes the company logo all pixelated. Thanks!

Hi all, As part of the startup of our SOE PC's for the first time, I have automatic login enabled for one single login. When the machine logs in, it runs a command script that refreshes the domain group policy, adds an account into the local administrator group and imports a registry key that is cleared by sysprep. The script then uses the sleep tool to wait 60 seconds before rebooting the machine. I'm wanting to disable the close program button for this script so our users cannot kill the script and gain access to windows. Does anyone know of a way to disable the Close Program or "X" button on a command prompt window please?

We employ this as part of our domain login process. I was more looking for a screen that would appear before Windows boots - I assume it would be a third party thing.

Hey everyone... I'm the SOE Architect for our company and I've been using the unattend install guide to create our SOE's and improve on all the bugs we had with the original SOE. I've managed to get it all to the point where I'm happy with it - we solved the computer name problem using the MySysprep tool to automate pulling the computer name from the System BIOS; however one big problem from our original SOE remains... If a user starts their new out of the box PC without plugging it into the network, the Sysprep script does not join the machine to the domain. Sure it prompts them to say "Do you wish to proceed for now and join a domain later?" - but our users have a habit of clicking yes and continuing on past the domain stage and then calling us when they can't login! So the machine boots without joining the domain and we're back to a manual join. I'd like to avoid this by adding a pre-boot screen that says something like "Stop! Have you plugged the computer into the network? If not, you will not be able to login!" and add a picture of a network cable to the screen or something like that. I've seen on new DELL machines they prompt you with a EULA before the machine even boots, is there some way I can do a similar pre-boot once off screen? Any other suggestions for error control so the machine does not boot past the XP Mini setup screen without it being plugged into the network would be cool... Thanks