Network Installation
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XPlite and 2000lite contain a number of Switches for System Administrators designed to assist with the use of XPlite and 2000lite in networked situations where you want to configure multiple machines remotely and without registering the software on each machine. If an unattended network installation is required the remote systems must be configured to automatically log onto the network so the source drive on the network is available to the remote operating system following a reboot. A reboot is required whenever Windows File Protection is enabled or disabled. A future version may complete the installation as a system service to enable configuration when no users are logged on.

Steps involved are:

1.Set up your Windows Installation source files on a network share that is accessible by all workstations within the network. The installation files should be at the latest service pack level for your system.  

2.Run XPlite on a single test workstation and edit the user preferences of the test workstation so the Windows Source location fields are pointing to the network share that you set up previously. The source paths should be in Universal Naming Convention (UNC) format.  

e.g. \\Server\Share\WinXPInstallFiles  

If you are using the installation source machine as your test machine you may need to edit the configuration file later in a text editor to ensure the source locations are in UNC format.  

3.Run XPlite on a single test workstation with the /r switch to save the license information and user preferences into a XPlite.CFG or 2000lite.CFG file that is created in the application folder. You can edit the .CFG file with a text editor to confirm the settings or if you need to change the Source Paths into UNC format.  

When XPlite finds the CFG file in the folder it is running from it will read and save all options to the CFG file and not to the system registry. This allows you to run XPlite from a network share or CDROM without having to register the software on each machine.  

4.Set up the component structure that you want in the Add\Remove Components tab and save the component profile (using the profile button above the component tree). Your chosen options will be saved to your XPlite.CFG or 2000lite.CFG file that you created in step 3.  
 
 
        
5.Most installation will require the following command to be executed on each workstation.  
 
xplite.exe /o:MySavedProfile /l /auto /w

·The /l switch causes all log files to be generated in the source folder that contains XPlite.exe.  
·/o:MySavedProfile loads the desired profile  
·/auto cases the remote system to automatically disable Windows File Protection, reboot, make the desired changes the reboot again to complete any installations and restore Windows File Protection to the initial state.  
·/w reboot the machine and re-enable Windows File Protection (optional).  

6.You may want to supply specific user credentials  
 
xplite.exe /o:MySavedProfile /l /auto /w /u:AdminUsername /p:AdminPass /d:domain  
 
·/u:AdminUsername /p:AdminPass Administrator User credentials with access to the workstation and source files on a network share on /d:domain.  
 
Users on the workstation that is being configured will see the Windows Setup Engine (sysocmgr.exe) but the main XPlite interface will not be seen.  
 
If the network is mixed Windows XP and Windows 2000 machines you just need to create the separate 2000lite.CFG file on your Windows 2000 machines. You can run the same executable for both Windows XP and for Windows 2000 and the appropriate CFG file will be loaded for each operating system.

also see Switches for System Administrators.