Does anybody know where I can find a silent install switch for Litestep?

On the same topic, I am trying to incorporate Litestep into an unattended windows install disc. Has anybody ever attempted this, and would you like to share your experience if you have?

My goal is to have Litestep installed, updated, and have an alternate skin, all installed and initiated upon first logon.(Or at least the first logon after everything is installed)

So if I could get a little help, or some pointers, I would appreciate it very much. Thanx

Nobody here knows anything about this?

LiteStep doesn't have an install process...there was one to set the registry key for the shell...but I think even that is gone. Now if you are talking about a silent version of omar's installer...no.

So then there is no way to automate the install with an unattended windows installation disc? Forgive me, I am rather new to this type of thing. I have been using LiteStep for about five yrs. now, but I am trying something new. Installing all my apps and utilities after each fresh install is getting old. So I decided to try making an unattended setup disc, as described on MSFN forums website. The thing is, I want to have LiteStep installed and running on the initial logon after windows installs.

But, I'm not quite sure how to go about it. I have been able to get it to install silently, but the install does not work. All the files and folders get installed properly, but LiteStep just doesn't take to the silent install very well. I don't know for sure if I'm doing something wrong, or if LiteStep just can't be installed this way.

Your explanation about LiteStep not having an install proccess would probably explain a lot about these problems. What you mention about setting the registry key for shell, I have found this, also on MSFN:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\system.ini\boot]
"shell"="USR:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"shell"="C:\Litestep\Litestep.exe"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"DesktopProcess"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"DesktopProcess"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"shell"=-

But, it doesn't seem to help the proccess any either. I'm not sure, but something seems to be missing from this registry entry. I still have some tinkering to do, and will probably figure it out eventually, or give up in frustration.

Anyway, thanx for the reply, DeViLbOi. If and when I do figure this all out, I may just post back and let everyone know how I got it to work, in case anybody else wants to do this too.

Not sure how making an unattended install disk works exactly, but I've heard it reported that installing certain programs gets unstable when explorer isn't running as shell. Having litestep come pre-running when you first boot up XP might not be wise.

http://lsdocs.shellfront.org/install.php

Follow the 2K keys and that should get you working...

There was an app...can't remember what it was but I saw it on Betanews...that logged all the keys hit during an install. Log the installer and you will be good to go.

And not to shoot your project down or anything...but is there a reason you aren't just doing the install and then building a drive image?

DeViLbOi, not sure what you mean by drive image, exactly. If yo are referring to making a fresh install, and then just backing everything up, I guess I never really thought about that. But what I am trying to do is make an install disc that will work with various pc's.

I would guess that making a drive image would save registry settings and other settings specific to the pc that the OS is installed on. In which case, using that particular method would not be the best to use on different pc's, as the settings would clash with different hardware profiles.

However, it would be a very good idea if I were to be using only one pc.

To jdub, I do understand what you are saying, however, I would be setting it up as the very last install upon completion of all other software, in order to avoid any conflict with the unattended install. Also, due to the need to restart windows after installing it, I would not want to have it installed before any other software through the RunonceEx.cmd file.

So you are going to do an unattended install without drivers? Good luck with that.

No, no DeViLbOi! The unattended install will have the drivers contained within the disc! There is a collection of driver packs available called bashrats driverpacks. It will install damn near any driver for any hardware you got! I was just saying that backing up a particular system would only be effective if you were to use the disc to restore that same system.

For instance, say you have a system that has an ATI Radeon graphics card, and a soundblaster sound card, installed on an intel pentium pc. After backing up that system, if you were to try to restore the system to an AMD, with an Nvidia graphics card, and, say, a C- Media sound card, you would have driver clashes. Your system would not work because of the different hardware profiles.

At least This is what I would assume, being that I have tried to transfer harddrives between different pc's before, only to find that the OS would not boot, due to the fact that the hardware profile is not recognized by the software installed into the system currently on the harddrive.

So, to sum things up, yes, my unattended install will have all the drivers available, along with the software to install, and the OS. Plus, it will register the software so that it will be full release, instead of trial software, in the case of things like Nero, Tuneup Utilities 2007, Nod32, and Sygate Personal Firewall, to name a few.

This unattended install thing really is quite interesting. There are a few different OS install discs available on the internet to check out, many of which can be found using torrent sites like isohunt.com, and mininova.com. If you are interested in learning more about the unattended setup, and how to make one yourself, Checkout
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/
This is an in-depth guide on how to create your own unattended install disc. Though I must admit, much of it is confusing to me. Still, I have found it very useful and inspiring, and have made much use of it over the past few weeks alone.

As a side note, more info can be found on bashrats driverpacks if you go to the address above for unattended windows install. Just follow the links to the driver section, and there will be more info on the driverpacks there.

Sounds like a very big DVD for little return. But rock on with your bad self!

I'd love to have something like that all set up. But I dunno how often it would be really useful.

it'd be outdated by the time you burned it to disc.

Yea...that is why a buddy of mine was trying to work on some way of building some sort of app for windows similar to apt. PrePackaged Silent installs from the web that were always current. He never got very far though.

Yeah, DeViLbOi, it could be a big DVD, if I pack it full of stuff. But right now, with all the apps, the drivers, my themes and cursors, the wallpapers, and the OS, it's sitting at about 695 mb. But of course, that is because my original windows XP pro w/service pack 2 is only 175 mb in size. It doesn't have anything extra in it, just the stripped down OS itself. It leaves lot's of room for packing stuff into the disc.

If I wanted to make a DVD, I could really add a lot of stuff to it, being that I would have like 4 gigs of space and all. But I just want to get something that would get me up and running after catastrophic system failure. I find that often it is easier for me to just reformat and re-install everything when my pc starts getting sluggish. I keep all my important files on a seperate drive so I don't risk losing anything. Sometimes I install stuff that clashes with other software, sometimes I get some mysterious malware that can't be found by scanners. What eveer the reason for the system slow downs, I just find it easier and less time consuming to start fresh.

But, the reason an unattended windows install appeals to me, is that you can put the disc in, choose the destination and initial settings, and go do something else. When you come back, it's all done and ready to be used. No answering all those questions about what name you want to give the pc, or please enter your serial number to activate windows. Everything is done for you. Of course you can even go so far as to make it completely unattended and remove the initial settings like which drive to install to, or would you like to format. But I really think it's best to maintain those user interfaces.

As to juggs comment about it being outdated, this is true, but all windows install discs are outdated from the moment they leave the shelf. That is why there are so many updates to download from microsoft. Software does get outdated fairly fast, but sometimes it is better to use older versions anyway. Some of them use up less memory, and some are more stable than newer versions. There are even some older versions of software that offer certain options that newer versions do not. WinAmp in particular is usually a better bit of software if you can find an older version, like 3.0 or older. The older versions don't have the irritating spyware stuff that they put in the newer software.

So there are many reasons why it would be bad to have the software all burned into the install disc, but there are also many reasons why it could be good. I think, if built right, you could have a very useful OS with minimal input in the install proccess, allowing for far greater ease in the install proccess.