Can anyone Walk Me Through SlipStreaming XP?

[FXGuy3369]

Can anyone help me make my first slipstream xp disc? If you live in Brevard I will come to you. I will even pay you for your time. Thanks!

 

[AnnonUSA]

http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

 

[FXGuy3369]

I have found several similar tutorials to that one, but isn't there a way to incorporate other programs, etc into it?

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Have you tried Nlite?

 

[WildHorse]

(A)
For starters read this:
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp
and navigate through the Beginning, Intermediate & Advanced pages (menu upper left area).

Also, to download: http://unattended.msfn.org/fil.../MSFNUnattendedPDF.zip

(B)
Make yourself a folder named Slipstreaming on any hard drive .
Inside the Slipstreaming folder I (ymmv) happen to find it useful to make 7 subfolders named:

Hotfixes, add-ons & update packs
Registry tweaks
Drivers
SP2
WinXP gold original
WMP
XP working source

(C)
download & install nLite and also read its simple "Guide" at :
http://www.nliteos.com/

Also, nLite has a support forum here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/nLite-f89.html

Notice especially the subforum there separated a little above the main forum, for Add-ons.

(D)
Download and install Boogie's Windows Media Player slipstreamer tool from
http://web.clicknet.ro/boooggy/

Also download all the MS WMP updates listed there into your "WMP" folder. And download the WMP 11 installer from MS and also put it into your "WMP" folder.


(E)
Copy your entire Windows XP CD into the "WinXP gold original" folder. Don't worry about the boot image that's hidden on the Windows XP CD, because nLite will already put a boot image into the resulting compilation for you. Some people copy only the 386 folder, but I suggest you just copy the entire disk.

Then go into the folder and delete:
DOCS, VALUEADD, SUPPORT, WIN9XMIG, WIN9XUPG, WINNTUPG and LANG (this is just for starters; you'll delete lots more MS bloatware later with nLite).

Now, NEVER NEVER touch that "WinXP gold original" folder again except to copy from it. It's only a holding spot, a source for copying from, you NEVER touch it.

(F)
Copy the contents of the "WinXP gold original" folder to yiur "XP working source" folder. Make sure nLite reads from that folder. If you have to re-do things, as is likely early on, delete its contents and make a fresh copy into it from your "WinXP gold original" folder.

(G)
Into your 'Hotfixes, add-ons & update packs" folder, put any downloaded add-ons. You can get them from the subforum as noted above, and also from
http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/
and
http://www.msfn.org/modules.php?modid=2&action=cat&id=3

Those are the "Other programs" you asked about in your post above. I usually slipstream things like OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, 7Zip, Flash player, DirectX9c, Foxit Reader, Free Download Manager, CCleaner, VLC Media Player, SpybotS&D, .Net Framework, etc. Most programs I just install normally later on, outside the slipstream disk.

Also, put all the MS Windows XP updates into this same folder. You can download a pack of them all from Ryan's site, but when SP3 is released later, SP3 should supercede the updates. FYI, over time sometimes newer MS updates supercede older updates, and the Ryan packs maintain all that in a current configuration, which is very useful!

If you really get into it you can learn to roll your own add-ons from instructions on the MSFN forum. That's a hassle and I don't mess with it.

(H)
I happen to also copy the SP2 CD into the 'SP2" folder but that's just me, maybe you don't need to do that.

(I)
If you like to put in registry tweaks like me, you keep your script for that in your "Registry tweaks" folder. If you don't know how to make a script, there's a tool that'll write a script for you automatically at:
http://unattended.msfn.org/una...xp/page/list/registry/
You simply check the boxes for the tweaks you want, then click the "Compile registry tweaks" button at the bottom, and it'll write the script for you. Simply copy the resulting script and save it like a txt file in the "Registry tweaks folder, bnut give it the extension of .reg instead of .txt. Learn from the tutorials how to make nLite "runOnce" your registry tweaks script.

As an alternative you can save the script with a .reg extension, and not worry about it during slipstreaming. Then later after your Windows XP installation, just double click the script.reg file and it'll go off and do all the tweaks. That's really the easier way.

(J)
Put a copy of the drivers you want into the "Drivers" folder. One way to get them is to use one of the many applications (I happen to use Driver Genius) that'll search your computer and make a copy of all the drivers it finds.

(K)
After I run everything in nLite except the last "finalize" step, that's when I run the Windows Media Player slipstream tool to add WMP 11. Then have nLite create your .iso.

(L) Install a virtual machine for testing your resulting compilations prior to actually using them. I use the free Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downl...40A73B6&displaylang=en

(M) Use nLite to create an .iso image of your compilation on your hard drive, then try to install that .iso in your virtual machine. Once you get it to where it works, then go back and use nLite to directly burn a dvd. Say again: have nLite do your DVD burning; I've had trouble when trying to burn the nLited iso with Nero - as something about the boot image isn't right, but I didn't spend time figuring out the solution. Along the way, if it doesn't work, you may have to delete the contents of your "XP working source" folder and replace with a fresh copy from your "WinXP gold original" folder, and run nLite on it again, but nLite will retain all the settings you've made so at least you don't have to go through all that again. Lots & lots of settings.

(N)
After more than 2 years of using nLite I've found it to work very well once you get the hang of it. There is definitely a learning curve with frustrations, so be patient with yourself.
Probably your first attempts won't install right in your virtual machine, but you'll get there. Don't waste DVD's burning any "coasters" until your results install properly in your VM.

 

[FXGuy3369]

Thanks so much Scott! You have given me plenty to play with