Jos van Rijn's Windows preinstallation space

With SP1 for Vista released in some languages and in all languages in the near future, let's spend some time on deployment scenarios.

There are basically 2 options. You can either upgrade your existing images, or start fresh. Although I do see reasons why one wants to upgrade existing images, I personally don't think it's the best idea. Your existing images contain many updates which are also included in SP1. A lot of unnecessary data can be left behind because SP1 doesn't deal with it efficiently. Besides, your images will grow by upgrading. If you do a clean install, your images will be a lot smaller and there is a way to keep it that way which I'll mention later. If you decide to upgrade your images, please remember that you can't do this offline. This will make your image unusable. You'll need to install an existing image and update it.

So let's use the scenario where you will create new images. Before you start you will need SP1 and the latest WAIK software (version 1.1). The link to the correct version is: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-d890-4932-81a5-5b50c657de08&DisplayLang=en

Now uninstall the existing WAIK software, reboot if necessary and install the latest package you've just downloaded. You won't lose any sensitive preinstallation data that way. The new version of WAIK contains 2 new tools for especially for Vista SP1. Be sure to use the new WinPE version located in my case in <d:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86>. Make a copy of it and start using the copy. Mount the WinPE image and copy the following files to the windows\system32 directory: imagex.exe, vsp1cln.exe and postreflect.exe. They are all located in the map <Windows AIK\Tools\x86>. More about that later. In this example, I'm using the x86 version. Of course you can also use the x64 version, but be sure to use the correct files from the corresponding maps. Unmount and commit the image and import it in WDS.

What happened to me afterwards, might not be common, but I think it's worth mentioning anyway. After installing the new WAIK tools, I wasn't able to apply an image through WinPE anymore. Normally, you apply an image by using Imagex /apply <install.wim> <number of the image> <destination>. In my case, the image was applied, but I wasn't able to boot from it afterwards. I tried this on several configurations, but wasn't successful on any of them. I think it has to do with the different version of the software. You can't apply an pre-sp1 image with WAIK 1.1 just as you can't apply a SP1 image with WAIK 1.0.

Ok, so if you have that problem, just install the image through WinPE via an unattended script. Don't use WDS for deployment of your image, because it contains a bug which causes your new image to return an error during deployment. You can read about it on my blog (I'll enter a link later). After image installation, install SP1 (this can take a while), all your software, registry entries, etc. Don't forget to run Microsoft Update afterwards to check if there aren't any new updates. When you're done, run Sysprep /generalize and boot from the new WinPE image.

After booting to WinPE, the next choice is optional. You can use VSP1CLN.exe to clean up any installation files of SP1. This will make your image smaller because the files in order to uninstall the Service Pack will be deleted. It goes without saying that if you should do this, you won't be able to uninstall SP1 from your image. So be careful with what you choose.

Next you'll have to run the Postreflect tool. This is necessary to successfully deploy Vista SP1. Don't forget this. Just run "postreflect c:\windows c:" (where c:\windows is your Windows location and c: is your %systemdrive%). Wait for it to finish. It can take a while.

The last thing you'll need to do is create the image by using Imagex with your favorite command and you will have a fresh SP1 image.

All done!

As promised: when you want to keep your images fresh, make a copy of them afterwards and work with the copy. In my case, I have made a copy of my images and have used the copy to integrate drivers for example. Now when new updates come out next month and new drivers come out, I still have my untouched backup image. That way, no drivers version conflicts will occur and you will always have a clean driver database. So always work with a copy if you have the available space on your server.

Vista SP1 UK has been released to manufacturing on February 4th. If you're a Technet Plus subscriber or have a MSDN account, you can download it. Otherwise you'll have to wait until mid-March to get it through Windows Update.

You can read it here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb738089.aspx

The so called servicing stack update is causing problems on some configurations. The update has been taken offline for now until the issues have been resolved.

When you have selected this update and have the problem, you'll see an "updating (stage 3 of 3)" stage after a reboot. During this stage it will keep showing "0%" and after a while it will just reboot. It will continue to loop even in safe mode.

You can read more about this issue on:

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/02/19/update-on-windows-vista-sp1-prerequisite-kb937287.aspx

And for a workaround to solve the problem without using a restore point or new installation:

http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?postid=2873378&isthread=false&siteid=17&authhash=7f2056e7cf93af49d9d8704602bc97be8b4c437b&ticks=633390464558901682&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=5

If you don't have an integrated recovery option when you press F8 during Vista boot, boot from your Vista DVD instead and choose "repair". Follow the steps from the above link to solve the problem.

