Image Capture: VPC vs VMWare

Just thought I may be able to save someone else out there a headache..

Although I am typically a much bigger proponent of VMWare products in terms of performance I found out the hard way that building and capturing an image from VMWare (Server 2.0) works great in most cases for newer hardware. I also discovered that the “IDE” mass storage driver in VMWare Server 2.0 would not allow the image to boot on older hardware (think Latitude D800, 600, etc). I spent a couple of days trying to find a set of driver that I could inject to get the machines working but to no avail. I had used Virtual PC 2007 in the past to build and capture but the performance is so lacking compared to VMWare I figured I would start there first. Well a long story short, after I went back to using Virtual PC 2007 (SP1) as my base machine for build and capture my “older” hardware is now back to booting properly and my newer hardware continues to function by injecting their mass storage drives as needed.

The moral of the story? Use Virtual PC 2007 to build and capture your image! Then you can turn it off and use VMWare for everything else.

Intel Graphics MiniSetup Hang issue

If anyone has used Sysprep with XP on a machine that uses an Intel Graphics chipset you have likely ran into the dreaded hang during mini-setup when plug and play installs the graphics driver. (Sits at the please wait screen and must be manually rebooted to continue)

Microsoft offers a hotfix for this (must be requested via the web form or through calling PSS)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/883667

It is effectively a single dll file that needs to be replaced.

12-Aug-2004 17:50 5.1.2600.2505 247,808 Newdev.dll SP2QFE

I have tested and it definately seems to do the trick.

Windows: Enable MSI Service in Safe Mode

I have run into scenerios where I needed access to the Windows Installer service while in Safe Mode. You may be suprised to know that this service is not enabled by default. The following info will get it back for you:

To start Windows Installer in Safe Mode:
1. Restart your computer and press F8 before the Boot Menu or splash screen.

2. Open a CMD.EXE window.

3. Type the following commands and press Enter:

REG ADD “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\MSIServer” /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D “Service”
net start msiserver

NOTE: You can use this technique to uninstall an application in Safe Mode.