The Essential Website List !!

[ajbritton]

After posting my essential software list, it occured to me that, when it comes to fixing things, the Internet is probably the most useful resource that we have. Of course, finding the information that you need is always the trick. There are a few web sites that I can usually rely on, so here goes;

 

MSFN Unattended - EVERYTHING you need to know about unattended Windows XP installation. 5 stars

 

AppDeploy - Great resource for finding out how to do silent installs. Also some useful MSI info. 4 stars

 

InstallSite - Another execllent 'installation' site with good MSI and InstallShield info. 4 stars

 

NU2 - Home of Bart PE, Modular Boot Disk and Bart's way for creating bootable CDs. 4 stars

 

SysInternals - Home of the best system utilities. 4 stars

 

MCSE World - Home of Daniel Petri. Sound information. 4 stars

 

Labmice - Tips and advice on most MS gear. 3 stars

 

Annoyances - Lot's of useful tips here. 3 stars

 

Win32 Scripting - Good searchable collection of scripts in many languages. 3 stars

 

The following sites are perhaps not 'essential' but VERY interesting, especially to those who might like to go their own way rather than be railroaded by Microsoft.

 

Unattended - It's not RIS, it's not GHOST, it's the 3rd way. I HAVE NOT used the system presented on this site, but there is a wealth of installation/deployment expertise on display here.

 

ANI - Automated Network Installation. Just found this one and it looks very interesting. Trigger remote rebuilds!!

 

ROM-O-MATIC - Creates custom network boot ROMS/disks. In theory (I think), a disk from this site could be used to do a PXE boot on a non-PXE NIC. Never got it to quite work myself tho...

[MkII]

Great idea ajb! ...and a great list of sites! - wish you'd wiki it tho'

[ajbritton]

I'm afraid I'm a WiKi virgin !!

[russdev]

then go and lose it.....

 

There is a playground here

http://www.russdev.com/edugeek/doku.php?id=wiki:playground

 

go edit to yout hearts content and then add it to the wiki come on go lose it right now

 

Russ

[ajbritton]

I'm tired and breathless, but my cherry is popped

 

Essential Software List (wikid)

[russdev]

lol

 

i could ask what good for you but then i suspect we are lower toner even more...

 

Russ

[MkII]

LOL!

 

U the man ajb

[tarquel]

[sticky'd]

 

Nice one ajbritton

 

Good to see another msfn user on here [aka it_ybd = me]

 

Alot of sites familar to me on your list - been peeking at my favourites list?

 

Cheers

N.

[ajbritton]

Don't worry Tarquel, the rest of your favourites are safe with me ;-)

[MkII]

Sheeshk - yeah! - don't let out all those very sad amiga links!!!

[ajbritton]

Added the following site

 

Unattended Windows WIKI - uAwiki

 

The pages on application installation switches looks good

[mac_shinobi]

what about http://www.computerperformance.co.uk ??

[tarquel]

[moved due to request from mod]

 

plus wiki'ed too anyhow lol

 

Regards

N.

[Oakie]

Nice list. One I find indispensible is Kelly's Korner. The site has lots of info for Windows XP, but I just use the registry tweaks collection from time to time on workgroup or standalone machines.

[starscream]

Aww man it's locked now! Was gonna add Darik's Boot and Nuke site. Invaluable when military wiping hard drives that are leaving your school. I don't know if it's features are available on a rescue linux CD or something though.

[Halfmad]

http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/

 

Nice collection of silent installers and a decent forum with more info on making your own etc.

[ajbritton]

I've been a fan of 'Gizmo' Richards Support Alert newsletter for a while now since I discovered his 46-best ever freeware list. Each category is regularly reviewed and updated.

 

Gizmo has now converted the newsletter and his site into a wiki style site which is more accessible and is proving (so he says) very popular. Check it out...

 

The Best-ever Freeware Utilities List | Gizmo's Tech Support Alert

[mattx]

If its ok with you AJ, I would like to add some of these sites to the Admin's Admin bar - [ just finished sticking crapcleaner on it ] - will be uploading it tomorrow most probably...

[lavapearljam]

Thank you for the awesome sites.