[Unattended] OEM Drivers By Group / Model
Store drivers per Model A build I setup at a previous job did this. Putting ALL the drivers for ALL PCs in one directory became impossible to manage. We made a ZIP file of drivers per PC model. Used a tool I made called PnPRipper to rip the PnP drivers out of new, fresh from the factory vendor built PCs. The resulting .ZIP file contains all the drivers the PC needs. The zip file could be dropped into a folder. The build would enumerate the Zip files and display a pick list. This meant remote sites could add drivers to the build without knowing anything about how the build works. They just drop the .ZIP file in a folder called PnPLibrary and the new PC is supported. A little extra coding and you could write something to do hardware device matching too. DevCon from Windows Driver SDK is handy for this. The zip file also contains details of make,model,desktop/laptop,OEMPnPDriversPath (for unattend.txt),PnPDrivers reg key (if you want to apply it to an already build PC) and WMI information to put in your menu. (You need admin rights on the PC to run this tool) http://www.geocities.com/pnpripper/[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Send unattended-info mailing list submissions to[EMAIL PROTECTED]To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visithttps://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-infoor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to[EMAIL PROTECTED]You can reach the person managing the list at[EMAIL PROTECTED]When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of unattended-info digest..."Today's Topics:1. Re: Howto fetch an URL under linux? (Johannes Simon)2. Re: Howto fetch an URL under linux? (Johannes Simon)3. OEM Drivers By Group (Krismark Consulting Pty Ltd)4. Re: OEM Drivers By Group (Kevin P. Jacobson)5. Re: OEM Drivers By Group (Wim Vandersmissen)6. FW: [Unattended] OEM Drivers By Group (Marek Tyc)> ATTACHMENT part 3.1 message/rfc822 From: Johannes Simon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: "Patrick J. LoPresti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: Re: [Unattended] Howto fetch an URL under linux?Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 09:03:22 +0200CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Patrick J. LoPresti wrote:> I will look at making a test release tomorrow. I am planning to> wait for Linux 2.6.7 before our next official release, unless that> takes too long. But the test release should be interesting, both> for wget and for the DBI and DBD::mysql Perl modules which we now> include. > How soon do you need this?Well, I do not really need this. Nevertheless it would be nice. Users could request having their machine installed via a web form (using their password) and then doing the unattended install by themselves by powering on their machines.BTW, during the last few days I learnt to know the todo.pl mechanism and today I figured out how to use with-env.pl . Really great work! I hope to contribute some scripts within the next few days.BTW2, I once saw a bash script for retrieving the updates automatically, but could not find it anymore. I'll search again tomorrow. - That is, to say, the documentation could still be improved.BTW3, as far as I have seen, the S-ATA stuff under linux is already stable, right? - I had no time to test it, still too busy.Johannes> ATTACHMENT part 3.2 message/rfc822 From: Johannes Simon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Re: [Unattended] Howto fetch an URL under linux?Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 00:58:44 +0200Patrick J. LoPresti wrote:> I will look at making a test release tomorrow. I am planning to> wait for Linux 2.6.7 before our next official release, unless that> takes too long. But the test release should be interesting, both> for wget and for the DBI and DBD::mysql Perl modules which we now> include. > How soon do you need this?Well, I do not really need this. Nevertheless it would be nice. Users could request having their machine installed via a web form (using their password) and then doing the unattended install by themselves by powering on their machines.BTW, during the last few days I learnt to know the todo.pl mechanism and today I figured out how to use with-env.pl . Really great work! I hope to contribute some scripts within the next few days.BTW2, I once saw a bash script for retrieving the updates automatically, but could not find it anymore. I'll search again tomorrow. - That is, to say, the documentation could still be improved.BTW3, as far as I have seen, the S-ATA stuff under linux is already stable, right? - I had no time to test it, too busy otherwise and still.Johannes> ATTACHMENT part 3.3 message/rfc822 From: "Krismark Consulting Pty Ltd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 22:02:34 +1000Subject: [Unattended] OEM Drivers By Group Hi Is it possible to modify the install for OEM drivers. I want to group drivers in a directory ( eg by motherboard) and only have these directories shown in the list of oem drivers to install. Any driver under that directory is to be automatically installed
