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Well I agree you can just use a proxy and beat all of the above, but when it comes to drivers...WTF are you doing man? Seriously what the hell? you are using a search engine to find fricking drivers?

Let your friendly neighborhood repairman Hairyfeet help you out there grasshopper, learn how us old greybeards get a system from blank drive to up and running with NO effort in less than an hour and a half, here we go.

1.- Go to Driverpacks and download the packs for any OSes you are gonna be installing, you can even put them all on a thumbdrive or DVD for ease of use.

2.- Go to WSUS Offline and download their update generator. Again simply check the boxes for what you want, they have XP-7, 32 and 64bit, you can even get all the MS Office and .NET patches while you are at it. I personally have every patch from 2K-Win 7 X64 on a shared drive, couldn't be easier to use and the nice thing is you'll never have to waste bandwidth downloading a patch or service pack twice, one time takes care of it

3.- Once you have the machine up and running, after you have run the driverpack and WSUS so you have it all patched and set up nice and neat go to Ninite to take care of most of your third party stuff, your flash and codecs and the like. Again just check the boxes for whatever you want and run it, couldn't be simpler.

4.-The final icing on the delicious cake is to go grab a copy of Comodo Time Machine and when its installed have it make a snapshot and lock it. That will give you your own "roll back to factory state" just like the big OEMs but with all the patches and drivers and third party softare installed. Then set it to make a snapshot daily and if your user bones anything, even if they make it unbootable, they can be back up and running in 15 minutes or less, easy peasy.

Well there you have it, 4 simple little steps that will take you from blank drive to running system hassle free. Your actual interaction time? less than 10 minutes since the majority of its completely automated so you only need to make the selection and go do something while it runs. But don't hunt for drivers on the net, that's just a waste of time and you are just as liable to get a trojan pretending to be a driver as not.

As far as driver go simply make your own disc with Windows Unattended CD Creator which will let you add Driverpacks which will cover just about ANY hardware you can come across. Of course even if you NLite the hell out of it with all those drivers you'll have to move up to DVD instead of CD. as for WGA it takes like 20 seconds to re-auth but if you don't want to waste the 20 seconds or are dealing with a machine that doesn't have net and you don't want to do the whole phone thing I'm sure I don't have to tell you there is a little thing called "WGA Killer" which i'm sure you can find easily.

Now that said I have to ask...why? Why would you want to do that? You can run Win 7 on any old P4 or better so unless your hardware is from the last century you shouldn't have a problem, even with older hardware its much better memory management makes the system actually pick up speed as you use it (thanks to intelligent caching and actually using free RAM for cache instead of bitchslapping the paging file like XP does) and with Readyboost any $2 2Gb flash drive can be used like a hybrid drive to speed up small random reads thus further speeding up the system.

If there wasn't something better out? THEN I could understand, in fact while everyone was struggling with XP RTM and SP1 I stayed with Win2K pro but when XP X64 came out I switched because it was the better OS even if you didn't have 4Gb of RAM because of the larger registers and being built on the excellent Win2K3 Server meant it was very stable and a solid system. I tried Vista but got bit by one too many bugs and went back to XP X64 but I switched to Win 7 when the beta came out and never looked back. The system I'm typing this on has been running it since RTM, that's 3 years and in that time I've replaced the CPU, GPU, RAM, board, and HDD and I had to re-auth exactly ONCE when I replaced the board and it took less than 15 seconds by Internet, completely painless.

So I look forward to your reply because i honestly can't see the appeal of running XP now. Win 7 is the first one since XP X64 where I can make a list of features and say "THOSE, those right there, make it the superior OS" and not just for consumers like Win 8 metro-fied, with win 7 you have so many features that are great for workstation users too. Default 2 pane explorer, jumplists and breadcrumbs make it insanely easy to get back to work, better memory management makes large applications run better, better video subsystem with hardware acceleration support means even beta GPU drivers can't crash the whole OS like they could on XP, its just a MUCH better system.

