* As we were discussing the history of ssWPI I thought I'd post this again - this is from mid 2012 when LastOS.org was resurrected by the team: This is a document I had been working on to explain the existence of LastOS and the tools we have created: "I install windows every other week, I install my friends and families PC's, I spend hours updating drivers, windows and apps, I spend a whole day tweaking and getting it perfect, but still I forget some things and they contact me a few days later, there has to be a better way?", this is the thought I had before LastXP/OS existed. I knew it was time to do something about it, I didn't know what at that stage, BUT I had remembered that Windows 98 SE allowed it's setup to be semi scripted to pick the options I always pick. Quick format was never enabled in DOS or Windows 98 setup, that's when I first started tinkering with how to speed up my Windows 98 SE installs, the first thing I discovered is Ghost (the tool not the person) was able to take a empty image of the HDD and apply it to any HDD in 3 to 4 seconds (instead of waiting 15 - 20 minutes for my 20GB drive to format). ok what next, I have to sit here and watch windows install before I can do anything else??? Not on my watch, I updated the same CD with a menu (Which I had learned when windows 3.1 came out and I want the option to boot straight to windows). Finally I discovered I could automate windows install AND run a script prior to log on that would install all the apps, DirectX and Runtimes. The only thing I had to do after my install of my Win98 was to sort out the start menu, desktop icons and of cause the drivers. Then windows XP was released, it looked so nice back then, true colour icons, but I found all my dos games refused to run on XP, so I stayed on win 98 se for another year, until some games I wanted to play no longer worked on 98 se, not to mention the desktop crashes and BSOD you would get daily while using 98 se. So the jump to XP, we updated all our PC's and did everything manually, even after SP1 we still would install the PC manually, then hundreds of individual updates after SP1 would need to be installed, it got to the stage you would spend 8 hours getting your computer ready to use, even before you started installing games and apps. 2 weeks before SP2 went final I was installing my own PC and 1/2 way through the 8 hour run I got a BSOD and then the PC would no longer boot... I HAD HAD ENOUGH!!!, by now I had my own Dial Up Internet (2 300mb accounts actually and I had access to ISDN at the school where I worked). So I went on a search on how to Automate a Windows XP installation, after discovering winnt.sif I was finally able to automate my installation, I found my information at MSDN and a few days later I discovered nLite, the description was amazing - it could remove components, edit the winnt.sif and even integrate drivers - so I found the driverpacks. The last key to the puzzle was how to automate the apps, I found ryanvm and resource hacker. So now I had my automated, lite win xp with up to date drivers, runtimes and apps, modded theme and resources, so 3 weeks after I set out on my quest to automate my own PC install I was able to make my first disk, by now Win XP SP2 had gone final and 6 post SP2 updates were out, I took this knowledge and use nLite to SlipStream SP2 into my XP SP0 source, that is how I came up with the name "Slippery Disk", I then made v2 and v3. weeks past and I was spending all my free time making up my own SFX apps to use with RunOnce. Now I had the ultimate install disk, all the bugs were sorted and I was ready to burn it, as I expect this to be the end of my Journey I wrote in permanent marker, The LastXP. I had been using this disk to install PC's and I noticed now my time was spent sorting out start menu shortcuts and installing Microsoft Office 2003, this wouldn't do, so I looked in to .inf files, they took too long to make and one mistake in them and they would fail, my solution was to make a CleanUp.cmd, this was the beginning to how I created the Start Menu Structure (Kazz Menu now), at the end of the install I would have CleanUp.cmd run, because the Office 2003 install still took 40 minutes and not every person wanted it, I decided to just include it on the disk with a Install.cmd that automated it's install. By now I was up to LastXP v9, the last release I kept to myself. I had some local friends who I had shown LastXP v9 to and they had to have a copy. So I went home and produced a few copies of LastXP, but I numbered it v10, this is where I received feedback from them about some tweaks they knew of and some apps they wanted included. So no