I've used it and it can do things that handmade custom Install Cd's cannot. I'm responsible for making OS install CD's that integrate all patches, all security settings, and profile tweaks. I do it by hand and update every time Microsoft releases updates.
nLite is very nice. You can basically install an OS on a system with everything you need in just a couple of clicks... SO MUCH FASTER!!!!
I still recommend doing it by hand for simple understanding of what is being done, but that is for corporate world.
I did my own disc, manually, but every step (And a thousand cross-referencing double-checks to make sure I got it right on the first burn) left me weeping like a sissy for a program that would effing do it for me.
I did my own disc, manually, but every step (And a thousand cross-referencing double-checks to make sure I got it right on the first burn) left me weeping like a sissy for a program that would effing do it for me.
MM: Did you try the non-Free version? Or at least know if there are any better options?
For nLite there is no commercial version. WYSIWYG. As far as XP Lite? Me? Pay? Money? $39 vs. free. The choice was pretty easy. I make no comment on how XP Lite peforms as I have not compared it. I'm just after free stuff for you guys.
Beautiful! Perfect timing, too. I'm just starting a project which will involve a lot of format/reinstall action. I considered doing my own slipstreamed CD, but this looks to be so much simpler to use.
Word of caution to people with RAID and single HDs. I have 2x 160GB in RAID0 and a 300 GB IDE backup. When I use any unattended install, I have very bad results. This program is great, just be careful during unattended Windows install. What Windows does is erase my partition table on the IDE drive, even before I have any input. I've had this problem with any unattended install of Windows, not just this program. But this program does make it easier for people to create unattended installs and is particularly attractive being able to add RAID drivers onto the CD so I thought I'd mention it. This problem may only be in my case but it really isn't fun worrying rather or not you get your data back.
I did my own disc, manually, but every step (And a thousand cross-referencing double-checks to make sure I got it right on the first burn) left me weeping like a sissy for a program that would effing do it for me.
Yep. Been there.. till late.. at night.. not achieving my original goal
Word of caution to people with RAID and single HDs. I have 2x 160GB in RAID0 and a 300 GB IDE backup. When I use any unattended install, I have very bad results. This program is great, just be careful during unattended Windows install. What Windows does is erase my partition table on the IDE drive, even before I have any input. I've had this problem with any unattended install of Windows, not just this program. But this program does make it easier for people to create unattended installs and is particularly attractive being able to add RAID drivers onto the CD so I thought I'd mention it. This problem may only be in my case but it really isn't fun worrying rather or not you get your data back.
You have to edit the produced winnt.sif file with the following parameters:
The only matter that displeased me with this program was the fact that you couldn't include installer executables, and set silent switches.. Like DX9C redistributable, for example, can be executed silently. I would like to have seen such an option made available.
The versions I have used also didnt allow the boot drivers for the sata drivers in unattended insatlls which I do manually on my unattended installs..
Each version keeps getting better though. And they patch stuff every few weeks with new versions so go back to their forums for the latest news and updates.
Its also EASY to strip out stuff you regret so use a RW cd/dvd at first until you get the perfect install down and then save a ISO of it.
And slipstreaming is just one command really and then burn the cd. The beauty of this program is that it allows you to strip down many of the XP install componets and make a much smaller install XP OS cd and also a smaller XP OS install after the fact. I have never seen another program that does that.
Word of caution to people with RAID and single HDs. I have 2x 160GB in RAID0 and a 300 GB IDE backup. When I use any unattended install, I have very bad results. This program is great, just be careful during unattended Windows install. What Windows does is erase my partition table on the IDE drive, even before I have any input. I've had this problem with any unattended install of Windows, not just this program. ack.
Your just not setting up the answer file correctly. Mine work fine.
That will avoid autopartitioning and autoformatting; it removes the complete unattended functionality, but doesn't blitzkrieg your HDD.