[Unattended] Re: unattended-info digest, Vol 1 #405 - 1 msg PNPRipper
Hello Looks like I made a mistake in my vbScript? The script is PnpRipper2.vbs if you want to debug it and send me the fix ;-) I plan to re-write this tool as a HyperText Application (HTA) instead of the strange mixture of SMSInstaller and VBScript that it is at the moment. (our Hong Kong office has bought lots of new PCs and I need them to send me the drivers for each model so I can add them to our build. PnPRipper makes this easy. We can then drop the resulting zip files into a folder our build and thats all we need to do.) BTW: HTAs are great way to add nice user Interface to VBScripts http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=""> http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032240018&Culture=en-US http://groups.msn.com/ScriptingGuysWebcasts/documents.msnw?&pps=k When I have updated the application (will be Version 3.0) then I will put it on my website http://www.geocities.com/pnpripper/ and send you an e-mail. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Send unattended-info mailing list submissions to[EMAIL PROTECTED]To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visithttps://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-infoor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to[EMAIL PROTECTED]You can reach the person managing the list at[EMAIL PROTECTED]When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of unattended-info digest..."Today's Topics:1. PnPRipper v2.1 hangs before end (Regis.Tered)> ATTACHMENT part 3.1 message/rfc822 From: "Regis.Tered" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 20:15:57 +0200Subject: [Unattended] PnPRipper v2.1 hangs before endI try desesperatly to create archives of my OEM Drivers with this (ipresume) fine tool.Unfortunatly, each time i run the exe on a new computer, i only get anarchive of 2 KB in my temp folder wich contains only :bldmenu.ini, model.txt, pnppath.iniWMI info in bldmenu.ini are OKmodel.txt is OKpnppath.ini is emptylooking in the log file, i have noticed that PnPRipper ends at the firstsubdirectorie of my PNP directory22/05/2004 16:11:39 Script has started22/05/2004 16:11:39 Driverspath=%SystemRoot%\Inf;c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm;c:\PNPDrvrs\E100B;c:\PNPDrvrs\I81XNT5;c:\PNPDrvrs\IATA;c:\PNPDrvrs\IntelINF;c:\PNPDrvrs\nvfs;c:\PNPDrvrs\PSeries;c:\PNPDrvrs\smwdm;%SystemDrive%\C:\PnPDrvrs22/05/2004 16:11:39 9 folders in drivers path22/05/2004 16:11:39 Ignoring C:\WINNT\Inf22/05/2004 16:11:39 OK: c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm has drivers22/05/2004 16:11:39 Root of folder:c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm is PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 16:11:39 Destination is C:\WINNT\TEMP\SCENICXS\PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 16:11:39 Copying from:c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdmto:C:\WINNT\TEMP\SCENICXS\PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:04:26 Script has started22/05/2004 20:04:26 Driverspath=%SystemRoot%\Inf;c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm;c:\PNPDrvrs\E100B;c:\PNPDrvrs\I81XNT5;c:\PNPDrvrs\IATA;c:\PNPDrvrs\IntelINF;c:\PNPDrvrs\nvfs;c:\PNPDrvrs\PSeries;c:\PNPDrvrs\smwdm;%SystemDrive%\C:\PnPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:04:26 9 folders in drivers path22/05/2004 20:04:26 Ignoring C:\WINNT\Inf22/05/2004 20:04:26 OK: c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm has drivers22/05/2004 20:04:26 Root of folder:c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm is PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:04:26 Destination is C:\WINNT\TEMP\SCENICXS\PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:04:26 Copying from:c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdmto:C:\WINNT\TEMP\SCENICXS\PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:07:52 Script has started22/05/2004 20:07:52 Driverspath=%SystemRoot%\Inf;c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm;c:\PNPDrvrs\E100B;c:\PNPDrvrs\I81XNT5;c:\PNPDrvrs\IATA;c:\PNPDrvrs\IntelINF;c:\PNPDrvrs\nvfs;c:\PNPDrvrs\PSeries;c:\PNPDrvrs\smwdm;%SystemDrive%\C:\PnPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:07:52 9 folders in drivers path22/05/2004 20:07:52 Ignoring C:\WINNT\Inf22/05/2004 20:07:52 OK: c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm has drivers22/05/2004 20:07:52 Root of folder:c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdm is PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:07:52 Destination is C:\WINNT\TEMP\SCENICXS\PNPDrvrs22/05/2004 20:07:52 Copying from:c:\PNPDrvrs\cmeu0wdmto:C:\WINNT\TEMP\SCENICXS\PNPDrvrswhat is wrong ? can Alex Magnay help me to understand ?___unattended-info mailing list[EMAIL PROTECTED]https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unattended-info Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now
[Unattended] Re: unattended-info digest, Vol 1 #340 - 10 msgs
