1. Integrating WinXP bootable CD with SP2
2. Adding Post SP2 updates
3. Creating answer file
4. Customising WinXP setup process
5. Adding ur own programs to get installed automatically.
For starters these are the programs / files you will need, so go on and download them.
1. Your WinXP CD
2. Win XP SP2 -- get it here
3. Get all Post SP2 updates from here. I will work with the Full version of update pack.
4. Get latest version of nLite from here
5. Windows Media Player 10 (Optional)
These are the basic things to start with.
Now I will tell you about how to create a plain Windows XP Service Pack 2 bootable CD.
If you have WinXP SP2 bootable CD, you may skip this process and go straight to Integrating RyanVM's Post SP2 updates and Windows Media Player 10.
If you are not sure about which version of WinXP setup you have, please continue with the following steps:
- You will need a lot of free space for this process. Please make sure you have around 2 GB of free space on your drive. Now copy the content of your Windows XP installation CD (all files and folders) to a new folder on the drive, which has atleast the given amount of free space.
- Install nLite. You will need .NET framework to run it. You can get the .NET framework runtimes from the download page of nLite. [Link given in 1st post.
- Start nLite. After welcome screen, it ill ask for tasks selection. Since we are creating a plain WinXP bootable CD with SP2 integrated, select only
* Integrate a Service Pack and
* Create a Bootable CD.
- On the next screen, select the source of your WinXP Setup files - the folder where u put all files from XP CD. (While nLite supports files directly from CD, it will then copy all files to HDD so better why not do that beforehand?)
- nLite will detect the version of XP setup files and built version. If you don't have WinXP SP2 then continue to next step. If you have SP2 but built less than 2180 then u have a WinXP SP2 beta integrated, you cant use such CD to integrate SP2 Final. If your setup is detected as WinXP SP2 built 2180 then you have a WinXP SP2 setup files, you can skip next steps and directly move on to Create ISO task.
- Integrating SP2 : On next screen, browse to the WinXP SP2 file you downloaded.
It may take around 15 minutes for the integration to complete. These are the screens while integration is going on.
SP2 getting extracted:
SP2 getting integrated:
- After integrating SP2 completely into your WinXP source, you will see that your source is upgraded to SP2 built 2180.
- On next screen, give the proper label to your CD and click make ISO. Save the ISO on your disk. You can later burn this ISO file using CD Burning tools like Nero.
- The ISO you got in previous step can be burnt to CD using any CD burner like Nero. It will be bootable CD. This WinXP SP2 built 2180 will be the base CD for all further work.
Next step will be integrating RyanVM's post SP2 update pack and Windows Media Player 10 into this source CD, so that you need not have to go to Windows update and download all those patches every time you install your OS.
Warning
Till this point, all the work done will work on all PCs. But for further work, I recommend a testing of your ISO file so that you won't end up with faulty CD. One tool that will help you to emulate a complete PC to boot and install the OS, is Microsoft Virtual PC.
you can get a 45 days trial from Microsoft Virtual PC trial download
Another popular and probable more advance tool is VMWare. Get the trial here
Or you can burn the ISO file to Re-Writable CD and test it.
Integrating RyanVM's Post SP2 updates and Windows Media Player 10
Now I will deal with integrating RyanVM's Post SP2 updates and Windows Media Player 10. Also some tweaking and removal of some programs.
This process is irreversible means once you integrate Post SP2 updates and WMP 10 in your source, there is no way to remove them. But since updates are not meant for removal, it is ok for most of us. But there may be cases where particular hotfix may cause some conflict with other programs. This is not a fault of Microsoft but of other programs but still I am warning you all.
Similarly, programs removed in this process cannot be brought back since they are removed from source setup files. Also it is not easy to install them afterwards if you have installed XP with CD that have programs removed.
- We have already created the Bootable XP CD in the last post which has SP2 integrated. If you have not copied it to hard disk earlier, do it now. Make sure you have enough free space (Min 2GB). Your source files used in earlier post are also been updated to SP2 so if you have not deleted them, you can use that.
- Start nLite. On next screen, select the location of your WinXP (with SP2 integrated) setup files. nLite should detect them as built 1280.
- On next page select
Integrate Hotfixes
Remove Components
Unattended Setup
Options and tweaks
- Added 6th June 2005 This was not given where to add Ryan's Hotfixes, though most of you must have found it out.
This will be in Integrate Hotfixes screen, add the Ryan's hotfixes file by clicking on Insert Button. - Next screen will give you some compatibility options. Select those which apply to you.
- In next screen, "Remove Components", you can remove Windows XP's inbuilt softwares, which you will never be using in ages. Many such softwares are installed with default XP setup and will stay on your hard drive. Removing them from here will remove them from the setup files itself. This will result in smaller setup size, and also make the installation faster.
Spend some time in this section. You can see the description and space saved for each item.
Select the components you want to remove.
Do not remove Windows Media Player if you want to integrate Windows Media Player 10
Do not remove services from here if you are not sure, you can disable them in next steps - Next screen will give you to create an answer file, to create unattended setup. I use "DefaultHide" option because I give some details like User Name and Organization name while installing, while others are given in answer file. You can choose any of the options.
Part 1:
Give your CD-KEY and select Unattended Type. I have also disabled Hibernate.
Part 2:
If Your organization has Domain server you can give its settings directly from here. You can also set to install IIS if you need it.
Part 3:
Here you can give your personal details like name, computer name, workgroup, language and timezone.
If you don't want the network prompt while in setup, then give some workgroup name. Keeping it blank will give you a prompt.
