Dwayne,
I agree that it would be time worth spent and probably the "right way"
of doing things but the problem seems to be finding the right
information in a timely manner. It's generally far quicker for me
build an image that is pretty much user setting-less and manually go in
and configure things.
It is indeed quicker if you do that with the same image once, maybe twice. But when you deploy the image hundred times (many
reasons: bug fixing, new feature requests, etc.) you are going to hate all the manual setups. This is getting worse if you have to
hand the image over to testers for QA testing and can expect a few more iterations for the image building.
For example: Is it possible to install a hardware device that is not
detected during boot time? Ex. Connect Tech Xtreme/104-4 where I have
to go and run the hardware detection wizard and select the Multiport
Serial adapter and then configure the IRQ setting to use? I also need
to configure the COM port settings afterwards for my modem and
configure the dial-up information and specific settings.
I never said it is easy to automate every possible setting. However, most of the settings (if not all) are just files and registry
entries.
So, as you pointed out, the problem would only be finding the right info and ways to integrate the settings in the image in a timely
manner.
With the right tools in hands (Regmon, Filemon, RegSnap, Dependecy Walker) you can do that much faster, though.
I've yet to find an XPe Bible that shows me the in/outs to building an
XPe image and teaches by example how to do things like the above. XP
Embedded Advanced by Sean Liming is an okay start, but I need the
little details that really make things work or don't work. I've gotten
pretty decent tips on how to fix problems that I've encountered in this
newsgroup or off the MS site but no "you should do it this way" or
"it's good practice to...".
I doubt you would be able to find such book. Remember it is more than 12000 components in the database. Each component has number of
reg.settings, files, resources, etc.
It would be impossible for anyone to cover everything in one book.
Only search engines can be helpful there (search on database, source, binaries, Internet search, etc.).
Although I must admit the MSDN search engine is awful and inconvenient.
Does anyone know of or would be interested in creating a web site that
contains this type of information? There's a wealth or knowledge in
the newsgroup that is here but sometimes hard to get to, or is
incomplete when a user says "I got it to work, thanks!" but doesn't
leave details on what they did to get it to work.
A while ago I thought that the XPe Tips is such website. I was wrong that time. To see a new tip one (not MS employee) has submitted
to that page he has to wait years.
Unfortunately, I can't be helpful in creating the website as I am too busy now with too many tasks. But if there is an easy and
convenient way to submit tips, I think many of us here would be happy to be compiling our answers in tip-like documents.
