What do I install?  Pretty much just the file format converters to allow Office 2003 to read files created with Office 2007.

(As an aside, the Office viewers normally only open Office 2003 files but if you install them and then install the converter, they will also read Office 2007 files.)

I’ve worked out an unattended install but for only one install it’s not really all that relevant.

For what it’s worth, this is the unattended install command:

Office2003-FileFormatConverters.exe /quiet /passive /norestart

This article is part of a series dealing with my standard system build.  It starts with this article and the post you’re reading now is directly related to this one.

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A sidebar gadget lives in it’s own separate directory (that might have sub-directories), all the files needed for that gadget live in that directory.  Vista then stores these gadget directories in a number of places, each offering a different level of visibility on the computer.

Some gadgets are stored in

C:Program FilesWindows SidebarGadgets

These are accessible on all user accounts on the computer.  Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find a reasonably reliable way to work around the various security systems that prevent a batch file from putting data into this directory (UAC and other protections exist for copying data into the Program Files directory in Vista).

Gadgets that are only visible to a particular user of a computer are stored in

%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgets

and this directory is far more accessible for a batch file.

While I’d prefer to install my standard gadgets in a globally accessible location, this would require me to have a less automated approach.  The whole idea of an unattended install is to keep it unattended.  Therefore, I’ve chosen, for now, to go with the user profile location for gadgets on the basis that most of the computers we deal with really only have one normal user set up on them anyway.

Microsoft seems to prefer that we don’t download the installers for our sidebar gadgets but, rather, install directly from the web.  This also doesn’t help for a silent install.  While there are undoubtedly other solutions to this problem, in the end I did some experimenting and found that you can just copy the whole directory for an installed gadget to the correct directory on another computer and it will work.

So, I grabbed all my ‘standard’ gadgets out of “%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgets” and then use this command to install to a new computer:

@xcopy ".CPUUtilization v1.2.0.2.Gadget" "%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgetsCPUUtilization v1.2.0.2.Gadget" /e /i /c /q
@xcopy ".DriveInfoByChris.gadget" "%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgetsDriveInfoByChris.gadget" /e /i /c /q
@xcopy ".iWeather.gadget" "%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgetsiWeather.gadget" /e /i /c /q
@xcopy ".MemoryMeter.gadget" "%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgetsMemoryMeter.gadget" /e /i /c /q
@xcopy ".NeptuneDigitalClock.gadget" "%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgetsNeptuneDigitalClock.gadget" /e /i /c /q
@xcopy ".SysShutdown.gadget" "%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows SidebarGadgetsSysShutdown.gadget" /e /i /c /q

Once copied, these gadgets can be added to the sidebar normally.  I haven’t tried to automate adding them to the sidebar display yet – mostly because the final step on our build process is running through the Control Panel and finalising some other configuration options as well as doing a QA on the build.  It doesn’t add much to this process to manually add the relevant sidebar gadgets.

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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Along with the standard utilities I install, there’s also a selection of little registry hacks that I’ve chosen to standardise on.  I should note that this is by no means an exhaustive list of possibilities.  I’d also note that my agenda here is to keep things relatively “normal looking” for the customer.  As a result, I only really do a few small things that, in my opinion, enhance XP rather than substantially alter how it operates.

Integrating registry changes is fairly simple in XP.  First up, you need the changes saved out to a file (e.g. reghacks.reg).  Here is the one I use.

This file has to have a certain format in order for this to work.  This MS knowledge base article provides details about the syntax of a .reg file and also includes details about how to add, modify and delete registry keys.  This KB article was the basis of my implementation:

regedit /s .InstallersXP_Reg_Hacks.reg

There are heaps of sites that offer registry hacks to achieve different results.  As with many things, Google can be your friend in finding the ones you want.

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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This is basically the theme used for Media Centre editions of Windows XP.  At various times, it has been made available for download directly from Microsoft (particularly Microsoft New Zealand who also released some NZ-theme wallpapers).  Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation if you’d like more information.  Currently, most of these links appear not to be working.  The Royale Theme can, however, still be downloaded here.

There are also a number of derivations on Royale (including Royale Noir).  Personally, I haven’t really worried about chasing any of these down.  I’m happy to go with the standard Royale theme.

