This is caused by a problem with the vendor-provided Video.inf file. The Microsoft knowledge base article that I’ll talk about in a minute says "If a driver is signed, but the driver does not include an .inf file that describes child devices, such as monitors, the installation may stop responding."

The fix is get the hotfix mentioned in Microsoft knowledge base article KB883667 and integrate it into your Windows XP source directory. The hotfix is freely available but you have to ask for it to be emailed to you.

Once you’ve got the patch it’s simply a case of integrating the updated files into your Windows XP installation source. Let’s assume your Windows XP installation source is located in C:\Source\WindowsXP with the actual files being in C:\Source\WindowsXP\i386 (that will make sense in a minute). The patch executable WindowsXP-KB883667-x86-enu.exe is located in C:\Source\Hotfixes.

1. Open a command prompt and navigate to C:\Source\Hotfixes
2. Run the following command.

It’s important that you don’t put the i386 part on the end of the specified directory above as the integrated installation will look in C:\Source\WindowsXP for a directory called i386 that contains the required installation files.

This is due to the new Vista feature called User Account Control or UAC. The fix is pretty simple and there are 2 different ways of implementing it.

The second method is to disable UAC completely but I wouldn’t recommend it.

To perform an unattended installation of SNMP you need 2 things. First you need to create an answer file for the installation program (Sysocmgr.exe) to get the configuration from. Here’s my sample file.

Once you’ve got the answer file sorted, how do you use it? Easy. If you save your answer file as C:\Scripts\snmp.inf you run a command like this one (obviously you’ll need to change the path and file names if you name and save it somewhere/something else).

The above command will run a completely unattended (but not silent!) installation of the SNMP component of Windows.

Please note that unless you’ve got the Windows installation files as well as the installation files for any service packs available for Sysocmgr.exe to find you may be prompted for their location during the installation. There are ways around this but I’ll get to those in another post.

And here is a sample script to do the whole lot with one click.

With Windows Explorer hanging about nowadays the solution might seem pretty simple. Just do a file search on the drive or folder you want to clean up and delete the files it finds. Ok, that might work. What if you want to exclude certain folders? What if you want to schedule the job? What if you want to script it? Luckily DOS provides the ‘for’ command that you can use for this. Consider the following directory structure.

The folders above contain the following files.

You can see that each folder contains some .TXT files, some .ZIP files and a couple of sub folders. In this example we want to delete all the .ZIP files (they’re archives) but we also want to keep a list of the files that were deleted as well as a log file of the commands that were run to delete them. We also want to replace the files with a new folder that matches the name of the .ZIP file but without the .ZIP extension. Sure, you could write a PowerShell or VB script to do this but you can’t get it done with a single line. With DOS ‘for’ commands, however, you can. Here’s how.

WTF you might be thinking? That looks like a load of rubbish. The first thing to know is that if you want to run the above command from a batch file you need to replace all occurrences of % with %% - do that now if you’re adding the command to a batch file. Here’s what each part means, assuming you’re running the command from the directory you want to clean up.

for /D %d in (device*.*) - Go through all sub-directories in the current directory (/D indicates that the command should look at directories only)
do for %z in (”%d\*.zip”) - For each of the sub-directories found in the command above go through the list of all files with a .ZIP extension
do @echo mkdir “%d\%~nz” >> .\cleanup_commands.txt - For each of the .ZIP files found echo the command that would create the new directory that matches the name of the .ZIP file *without* the .ZIP extension to a file called cleanup_commands.txt in the currect directory
| mkdir “%d\%~nz” - For each of the .ZIP files found create a new directory in the appropriate sub-directory that matches the name of the .ZIP file *without* the .ZIP extension
| @echo %z >> .\cleanup_files.txt - For each of the .ZIP files found echo the name of the .ZIP file to a file called cleanup_files.txt in the current directory
| @echo del “%z” >> .\cleanup_commands.txt - For each of the .ZIP files found echo the command that will delete the file to a file called .\cleanup_commands.txt in the current directory
| del “%z” - Delete the .ZIP file

And now here’s a more granular explanation of what certain parts of each command mean.

for /D - For each directory ONLY
%d - The variable that will refer to each directory later
(device*.*) - Only deal with directories that match the pattern device*.*
%z - The variable that will refer to each .ZIP file later
(”%d\*.zip”) - Only deal with files that match the pattern device*.*\*.zip
“%d\%~nz” - %~nz means only return the name of the file WITHOUT the file extension

Note - the | (pipe) symbol combines more than 1 command onto a single line in DOS. The quotes are also important because in the example above the directory names contain spaces.

