WINNT32.exe?

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Hi all,

I have recently picked up my MS Press book on 70-270 and am just curious about this WINNT32.exe...

A fair bit of it is common sense but it is other issues that I want to know... for example...

You can use WINNT32 to copy a folder to the destination machine... in Microsoft's example on their website, they have the idea of a folder called Private_drivers, which holds drivers for the system in hand...

My main question is this, once this folder is copied, how do you actually get Windows to use its contents!!! Is it a case of running a cmd script at the end of setup to install the drivers, or is there a way of making Windows think that these drivers are in its own collection???

 

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Isn't Winnt32.exe the file that you use to begin a windows installation from the command line?

 

I believe it is. You can use it from the command line to install Windows and can be used in the unattended install of Windows.

Go to 'help and support' on your Windows XP machine type in winnt32 and it will list a good explanation and the correct syntax to be used.

Stu

 

jellyman_4eva,

the winnt32.exe /copydir command line switch lets you indeed copy an additional custom folder into the installation location (systemroot) during setup, and microsoft uses the systemroot\private_drivers folder as an example. but you can use it for copying many other things as well. imho, an additional driver location is a bad example, because there are other ways (ris, unattend file, image, etc.) to deal with machines that require a lot of oem drivers.

in any case, by default windows uses the following registry key for the search location of device drivers:

hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\devicepath: reg_expand_sz:%systemroot%\inf

you can change that, following above example location, like this:

hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\devicepath: reg_expand_sz:%systemroot%\inf;%systemroot%\private_drivers

hope this answers your question.

 

That is an excellent answer to my question...

The reason I ask, is because the imaging software we have where I work is called, CCM (Symantec have now bought it) and it works in a way of basically copying the master machine's files across the network (Rather than a single image file). Unfortunately the guy who set it up has left and we are trying to modify the one setup we have to incorporate the new batch of systems we have... the graphics and chipset etc, can be rolled out via the network after we have installed the OS, that is not a problem, however of course we need the network installed to be able to do that...

I can see how the problem is overcome with updating the image, but how is the problem overcome by RIS or the unattend file (I am not sure but by this do you mean creating a folder in the i386 and telling the unattend script to perform a command at the end of setup???)

Really curious to see how people do this!

 

Winnt32.exe is the 32 bit setup file, it is used in a 32 bit environment (running windows) to upgrade an older operating system.

Winnt.exe is the 16 bit version of the setup file and is used in a 16 bit environment (DOS). So for a new clean install, you would use winnt.exe.

 

with an unattended setup you script most parts of the installation using an answer file. as for the oem drivers path, you use the oempnpdriverspath option in the [unattend] section of the answer file. the drivers themselves you place in a specific subfolder in the source location. the drivers will be installed during setup, not after.

more info on adding oem drivers for unattend, ris, etc.: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314479

 

Simply excellent.... what else can I say.