Part 4:
Display settings: Modify it only if you know that your monitor will support those modes. - On next screen, "Options and Tweaks", you can do a lot of tweaking stuff here. This will easily save your couple of hours and installation of some tweaking programs.
Part1:
I have disabled SFC (System File Checker), which if not, will give me warning if I used some modified Windows System files. I have done it because i am going to change the looks of XP setup afterwards and I don't want any error at that time.
Part 2:
Here I have enabled unsigned theme support. This allows me to install lot of unsigned Visual Styles available over the net.
Part 3:
This is tweakers paradise. I will try to give some tips.
A. Boot and Shutdown
Select Auto End and Auto Kill for faster shutdown. But You will not get a chance to save open unsaved documents if u initiate shutdown with this tweaks enabled.
B. Desktop, Taskbar and Start menu
Some tweaks about removing System Icons like My Computer, My Documents.. Also Recycle Bin can be made renamable. So u can rename it to something like "कचरेका डब्बा"
C. Explorer Tweaks
Add CMD SHELL will add option to open Command Prompt Window with current folder. Like CMDHERE Powertoy.
Add Expand to compressed setup files: Many files in i386 have extensions like xx_ which are actually compressed files, you can open them in winrar. This tweak will add option to expand them to context menu.
Advanced Search: Makes search easier.
Disable Sticky Keys: Those annoying prompts for sticky keys.
Launch folder windows in separate process: To prevent crashing of whole explorer windows if 1 windows is crashed. (Very rare but useful).
D. File Open/Save File Dialog
You can change presets bar to C:, D:, E:, Desktop, and Network Neighborhood if you don't like default shortcuts.
E. Internet Explorer Options
Some normal tweaks but one I should mention is to allow IE to accept 10 connections at a time instead of 2. Much better for uses with fast internet.
F. My Computer
You can add many system folders to My Computer, add some to its context menu and remove shared documents from it (good if you have single use system).
G. Privacy
Disable Documents from start menu.
Disable driver update internet prompt if you install drivers from CD.
Remove Alexa Spyware: Will remove "Related" Toolbar Button in IE.
H. Security
Some options related to logins
Disable administrative shares: Shares created as c$ d$ etc.. You won't even know they exists.
Disable Web Open With prompt: Won't ask to look at website when you are opening an unknown file type and will take you directly to Select Program dialog.
I. Speed
Classic Control Panel: For those who hate new style control panel in XP
Disable automatic search for network folders and Printers: For faster LAN browsing.
Disable Optimize harddisk when idle: Good if you use other defrag utility.
Disable paging of kernel and core OS: If you have lot of RAM and don't want core files to be moved to SWAP/Pagefile.
Disable tracking of broken shortcuts: To prevent getting them mapped to some other program.
Disable Warn on low disk space: Won't get warning if your hard disk is getting full.
Do not cache thumbnails: Will not create thumbs.db file.
Remove Remote computer namespaces: will not search for printers and scheduled tasks on network PCs thus faster browsing in LAN.
J. Start Menu
Huge list to customize your start menu.
K. Taskbar
Disable Group similar Taskbar buttons: Good to switch between opened programs
Disable Language bar: If you don't use it
Disable Windows tour popup: If you don't want it when you start your windows for first time.
L. Visual Effects
You can disable them to get faster response time and free some MBs of RAM - Part 4
Services Configuration
Use this page to configure your services. Their startup types. Disable unwanted serviced etc.
The ultimate reference for Windows XP Services was BlackViper's site
www.blackviper.com
But that site is now closed, and i don't know if it ever will be up, and I don't know any mirrors too.
But good news is that you can check out the site in google cache. And even better, I have the sites contents in PDF.
BlackViper's Services configuration for different users 45KB
BlackViper's Services 411 - Everything you need to know about services 210KB - Next screen will show the progress while updates are applied. This process may take lot of time. You may stop your antivirus, antispyware and other tools to speedup the process a little bit.
- Finally, a window will show you about the space saved on your windows XP source CD.
- Now that we have WinXP SP2 fully updated with latest hotfixes, we can also integrate Windows Media Player 10 in it. This is optional step.
A. Download Bâshrat the Sneaky's WMP10 slipstreamer script from here.
B. Create a new folder. Extract the WMP10_Slipstreamer_V11.cmd from downloaded zip to this folder. Also copy the Windows Media Player 10 setup file you downloaded to this folder. Rename it to MP10Setup.exe if it is not. Run the script.
C. New folder is created at C:\i386. Copy all newly created files from that folder to i386 folder of your XP Setup source you updated. Overwrite any old files if prompted.
D. Now open hivedef.inf under i386 folder of your CD in notepad and look for section [Addreg]. There add the lineCODEHKCU,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences",\
"AcceptedPrivacyStatement",0x00010003,1
It should look like
Now save the file.
E. Since you have WMP10 slipstreamed, updates specific to WMP9 are not required. There are 5 such updates in RyanVM's Full Update Pack 1.2.1.
You can download the WMP9-Less INF Files from this page. Just extract the 2 files in that CAB to your i386 folder, overwrite when prompted.
You are done. Just 1 more step remaining. - Creating bootable ISO
Start nLite. This time select only to create bootable cd. Select the XP setup folder. Make ISO. Test it with Virtual PC / VMWare, or else burn it to CD-RW and test it on a test PC. If it works then burn it to CD-R else debug your mistake. Don't compliant to me that you wasted CD-Rs with non-working setups.
Next step will be adding your own programs to install automatically. These are installed after the installation completes via registry. This is a normal setup and you can uninstall these programs as and when you like from Add Remove programs. You can install many programs like Antivirus, Firewall, Office suites etc. Only problem is that whole files should fit in 1 CD with your XP setup.