Yeah I've done that before but it still messes up the drive, I swear to you. The only way to get Windows to install to the RAID is to disable the IDE or unplug it. Thanks for the suggestion though. You know me, I've tried messing with it. It's something to do with the fact it won't write to RAID if the IDE drive is present. Period. Even if it doesn't erase the IDE partitions, it will try to copy the temp files to IDE (when I choose to install to a RAID partition). I have a friend with NF7-S and exact same problem. I won't waste any more of this thread. Thanks anyway Thrax.
No matter what kind of install (unattended or not) you have to unplug teh ide to get ALL the files to the raid setup. The five boot files goes to ide0 no matter how you install.
You claimed it deleted and formated your partitions. Not if the answer file is done RIGHT.
If you do it RIGHT (and I have almost 100 unattended installs under my belt) it will never ever EVER friggin EVER do anything to delete the existing partitions. You are doing it wrong.
I install to scsi and ide and sata raid partitions.
My unattended installs are all automated EXCEPT it stops and asks me where to install to and allows you to add/delete partitions manually. Because both I and my customers PC's have wildly varying disk setups. And we can not afford the type of errors your unattended setup causes. YOUR unattended is meant only for new PC's with no partition and no existing data to save etc...
Because YOU didnt figure out how to do it correctly does in no way mean it can't be done.
Trust me... Mine do not in any way jack with existing partitions. It does not ever in any way modify or delete or anything else unless you specify it to do it.
No matter what kind of install (unattended or not) you have to unplug teh ide to get ALL the files to the raid setup. The five boot files goes to ide0 no matter how you install.
You claimed it deleted and formated your partitions. Not if the answer file is done RIGHT.
If you do it RIGHT (and I have almost 100 unattended installs under my belt) it will never ever EVER friggin EVER do anything to delete the existing partitions. You are doing it wrong.
I install to scsi and ide and sata raid partitions.
My unattended installs are all automated EXCEPT it stops and asks me where to install to and allows you to add/delete partitions manually. Because both I and my customers PC's have wildly varying disk setups. And we can not afford the type of errors your unattended setup causes. YOUR unattended is meant only for new PC's with no partition and no existing data to save etc...
Because YOU didnt figure out how to do it correctly does in no way mean it can't be done.
Trust me... Mine do not in any way jack with existing partitions. It does not ever in any way modify or delete or anything else unless you specify it to do it.
Tex
You're taking this wrong. My post was general heads-up to people. I've seen it happen on 2 computers. Is everyone going to take time to master unattended installs before using nLite? No. This is a great article by MM, and the tool is useful. I just said to be careful. Please don't insist I'm wrong when you only read the half story.
You're taking this wrong. My post was general heads-up to people. I've seen it happen on 2 computers. Is everyone going to take time to master unattended installs before using nLite? No. This is a great article by MM, and the tool is useful. I just said to be careful. Please don't insist I'm wrong when you only read the half story.
YOU said .. and I quote you here..
"I've had this problem with any unattended install of Windows, not just this program".
This has nothing to do with nlite. Nor were my comments about nlite. It was about your problems which... from YOUR OWN WORDS quoted above... are unrelated to nlite.
This is supremly excellent for someone like myself who can only acquire fixes or service packs, by either using my wonderful 56k or grabbing them from a freind who has high speed. The integration of the RAID drivers is also excellent. (I always missed F6 )
How do those "unattended installs" work anyway? You pop in the CD and it installs Windows? Surely I'm missing something? Do you pick all the time and network options and stuff before the install begins, and it goes from there?
Let's first clarify what "unattended installation" means.
It can mean several stages of the installation happen automatically. ALL or just some are unattended and the program has a full unattended setting but I did not try that.
What I did try was the settings as indicated in the images I supplied.
I slipstreamed the disk. I then "popped" it into the other computer in the CD drive and rebooted. Remember that BIOS has to be set to try to boot from the optical device first.
I kept the option for pressing the "any" key to go into the windows install. The program does have a setting to bypass this if you wish.
The system had two SATA drives on the SIL3114 headers. Windows automatically installed the slipstreamed SATA driver and found the drives. The system STOPPED at that point and waited for me to choose the partition and format the drive as I saw fit. Those drives were previously partitioned but clean.
I made those two choices and everything happened "unattended" from there right to the desktop.
That was because I chose that particular setting for that form of "unattended setup."
If you choose the full unattended setup then the system assumes you are installing on c:\ and should proceed fully unattended from the time you "pop" in the disk and reboot..to the desktop.
In other words...as I said previously...just depends on what depth of "unattended" setup you configure.
How do those "unattended installs" work anyway? You pop in the CD and it installs Windows? Surely I'm missing something? Do you pick all the time and network options and stuff before the install begins, and it goes from there?
Check out page 3 of the article and you'll have some idea. Basically, you choose your options when you make the CD.
How do those "unattended installs" work anyway? You pop in the CD and it installs Windows? Surely I'm missing something? Do you pick all the time and network options and stuff before the install begins, and it goes from there?
You can set everything from the workgroup/domain name to the computer name to the IP or cd-key or time-zone or keyboard used or... Whatever....
ANYTHING a normal xp install requires...
Mine asks only for the disk/partition to install to and also installs Office, Photoshop, Nero and a sheet load of other apps and only prompts for the partition to install to,
I made a new XP Home CD using this earlier today and I'm very happy with it. The only times I ever was asked for anything was the partition/directory info and the user and computer names (just like I specified).
While I didn't feel like testing the install disk by taking down my RAID array just so I could see if the drivers worked, I noticed them loading at boot from the install disk (without the tens of other SCSI/RAID drivers which used to be on there that I'd never own in a bajillion years which normally take an extra 3-5 minutes to load) to I'll assume that given the hardware, they would have worked fine.
Having all my Windows Explorer settings, uxtheme.dll hack, and even the f'ing search assistant removed right from the get-go is incredible. I wasn't even aware you could change those settings before Windows was installed!
I wonder: Would it be possible to have the just the nForce2's Ethernet driver pre-loaded on the CD as well? I realize it's best to use the latest drivers from the get-go, but without these drivers you cannot download the latest version to begin with, and it’d be nice to have a working driver already installed rather than having to dig out another CD beforehand. Would it just take adding the “nvenetfd.inf” file from nVidia’s decompressed driver package to the “Add Drivers” window (the same place you add the SATA drivers) along with all of the other files found in the \Ethernet\PreNEM\WinXP\ directory of the same package?
Comments
nLite is very nice. You can basically install an OS on a system with everything you need in just a couple of clicks... SO MUCH FASTER!!!!
I still recommend doing it by hand for simple understanding of what is being done, but that is for corporate world.
MM: Did you try the non-Free version? Or at least know if there are any better options?
For nLite there is no commercial version. WYSIWYG. As far as XP Lite? Me? Pay? Money? $39 vs. free. The choice was pretty easy. I make no comment on how XP Lite peforms as I have not compared it. I'm just after free stuff for you guys.
Awesome app! Wow.. nice find MM
For the dot net:
Microsoft .NET Framework Redistributable 1.0 dotnetredist.exe
For that, you actually want the 1.1 version, not 1.0 or the updates don't work. Get it here (23MB):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 NDP1.1sp1-KB867460-X86.exe
Correct URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a8f5654f-088e-40b2-bbdb-a83353618b38&DisplayLang=en
You have to edit the produced winnt.sif file with the following parameters:
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated=0
UnattendedInstall=Yes
[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEula=Yes
OemPreinstall=YES
UnattendSwitch=Yes
FileSystem=LeaveAlone
That will avoid autopartitioning and autoformatting; it removes the complete unattended functionality, but doesn't blitzkrieg your HDD.
Each version keeps getting better though. And they patch stuff every few weeks with new versions so go back to their forums for the latest news and updates.
Its also EASY to strip out stuff you regret so use a RW cd/dvd at first until you get the perfect install down and then save a ISO of it.