Checkout Microsoft's Tweakomatic. It will help you generate vbScripts to customise the OS. Scriptomatic is also very useful for accessing WMI via VBScript. www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview?url=""> > ATTACHMENT part 3.6 message/rfc822 To: "Layne, Courtney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>CC: "Unattended Info \([EMAIL PROTECTED])" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: Re: [Unattended] Configure OS QuestionsFrom: "Patrick J. LoPresti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: 24 Mar 2004 19:59:55 -0500"Layne, Courtney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>writes:> How can I perform activities like adjusting performance options or> setting page size? Anyone have any advice for these configuration> activities? Thanks.You write scripts.I try to use WMI interfaces whenever possible, since they are usuallyclean, well-documented, and most likely to be supported in futureversions of Windows. And I can manipulate them using Perl.Which performance options do you want to adjust, specifically?The "Visual Effects Setting" does not appear to have a scriptableinterface. You can use a registry tweak for the top-level control:http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/41554/I did not see how to adjust the individual checkboxes, but theyprobably have registry hacks, too. Although registry hacks are evil.The "Processor Scheduling" setting (Programs vs. Background Services)can be changed using the Win32_OperatingSystem WMI class:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wmisdk/wmi/win32_operatingsystem.aspI just tried changing it on a Win2k system. Changing the toggle from"Programs" to "Background Services" modified three settings:ForegroundApplicationBoost 2 -> 0QuantumLength 2 -> 1QuantumType 1 -> 2I suspect the first one is the most important.The "Memory Usage" setting (Programs vs. System Cache) is equivalentto the LargeSystemCache property in the Win32_OperatingSystem class.The docs say it is read-only, but the docs are wrong. See:http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=ORe92jRsDHA.1876%40TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl(You know, I had completely forgotten about that thread. Amazing whatyou stumble across sometimes when searching Google.)Finally, if by "page size" you mean "page file size", you can adjustit using the Win32_PageFileSetting WMI class:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wmisdk/wmi/win32_pagefilesetting.aspIf you can be more specific about what you are trying to do, I canwhip up some sample scripts.- Pat> ATTACHMENT part 3.7 message/rfc822 From: "Jeff Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: "'Patrick J. LoPresti'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>CC: "'Unattended Info'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: RE: [Unattended] Re: unattended-info digest, Vol 1 #338 - 5 msgsDate: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 20:21:23 -0600>Could someone upload a WinImage-created .imz file somewhere and send> me a pointer? I would like to take a look at it...> > If I cannot figure out how to generate WinImage-compatible .imz files,> I will change the extension in our next release. (I would just use> .img.gz, but I recall that made ISOLINUX unhappy.)> > - PatWget ftp://www.hansonsystems.com/cdboot.imzWget ftp://www.hansonsystems.com/cdboot.img2 images, compressed and uncompressed both open fine in winimage...The 3rd (less intresting) image is ftp://www.hansonsystems.com/cdboot.gzAnd is a gzip compressed version of cdboot.img-Jeff> ATTACHMENT part 3.8 message/rfc822 From: Brad Erdman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: "'Patrick J. LoPresti'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: RE: [Unattended] Obtaining values from a spreadsheetDate: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 21:08:19 -0500Hi,Just some ideas. I am not much of a coder so I can't really offer samples.Everyone is going to want to do things differently. Would it be possible tooffer a variety of mechanism (spreadsheet(s), SQL, text file, etc.) to storethe relent information? A configuration file or config.pl could specifywhat mechanism will be used for that particular site. Support for eachcould be added incrementally.I personally would like to store the information in AD (LDAP).My 2 centsBrad> ATTACHMENT part 3.9 message/rfc822 From: "Jeff Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: "'Unattended Info'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: RE: [Unattended] Re: unattended-info digest, Vol 1 #338 - 5 msgsDate: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 20:10:15 -0600> Could someone upload a WinImage-created .imz file somewhere and send> me a pointer? I would like to take a look at it...> > If I cannot figure out how to generate WinImage-compatible .imz files,> I will change the extension in our next release. (I would just use> .img.gz, but I recall that made ISOLINUX unhappy.)> > - PatI sent a compressed and uncompressed floppy image to your personal email.Hopefully 2 MB won't overload your inbox ;)-Jeff> ATTACHMENT part 3.10 message/rfc822 To: "Jeff Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>CC: "'Unattended Info'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: Re: [Unattended] Re: unattended-info digest, Vol 1 #338 - 5 msgsFrom: "Patrick J. LoPresti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: 24 Mar 2004 22:11:36 -0500"Jeff Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>writes:> Wget ftp://www.hansonsystems.com/cdboot.im
