Sysdiff

Microsoft have a software called sysdiff. It is included in "Windows/NT Workstation Resource Kit".

Sysdiff is capable of taking a snapshot of the complete machine and then compare it with a different state later. This can be used to investigate an installation or to document some kind of change.

If sysdiff is runend on a fresh machine. Then a software is installed. This state can then be compared with tha state before installation of the software. Then sysdiff can redo this changes later. This gives us the oppurtunity to install this software later on without operator invetion.

Pro's

This is a easy way to load a predefined software in a new machine. At the first glance, this looks wonderful but there is some drawbacks.

Con's

There is some difficulties to run this on a complete machine
When using this program on a large installation there seems to be a lack of memory. Tere is a risk of program crash. There is two (or more) versions of this program an we have seen the problems on the earlier versions.
Requires Knowledge
The scritps etc generated by this software often require manual edit. It is some information in this scripts that is obsolete and can be deleted.
If it is not possible to work on a complete machine it requires knowledge to make a decisson of what to include and exclude.
Cannot handle system files
Sysdiff can install ordinary software but not components of the operating system itself. This must be done in another way.
Not Compatible
there is no guarante that a snapshot of one computer will work on another computer of a different model or brand. It also requires installation in exactly the same order.

We want all to use sysdiff with caution. If done in the right way it is a wonderfull tool. Used in another way it can ruin a perfect installation. If something goes wrong, do not blame us!

We have used sysdiff to install software like PageMaker, PhotoShop, Reflection, WinZip, Quark xPress. We have also installed ODBC-drivers with a good result.

Installation

When the snapshot and the difference is computed there is also a alternativ to generate a "inf-file" and separete all modified files. This can be used to install the software using cmdlines.txt.

sysdiff.inf

When to run sysdiff You need a file called sysdiff.inf. This file is not present in the resource kit. This file should be place in the same directory as the sysdiff.exe file.

If You don't want to hack a sysdiff.inf by yourself Yoy can get one here or You can get it from the CD containing the original product. Look in the "tools" directory.

Update

The sysdiff.exe included in the resource-kit CD-romis not quite good. There is som problems that is fixed in the updated version located at Microsoft's FTP-server.

This will solve some problems. One problem that still exists is that some times the program hangs on exit. This don't seems to harm the function. Use the "TaskMananager" to end the program.