Knowledgebase

cmdlines.txt

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In this section we put together all kinds of information that we find useful in our daily work. The material is a collection of information from various sources including bulletin boards, mailgroups, manuals, magazines, books, seminar handouts and independent research.

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cmdlines.txt

After the unattended installation of Windows/NT is run but before the temporary files are removed the installation program executes all command in cmdlines.txt. The commands stored in cmdlinex.txt mus follow a lot of rules. Some things are easy to implement and some are not.

We use to add at least one line that modifies the registry and by that enable one user to automatically logon after the next boot and start up a cmd-file that runs the rest of the installation.

If there is "sysdiff-packages" they should also be installed here.

In the example below installs what is in the autolog.inf file.

   [Commands]
   "rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 128 .\autolog.inf"

autolog.inf

The inf-file autolog.inf contains instrucktions that modifies the registry so one user logs on automatically and a cmd-files is started. Se example below.


   [Version]
   Signature = "$Windows NT$"

   [DefaultInstall]
   AddReg = AddReg

   [AddReg]
   ; log on as administrator for domain
   HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon","AutoAdminLogon",,"1"
   HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon","DefaultUserName",,"Installer"
   HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon","DefaultPassword",,"password"
   HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon","DefaultDomainName",,"DOMAIN"
   ; run install script at boot
   HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run","Once",,"C:\INSTALL.CMD"
   ; do not show startup tips
   HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips","Show",,"hex:00,00,00,00

This will make the user Installer from domain DOMAIN with password password log on at system boot. It will also run the cmd-file c:\install.cmd. To avoid the "tips" windows it also disables the tips function.

Keep in mind that our example above use the Run option and not the RunOnce. It is the responsibility of the install.cmd file to disable the autologon functions after the installation is completed.