[Unattended] PnPRipper 2.0. Extracting PnP Drivers from vendor's build
Tyler Hepworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:> HP has taken to bundling their drivers into binary executables called SoftPAQs. It is possible to extract the contents from the executable, but still the driver setup files do not contain .inf files that point to dlls, etc. The driver setup files are all in setup.exe format. This makes it impossible to place drivers into the $oem$\$1 directory and have them installed during setup.The PC comes from the vendor, installed with all the drivers you need. You can rip these drivers out of the vendor's build and add them to your build. Get a PC fresh from is box, start it up and complete the vendor's (sysprep) build. After XP or Win2000 starts, run PnPRipper (link below) and you will get a zip file containing all the drivers you need. This tool is simple to use. You could ask desktop engineers to always run it first when new types of PC arrive at the office so you always have the drivers you need. The zip files can also be used to create a PC picklist menu to copy the right PnP drivers onto the PC before Windows Setup runs. http://www.geocities.com/pnpripper BT Yahoo! Broadband - Free modem offer, sign up online today and save £80
[Unattended] Software Update Services (SUS) client config
Nils Østbjerg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi,> > I was wondering why auconfig.pl sets > > "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/WindowsUpdate/Auto Update" > > instead of using the policies in > > "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/WindowsUpdate/AU" Well, at the time I wrote auconfig.pl, there was no documentation fromMicrosoft, so I relied on third-party docs and my own experiments. Nowadays, there is documentation from MS(http://support.microsoft.com/?id=328010), but it lists the otherregistry key. > The reason I ask is that I was planing to modify the auconfig.pl to> include the posibility to change the windowsupdate server to a local> SUS server, ect. and all docs I have seen says I should use the> policies key. Obviously, we should switch to using the documented key. Except...People discovered the other key by monitoring what the Control PanelGUI tool does. So what happens if you set the "Policies" key in theregistry, and then the user tries to change the settings with the GUI?I would like to know before we make this change. Anybody care toexperiment? - Pat 'Policies' always win over user 'preferences'. A good site on SUS: http://www.susserver.com/ Also, SUS has excellent web based reports if you have SMS. The following reg settings configure Automatic Updates service (SUS Client) to check SUS Server and download updates daily and install downloaded updates at night (4AM) with no automatic reboot if someone is logged on. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]"WUServer"="http://SUSServer.Company.com""WUStatusServer"=http://SUSServer.Company.com [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]"AUOptions"=dword:0004"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:0001"NoAutoUpdate"=dword:"RescheduleWaitTime"=dword:0001"ScheduledInstallDay"=dword:"ScheduledInstallTime"=dword:0004"UseWUServer"=dword:0001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update]"AUOptions"=dword:0004"AUState"=dword:0002 To make SUS Client check for updates without waiting for it's cycle (eg at end of build) stop the service, delete the LastWaitTimeout key, start the service. reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\LastWaitTimeout" /force >nul To make SUS client install any updates it has downloaded ASAP, without waiting for it's scheduled install time (which might be evening or weekend). Stop the service, set the scheduled install time to a date in the past, set Rescheduled=1. Start the service. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update]"ScheduledInstallDate"="2002.09.27 04:00:00""Rescheduled"=dword:0001 BT Yahoo! Broadband - Free modem offer, sign up online today and save £80
[Unattended] RE: I don't like Windows Installer
