How to Easily Customize Windows Install and Troubleshooting CDs

How to Easily Customize Windows Install and Troubleshooting CDs Minh Vuong Yale University minh.vuong@yale.edu Yale University • Medium-sized private institution located in New Haven, CT • 5300 undergraduate students • 6000 graduate/professional students Yale University, cont. • 87% of undergraduates live on-campus in residential colleges • Graduate students live either offcampus or in one of three dormitories Undergraduate Life •Most freshmen live on Old Campus Undergraduate Life, cont.one of twelve • Upperclassmen live in residential colleges • Each college has its own dining hall, library, laundry machines, and special facilities, such as a climbing wall, small theater spaces, etc. Our Technology • Full hardware and software support provided Support free • Hardware • Hard drive data recovery • Dell & Apple warranty support • Peripherals: routers, printers, iPods, etc. • Software • Clean OS installs • Anything except for p2p software support :) Staff • 90-100 student Computing Assistants (CAs) • 16 are experienced CA coordinators who supervise support in each residential college • 2 full-time staff members, adding a third Presentation Summary • Customizing Windows Install Discs • nLite • DriverPacks • RyanVM • $OEM$ folders • PowerPacker • Creating a UBCD/UBCD4Win disc Customizing Windows Install CDs Why? • Save time & money whenever you or your techs do Windows reinstalls • Windows is fully patched on first startup • Most (if not all) hardware device drivers already installed • Computer is up and running faster! What You Need • Original Windows discs • Testing and building environment • What I use: Mac Pro + Parallels • No programming skills required! Your Options Difficulty Easy Result Integrated individual WinXP discs with patches Software Needed nLite + RyanVM nLite + RyanVM + DriverPacks + PowerPacker Almost as Easy Integrated individual WinXP discs with patches AND drivers • Software We’ll Use Download freeware: • nLite - Customize discs • RyanVM Windows XP Post-SP2 • DriverPacks - Integrate hardware drivers Update Pack - Integrate Windows patches & fixes • Windows XP PowerPacker - Create • UltraISO - Edit ISOs directly • Nero - Burn discs Multiboot Windows XP discs Testing Your ISOs • Microsoft VirtualPC Free but slow • Parallels - Not free but very fast on Core Duos nLite • Download from nliteos.com nLite • Install nLite nLite • Start nLite nLite • Select an original Windows install disc nLite • Remembers your past settings (if available) nLite • Your options • Integrating Windows updates • RyanVM gets most updates • You may want to add your own patches and Addons manually nLite nLite • Application add-ins: http://www.nliteos.com/addons/index.ht ml • Firefox, Windows Defender, etc. • Install most Windows updates during the setup process RyanVM nLite • Automating the setup Select ProvideDefault s nLite • Creating login accounts nLite • Setting default computer name nLite • Setting automatic updating nLite • Disable duplicate files nLite • Disable Windows File Protection (SFC) nLite • Further customizations nLite • Build the disc nLite • Finished! If you want to continue.... • Your WinXP ISO is ready to go, but if you want to further enhance your disc, please continue! Integrating Drivers • Download DriverPacks driverpacks.net DriverPacks • Download DriverPacks BASE DriverPacks • Various DriverPacks are available DriverPacks • Extract DriverPacks BASE and drag downloaded DriverPacks to the DriverPacks folder • Run DPs_BASE.exe DriverPacks • Select the Windows folder you created from nLite DriverPacks • Select which DriverPacks to integrate DriverPacks • Select Method 2 - Better compression and driver support • GuiRunOnce for simplicity • RunOnceEx for PowerPacker DriverPacks DriverPacks • Disable Keep The Drivers (KTD) to save hard drive space DriverPacks • Select the option to go with which Method you picked before DriverPacks • Select any additional options for the various DriverPacks DriverPacks • A summary of your options DriverPacks • UpdateChecker never works for me DriverPacks • Export your settings for PowerPacker OR DriverPacks • Slipstream if you don’t want to use PowerPacker • $OEM$ folders are copied to the new Windows install Using $OEM$ folders • Different folders do different things: $1, $$, $Docs, $Progs • Good reference: http://unattended.msf n.org/unattended.xp/ view/web/18/ Using $OEM$ Foldersin the /i386 • Edit winnt.sif file, located folder • Copy over batch scripts to runonce, e.g. automated installation/configuration of SAV XP PowerPacker • Download from http://powerpacker.siginetsoftware.com/ • Pack and repeat with another WinXP install disc! XP PowerPacker No spaces in any of these fields Save in the root, e.g. c:\driverpack.ini XP PowerPacker • Advanced features • UltraISO - $30 at Editing ISOs http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/ Creating UBCD & UBCD4Win CDs Why? • Troubleshoot non-booting Windows hard drives • Data recovery off dying hard drives Why? • Hardware diagnostics What You Need • Test environment • What I use: Mac Pro + Parallels • No programming skills required! Download • UBCD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/downloa d.html • UBCD4Win http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.ht m Install UBCD4Win Install UBCD4Win, cont. 2 1 3 Installing UBCD4Win, cont. UBCD4Win UBCD4Win UBCD4Win • Drag UBCD iso to the new window UBCD4Win Build UBCD4Win! Done! • Make sure you test! Testing Your Discs • First test in VirtualPC or Parallels to make sure your discs work • Burn to disc and test on as many different computers as possible • Test on computers you’re fixing • Ask for feedback and bugs before rolling out! Future Plans • Vista - vlite.com (beta) • Combine UBCD/UBCD4Win/WinXP into one big disc • Using UBCD/UBCD4Win on a USB key Conclusion • Tools you’ll need: • nLite - nliteos.com • DriverPacks - www.driverpacks.net • RyanVM’s Post-SP2 Patches • PowerPacker ryanvm.net/msfn/updatepack.html powerpacker.siginetsoftware.com • Test environment • Patience! Conclusion, cont. • What you don’t need: • Money to buy the software • Programming skills Contact Info: • Minh Vuong minh.vuong@yale.edu 203.432.0081 Please fill out an online evaluation at resnetsymposium.org/resnet2007 Questions?