Build A Better Windows CD

Page last updated 28 months ago

Unless you have a fairly new computer your Windows install CD is probably outdated. Reinstalling Windows will leave your system vulnerable untill you can run Auto Update and download the several hundred megabytes of patches that Microsoft has been releasing over the years.

This is a How-To that explains how to create an up to date installation CD so you don't need to go through the lengthy update process every time you reinstall Windows. If you have never had to reindtall Windows then this probably isn't worth your time or effort. However, if you are like me and reinstall Windows on a regular basis "Just for fun" then this might be worth it.

This page is complete but has not been proofed:

If you find inaccurate, missing, or misleading information please inform me at the contact email list on my home page.

Requirements

A Computer running Windows XP Home Edition or Professional that you want to create a custom installation CD for
Another Computer running Windows XP Home Edition or Professional (Other versions of WIndows may work - this hasn't been tested) that will be used to create the custom CD
About 1GB of available harddrive space to use during the creation process
CD Burner and CD Burning software (Get CDBurnerXP Pro)
Your original installation CD
Access to Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) if it isn't included on your installation CD
Access to hotfixes and patches released after SP2
One or two CD-RW discs (CD-R discs will work but you may need a bunch of them before you're done)
ISO Buster or some other software application that can copy the boot area of a bootable CD (Get ISO Buster)
Anti-Virus software (Get AVG Anti-Virus Free)
** Optional ** Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Deployment Tools for Advanced Users (Get Windows XP SP2 Deployment Tools for Advanced Users)

Instructions

Warning: It is possible, but not a good idea, to create the CD on the same computer that the installation disc will be used to install Windows on. The only way to verify that the newly created disc works is to use it to install Windows to the computer it is intended to be used on. Please create the CD on a separate system where the installation and configuration files will be safe.

1. Preliminary

Make sure that your system is free of viruses by installing (and running) an antivirus program. You don't want your new Windows installation CD to be infected with viruses!
Download and install ISO Buster.

2. Setup a workspace

Create temporary folders to keep all the files. Choose a drive that has at least 1GB of free space. In my examples I am using the following tree structure

C:\
|
|..XPINSTALL\
   |
   |..hotfixes\
   |
   |..Root\
   |  |
   |  |..$OEM$\
   |     |
   |     |..$1\
   |     |  |
   |     |  |..Drivers\
   |     |
   |     |..$$\
   |     |  |
   |     |  |..System32\
   |     |  
   |     |..$DOCS\
   |     |
   |     |..$PROGS\
   |
   |..SP2\
   |
   |..Tools\

3. Populate the workspace

Copy all the files from the root folder of your installation CD into C:\XPINSTALL\Root\.
Copy the i386 folder and all of its contents from the installation CD into C:\XPINSTALL\Root\.
If choose to use Windows XP SP2 Deployment Tools for Advanced Users, download it and extract the files to C:\XPINSTALL\Tools\.
Download and save Service Pack 2 (SP2) to C:\XPINSTALL\SP2\. (Skip this step if your installation CD already includes SP2)
Download and save each of the following hotfixes to C:\XPINSTALL\hotfixes\ (See Note below):
KB873339, KB885835, KB885836, KB886185, KB887472, KB888302, KB890046, KB890859, KB891781, KB893756, KB893803, KB894391, KB896358, KB896423, KB896424, KB896428, KB898461, KB899587, KB899591, KB900725, KB901017, KB901214, KB902400, KB904706, KB905414, KB905749, KB908519, KB908531, KB910437, KB911280, KB911562, KB911564, KB911567, KB911927, KB912919, KB913580, KB914388, KB914389, KB916595, KB917159, KB917344, KB917422, KB917734, KB917953, KB918439, KB918899, KB920214, KB920670, KB920683, KB921398, KB921883, KB922616.

4. Extract the boot image from the installation CD

Insert your original installation CD into the CD drive and start ISO Buster.
In the left hand panel, select "Bootable CD." The boot file(s) will be displayed in the right hand panel.
Copy the file "Microsoft Corporation.img" to C:\XPINSTALL\Boot\.
At this point you can burn a working CD by skipping ahead to Burn your custom CD, or continue to the next step to customize your CD.

5. Integrate Service Pack 2 into the installation files

Skip this step if your installation CD already includes SP2

Open a command prompt and navigate to C:\XPINSTALL\SP2\.
Run the command: WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe /integrate:C:\XPINSTALL\Root /passive /norestart
This will extract Service Pack 2 to a temporary folder then integrate the service pack into the original Windows installation files.
At this point you can burn a working CD by skipping ahead to Burn your custom CD, or continue to the next step to further customize your CD.