The Windows Installer Service and MSI files are definitely the future of software distribution. Windows logo certifiaction has made sure of that. SETUP.exe is dead, long live MSIEXEC.exe! Wouldn't it be nice if every app installed in the same way? No more peculiar vendor specific installers. No more guessing silent install command likes. No more AutoIT/sendkeys! MSI packages are very scripable and customisable in exactly the way vendor's own installers often arn't. For example, the Office 2000 Custom Installation Wizard (Office2k resource kit) lets you easily create an MSI transform to customise your Office2k package. But yes, there are a few things to be aware of when using MSI files and managing the source location is one of them. To anyone who wants to learn more about Windows Installer I recommend the free e-book "The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer Technology" by Darwin Sanoy and Jeremy Moskowitz (sponsored by Wise Solutions Inc.) http://www.realtimepublishers.com/dgcurrent.html http://www.wise.com/ebook/ Alex. Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now
[Unattended] Don't mess with OEM, keys and activation if you don't have to. You may qualify for VLK
With regards to OEM editions of XP. Check with your software provider if you're entitled to use Volume Licence edition of Windows. Worked for my company. If you've already paid for a licence (with the PC), but you must re-install Windows to corporate standard, then you might be able to use Volume licence edition at no extra cost. Check the attached .txt file to see if you qualify, you need Select Agreement or Enterprise Agreement. My company uses one of the above as part of licencing Office. Rules may be different in your country? Worth a try.Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger Brief Re-Imaging Licensed Microsoft Software Using Volume Licensing Media Corporate & Academic ¨ Select 3·4·5 ¨ Enterprise 4·5 Microsoft Select License and Enterprise Agreement customers can use volume licensing media to re-image Microsoft software products licensed via a finished goods channel, primarily OEM and retail, with an identical version of the software. Based on customer feedback, Microsoft has changed its licensing policies to allow its Select License and Enterprise Agreement customers to use volume licensing media to re-image Microsoft software products licensed via a finished goods channel with an identical version of the product without the need to purchase a volume license. Microsoft is always looking at ways to improve the simplicity, flexibility and fairness of its licensing practices in response to evolving customer needs and improvements in technology. This change recognizes advances in how Microsoft Select License and Enterprise Agreement customers are deploying Microsoft software across corporate networks and helps to simplify and speed deployment of new Microsoft products. The Change: Microsoft Select License and Enterprise Agreement customers may use volume licensing media to re-image Microsoft software products licensed via a finished goods channel with an identical version of the product without needing to purchase a Microsoft volume license. The image can be installed locally or remotely over a network. The Benefits: · Faster deployment of licensed Microsoft software products throughout an organization using the advanced deployment technologies now available for Microsoft products. · Reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for Microsoft software through easier deployment. · Ability to create standard operating environment images, containing licensed Microsoft software, which can be deployed rapidly and efficiently. Key Points: · Microsoft Select License and Enterprise Agreement customers may use volume licensing media to re-image Microsoft software products licensed via a finished goods channel, using a local or remote image over a network · Any licensed Microsoft software product contained in the product pool media received by the Select License or Enterprise Agreement customer is covered by this change · Microsoft software products covered by a volume license continue to be covered by the terms of the customers Select License or Enterprise Agreement · Microsoft software re-imaged using volume licensing media but not covered by a volume license continues to be covered by the terms of the original End User License Agreement (EULA) Q&A QUESTION: What is volume licensing media? ANSWER: Media supplied by Microsoft to Select License and Enterprise Agreement customers on a regular basis as part of the agreement. QUESTION: What happens to support and warranty coverage for Microsoft products licensed via a finished goods channel that are re-imaged with volume licensing media? ANSWER: Microsofts Select License and Enterprise Agreement programs are separate from the support offerings available from Microsoft and its partners for Microsoft software products. Customers re-imaging software licensed via a finished goods channel using volume licensing media do so at their own risk and should investigate the contractual and support implications of re-imaging and make arrangements accordingly. Customers are not entitled to Microsoft support as a result of re-imaging using Microsoft volume licensing media and should discuss any impact to their existing warranty and support coverage with their current warranty and support provider. Note: This Microsoft Volume Licensing Brief is provided for general informational purposes. For the terms and conditions governing your use of Microsoft software products, please refer to your licensing agreement.
