INFO: Setting Control Panel Tools to Start After Unattended Setup

As discussed in the Microsoft Windows NT Workstation Deployment Guide, Unattend.txt and Sysdiff.exe cannot be used to preinstall sound cards and hardware devices. These devices must be installed after installation has been completed. To install devices during setup, the commands must be placed in the Cmdlines.txt file.

However, by using the runonce key in the registry, you may set up various Control Panel tools so that they will start after the first time a workstation has logged on so that the administrator may add sound cards and tape drives. You can also place the entries in the Cmdlines.txt file so that the desired Control Panel tools will start during the installation of Windows NT.

For detailed instructions on using the Runonce option, consult the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Deployment Guide, Chapter 5, and refer to the section on "Executing a Batch File on First Logon to Customize Windows NT." The Deployment Guide may be viewed from the following Web site: To have the Multimedia tool under Control Panel automatically start when logging on, place the following line in the runonce key:

NOTE: Multimedia is the value name, the data type is REG_SZ and the value is rundll32.exe and so on. The syntax is the same for each of the following lines.

To have the Multimedia tool start up when logging on, place the following line in the runonce key:

To have the SCSI tool start up when logging on, place the following line in the runonce key:

To have the Tape tool start up when logging on, place the following line in runonce:

To have the Server tool start up when logging on, place the following line in runonce:

To have the Services tool start up when logging on, place the following line in runonce:

To have the Devices tool start up when logging on, place the following line in runonce:

The above examples are not a complete list of all Control Panel tools that may be automatically started. Notice that SCSI and Tape share a common .cpl file, devapps.cpl, but have different ending parameters.

To test other .cpl files (including third party), you can copy and paste the Rundll32.exe segment from the above lines to the Start \ Run command line. For example, the following line will bring up the Add/Remove tool:

Changing the last number from one to two will open the Add/Remove tool with the Windows NT Setup tab selected.

To keep the unattended setup unattended, you can add these lines to a batch file or other script added to the runonce key, as well as a macro or other script.

For related information on this topic, please see the following Knowledge Base articles: For additional information on Windows NT 4.0 deployment/unattended installation, consult the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/ (http://support.microsoft.com/) and download the Windows NT 4.0 Deployment Guide from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750218.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750218.aspx) .