Actually I've found you lose money on Linux because its a fucking support nightmare from hell. How do you tell if that new device will work with Linux? you can't, any hardware lists are horribly out of date, its a total crap shoot. Hell try the Hairyfeet challenge, take ANY distro, your choice, from just 4 years ago (less than half the Windows support cycle) and update it to current using JUST the GUI as any normal user would be expected to do. Know what you'll get? A broken mess, that's what. In just the last 4 years you went from ALSO to Pukeaudio, KDE 3 and GNOME 2 to KDE 4 and GNOME Shell, and that's just the top layer stuff, the guts are even worse off, with all kinds of incompatible bullshit down in the networking guts especially. Any Windows machine I sell will continue to function for the life of the Windows install barring hardware failure, possibly even longer as I have a few customers that only recently retired their Win2K machines. Linux? Can't do it, the whole system from the kernel up is in a state of flux and shit breaks constantly.

Finally if you'd taken just 10 minutes of your time before install you'd never have had that problem with drivers as there is this place called DriverPacks where you can simply download a pack with ALL the drivers for damned near every piece of hardware, all compressed with a nice little GUI that will do the work for you. Just pick the OS you are planning on install or do as i did and download the packs for every Windows OS and you are good to go. Once done you can simply slap them on a DVD, put them on a flash, whatever, and run it once you get to the desktop and go make a sammich, it does ALL the work. Finish up with Ninite while you have your dessert and tada! From a blank drive to a fully loaded and ready to go Windows in about an hour, an hour and a half if you use WSUS Offline to install the windows updates which you have had it download previously. I keep it on a shared drive but you can use DVD, flash, whatever floats your boat. Again hassle free and an hour and a half and maybe 4 clicks total, couldn't be simpler.

Uhhh...that is where i got mine for my E-350 as well as the legacy Radeon (damn I can't think of the number, X200 maybe?) which was in the legacy section. And it also says right here on the AMD page graphics-notebook. But if you are truly having a hard time finding a driver feel free to list the make and model and i'll be happy to find them for you, or you can just go to Driverpacks and download the one that says "mobile' which has AMD, Intel, and Nvidia. i think it may have SiS as well, not sure.

you can build the XP iso with driverpacks http://driverpacks.net/. So most dirvers auto install and they you may still need a few drivers + the full ATI / Nvidia / intel drivers.

Also you can build XP with http://driverpacks.net/ and still be able to do repair installs. The big thing with drivers packs is adding the SATA / other controller drivers so the installer can see the HDD's.

you can build the XP iso with driverpacks http://driverpacks.net/. So most dirvers auto install and they you may still need a few drivers + the full ATI / Nvidia / intel drivers.

Also you can build XP with http://driverpacks.net/ and still be able to do repair installs. The big thing with drivers packs is adding the SATA / other controller drivers so the installer can see the HDD's.

What is condescending about showing the answer of "shitcan everything" isn't always the best answer? not only is it EXTREMELY wasteful and bad for the environment but in the end it still takes the same time since it the company specific apps, not the OS, that uses the most time?

And EXACTLY what "driver problem" are you speaking of? The one that can be easily solved by a simple driver pack on a USB drive that costs you maybe $20 (which you can bill the client for) and just like WSUS Offline takes only a few minutes every three months to update? How is that a problem?

Unless you have some seriously funky one off drivers like C&C controllers in which case the machine isn't gonna be just tossed anyway there IS no driver problem. A good 90%+ of the devices in Windows can run just fine with the default drivers included , and if you want the latest and greatest or run into that 10% the driverpack on a USB stick has that covered and is a hell of a lot faster than any CD at being read to boot.

And installing the business apps? I got news for you you are gonna have to do that anyway since Dell isn't gonna magically have all the software they use ANYWAY. So you are saving ZERO time by bringing in the new box.

Look don't get mad at me because I show filling the landfills with working hardware isn't a good solution either from the environment or from a cost perspective. All it takes is a tiny bit of thinking ahead just a little bit, that can be ran in the background while you're being paid to do something else, that makes ALL the difference and makes Windows installs incredibly simple.

But as I said if you fail to plan then you plan to fail, and I'd argue if installing a brand new box, possibly having to clean the bloatware, and installing all of their apps, takes you less time than a simple format and reinstall then something is wrong with your automation and you really should be looking into it. But hey, if it makes you happy to cost your customers more money on unneeded hardware while tossing working machines in the dump? Hey that is your business. I'm just pointing out from both a time and business standpoint it isn't needed 95% of the time.

Actually it is obvious you haven't used Windows in awhile, because thanks to unified driver arch they "just work" and have for quite awhile now, as long as you stay away from the bleeding edge beta stuff. And show me where exactly is Linux doing good in desktops? Can I pick up a Linux desktop in Walmart? Best Buy? Nope, hell they don't even sell Linux on netbooks anymore.