And slipstreaming is just one command really and then burn the cd. The beauty of this program is that it allows you to strip down many of the XP install componets and make a much smaller install XP OS cd and also a smaller XP OS install after the fact. I have never seen another program that does that.
Tex
Your just not setting up the answer file correctly. Mine work fine.
Above
You claimed it deleted and formated your partitions. Not if the answer file is done RIGHT.
If you do it RIGHT (and I have almost 100 unattended installs under my belt) it will never ever EVER friggin EVER do anything to delete the existing partitions. You are doing it wrong.
I install to scsi and ide and sata raid partitions.
My unattended installs are all automated EXCEPT it stops and asks me where to install to and allows you to add/delete partitions manually. Because both I and my customers PC's have wildly varying disk setups. And we can not afford the type of errors your unattended setup causes. YOUR unattended is meant only for new PC's with no partition and no existing data to save etc...
Because YOU didnt figure out how to do it correctly does in no way mean it can't be done.
Trust me... Mine do not in any way jack with existing partitions. It does not ever in any way modify or delete or anything else unless you specify it to do it.
Tex
YOU said .. and I quote you here..
"I've had this problem with any unattended install of Windows, not just this program".
This has nothing to do with nlite. Nor were my comments about nlite. It was about your problems which... from YOUR OWN WORDS quoted above... are unrelated to nlite.
Tex
Very excellent, thanks MM.
It can mean several stages of the installation happen automatically. ALL or just some are unattended and the program has a full unattended setting but I did not try that.
What I did try was the settings as indicated in the images I supplied.
I slipstreamed the disk. I then "popped" it into the other computer in the CD drive and rebooted. Remember that BIOS has to be set to try to boot from the optical device first.
I kept the option for pressing the "any" key to go into the windows install. The program does have a setting to bypass this if you wish.
The system had two SATA drives on the SIL3114 headers. Windows automatically installed the slipstreamed SATA driver and found the drives. The system STOPPED at that point and waited for me to choose the partition and format the drive as I saw fit. Those drives were previously partitioned but clean.
I made those two choices and everything happened "unattended" from there right to the desktop.
That was because I chose that particular setting for that form of "unattended setup."
If you choose the full unattended setup then the system assumes you are installing on c:\ and should proceed fully unattended from the time you "pop" in the disk and reboot..to the desktop.
In other words...as I said previously...just depends on what depth of "unattended" setup you configure.
Pof...you were just a bit more brief than I was.
You can set everything from the workgroup/domain name to the computer name to the IP or cd-key or time-zone or keyboard used or... Whatever....
ANYTHING a normal xp install requires...
Mine asks only for the disk/partition to install to and also installs Office, Photoshop, Nero and a sheet load of other apps and only prompts for the partition to install to,
Tex
I made a new XP Home CD using this earlier today and I'm very happy with it. The only times I ever was asked for anything was the partition/directory info and the user and computer names (just like I specified).
While I didn't feel like testing the install disk by taking down my RAID array just so I could see if the drivers worked, I noticed them loading at boot from the install disk (without the tens of other SCSI/RAID drivers which used to be on there that I'd never own in a bajillion years which normally take an extra 3-5 minutes to load) to I'll assume that given the hardware, they would have worked fine.
Having all my Windows Explorer settings, uxtheme.dll hack, and even the f'ing search assistant removed right from the get-go is incredible. I wasn't even aware you could change those settings before Windows was installed!
I wonder: Would it be possible to have the just the nForce2's Ethernet driver pre-loaded on the CD as well? I realize it's best to use the latest drivers from the get-go, but without these drivers you cannot download the latest version to begin with, and it’d be nice to have a working driver already installed rather than having to dig out another CD beforehand. Would it just take adding the “nvenetfd.inf” file from nVidia’s decompressed driver package to the “Add Drivers” window (the same place you add the SATA drivers) along with all of the other files found in the \Ethernet\PreNEM\WinXP\ directory of the same package?