newb

[clevergirl]

Hello folks, hope it will be fun here. i'm playing with win10 ltsb in a VM right now, and will ask a few questions soon about how to keep it upgraded efficiently on my friend's computers, remotely and without having to actually drive there. Things to try out will include unattended installs, pxe-booting into some live linux to install pre-configured drive images (earlier on the VM), sending installation disks via snailmail , etc.

[Mickey]

Welcome to Digital Forums.

Forum etiquette is quite high on the list here, like in real life you treat others with respect and you equally get it back. Contributing to the threads with good constructive posts gets you noticed for all the good reasons. Digging up old threads and the one word posts/replies to threads gets you marked as a post booster; this is not the best way to get you going on DF. With time your post count will go up and you will have full use of the forum. This has been put in place to stop Spammers, Leechers and generally1 post users that want something for nothing, they try and get it and go.

Digital forums has been going for years and has a large fan base. Some actually pay for the privilege and they get bonuses over non sub people. With time you will build up friends and likewise you will be seen here as someone that can contribute to the DF Community.

Enjoy your stay

[ss30]

Welcome clevergirl

[Mystical_2K]

Welcome aboard

[clevergirl]

I finished one milestone of my experiments. I wish I could post this as a new thread, but I guess I'll write it up two times anyway. This is my draft, which will become more detailed in the future.
I'm sharing on this forum cause some windows related software that was useful to me originated here.

I dropped the idea of using win10 because I couldn't find the "classic theme", i.e. win95 style. There's a classic start menu and such stuff, but normal windows look weird even with compositing and special themes disabled: The window borders have no contrast, are more stylish than functional, too confusing not only for inexperienced people, but even to me, I can't find my windows any more!

Thus I will only use win10 ltsb in the same fashion as described below in the future, as last resort when win7 support is stopped.

short form:
1) base install:
-add win7 install iso and kvm/qemu driver iso.
-install win7 VM in virt-manager/kvm/qemu, also activate properly
-create a long-term admin user
-access network share (previously set up) and run the wsusoffline updates
-install cocoa and then essential programs/drivers with cocoa (then save used commands in .bat on network share for next time)
-save as snapshot 1

2) oobe, make ready for other machines:
-boot from snapshot 1
-run sysprep /oobe /generalize
-make snapshot 2
-copy resulting image to SSD (I use dd on linux for this)
-send SSD via postal service
-let another user install the disk and make their own user on boot (no other windows installation questions).

3) to upgrade:
-add more cocoa package names to .bat on network share
-boot from snapshot 1
-update with wsusoffline
-install new applications in the image by running the .bat
-update all cocoa applications
-save as snapshot 1
-do 2) again

I also managed to create an unattended.xml for sysprep, which means new users don't get bugged by any oobe installation questions, but the "new network, choose work/home/etc" still shows up (it detects a new LAN or WIFI network that I hadn't used before). I have to find a way to fix this next.

1) is already very useful as base for new VMs (copy on write),
2) is very useful for new installs on other computers and for fixing broken/bloated installations.

The other week for example I shipped a disk with this image to my friend and was able to guide him remotely so he could use windows restore to copy back his old user profile backup onto the new windows install. Only the profile folders need to be backed up on their side, the bloated windows install can be thrown away.

It's important to eat your own dogfood. This setup is very useful to ensure this: Every time I have to install a new program on mine or their machines I will first try, in my VM. Then when people have problems I'll have *exactly* the same base system and versions of programs installed as them. And if we ever get out of sync I can send them a new already installed base system.

Next steps: Folder redirection + Offline files for User profiles, enabling central backups and resulting in less work after redoing the base install.