I've seen this only on HP and Toshiba notebooks so far.

Again, the update will be back online when all issues have been resolved.

You might have probably read about Windows Vista SP1 already. Windows Vista SP1 will be released in Q1 of this year. Knowing Microsoft, this will sooner be around the end of March than within 2 weeks. :)

Windows Vista SP1 will contain all previous hotfixes, improvements to the administration experience and support for emerging hardware and standards.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsvista/en/library/417467e7-7845-46d4-85f1-dd471fbc0de91033.mspx?mfr=true

Currently, there's a Release Candidate available for those of you who are interested. You can download the latest version from:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb738089.aspx

Things can still change a lot after a Release Candidate. We might still be suprised with some cool features...

Windows XP SP3 will also be made available in Q1, so also expect that anytime soon. More info on Windows XP3 on:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=68c48dad-bc34-40be-8d85-6bb4f56f5110&displaylang=en

Both Service Packs are a great opportunity to update your images again.

Monday morning at 6am, my son Aaron was born. He's weighing 5 kilograms and he's 55 centimeters in length. I'm one proud daddy again!

Here's me with my newborn son. I'm doing my best not to look too proud, but I'm failing miserably. :)

Merry Christmas everybody and a prosperous New Year. May all your unattended WDS installations bloom in 2008. :)

Thank you for visiting my site this year and for (hopefully :)) reading my articles. I'll try to keep the articles as up-to-date as possible, but next year will be rather busy for me with my 3rd child being born in a couple of weeks. Can even be days now. :)

Due to a bug in the unattend.xml process, it's possible your timezone will be set incorrectly in audit mode. This causes your time to be set way off the actual time you want it to be set to. Sometimes it even differs a full day.

One solution is to check your unattend file for timezone settings. In my case there were 2 entries; one during <auditsystem> mode and one during <oobesystem> mode. In my case the entry is called: <TimeZone>W. Europe Standard Time</TimeZone>.

I needed to remove the one under <auditsystem> mode. Since there are multiple locations you can put this command, be sure to check for more entries. Remember one thing: keep the one under <oobesystem>. This one doesn't seem to suffer from the bug.

There's a bug in the latest Dutch XP Pro SP2c OEM version. Everything is in Dutch, but when you shutdown the system, the shutdown screen will be English.

I'm sure this will be updated in the future by way of a hotfix. Or you'll just have to change to an English version. :)

Update:

The same is going on with the logon screen; after the Windows logo, you'll get the message that Windows is starting up and that your personal settings are being loaded.

I'll check if the files can easily be replaced and get back on this later.

Update (19-12-2007): A hotfix will be released in the near future to address this problem. Other versions suffer from the same problem. When the update is going to be released, is yet unknown to me.

As you'll probably know, Microsoft has released SP2c versions of Windows XP Pro because of product key limitations:

"SP2c will be released into the System Builder channel in September to provide system builders with a new, extended range of product keys," the system builder team said. The updated build applies only to Windows XP Professional; XP Home, for instance, is not affected.

Source

SP2c keys are not compatible with SP2b installations. You can enter the key, but after a reboot you'll need to re-enter your key. This will also cause problems on activation. You'll need a SP2c installation for a SP2c license. SP2b license keys do work with SP2c.

Most of you will use images in order to deploy XP. In my case I'm running installations through RIS and WinPE. It's a full XP installation over the network. After copying the installation files and setting up my new SP2c installation source, I received an error on the client during the text based copying process, saying spur0413.dll cannot be copied. This is the case with the Dutch version. I haven't seen the file on the English version and it works fine here.

In order to solve this, you'll need to edit your dosnet.inf located in the I386 directory of your XP Pro source directory, locate the sections "[FloppyFiles.2]" and "[Files]" and add the following:

[FloppyFiles.2]
d1,spru0413.dll

[Files]
d1,spru0413.dll

This will copy spru0413.dll to the correct installation directory on your harddisk and the Windows installation will continue without any errors.

The Ati Catalyst drivers are easliy integrated in your images through Package Manager. For an how-to on integrating drivers you can check one of my previous posts here.

One thing about these drivers: after extraction to the default ATI\support directory, be sure you delete the "SBDrv" directory in <ati version>\driver\packages\drivers". This directory includes MSD (Mass Storage Drivers) which will also be integrated when using Package Manager. These specific drivers generate 0x7B BSODs after deploying the image. So be sure not to include these drivers. You don't need them in order for your GPU to work. Why ATI included them, I don't know.