Re: [Unattended] Giving up...
Sounds like your PCs are not waiting for network services to start before trying to run the unattended build. As a result drive mapping will fail when PC starts but will work fine a little latter. Microsoft decided to make Windows XP appear to be starting up quicker but making Windows not wait for the network to start (dhcp lease etc..) before logon. When you login to Windows XP it will often be with cached credentials. This can also screw up your login scripts and make group policy changes take a few loggins before they take effect. You can force Windows XP to wait for a network connection before logon using the following reg setting. When you start the PC you'll see the 'preparing network connections' message like you see on Servers. We set this using i386\$oem$\CMDLines.TXT at the end of Windows install. See Technet Q304970 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304970 HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SyncForegroundPolicy=1 DWORD Alex.Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger
[Unattended] Taming XP
Attached link to our reg settings, applied during Windows install, to tame WindowsXP to suit our corp environment. Contains lots of user interface settings and service configurations. Even some comments. Hope it's useful to some of you out there. Yes lots of these settings are configurable using group policy but we still have NT4 domains. Windows source directory i386\$oem$ contains CMDLines.txt CORPSets.inf attrib.exe CMDLines.txt contains the following lines to configure WindowsXP after install. ".\Attrib c:\boot.ini -s -r -h" "rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 128 .\CORPSets.INF" ".\Attrib c:\boot.ini +s +r +h" Hope you enjoy pulling the inf file apart. If you find any of these settings break things, please let me know! http://www.geocities.com/pnpripper/corpsets.inf AlexWant to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger
[Unattended] pnp ripper
Kevin, You're not stupid. Microsoft's hotfixes and patches system is stupid, but that's another topic. You run the tool on a PC fresh out of the box. It will make a zip file containing all the drivers that were pre-installed on the PC as it came from the factory. The tool asks you to enter a description of the PC. This gets used in our menu. The tool asks you if the PC is a desktop or laptop. This helps us install laptop specific apps later in the build. You get to choose filename for this bunch of drivers (8 character dos limit.) The tool then reads the DriverPath registry key to find where the vendor's drivers are located on the PC. It then adds each folder in the driverPath to a zip file. When it's run out of folders it adds the details you typed in to an ini file in the zip file, you can use this for a menu system. It also creates an ini file containing an OEMpnpDriversPath value that you can insert in your unattend.txt file to be used during unattended windows setup. You end up with a zip file containing all the drivers you need for that make and model of PC. You can build up a collection of these zip files, one for each kind of PC in your company. Your build can enumerate your collection of zip files to build a pick list that the desktop engineer sees when installing your standard build. The tool is easy to use so engineers can run it on new, straight out of the box, PCs if they suspect the drivers for that fancy new laptop aren't in the build already. This tool does indeed mean you don't have to make and maintain a single HUGE driver library. With around 20 makes and models in our environment this was too much of a headache and changes to the driver library were unpredictable. MS hotfixes and patches, now they're unpredictable, but that's another topic. Did you know IE6 cumulative patches don't do version checking and can downgrade files. I dispair. AlexWant to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger
[Unattended] That mysterious XP startup behaviour - no network