The example in this article is for a Windows Server 2003 server that already had a base build of Windows Server 2003 installed along with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, the most current service pack at the time this article was written (June 2008). It’s highly recommended to make sure all the latest critical updates are applied to your system too. I’m aiming this article at Windows Server 2003 because it’s still far more widely used than Windows Server 2008 as of June 2008. I’m also assuming you’ve already downloaded the necessary installation files for the .NET Framework 2.0 x86, .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 x86 and Windows Powershell 1.0. I’m also assuming you’ve got access to the Windows Server 2003 installation media if it’s needed (e.g. for the IIS6 installation).

The sample script below is pretty basic but you can see how combining a couple of unattended installations can speed up the build of a Windows server. It will do the following things.

- An unattended installation of Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
- An unattended installation of Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1.
- An unattended installation of Windows PowerShell 1.0.
- An unattended installation of IIS6 (see my article on how to perform an unattended installation of IIS6 for details on how to create your answer file).
- Automatically reboot the server when the above installations have finished.

And now, the script.

I’ll put another article up soon about doing the same sort of thing but for Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008.

Firstly, you can’t follow the steps in this article if you’re trying to do an unattended installation of IIS6 on Windows Server 2003. Instead, follow my article entitled How to perform an unattended installation of IIS6.

The unattended installation of IIS7 is similar to an unattended installation of IIS6 in only one major way - you still need an answer file. However, that’s really where the similarity ends. For a start, the answer file is now an XML file, not an INF file. The old installation program, Sysocmgr.exe, has now been replaced with PkgMgr.exe as well as a couple of other command-line tools like ServerManagerCmd.exe (VERY useful - I’ll post about it when I can).

There are a couple of things to note when doing unattended installations of IIS7 on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Firstly, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Professional and Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn) have different options available for use in the answer file than Windows Vista Home Premium. Also, you’ll need to get the build number of your system before you create the answer file. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Click Start and type "explorer.exe" into the Start Search box.
2. When explorer.exe is found, don’t click it. If explorer.exe isn’t found … well … I doubt you’ll be worrying about reading this.
3. RIGHT-click explorer.exe, select Properties and go to the Details tab. Note down the details next to Product Version - you’ll need it shortly. See below:

Ok so now that you’ve got your system’s build number you can start creating the XML answer file. There’s a couple of examples floating around the web that are far better than any custom examples I could ever create so I’ve made them downloadable below. The XML answer file immediately below this paragraph will work on Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Professional, Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn) and will install IIS7 in the default configuration with no user customisations.

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
	<servicing>
		<package action="configure">
			<assemblyIdentity
        		name="Microsoft-Windows-Foundation-Package" version="6.0.5308.6"
			language="neutral"
			processorArchitecture="x86"
			publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"
			versionScope="nonSxS"
			/>

			<selection name="IIS-WebServerRole" state="true"/>
			<selection name="WAS-WindowsActivationService" state="true"/>
			<selection name="WAS-ProcessModel" state="true"/>
			<selection name="WAS-NetFxEnvironment" state="true"/>
			<selection name="WAS-ConfigurationAPI" state="true"/>
		</package>
	</servicing>
</unattend>

Before using the file above or any of the files linked below you’ll need to make 2 changes.

1. Change the assemblyIdentity version to the version you found by getting the properties of explorer.exe earlier in this article. If you don’t do this the PkgMgr.exe program will start and then drop immediately back to the command prompt without installing anything.
2. Change the assemblyIdentity processor architecture to match your system. Possible values are x86, amd64 and ia64.

If you want to install ALL components, choose one of the files from the links below.
» Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Professional & Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn)
» Windows Vista Home Premium

And here is my IIS7 unattended answer file. It is a default IIS7 installation with a few customisations, e.g. ASP.NET etc.
» My IIS7 unattended answer file for Windows Vista Ultimate/Professional/Windows Server 2008 (it has a few customisations)

Some articles will tell you the answer file needs to be called "unattend.xml" - it doesn’t. You can name it whatever you want (my production one is called iis7-unattended.xml).

Once you’ve got the answer file sorted you need to actually do the install. Open a command prompt AS ADMINISTRATOR (that part is important - right click the shortcut and click "Run as administrator"). If you have UAC enabled confirm that you want to perform the requested action then run the following command. Make sure you change the values to match those on your system, i.e. paths and filenames.

The installation will take a few minutes depending on your system’s configuration and performance. Once the command prompt returns (the /w parameter will cause the window to wait until the installation has finished before you can use it again) you can browse to http://localhost and see the default IIS7 page that should look something like the screenshot below.

Apart from checking that your systems are compatible with the .NET Framework 3.0 here’s a simple script to perform a completely unattended installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0. Note that the commands below will prevent the machine being worked on from restarting automatically after installing the service pack. The commands also assume you’ve got your .NET Framework installation files located in C:\InstallationFiles - change the location in the commands below if that’s not the case (it almost definitely won’t be!).