And if you think "growing by leaps and bounds" is a piddly 1% of the desktop, less than 30% of the servers and falling last I checked, and on smartphones that have been TiVo'd? Well then it doesn't matter what I say, because you are so far beyond drinking the koolaid you are actually mainlining the flavor crystals. the ONLY place Linux is getting any real "gains" is Android, which has about as much to do with a real Linux distro as my router does with Windows XP. One is a stripped down embedded device with major fragmentation, very little GPL compliance, and notice Android is STRICTLY based on GPL V2 code, aka "welcome to TiVo!", whereas the other is a full OS. Linux on the desktop? Practically DOA, the numbers have been pretty flat for quite awhile now. Linux on the server? As I said last numbers I saw had it falling and had it fourth behind Windows, various Unix, and IBM mainframe OS (sorry I can't remember the exact number name for that one) so I honestly don't see these "great leaps and bounds" but I'm sure you can provide citation for something other than Droid, yes?

And isn't it funny how if you say to a FOSSie anything other than "Gee, isn't Linux swell? It sure is Biff, and RMS smells like cotton candy!" they instantly start throwing words like troll and shill around? But I guess that is what I get for actually feeling sorry for someone whose philosophy is about to get them train fucked. Meanwhile I have this wonderful little driver tool I just update once a month or so on my flash and ALL hardware from pretty much the last ten years or so "just works" on every Windows for the past decade. Just put in the flash and hit run. And the graphic drivers in particular run just beautifully, time after time after time. So I really am sorry you're about to get fucked thanks to on chip protected path, but since MSFT signed the NDA we Windows users just don't have to worry about such things.

DriverPacks are your friend here. Of course if you slipstream 2 GB of drivers into a Windows install CD then you'll want a DVD drive in the machine.

Then you are doing it wrong I'm afraid. Use the combo of XP ISO Builder and RyanVM and you are looking at maaaybe 20-30 minutes, and that is if you want the full customized unattended install with everything from the desktop to services preconfigured.

For XP X64, Vista, and Windows 7 I've found having WSUS Offline makes it trivial to bring a machine from fresh install to fully patched. It will even integrate service packs if you so choose, but I prefer to simply have a disc with the latest service pack slipstreamed so WSUS Offline can fit all the X86 on a single DVD and all the x64 on a second single DVD. That way I just require 2 DVD to update ANY Windows OS from Win2K- Windows 7 X64. Just burn a new Driverpack disc every couple of months and that will cover a good 90% of the hardware out there, more if you go to the forums and pick up the third party packs like TV cards and funky drivers for things like Bluetooth.

Finally for software your old friend Ninte has that covered, with more than 90 of the most common apps in x86 and x64 with NO toolbars or other crap to worry about, and you can even suggest your favorite apps and they will check them out and often add them. I personally like Klite Codec pack because of its hardware acceleration, so I suggested it and voila! There it is. And the apps are constantly being updated to the latest version, all unattended and ready to go. Finish it off with Filehippo Update Checker so the user doesn't have to worry about keeping up when the latest version of an app has been released. And all is gravy. Time? Maybe an hour and a half on a slower P4, less than an hour on most modern systems.

So now instead of all the BS I simply run WSUS offline once a month after Patch Tuesday, burn the two DVDs (x86 and x64) it automatically produces for me which also has all the Office patches included, and check driverpacks Base app once every month or so to make sure I have the latest X86 and X64 drivers. my actual time for doing so is maybe 5 minutes, since I can simply launch the apps and let them do the work. So if it is really taking you a half a day then you are simply taking the long way about it. So please enjoy these free tools and not have to deal with the long wait again!

but the driver situation usually sucks.

http://driverpacks.net/docs/miscellaneous-guides/driverpacks-base-bartpe-guide

Not so much anymore.

Nlite is nice, but a number of drivers have odd issues that require weird hacks when slipstreaming. I always use the mass storage pack from http://driverpacks.net/ after I use nlite but before I create the iso. I have yet to find a system it didn't support, and it keeps from wasting a lot of time and effort when you can reuse the same cd over hundreds of different controllerrs.