Windows XP starts up quicker than Windows 2000, but it's kinda cheating By default XP doesn't wait for the network before logon. Cached credentials are used to logon existing users. Neat trick if you're a home user but can be problematic in a corp environment. This can cause certain policy extentions such as Software Installation and folder redirection taking up to two logons to be sucessfully applied. This also means you have to test your network connection exists before continuting install of apps after a reboot. REM sleep command is from resource kit set count=0 :tryagain net use Z: \\\share /user:\id password set /a count=%count%+1 sleep 5 if not exist z:*.* goto tryagain Echo At last, the network is ready! Took only %count% tries. Some related Technet articles KB305293 KB304970 To change this behaviour do as Technet says: Open the appropriate Group Policy object for the computer or computers on which you want to implement the change. In the left pane, click to expand the following items: Computer Configuration Administrative Templates System Logon Double-click the Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon setting. Click Enable, and then click OK. Or go straight to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SyncForegroundPolicy DWORD =1 At startup you'll see a new dialog that says: "Preparing network conections..." same as you see on servers. The Winlogon system won't run until the network services have started. Alex _Alex MagnayE-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger
[Unattended] Driver and laptop detection in DOS
I think driver and laptop detection in dos would be too complicated to setup and then keep up to date. Where I work we have a PnP drivers directory per PC model (stored as a zip file). Build engineers pick the PC model from a list (enumerated on the fly) before Windows is installed. This way we know throughout the rest of the build the make (eg IBM) and model (eg ThinkpadT20) of PC. The fact that the PC is a desktop or laptop is also determined from this selection. The vendor's PnP drivers for the model (ripped from factory image) are unzipped and environment variables set eg: set make=IBM set model=IBMT20 set deskorlap=laptop Sent this before but here's our tool for making per model pnp zip files containing make, model and desktop/laptop info for pre Windows install pick list. http://www.geocities.com/pnpripper/pnpripper4.zip Your development seems to be headed towards master scripts and subscripts to support organisations with several different configurations of PCs based around a single 'standard'. We have 4 groups of apps/installs - Core apps (for eveyone, eg Office, acrobat reader, winzip) - Department apps (per department, eg Traders, Accounting, IT) - DeskorLap (desktop apps or laptop apps eg VPN client, RAS dialler, Safeboot HD encryption, offline e-mail config) - Vendor apps (make model specific apps and non PnP drivers eg Thinkpad utils, Compaq Management agents, HP keyboard) BTW I think this unattended list is great. I borrow loads of great scripts and ideas from it. Please keep it up! AlexWant to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger
[Unattended] Plug n play driver managment
Hi all, New PCs arrive at the office with XP preinstalled with all the pnp drivers we need. We have a tool to rip the drivers from the vendor's build and put them into our corporate build. We then wipe the PC and rebuild. We make zip files, per model, containing the pnp drivers.We can then pick the model from a DOS menu during our build. The drivers are unzipped to c: and the unattend.txt file is updated with the correct OEMPnPDriver path. We made a tool called PnPRipper which we use to make our zip files. We run it on each new type of PC we get in the office before we wipe it to install the corporate standard build. We then copy the zip file to our build share and that's it. The build now supports the new make and model of PC. Point, click, drag drop. Easy. So the desktop engineers don't need to know how the build works. They just need to run pnpripper. No need to visit the vendor's website to download drivers one by one for intergration into your build. Currently we have 19 zip files for 19 different makes and models of IBM Thinkpad, Compaq and HP. Link to the tool below. Freely distributable. Do what you like with it. Includes example batch file showing how you can extract make and model info from the zip files to parse for your menu. http://www.geocities.com/pnpripper/pnpripper4.zip Regards, AlexWant to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger
