The distribution folder can include preinstalled service packs so that you can install the operating system with an updated service pack rather than having to install the operating system and then apply service packs.

Typically, a service pack is provided as a single download—a large executable file that you run to extract and then install the updates to the operating system files. To update the distribution folder, you must first download the service pack and then complete the following procedure to apply it to the distribution folder:

Inside Out: Service pack update "gotchas"

You shouldn't update your existing Windows installation share. First, you want to ensure the update is completed successfully before using it, and you might have several service packs that you must apply sequentially before the update is complete. Second, if there are users currently performing installations, you could corrupt their installations or otherwise cause their installations to fail.

When you use slipstreaming to install several service packs at once, you must rename any existing Svcpack.log file before installing the next service pack update. This file is created automatically with each service pack installation and is located on the %SystemDrive% root folder.

As a final note, you can't apply service packs to Windows 2000 RIS CD-ROM-based images. There is, of course, a workaround, which is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 258868.

Hot fixes and security updates to the operating system are made available in between service packs. Although these changes do eventually make their way into service packs, you'll often find that critical fixes must be deployed either to resolve problems you're experiencing or to close security gaps. You can find hot fixes and security updates in two places: the Microsoft security Web site and Microsoft Windows Update site. The Microsoft Web site contains links to these two sites, and they are currently located at http://www.microsoft.com/security/; and http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com, respectively, which addresses are entirely subject to change—Murphy's Law, right?

Most hot fixes and security updates follow a specific naming syntax. For example, the hot fix q348932_W2K3_SP1_ENU.exe tells you this fix is in relation to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 348932 and that it is a post Service Pack 1 fix for the English-language version of Windows Server 2003.

If you've installed hot fixes and security updates before, you know that basically all you must do is run them as a program. Unfortunately, you usually are prompted to reboot the computer after installing each, so you often have to work around this by forcing the Windows operating system to install quietly (without warnings and prompts) and not to reboot with the –Q and –Z options (which are available in most hot fixes and updates).

Although you can integrate hot fixes and security updates into the distribution folder in much the same way as previously discussed for service packs, it is not recommended. Instead, you should have Setup automatically install any necessary hot fixes and security updates during the installation of the operating system. Here's how you do this:

Just as you can include hot fixes and security updates in the installation, you can also include updated drivers for Plug and Play devices. You might wonder why you would do this. Even though Windows Server 2003 includes thousands of drivers, computer hardware changes over time and the drivers included with the Windows operating system might not be the ones you need.

You can include updated drivers in automated installations by completing the following steps:

Earlier we mentioned setting OemPreinstall=Yes and creating a Cmdlines.txt file, which must be created and saved in the $OEM$ directory. Well, allowing you to install updates and hot fixes is not the only use for this file. You can, in fact, use the Cmdlines.txt file to handle any command that you want Setup to run. Generally, you'll want these commands to run before any hot fixes and security updates are applied. This is just a precaution in case you are running a program or installing something that might affect the drivers and system files.

Remember this example from earlier in the chapter:

[Commands]
"q3486932_w2k3_sp1_enu -q -z"
"q124576_w2k3_sp1_enu -q -z"

Here, we are running two hot fixes. Now let's add a command to run a Microsoft Software Installation (MSI) package, like this:

[Commands]
"msiexec /i \corpserver01appsApplication.msi"
"q3486932_w2k3_sp1_enu -q -z"
"q124576_w2k3_sp1_enu -q -z"

You can also create directories and copy over files during the installation. For example, if every computer has a C:Data and a C:Scripts directory, you could have Setup create these during installation. To create directories and copy over files during installation, follow these steps:

If you want to copy files into %SystemRoot% folders, place the files in the $OEM$$$ directory. These files are then copied over during installation. One type of file that you might want to place in the $OEM$$$ is a branding file that provides information on the computer model and manufacturer. You can also add support information, which can be any standard information that your organization wants to provide to users in the General tab of the System Properties dialog box.

The branding file is saved as Oeminfo.ini, and it contains two required sections: General and Support Information (and two optional sections: ICW and OEMSpecific). It is used like this:

[General]
Manufacturer=
Model=
SupportURL=

[Support Information]
Line1=
Line2=
...
LineN=
Such as:
[General]
Manufacturer= City Power and Light
Model= CP&L Primary Desktop
SupportURL= http://Intranet
[Support Information]
Line1=For IT support call:
Line2=(206) 555-1212
Line3=For early morning or after hours support call:
Line4=(212) 555-6789

Because Winnt doesn't support the use of LFNs, the distribution folder is restricted to short (MS-DOS 8.3) folder and file names if you use the 16-bit Setup program. Yet, applications sometimes require program files to be correctly named with LFNs to work. Thus, in certain installations, you'll need the ability to rename specific files or folders contained in the distribution folder once they are copied to the target computer.

The $$Rename.txt file can be used to rename the MS-DOS 8.3 file names after installation. Every file and folder using a short name that is to be renamed after installation must be specified in the $$Rename.txt file. To rename the files and folders, put a copy of the $$Rename.txt file in the folder containing the actual files and folders, and Setup will find the file and perform the renaming automatically at the end of the installation process.

The $$Rename.txt file is structured as a series of entries describing the path and both the short and long names of the file or folder to be renamed. Each folder with entries to be renamed has its own section, named with the path (starting at the root of the hard disk) in brackets "[path]" followed by the individual files to be renamed.

An example of a brief $$Rename.txt file is shown here:

[]
InsGuide.doc = "Installation Guide.doc"
StaffHB.doc = "Employee Handbook.doc"
Frelled.chm = "IT--Escalation team.chm"

To support Dynamic Update in unattended installations, the answer file must be explicitly configured to allow the Dynamic Update operations (which are disabled by default). This is controlled by two entries in the answer file:

An advantage to creating a distribution folder is that you can customize it and modify it as new security patches and service packs are added and as supported hardware or applications change. In some cases, however, using CD media for unattended installations is necessary. This could occur because of a lack of adequate network connectivity, for instance, or extreme network congestion.

However, using CD media for installation requires that CDs and DVDs containing a copy of your distribution folder be re-created any time you update or change the contents or structure of your distribution folder. Every time you apply a service pack, hot fix, or even a security patch to the operating system or any included custom files—and consider how often you do that—new CD media must be made.

Thus, the amount of work involved in the creation and distribution of the CDs containing the (updated) distribution folder must be assessed, and the process of managing the implementation of these CDs in the enterprise network environment must be defined.

When using the Windows Server 2003 CD for unattended installations, you should be aware of certain key answer file settings.

There are four settings in the [Data] section that directly pertain to an automated installation from CD:

The [Unattended] section contains two settings that relate to a CD-based automated installation:

The unattended installation text file in Windows Server 2003 builds on the Windows 2000 version while maintaining the familiar .inf format. Several new sections, as well as many new settings, provide finer control over the installation and configuration of Windows Server 2003 server and Windows XP operating systems.

The new sections added to the Unattend.txt file since Windows 2000 include the following:

The number of new entries are too numerous to list here—for a complete listing of new entries, refer to the "Changes in Answer Files" section of the "Microsoft Windows Corporate Deployment Tools User's Guide."

An Unattend.txt file can contain literally hundreds and hundreds of entries, not very many of which are required. The following example of an extended Unattend.txt file demonstrates how you can add sections to the file. Although a fully configured installation with lots of customization is much longer, you probably get the idea that there's a lot you can do to optimize the configuration.

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=1
    MsDosInitiated="0"
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    TargetPath=Windows

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword=e52cac67419a9a224a3b108f3fa6cb6d8846f7eaee8fb117ad06bdd830b
    EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=4
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    ProductKey=DFDFD-FSAFW-EFREF-AFASF-AFAAA
    FullName="wrstanek"
    OrgName="City Power and Light"
    ComputerName0=corpserver01
    ComputerName1=corpserver02
    ComputerName2=corpserver03
    ComputerName3=corpserver04
    ComputerName4=corpserver05

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=32
    XResolution=1024
    YResolution=768

[LicenseFilePrintData]
    AutoMode=PerSeat

[RegionalSettings]
    LanguageGroup=1

[SetupMgr]
    DistFolder=Z:windist
    DistShare=windist
[FavoritesEx]
    Title1="Google Home Page.url"
    URL1="http://www.google.com"
    Title2="MSN Home Page.url"
    URL2="http://www.msn.com"

[Branding]
    BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[URL]
    Home_Page= http://www.cpandl.com
    Help_Page= http://www.cpandl.com/help
    Search_Page= http://search.cpandl.com

[Proxy]
    Proxy_Enable=0
    Use_Same_Proxy=1

[GuiRunOnce]
    Command0=DeleteUnnecessaryFiles.bat

[Identification]
    JoinDomain=DOMAIN
    DomainAdmin=ADomainAdmin
    DomainAdminPassword=PasswordExposed

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=No

[NetAdapters]
    Adapter1=params.Adapter1

[params.Adapter1]
    INFID=*

[NetClients]
    MS_MSClient=params.MS_MSClient

[NetServices]
    MS_SERVER=params.MS_SERVER

[NetProtocols]
    MS_TCPIP=params.MS_TCPIP
    MS_NetMon=params.MS_NetMon

[params.MS_TCPIP]
    DNS=Yes
    UseDomainNameDevolution=No
    EnableLMHosts=Yes
    AdapterSections=params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1

[params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1]
    SpecificTo=Adapter1
    DHCP=Yes
    WINS=No
    NetBIOSOptions=0

Of all these fancy extras, there are actually only a few that we haven't talked about yet. Primarily, these are the installation options you use to preconfigure networking and Internet Explorer. With networking, the sections include [Networking], [NetAdapters], [NetClients], [NetServices], and [NetProtocols], as well as individual parameter sections for the TCP/IP adapters used. In most situations, you set these parameters using Setup Manager. Occasionally, you want to tweak the parameters in the answer file, but because they are so advanced, it is often easier to create a new answer file and then copy in from the old file the additional sections that you custom created.

An exception to this is with the Internet Explorer preconfiguration options. It is really easy to preconfigure Internet Explorer in an answer file: