Installing Windows with Recent Updates?

MoJo asks: "As a computer technician, I have to re-install Windows often. It takes three attempts to complete Windows Update (get latest update software, validate Windows, download updates). It seems like all this clicking could be scripted somehow, but I can find no-one who has found a way of reducing the whole painful affair to just one or two clicks." Is there a way to build a Windows installation CD that includes the most recent set of updates?

Comments

Are the systems identical?

[eta526]

If all the hardware is the same, use Norton Ghost to create an image of the hard drive. Store this on an external drive or a network share and use this image on every computer. I did this for UMR (University of Missouri - Rolla) for the computer labs (over 900 computers), and it's really easy to pull down the old image, apply the new updates, and create a new "clean" image that can then be distributed to all the other systems.

We used BartPE or a bootable DOS disk (if the DOS network drivers were available) to boot the computer onto something besides the hard drive in order to create or restore an image.

If the hardware's different, you have to use Sysprep, but I haven't messed with that.

Not just for servicepacks I might add

[toadlife]

Most of the pages you will get when you google "slipstreaming" will talk about slipstreaming service packs, but you can also slipstream individual hotfixes into windows installations. Also not that Microsoft makes avaiable for download ISO Images containing every windows critical and security update. If you really want to make a slimpstreamed install of Windows with every single hotfix possible, this will save you time searching and download the iduvidual updates.

Nlite

[October]

Nlite is a great tool designed exactly for this. I've used it for several installs, and have created a CD that will install XPSP2 with hotfixes and all my drivers, and none of the extra crap that gets installed by default. It starts up in my LCD's native res, includes all my critical apps (firefox, etc.) right on the CD, and is completely unattended.

RyanVM's update pack

[Mitchell Mebane]

As others have mentioned, it is fairly easy to slipstream SP2 into an XP CD. But if you want to integrate the more recent updates, there's really only one option. RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack does exactly what you want and works like a charm. There are even third-party addon packs which let you add other interesting things to your XP install CD.