At the time of writing this article the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 can be downloaded from the links below. Make sure you click the link in the following article labelled "X86 Redist Package" if you’re running a 32-bit edition of Windows or "X64 Redist Package" if you’re running a 64-bit edition of Windows.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable x86 (dotnetfx3.exe)

The management tool set you’re missing is called SQL Server Management Studio Express. Go ahead and download it.

Once the download is finished you’ll find you’ve got a file called SQLServer2005_SSMSEE.msi - if you know anything about MSI files you’ll know that this is going to make an unattended installation a breeze. For this installation there’s only 1 step. Open a command prompt, change to the folder you saved SQLServer2005_SSMSEE.msi into and enter the following command.

When the installation has finished you’ll find an additional icon in your start menu under Microsoft SQL Server 2005 called SQL Server Management Studio Express. That’s it!

Creating an unattended installation of SQL Server 2005 Express can seem like a pretty involved task at first. It can be involved too, if you want. For this example I’m going to perform a basic installation with minimal customisation so you can see the process at work.

Where to start? As with most unattended installations these days you need to create an answer file that is passed as a parameter to setup.exe … hmm, what setup.exe? When you download SQL Server 2005 Express it’s a file called SQLEXPR.EXE - no setup.exe in sight. There is a way to get it though. Let’s sidetrack for a minute and see how.

Now that you’ve got a nicely extracted copy of the installation files you can carry on. The above steps were necessary for what’s coming up.

Look in the folder you copied the installation files to and locate a file called "template.ini&quot. Copy it somewhere and open it in your favourite text editor. Personally I use Microsoft Visual Studio Express Edition - it’s free and works perfectly well as a text editor as well a cut-down version of Microsoft’s flagship development environment, Visual Studio. Nice for cranking out a bit of code too … if you don’t plan to sell it.

The template.ini is actually VERY well commented - nice one Microsoft. This file is in the same format as the template.ini that comes with the full versions of SQL Server and contains a whole load of options that you don’t want to and simply can’t use with SQL Server Express. If you want to, have a read through the file and see what’s possible - here’s where you can make the installation pretty involved if you want to.

For our purposes though the installation is going to be pretty basic. The contents of the complete file are available for download at the bottom of this article (do that later). Make all the changes you think are necessary and save the file as C:\Scripts\sql-2005-express.ini.

Once you have your answer file all nicely setup and ready to use you’ll need to know how to use it. A bit of a warning here first. Without specifying all the upgrade options in the answer file I had problems running the unattended installation on a system that already had the SQL Server Native Client - it kept spewing errors about retrying the installation using a valid copy of sqlncli.msi. Either specify the upgrade options or run the installation on a system that’s never had SQL Server installed or has already had EVERYTHING SQL-related removed.

From a command prompt (or Start > Run if you’re into that) run the following command. Remember to change the file and path names to the ones that match your system.

If you’ve done everything right this will start the installation process and you’ll end up with a SQL Server 2005 default instance called MSSQLSERVER running on your system. Easy!

Click here to download Complete sql-2005-express.ini file used in this article

I’m going to assume you’ve already got the .NET Framework 2.0 already installed. If you haven’t please read my article about how to perform an unattended installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

To perform an unattended installation of IIS6 you need 2 things. First you need to create an answer file for the installation program (Sysocmgr.exe) to get the IIS configuration from. Here is a link to a Microsoft document entitled "Creating an Answer File (IIS6)" but I’d recommend reading on anyway.

Why am I writing my own document about this? Simple - there are spelling mistakes and technically incorrect bits of info all over the Microsoft site (doesn’t Microsoft check their own technical documentation?) - unfortunately the Microsoft document linked above is one of the ones containing a typo. Their document lists one of the options as follows.

That is WRONG. The correct wording is:

Anyway, here’s a sample answer file for an IIS6 installation.

It’s an answer file for a basic installation containing the WWW Service, ASP.NET, the IIS common files & COM+ Network (both those are required for the WWW Service) and a couple of other useful things like the administration tools. It does not include NNTP or SMTP but it’s easy to see how to enable those. The installation location is the default of C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot.

Once you’ve got the answer file sorted, how do you use it? Easy. If you save your answer file as C:\Scripts\iis6.inf you run a command like this one (obviously you’ll need to change the path and file names if you name and save it somewhere/something else).

The above command will run a completely unattended (but not silent!) installation of IIS6.

Please note that unless you’ve got the Windows installation files as well as the installation files for any service packs available for Sysocmgr.exe to find you may be prompted for their location during the installation.

And here is a sample script to do the whole lot, as I said, with one click. The script below will also un-register and re-register the .NET Framework with IIS - you may need to do this depending on what order you install IIS/.NET Framework.