I usually also install the 3D Windows XP screen saver at the same time.  In this case, I’ve extracted just the .scr file and install it using a simple copy command.

The install I use for this eye candy is:

XP_Royale_Theme.exe /S /v/qn
@xcopy .3DWindowsXP.scr %SystemRoot%system32 /q /y

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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Microsoft released a series of small utilities for Windows XP under the banner of PowerToys.  They don’t seem to have an equivalent for Vista so I only install these on Windows XP.

The actual tools I’ve chosen to install are:

• ClearType PowerToy – adds a control panel applet to set/tweek ClearType settings.  Now that most computers use LCD monitors this is a valuable tool to have around.
• TaskSwitch PowerToy – changes the ALT-TAB task switch functionality to add a slightly more graphical interface.  This is certainly nothing like what can be achieved under Vista but is at least a little more intuitive than the standard capability in XP.

Microsoft’s PowerToys are available here.

For the two tools I install, this is how I do it:

XP_ClearTypePowerToy.exe /S /v/qn
XP_TaskSwitchPowerToy.exe /S /v/qn

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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CrossLoop forms part of the customer support strategy I use in the business.  It lets us do a remote desktop connection to a customer computer using, essentially, a custom VNC client.  The biggest advantage is that CrossLoop seems to be able to navigate through NAT routers and firewalls with ease.  I plan to write a full article later on the use of CrossLoop.  This one just deals with achieving a silent install.

The download for CrossLoop is here.

My unattended install works like this:

crossloopsetup.exe /VERYSILENT /SP-

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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Vista has WiMP 11 included so this really only applies to Windows XP. My workshop still does enough work on Windows XP to warrant inclusion of this package – if only on the basis of reducing the Windows Update downloads.

The download for WiMP v11 is here.

The install command I use is:

XP_WiMP11.exe /Q:A /C:”SETUP_WM.EXE /Q:A /R:N /P:#e”

I believe I originally obtained this particular setup out of an one of the last working AutoPatcher downloads before Microsoft rained on their parade.  There’s quite possibly a more recent version now but this still works, and, in combination with Heise Offline Updates covers my requirements. YMMV.

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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A nice little free tool from Microsoft that lets you synchronise data between your computer and a USB pen drive (actually, it will work between other directories too).

The most recent version I can find is SyncToy v2.0 which can be downloaded here.

The silent install for SyncToy is:

SyncToySetup.msi /passive /norestart

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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The silent installers setup on my build disc includes Firefox which has it’s own toolbar-based search capability (Google included).  Installing the toolbar for Internet Explorer keeps all bases covered no matter what browser might be in use at the time.

In this case, Google is actually pretty helpful.  What you’ll need is Google Toolbar for the Enterprise.  This is freely available from Google and includes an MSI file and documentation on how to implement it.

For my purposes, this was all that was needed:

GoogleToolbarInstaller.msi /passive /norestart

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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Why are we supposed to be protected from the terrors of a full download version of these programs?  From what I see of people using my public Internet kiosk computers and hear from people buying computers from my business, Messenger (aka MSN, aka Windows Live Messenger) is about the most popular choice. Far more so, it seems, than Yahoo Chat or Google Talk – at least in the home user market that we primarily deal with.

Of course, Messenger is now a full suite of programs rather than just a chat client.

The usual drill applies, judicious use of Google will no doubt find you a link to the full install (I found this one).

When I first tried to set up the unattended install for Live Messenger I found this Microsoft Knowledge Base article and I’m still using this in my current build while I test and integrate the newer version I’ve recently located.

As a result, expect an update to this post detailing unattended installs for Live Essentials sometime in the future.

For now, if you’re happy with the older version detailed in the above MS KB then, using the download URL they offer (which still works, I just checked), you can use this:

WLSetup.exe /silent /configfile: .WLSetup.txt

My WLSetup.txt looks like this:

p=31BB3B1C-5A3D-4E68-82A1-3C166F03C379*0,88459F2D-0CF8-4558-B6AB-6E19B6AC34B0*0,A26D7C8B-875D-48E2-BED1-7168268D022A*0&s=0&h=0&c=0&m=EN-US&t=1

(for an explanation of this config file see the MS KB article.)

(This article is part of a series about the build disc I use to standardise system builds. The series starts here and this particular article follows on from this one.)

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