6. Integrate Hotfixes into the installation files

For each hotfix in C:\XPINSTALL\hotfixes\:
Important: Hotfix KB885853 must be integrated before KB914389!

Open a command prompt and navigate to C:\XPINSTALL\hotfixes\.
Run the command: <filename>.exe /integrate:C:\XPINSTALL\Root /passive /norestart
This will extract the hotfix to a temporary folder then integrate it into the original Windows installation files.
At this point you can burn a working CD by skipping ahead to Burn your custom CD, or continue to the next step to further customize your CD.

7. Customize the setup process

Run C:\XPINSTALL\Tools\setupmgr.exe
Setupmgr is a tool that asks you all of the questions that Windows Setup would ask you during installation and saves the answers to unatted.txt. This speeds up the installation of Windows because it doesn't need to have you answer each question as the Setup progresses.
- For "Type of Setup" choose "Unattended setup". (Default)
- For "Product" choose the correct one for the installation CD you are creating.
- For "User Interaction" choose "Hidden pages". Windows Setup will only prompt for information that you did not include here.
- For "Distribution Share" choose "Set up from a CD".
- Now go through each item and fill in as much information as you can. Remember, the more information you enter now, the less you will be prompted for during the actuall installation process (and future installations). Warning: Any personal information you enter will be saved in a text file on the CD. If you are concerned about your privacy either do not save any private information or safe guard the CD(s) that you create.
- When you are done (or tired of) filling in information, skip to the last section "Additional Commands." The "Next" button will change to a "Finish" button. Click Finish and save the file as unattend.txt.
The file C:\XPINSTALL\Tools\ref.chm is a detailed reference of all options that can be in the unattend.txt file, as well as some other configuration files.
After you are done creating the unattend.txt file open it in notepad and make these additional changes:
- Find the line that starts with TimeZone= and ensure that the number after it is three digits, adding leading zeros if necessaary. For example, if you chose "Eastern Time (US & Canada)" setupmgr.exe saved it as TimeZone=35. Windows Setup will not recognize this as a valid timezone and will default to "Pacific Time (US & Canada); Tijuana". Change this to read TimeZone=035.
- Consider adding the following options to their respective sections (If you want to know what they do you will need to consult the help file ref.chm):
```
[Unattended]
    UnattendSwitch=Yes
    OemPrinstall=Yes
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    CrashDumpSetting=0
    DUDisable=Yes
    Repartition=No
    WaitForReboot=No

[GuiUnattended]
    OemSkipRegional=1
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[Shell]
    DefaultStartPanelOff=Yes
    DefaultThemesOff=Yes
```
- If you want to control which Windows components are installed add the section "[Components]" and enter an option for each component to turn it on or off. Consult ref.chm for a complete list of all components and their default settings.
- For curiosity's sake I have included my unattend.txt file. Of course I have censored private information in it.
At this point you can burn a working CD by skipping ahead to Burn your custom CD, or continue to the next step to further customize your CD.

8. Include additional drivers on the CD

If your computer requires drivers not included on the original CD follow these directions to integrate them into your custom CD:

For each driver, copy the uncompressed driver files to a separate folder in C:\XPINSTALL\Root\$OEM$\$1\Drivers\. If the drivers are bundled into a single setup program you may need to open it with WinZip, or use command line switches to extract the needed files.
If there is more than one INF file included with the driver determine which one is used for your computer and rename the other file by changing the extension "inf" to something else, such as "in_".
At a minimum, you should have three files in each folder under C:\XPINSTALL\Root\$OEM$\$1\Drivers\: a file ending in .cat, .inf, .sys.

Edit the unattend.txt file you created earlier and add the folloing lines to "[Unattended]":

[Unattended]
    OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\Network;Drivers\AGP;Drivers\Video"
    DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore

Change the paths in the example to match the locations where you saved your drivers. You must include the path to each folder separately and the .inf file must be located in the folder.
Windows Setup will look in each of the folders listed in OenPnPDriversPath for a .inf file and install appropriate drivers for the hardware it finds. If there are multiple .inf files that match your hardware then Setup will prompt you for the proper one. You can fix this by renaming the improper .inf files to a different extension.
At this point you can burn a working CD by skipping ahead to Burn your custom CD, or continue to the next step to further customize your CD.