DriverPacks are your friend: http://driverpacks.net/

They have a very nice tool that slipstreams (among others) mass storage and network drivers into Windows installation media. I've used it for XP and 2003 and have found that DriverPacked install media will pretty much find your storage controller even on recent machines.

DriverPacks is your friend for this: http://driverpacks.net/

They have a nice automated tool that merges "driverpacks" they assemble and a volume or oem licensed installer disc you supply into a nice DVD image that contains most network and mass-storage drivers. There are some gotchas if you want to be able to do "repair installs" from such discs but reading their forums has the answer for fixing that. I believe you omit the "winnt.sif" or some such from the image. They assume you are producing a disc for unattended installs and you can either have the ability to do a repair install or an unattended install but not both on the same media.

I used unattended on a FreeBSD box at one of my old jobs, since we had like five or so different models of computers. It works sort of like RIS, except it's easier to extend the system since it's all written in Perl and it's all open source. We dumped the contents of an XP disc on the server, then slipstreamed driver packs into the disc directory structure; this catches almost everything but the most obscure hardware out there. Unattended allowed us to run post-install scripts, so we threw in a bunch of other software packages that would install after the OS was done installing, like Office 2007, Adobe suite, etc.

This was substantially better than a disk image; we took care of all of the drivers in one fell swoop, so the only thing we used as a differentiator between computers was how the person used the computer (if it's a student lab computer, we loaded a bunch of stuff like Geometer's Sketchpad, InDesign, etc. If it was a faculty's laptop, we'd load software to operate stuff in the classroom.) We save space on the server, and we save time when it comes to putting together another "image" for a different use case.

But as others said above, I wouldn't virtualize the workstation, even if it eases up on the IT dept. a little bit; just be smart about what deployment method you use. I wouldn't recommend using unattended if you had only about three different models; it's likely substantially easier to just use CloneZilla.

Oh, and use a centralized software deployment system such as WPKG. Your disk images will go stale after a while, in which case you'll have to make sure that you can manage the packages installed on clients somehow.

http://driverpacks.net/

Uuuhhhhh....You Do know nobody actually does that,right? They just take it to a guy like me who uses something like driverpack and then uses something like Almeza to install the programs. Makes my job real easy and the customers are happy. I actually use a driver disc on DVD, but the guy puts out updates often on Rapidshare and since I haven't downloaded the last .rar for the latest I'd rather it not be Slashdotted.

And I know the Linux guys will hate me for saying this, but you really want to know why Linux didn't gain squat even with a super turkey like Vista as competition? Because of the trinity of shopping-Best Buy, Staples, Walmart. You see almost nothing you buy in those three stores actually works in Linux. The few things that do will require major research to make sure that you don't get the "wrong" model, and from nearly 15 years in the PC biz I can tell you folks don't research anything that costs less than a car. And no matter how popular online shopping is to us geeks, ordinary folks like walking into those stores and going "Oooh...Sale!" and putting stuff in their cart. And the odds are when they get that stuff home it won't work in Linux.

Which makes sense, actually. Linus can talk about desktops ALL he wants, but as in anything all you have to do is follow the money to see that talk of desktops is bullshit. Red Hat, IBM, Oracle, all the companies that spend major bucks on development and support for Linux spend it on server not on desktop. That is why things in the server market "just work" in Linux. By contrast unless you can write your own drivers a lot of times with the consumer level stuff in Linux just "don't work". And please let go of that "It's not our fault, they won't write drivers for us" because that is also bullshit. It is COMPLETELY your fault, because there is no stable ABI and writing a binary driver for Linux and having it work long term is like trying to hit a dartboard with a bumblebee. And give it up the vast majority of companies will NEVER release their specs and code under GPL, okay? Not going to happen.

So if you want to know why MSFT can release a pile of poo and Apple can "fart in your general direction" while having crazy prices and Linux can't catch a break, that's why. The stuff consumers want to buy won't work without research they'll never do. This makes returns 400-600% higher when selling a Linux machines over Windows, which makes Linux a more expensive proposition from a retail standpoint than Windows. Sorry, that is the truth and that is just the way things are.

Yes Linux works IF, and here is the really fucking big IF, you do research on every single fricking purchase from now until the end of the PCs life. That just cut out a good 95% of the population, including all of my customers. I said customers because yes, I build, repair and sell Windows PCs for a living, so yes I have installed more XP copies than you have had hot meals.

As for installing drivers? It takes about 20 minutes. How? by either using the Windows driver from Universal 2K/XP Driver DVD or Driverpacks. I personally prefer the driver pack from driverpacks.net because it is updates a little more often, but the first one has some of the more obscure drivers included, so it is nice to have both. And in case you haven't tried it lately Windows update actually includes most of the drivers for even slightly popular hardware, so often I don't even need the disc. Hoe much easier do you want?

Have you ever tried selling Linux boxes to REAL folks? I mean average Joes, not geeks with IT experience. I have, and I was looking at 600% return rates. I shouldn't have been surprised as MSI was looking at 400%. That kind of return rate will bankrupt me and therefor I won't be selling anymore Linux machines for at least 2 years. And before the Linux fanboys start modding me to hell or saying "get out of 1998 with your FUD" the last time was right after Ubuntu 9.04 came out.

Now lets have some REAL "get the facts" FACT-Support in Linux for consumer level hardware sucks. I'm sorry but it does and there is a REASON for that, and it ain't a MSFT conspiracy. It is because Linux is currently divided into two factions, and has been since Linux and RMS started snarking at each other. On the one hand you have Linus and the useability camp, and on the other RMS and "everything must be free!" hardcore believers that treat Linux as a religion and not just an OS. BTW, if you want to look it up(too fucking tired ATM) RMS uses a Loongson ARM Netbook because he refused to use a PC without even the BIOS being "free"! And unfortunately there are enough "true believers" to make sure you NEVER get even 1/3rd the driver support for Windows.

You see, if I am a hardware manufacturer I can write just 4 Windows drivers and have every consumer OS covered from 1998-2014, with ZERO out of pocket after the drivers have been written: I just have my guys write a Win98/ME, a Win2K/XP32, a WinXP64/Vista 64, and a WinVista32/Win732. Because Win7 can use WinVista drivers I have just covered every Windows users for 14 years with no more out of pocket. I simply can't do that on Linux? Why? Because the RMS believers will NEVER allow you to have a stable ABI in Linux, that's why. Because if there was a stable ABI Linux could actually have working binary drivers from all those companies that now refuse to support Linux, and frankly will continue to refuse to support Linux as long as you demand full hardware specs and code. Sorry, if the choice is opening our hardware and code and risking a patent troll lawsuit or not supporting Linux? Well then Linux don't get supported, just as it isn't now.

Finally for proof why Linux can't be sold to home consumers, I offer the "hairyfeet challenge" where I will prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that despite its flaws Windows beats Linux for home consumers and non IT types. Ready? From this moment on you are my consumer, who has just bought a Kubuntu box from me. You must NOT do research before you go shopping, because home users don't research anything than is less expensive than a car. Ready? Open three browser tabs. You are now three consumers who just bought Kubuntu. Now go to Walmart.com, Bestbuy.com, and Staples.com. Those are the big three for PC gadgets. Now buy these three items by putting them into your cart, which are the items that are most requested

Most of that is drivers for your precious hardware.

Citation:

http://driverpacks.net/

(While they are Windows drivers, the sheer number of drivers there are should give evidence to how much space it would take)

You can slipstream the Windows XP drivers for everything into a CD so you don't have to install any of them, check out http://driverpacks.net/.

That's where driverpacks and perhaps nlite projects come in handy.

If you need to slipstream Drivers, the Driver Packs are the easiest way to do it.

Also, if you slipstream SP1/2/3 into XP, make sure you build your image on an XP machine. If you build it on a Vista machine, you'll get disks that no longer BSOD but they will give you problems when you try to enter your XP license key. Vista will replace the PIDGEN files with VISTA ones so you can't use XP keys anymore. If you slipstream on an XP machine, it will work just fine though. Either that or manually copy the PIDGEN.DLL and DPCDLL.DL_ files from you SP3 install directory after slipstreaming on Vista.

Have you tried Z-tweaked, or maybe Guru3d? I have always had a better experience with their drivers than anything Nvidia puts out,and there drivers are hacked to let you run them on pretty much anything. And I know that one of them does put out mobile drivers because I accidently downloaded them once when I was in a hurry. Finally there is Driverpacks which will let you make a full WinXP DVD with every driver for both desktop and mobile preinstalled. I have an unattended version for repairs and it works beautifully. I hope this helps,and as a PC repairman I can sympathize. Trying to find that one missing driver can be a royal PITA.

so you can have a windows XP disk with the drivers and you will not need a floppy disk.
http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/

Yes it is possible with BartPE but it is quite difficult when compared to how simple it is with Vista installations. BartPE would load the correct boot drivers which is what I was referring to.

