How to save parameters in the post-setup screen

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CaptainQuirk

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Hi All,

Nice to meet you all.
I've been playing around with the NTLite software to create installation media with.
I am trying to add HP drivers to the image I am making.

I have already abandoned trying to pull the INF files from the .exe's and figuring out where all the other files are supposed to go and have opted to run the .exe's at post-setup.

My first time round building and testing the image, the installer stayed on the 'Just a moment' screen indefinitely.
After forcefully restarting the device, I can see a command prompt which executes all the .exe's one after another.
These .exe's require human intervention to install their respective packages unless the silent flag is used (which I believe is just /s)
I believe this is why the installer stopped at 'Just a moment'

However after adding the parameters to each .exe and making another installation media, I experienced the same issue.
When reloading the image I made, I can see that none of the parameters I saved in the post-setup step have been saved.

Is there a button I need to press to save the parameters for the .exe files within the post-setup step or is there a configuration file I can edit manually to ensure that these parameters are included within my image?
 
I have had some computers and drivers that were really difficult when it came to their quirks too, and this is how I handle those:

EXPORTING DRIVERS TO REPACKAGE THEM
1) Install a clean, default version of the Windows build that you plan on using with NTLite.

2) Install all drivers, whether that means doing it manually and/or through Windows Update.

3) Restart the computer and run the batch file called, "Driver_Export" which is included in the attachment below. It makes all installed drivers that your machine is actively using be copied to the desktop and repackaged in a more optimal manner, stripped of containers and excess files.

4) Save those folders somewhere and rename them to make sense for what type of driver they are. These new driver folders can be used with NTLite to make sure only the exact drivers and files your machine needs will be integrated into the image, because only the files your computer actually uses are exported into those new folders after they have been extracted by the computer during installation.

Note: I included a shortcut in the attachment to the Device Manager, since it's useful for this kind of troubleshooting. I also have another relevant post (link) explaining how to use NTLite to cleanup and eliminate excess drivers.

Almost everything can be tested on a live Windows computer before attempting to integrate it into NTLite's post-setup routine. By following the guidance below, users can greatly improve their efficiency versus trying to install and test a modified image directly.

TESTING POST-SETUP ROUTINES
1) Create a new folder on the desktop called, "TEST" in all capitals and without the quotation marks. Copy whatever file you want to test in your post-setup scenario into this folder, such as the executable for the Chrome browser installer for example.

2) Edit the batch file called, "Test_Post_Setup" included in the attachment below, and in the line that starts with "msiexec" look at the filepath and rename the part that says, "CHROME.msi" into whatever your file is called, including the proper extension. We are telling the batch file to look for a specific file to run, so if the name and path aren't correct the batch file won't work right. Save and exit the file after modification.

3) Run the batch file and see if the executable or other file you targeted ran correctly. If not, then make sure the previous steps are correct and if so, then what we are seeing now is that the parameters for this particular installer need to be fixed. This is how we test all those post-setup spinning circle types of scenarios without having to constantly reinstall Windows to do so. Edit the batch file again and look at the end of that line we edited previously and change the /quiet and /norestart parameters to what you think they should be for your file.

Note: There is no need to ask on the forums for what parameters to use, since a simple Google search always reveals them. If you are still having trouble finding a parameter, use Boolean Logic in your search to enhance the results. An example of how to do that would be to type, "silent" "install" "chrome" with quotation marks on all three individual words and changing "chrome" into whatever word represents the specific installer you are targeting, and the Google results will be much more helpful now.
 

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Capitão Quirk, You will need to see what installation parameters your .exe files accept.

To do this parameter checking procedure, you will have to open command prompt as administrator and which put the following command below:

.exe file path /?

When you enter the path of the .exe file followed by a space and the /? parameter, you will see a screen showing the accepted parameters.

Another way is to export your machine's drives using DISM or another command line utility and grab the folders of the drivers you want and add the image to the "drives" section.

This last option is the easiest.
 
