Windows XP Unattended Installation

Windows XP Unattended Installation
Part1
Part2

I have started with this tutorial
and since I am waiting on the network install of Sp1 to download I figured I would post about it,

Anyone else doing this?
Of those doing this, anyone using a DVD Rom instead of CD rom?
What Programs are you installing?

at the moment this is more of a got nothing better to do project, and hate Norton ghost.

For Software I am thinking
MS office XP
Active Sync 3.7 ( for my Pocket PC )
Mozilla Firefox
FileZilla
ICQ
EditPlus
CDBurnerXP Pro

thats all I can think of as things needed for a fresh install, Any thing I'm missing?
WHat sorts of settings are you doing? Services being enabled/disabled?
stuff like that. Just looking to not have to reburn a DVD-rw because I forgot something simple. and am looking for people to trouble shoot with when I run into troubles

well I would not put firefox and stuff on there. by the time you make that CD a new version of firefox will be available.

plus it takes about 4 minutes only to install and download firefox, icq etc.

install biggy programs and drives+patches but not stuff that gets updates all the time. you will just need to uninstall or overwritte stuff again.

good point, though I use ICQ 2001 because it has a tiny little ad instead of the big ads on the new version so I will install it.


I have hit my first problem
on my winXP CD
E:\I386\LANG
MSMINCHO.TT_ wont copy
I get the error
"Cannot copy MSMINCHO: Data error ( cyclic redundancy Check). "
Not sure whats going on, I've used this CD to install some 20 times, and never had a problem with it, it has a few tiny scratches but has since the second time I reinstalled. Think MS would send me the required file if I provided Proof of ownership? I wont be using the CD ever again once I get a slip stream done

EDIT:
is seems other people have had problems with this file
http://www.hausin.com/Fileviewer/index.asp?folder=\\cdh001\data2\fonts\TTF\JAPAN\
offers it for download along with other Japanese language files.

Though I now wonder if I need it since I am installing ENglish only.


EDIT2:
Deleted Entire I386/LANG folder, if doing a English only install the folder is not needed, don't waste time taking it off of the WinXP CD
Currently I am reading this page
http://jdeboeck.msfnhosting.com/ and learning how to make the Install CD smaller, even though I am using a DVD rom, why install bloat I don't need.

Items I am removing
WIndows Movie Maker
Windows Tour
Remote Desktop
MSN Explorer


EDIT 3:

I figure this will be my Edit post as things go then I'll update the first post with details, since I don't want to make this thread huge full of me just blabing

anyway RE EDIT 2
the Guide on http://jdeboeck.msfnhosting.com/ is poorly made it seems
if you download REMOVE.zip from the site you do not need to Extract Driver.CAB and Sp1.CAB manually, the Batch file "Before you begin" does it,
and you do not need to have a CAB compression tool since the Batchfile "Finnishing Off" reCABS your files for you,

atleast thats what I understand from reading the Batch files, and that is what it looks like it is doing when I run them

EDIT 4

Seems that Finnishing Off.bat doesn't like me, I got a Blue screen after it finnished deleteding the /sp1 dir before it started rebuilding the Cab Files, looks like I am going to leave the 4 Components Mentioned in EDIT 2 in my install atleast for now,

germanjulian said:

well I would not put firefox and stuff on there. by the time you make that CD a new version of firefox will be available.

plus it takes about 4 minutes only to install and download firefox, icq etc.

install biggy programs and drives+patches but not stuff that gets updates all the time. you will just need to uninstall or overwritte stuff again.

Click to expand...

(CD)DVD-RW
PS Me likes this a lot

Stedeman said:

(CD)DVD-RW
PS Me likes this a lot

Click to expand...

you've never rewriten a DVD-rw have ya?
assuming you use this disk every 2 months, you'll have to spend the time you saved making this DVD every other install to update the DVD, they take quite a long time to rewrite 2gb of data

If you look to my Sig you will see I use a Lite on 411S (a true 4X~ across the board) and with 4X RW's as cheap as they are one could stack them much like Mr.B dose. I feel if the program has an update function and it's one you use all the time, you should load it. It is much faster to download an update to 10 programs than it is to do 10 full installs (think of our brothers on 56K ). And in the end that is the point of this article; an install that requires a minimal presence and gives you the maximum benefit of not having to load the same things over and over.

deRusett said:

good point, though I use ICQ 2001 because it has a tiny little ad instead of the big ads on the new version so I will install it.

Click to expand...

Why don't you use Trillian instead, you can chat on ICQ, MSN, AIM, or Yahoo all with the same program. Not to mention that you can connect as more than one account at a time. IMO a very useful program.

Cyberwiz01 said:

Why don't you use Trillian instead, you can chat on ICQ, MSN, AIM, or Yahoo all with the same program. Not to mention that you can connect as more than one account at a time. IMO a very useful program.

Click to expand...

because I like MSN, and I like ICQ, both have there advantages, Trillian was nice for about a week, then I went back to using both MSN and ICQ, ICQ Shared Folder makes working on projects easier, MSN has excelent Video COnfencing, and what do I need more then one account for?

thats cool im gonna make a normal one

you guys might want to look up nlite, you can customize a whole iso by checking boxes and it slipstreams whatever service pack you point to.

nLite kinda cool