For drivers at install time on XP, you can use Driver Packs. It's pretty much dead simple, and has the advantage of being able to support drivers not made when the original OS distribution came out. Vista (or any other OS) doesn't automatically support new hardware...you have to have drivers, and if they are critical for boot, you have to have them on the install disk.

Every OS should come with a utility like Driver Packs that allows even the most neophyte user to add drivers for new hardware to the install disk.

Actually you don't need MSFT to make it,you can make it yourself! Just go here and download the driver packs. Then use your favorite unattended cd maker(I personally prefer this one and follow the steps. This ISO builder is so simple anyone can do it. It also allows you to add extra drivers in addition to the driverpacks so you can add the latest for your hardware. When the ISO is created just burn to DVD and voila! A Windows XP DVD that has drivers for every piece of hardware you can throw at it! Enjoy!

"Still nice to see a new, effective way to change the Administrator password, could save me hours screwing with making a new BartPE with the right drivers."

Seems the Bashrat driverpacks can work with BartPE, tho I haven't tested this personally.

http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=2224&p=2

I use Windows Deployment Services (formerly Remote Installation Services/pre 2k3 sp2). Only Gotcha here is that you'll have to learn how to do Legacy Mode for XP.

DO NOT setup WDS in Native Mode.

I also slipstream with instructions found here:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

Along with Driver Packs http://driverpacks.net/

Build a CD image slipstreamed with Driver Pack, use this image to build a WDS legacy mode Installer. You'll have to figure out the answer file used by WDS, and the peculiar stuff WDS has, as well as extract from the CD the proper OEMPnPSetup Path created by Driver Packs, from the proper file.

And using AD to deploy MSI files to computers ...

It is a dream using this setup, F12 a couple of times (PXE boot) Type in Username/Password and walk away. When the computer is done loading/rebooting it is ready to use.

Implementation difficulty 8.5 (mostly due to MS WDS)

Usability difficulty 1
(Scale 1 easy, 10 difficult)

I don't use RISprep because I have had nothing but problems with it, but one of my colleagues swares by it for "lab" setups.

This is just an overview, and if you're halfway technical should be able to figure out the details from various online sources. If not, I can be hired to help further.

I will slipstream it and add the driver pack to my disks.

http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/

You should use the Driver Packs on your XP Disk
http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/

Slipstream. driverpacks.net

At work, we just mounted the iso with daemon tools and then mounted it over SMB for computers that didn't have DVD burners, otherwise, we burned the updated ISO image to a DVD. Much faster install too, being that DVDs have a faster read/write than CDs.

or just add them to the install disk
http://driverpacks.net/

Don't forget to also add the driver packs to your install disk

http://driverpacks.net/

you can also use RyanVM with it as well but then you likely will need a DVD as it will be to big for a cd.

the DriverPacks is a good thing to add to your windows cd
http://driverpacks.net/

Windows supports a pathetic amount of hardware. However, most hardware does support Windows through some awful drivers provided by the manufacturer. However, that's not available at install time unless you either manually integrate new drivers into the cd or use DriverPacks.

I've a similar problem with Dell laptops. At work we bought a dozen of them, all of which came preloaded with XP Pro. I ran my unattended+wpkg scripts on them like normal to install the apps and everything seemed fine. Then the boss needed to do a presentation. The Dell display driver wouldn't do a clone display. The official nVidia driver did. I tried installing the nVidia driver, but no matter what the Dell driver kept reinstalling itself. So for that I let my boss borrow my PowerBook to do the presentation.

In the end I had wipe the install, do a fresh install from a cd (actually, using unattended over the network with an oem cd copied to it), call Microsoft to beg for permission to install the software we paid for, and then install the oem drivers (actually, I hate the driver hunting situation in Windows so I use DriverPacks for clean installs). After that clone display worked properly.

What fun.

Finding drivers for Windows is often a PITA. However, if you're doing a clean install you should look into DriverPacks. This includes nearly every driver available for Windows XP. I use this with RyanVM Update Packs to integrate all updates, a patched uxtheme.dll, themes that aren't so Fisher Price, replace notepad with Notepad2, etc. Works great.

