How to integrate software with os

Hi All,

Can any one tell me how can we intigrate software with os using nlite ?

lets say i hv software A, B and C with licence key ? how can we intigrate with OS CD ?

I have setup and cd keys for software but i don't know how can we intigrate and in which format we need to include i am not getting that addons concept so please explain me in lil details with step.

Thanks
Sam

 

I think the starting point will be to look up "slipstreaming".

Fair warning, this might be a highly technical project you're approaching, so hopefully you're an I.T. type. If you have a small number of OS installs per month, you'll spend less time just installing the software post-fact.

You can approach this a number of ways:

Method 1: (Only really usable if all systems are identical.)
Install one system with the operating system and software, taking VERY SPECIAL CARE NOT TO MODIFY OTHER THINGS. i.e. don't browse the web. Don't set up any personal accounts. Install the OS, install drivers, install and license software, ONLY. Don't create specific users. Give the machine a "generic" hostname that will not be used elsewhere on the network. When you partition the drive, give it an initial size that is lower than the smallest hard disk you expect to use. (like ~40GB.) Approach everything from a generic standpoint - you're making a building block that you will then use to create actual machines with specific hostnames and users.

Make a drive image of that system and keep it. When you need to reinstall a machine, you can image its hard drive using this source, and then set the network hostname, create user accounts, and join it to Active Directory if needed.


A variant of this method, that you might need to use for Vista, is the Microsoft Preinstall Environment (I think that's what it's called? Maybe PXE?) I have had luck with the above method on Vista and Active Directory, but no guarantees. I only did a few machines that way as a test because we had trouble getting the Preinstall Environment Image working, and all machines got reimaged the next week anyway because of an unrelated problem. So initially it worked but we didn't have time to run into snags, if snags were there.


Method 2: Potentially useful if you have a variety of machine types...

Slipstreaming. Google it and read up until you understand what's going on. Basically it allows you to customize a special windows install disk. It allows for adding initial driver support for special hardware, and OEM customizations. (It's how many OEMs made the OS disks they shipped out with their prebuilt systems.) I believe you'll be able to add custom software as well. The further you customize the system, the more difficult it will get to maintain a slipstream install image.

The advantage of this process is your customizations apply to the system before the install stage. This is why it's useful for a mixed hardware environment. For example, with the previous method, if your hardware differs significantly enough, you can end up having the wrong Hardware Abstraction Layer (hal.dll) installed on your imaged system, which can lead to wacky stuff like only seeing one core on a dual-proc dual-core system, or broken WMI databases.

To get your software installed you'll probably have to separately generate a list of registry key modifications done by the software installer, so that the software's registry info can be created. Worst case scenario you should be able to slipstream the OS disk in such a way that it automatically runs a set of software installers on the first OS boot.

To get any of that stuff to work you might have to generate or obtain microsoft redistributable (.MSI) installer image versions of the programs you want to be installed.



I will add a tentative Method 3: Other ways of doing it that I haven't heard of! I'm sure there are some.


DISCLAIMER: I worked with guys who were doing this stuff and this is as much as I know about their methods and about what can/can't be done with Slipstreaming. I've imaged machines, and I've created slipstreamed OS disks for XP, but I haven't slipstreamed for Vista (might not be supported) and I haven't added software installs to a slipstreamed disk. The licensing thing might break the whole deal for you, either in a legal sense or a technical one, especially with software getting constantly trickier about how it handles licenses. For example I know for a fact this would never work for including Wolfram Mathematica or any Autodesk product with an OS image, without having a network license server, because they both key licenses to hardware.

i.e. don't read my post and tell your boss you're golden, and then find out it doesn't work, and blame me. This is something I -think- will work based on experiences with similar tasks.

Good luck!


[edit]
P.S. - I do see the "Using nlite" bit... I'm not familiar with nlite so I can't say. I'm used to answering "how do I accomplish my task" rather than "how do I use a hammer to accomplish my task".