Hi Hellbovine,
I was successful using the tools and following your instructions for a HP laptop, and I was over the moon when I got it working :D

However I am having some trouble with Acer TravelMate|P (TMP215-54)

the tools are able to find the drivers just fine, but when running the usb stick, the trackpad doesn't work and the installer doesn't detect any hard drives/solid state drives....

I've also found it very difficult to figure out what driver refers to what piece of hardware, and what is necessary and what isn't.
I tried exporting drivers for a Dell Latitude 3520 and ended up with 14GB worth of files


However, again thanks for the awesome tools and tips ^_^
 
Information and steps on how to help solve the next set of challenges.

WINDOWS SETUP
For the trackpad and drive detection issue, that's typically due to a broken image and the easy way to test that is to try an unmodified Windows. If Windows Setup doesn't have any problems with that, it verifies that the modified image is the culprit. If the problem continues though, it doesn't have anything to do with NTLite or Windows tweaks, and will be related to BIOS settings or something else outside of the operating system.

INTEGRATING DRIVERS
Keep in mind that integrating drivers is a machine-specific task, so if you take an image created for one model of a laptop and integrate drivers for it, then try to install that image on a different laptop, you will see issues like the Windows Setup bug, since the drivers are wrong for that computer. The NTLite component removals section also shows a bunch of basic drivers that Windows needs for hardware to function properly until we can install full drivers later, and many presets break things by uninstalling those basic drivers.

UNUSED DRIVERS
For the issue with the Dell laptop, make sure it was a clean install, otherwise it could have a ton of accumulated garbage from the past. Another tip to reduce the total file size and also eliminate some issues caused by using the wrong drivers, is to click on the "Exclude unused" option in NTLite after adding all drivers for integration. This step must happen before processing the image, because that button unloads all the driver files from the image that don't belong to the computer NTLite is running on at the time, so you would need to specifically run it on the Dell laptop.

MANDATORY DRIVERS
As for figuring out what is a mandatory driver, it typically relates to whatever components have an exclamation mark in the Device Manager. To see that information, install an unmodified Windows that is disconnected from the internet prior to installation or has tweaks integrated to pause Windows Update (link), so that it cannot install drivers before you get a chance to take a look at things.

It's much more complicated to explain how to manually find drivers, but the gist of that is to go into the properties of each exclamation mark and then Google the "Hardware Ids" from within the "Details" tab. The hardware ids are the number that Windows Update uses to pull a matching driver for download. The Microsoft Update Catalog works the same way, and we can manually download drivers from there using the id too.

DRIVER SEARCHING
There's a few tips for driver searching by id. If no results are found, try shortening the id by removing either a part from the beginning or end of the path and keep repeating that concept until you find something, and try the other ids listed too. Shorter ids result in more matches, but are also less specific to your hardware. Try experimenting with all the hardware ids as well as the drop-down for "Compatible Ids" if struggling to find a driver.

LAPTOP DRIVERS
Laptops are much more confusing and difficult than a desktop, because laptops have a lot of extra and lesser known drivers, which are further complicated by companies like HP that package their drivers in weird ways and/or add a lot of bloat and optional junk, etcetera. On my HP Stream 11 laptop, it will install dozens of drivers if I let Windows Update do whatever it wants, because HP managed to somehow pass off a bunch of their totally optional "helper" software as being mandatory, and afterwards my resources increased by a whopping 30% more handles!

While manually optimizing, I found that it actually only needs the Intel graphics driver, the Intel chipset, the Thermal driver, the TXE (Trusted Execution) driver, the Radio button hotkey driver, and the HP System driver. After that I have no exclamations in Device Manager and no concerning changes in latency or resource overhead. This can be a challenging experience, but worth the effort in terms of bugs and performance.

In general, every computer requires a minimum of a chipset driver, graphics driver, audio driver, and network drivers. Graphics don't show up by default with an exclamation in Device Manager, because the basic display driver allows it to function. Microsoft should put an exclamation on it though, because everyone needs to replace that driver. As for other drivers, it's possible that some or all of them require no further driver installations, since the ones included in Windows may already be full drivers and newer than what's available for download, but that varies by hardware.
 
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