Ask and you shall receive!

http://www.driverpacks.net/

You can slipstream all sorts of mass storage drivers into this, as well as other drivers (graphics, network, sound, wlan, etc).

You can add the drivers to your xp disk
http://driverpacks.net/

For Win XP yes, that is, until they make a new installer for it, based on Vista's (been hearing about this lately), which they will do mainly to support the new deployment techniques replacing RIS. Vista doesn't need a floppy for drivers (the installer uses WinPE, and can load drivers from just about anything, including USB memory sticks). Meanwhile, you can integrate driver packs (including mass storage adapters) or just your own drivers on your XP install disc, and you won't have to provide a floppy anymore. It's not as hard as it may sound, and it only takes a few minutes to do. Go to MSFN if you need information on things like this, and lots more (unattended installs too, which save a lot of time)

Personally, I haven't had a floppy in any of my PCs for at least 5 years. For the odd time I needed a win98 boot floppy or such, then I have floppy images on several bootable DVDs (there's lots of them out there if you're too lazy to do it yourself or don't know how).

However, I still have an old floppy drive (and a trusty LS120) somewhere on a shelf, for the odd time it might come in handy (rescue data, reflash a BIOS from dos - although I prefer to do that from a hard disk as floppies are unreliable, and things like that).

http://www.driverpacks.net/

If you doing that you should also add the drivers to the install disk
http://www.driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/index.php/D riverPacks/

You can even add the drivers to your xp disk
http://www.driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/index.php/D riverPacks/

http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/ does the same thing
also use http://www.driverpacks.net/ to add drivers

as for running mac osx on any hardware They can at lest try to make it work on comman chips sets like chips sets like nvidia, intel, and ati same thing for video cards.
Hard drives don't need divers just the controllers and those are part of the chips sets now days.

As for XP not comeing with SATA drivers out of the box it is that it is about 5 years old but you can add drivers to your windows install cd http://driverpacks.net/
Dell and others do the same type of thing.

People are using a 32bit os on 64bit hardware because of windows xp 64bit compatibility issues with some drivers mainly with printers and other externals devices and there is no home windows xp 64 bit.

Ok some tools I use to make my life easier (all free):

• nlite (creates unattended installs, needs dotnet) slipstreams automatically service packs and hotfixes and allows other unattended options (more then MS tools). w2k and higher only. http://www.nliteos.com/
• autopatcher contains all the hotfixes, tweaks and third party extras like dotnet 1,2, flash, shockwave, java. http://www.autopatcher.com/ **
• driverpacks contains all the winxp drivers in existence (I think) http://driverpacks.net/Projects/DriverPacks/
• RVM packs, contains hotfixes and some extras. And is compatible with nlite. http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/ **

Basic usage:

• Drop the contents of your winxp install CD onto your HD. Download the latest service pack.
• Start and Point nlite to both.
• Choose any option that you like but don't create an iso.
• It will automatically integrate the service pack.
• About integrating hotfixes see RVM packs, which is compatible with nlite. http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/ (also more info about appz integration)
• Again options, choose what fits you. (Talking about nlite)
• Save
• Now follow the driverpacks site instructions to add the drivers to your install CD/DVD.
• About integrating extra applications see: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/page/list /switch/ for general info look at its home site: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ and google for specific appz.
• After first boot run autopatcher latest version. (if needed, RVM packs if done well, don't need this step)
• Run your personal little script.
• Now you have a working winxp installation with all tools and most actual updates.
• Deploy!

The key feature for me with Unattended is the ability to integrate drivers into the I386 folder so they are available during install. This is what enables such a wide variety of chipsets to be supported from a single installation point.

Then check out: http://driverpacks.net/Projects/DriverPacks/ (if you are using winxp).

It integrates (read the manual for howto) into a winxp cd install and a sysprep install. (needs DVD CD because all drivers together are more then one gigabytes).

You can make a bartpe dvd with all the drivers installed to work on most hardware.
There is a DVD floating around on BT sites that have an updated winxp with all patches/drivers and some needed applications. But I recommend making one yourself for security reasons. (rootkit/etc)

Driver packs and Driverpacks.net
Ryan's windows xp updates
nlite to help modify a windows install.
Bart PE - bootable dvd/cd for windows install.