9. Perform post-Setup changes

Edit the unattend.txt file (again) to include the following:
```
[SetupParams]
    UserExecute=postinst.bat
```

Using notepad create the following file and save it as C:\XPINSTALL\Root\$OEM$\$$\System32\postinst.bat

@echo off

:: Load important regisrty settings.
reg import "%systemroot%\System32\registry.txt"

:: Create an account for myself and make it an Administrator account.
net user myusername mypassword /add /fullname:"My Full Name"
net localgroup Administrators myusername /add

:: Add additional command here...


:: Exit the batch file cleanly.
goto :eof

Using Notepad create the following file and save it as C:\XPINSTALL\Root\$OEM$\$$\System32\registry.txt

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Adds "Command Prompt Here..." menu item when you right click on a folder or drive in Windows Explorer.
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Command Prompt]
@="Command Prompt Here..."

; Adds a command to start a Command Prompt when you click on the menu item added above.
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Command Prompt\command]
@="cmd.exe /k cd %1"

; Add additional registry entries below...

10. Burn your custom CD

Copy the unattend.txt to C:\XPINSTALL\Root\i386\ and rename it to WINNT.SIF.
Start CDBurnerXP Pro, or your favorite CD burning software that supports burning bootable CDs. Other CD burning software such as Nero or Roxio will work, but these instructions will need to be adapted to work with them.
Set the CD filesystem to Joliet.
From the "Disc" menu select "Boot Options..."
- Check the box next to "Make Disc Bootable".
- Click the "..." button to open the file selection window and select "C:\XPINSTALL\Boot\Microsoft Corporation.img" as the boot image.
- Select "NoEmulation (NT/2000/XP boot images)" as Emulation Type.
- Set Load Segment to "7C0" and Sectors to 4.
- Check the check boxes to disable ISO file delimiters and enforce ISO Level 1 (8+3 file names).
- Click "OK" to return to the main window.
From the "Disc" menu select "Set ISOImage Labels..."
- Set the Volume Label to match the CD volume name of your original CD.
- Set "Publisher" to "MICROSOFT CORPORATION"
- Set "Data Preparer" to "MICROSOFT CORPORATION" or your name.
- Click "Set Labels" to return to the main window.
In the upper left panel select the folder C:\XPINSTALL\Root.
Select all of the folders and files in the upper right panel and drag them into the lower right panel to add them to the CD.
From the "Disc" menu select "Write Disc..."
- Uncheck the check box next to "Mode 2XA instead of Mode1 (CDR/W Only)".
- Check the remaining boxes however you like. They will not adversely affect the writing of the disc.

11. Testing the new custom installation disc

What good is having a custom installation disc if you don't know if it works?
Insert the new CD into the target machine. Warning: do not test this on the computer you have been using to build the CD. If there is a problem with the installation you may need to make changes to the source files and burn another CD.
Reboot the target machine.
When prompted hit Enter to boot from the CD.
After Setup has loaded its necessary drivers it will ask you which partition to install Windows to. Warning: You are about to install Windows to this computer. If you continue, you will lose any information that is currently on the computer. Proceed only if you are certain you want to lose this information.
Select a partition or free space for Windows to install to. You may need to delete one or more current partitions to create enough space for the installation.
You may be prompted to select the type of filesystem and format options to use. I always select NTFS (Quick format). You can choose whatever meets your needs.
If you filled in all of the information asked for by Setupmgr.exe earlier, setup will continue on its own until it is ready for you to log in and start using your new computer. Otherwise, it may stop occassionally to ask you for information.
Good Luck! You get 5 bonus points if the install goes flawlessly on your first try.
If Windows successfully installs check out my short list of Must Have Software.

Sources

Microsoft Forum Network's (MSFN)Unattended Windows Guide.
xpsp2.cmd at smithii.com.
Tack Tech Corp's Creating an unattended installation of Windows 2000/XP/.NET.
The Elder Geeks's Create A Bootable/Slipstreamed Windows XP Installation CD.
5 Star Support's Slipstream a Windows XP SP2 Recovery CD.
NetworkClue.com's Windows Unattended Installation.
Teh Elder Geeks's Slipstreamed Windows XP CD Using SP2.
Microsoft Support site articles.
I probably got tidbits of information from other sites that I have forgotten about. For the most part I mixed and matched the following terms in Google searches:
microsoft "windows xp" slipstream bootable "service pack" integrated unattended winnt.sif unattend.txt

Note on downloading Hotfixes: A better way to get the correct updates would be create the install CD without any updates (Except SP2), then connect to Windows Update to see which ones Windows wants to download. Then download those updates manually (Don't let Windows Update download them!) and create the install CD again with those updates applied.

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