long after that and I had LastXP v11. They were happy with v11, so was I, a few weeks passed and many apps got updated, DirectX was updated all the addons at RyanVM were updated, I figured I'd update LastOS, as I was getting addons from RyanVM I discovered Hirens BootCD and I had started using Acronis Disk Image so I now needed a boot menu, I discovered Ez Boot CD. By now I was so impressed with LastXP v12 I decided to share it with the world, I uploaded my very First OS mod using eDonkey and posted a Link at ShareVirus. Within two weeks I had thousands of posts and a Userbase of over 500 people. The feedback I got from them was incredible, the biggest being "I don't want all the apps installed", they pointed me to all sorts of apps, tweaks, themes, addons and some people even asked if they could work with me on making the next version, that's how I met Kazz, he was a good tester/feedback provider and was also an Artist. LastXP v13 was made, it had far exceeded what anyone else had ever made. It Featured: Custom made theme/wallpaper/icons Autorun menu Boot menu WPI by (Mark Ritter (mritter) & Lawrenca) During install Games and tools menu T13 ssWPI installer method LastXP Settings Driver Pack Selector Pre Setup Options and Settings The list went on... From this release I met Soporific, up till then I'd never seen anyone else's OS mods EXCEPT Viking v7 (The OS mod with all sorts of hidden gems), Sop told me of Retestrak and that he was working on something called WinBorg that was based on BartOfTheBorg's work. Up till then all the LastXP stuff had been made by me and only included only if I thought it was worth it. I went on a pillage of OS mods, all the great things I found from other mods were included in LastXP v14, but I had discovered ssWPI had a fatal flaw, it used CleanUp.cmd to sort the menu, so if you wanted to install apps after the OS install the Start Menu was left a mess. I made all my SFX then include a Setups.CMD (Setup Silent), you can guess what that grew in to, SetupS was made in VB6. LastXP v14 had a few bugs so I quickly released a v14.1 (this became a pattern for LastXP v15 16 and 17, they all had little release bugs). Anyway LastXP v14 was at the stage I felt it was done, I wasn't gonna spend any more time on it, but Win XP had started to get viruses (they were everywhere), this meant I had to install many PC's a lot of times, I couldn't stand waiting for all the apps to be installed, some of the installer would take AGES. That's when I discovered many apps didn't need to even be installed, they could just be copied and a shortcut moved, some of the required Registry entries and/or AppData files to work, some needed .dll registered. Ok well they were portable, but they required extras, I named it Permanent Portable, meaning it was portable but only on a set location, that is how and why ppApps were made. LastXP v15 was mainly filled with ppApps instead of SetupS Apps, but ssWPI was able to list both for optional installs. Although LastXP v14 had a LivePE in it, I had made my own LivePE in LastXP v15, based on the work of Soporific. LastXP v16 through v22 (skipping 18 and 19 for any future sp2 releases) were update and bug fix releases with no new important changes apart from the release of SP3, XP had officially become boring to me, after 6 years and 20 Major Versions (hundreds of Minor versions and thousands of burnt DVD's), I was sick of XP, which was a good thing because Windows Vista was just coming out. This was a whole new ball game, luckily the creator of nLite was making a vLite, I managed to make LastV v1, this had no LivePE, no boot menu, just the OS with ssWPI/SetupS/Settings and many of the Tweaks from LastXP that still worked in Vista. I was not happy with LastV v1, it wasn't my fault but Vista was very buggy, as soon as they released some more updates and I had discovered vista had a LivePE by the creators of WinBuilder, I was under way on LastV v2. LastV v2 is how I discovered you could install the OS from a desktop shortcut, I spend time making the LivePE for recovery and backup and the OS was pretty much the same as v1 but with the fixes from MS. By this time Vista had got a SP1, so I released Prophecy, I still hated Vista, but used it everyday cause I knew whatever came next it would be based on how Vista did things. I was right. Prophecy was the first OS to have an automated Build script, LastV was always done manually. Windows 7, The best OS so far, by now LastOS.net (LastOS.org) had become home, I had decided to Make LastOS7, it was amazing how close to Vista the Win 7 tools were, the Builder script I had made for Prophecy almost worked directly with Windows 7, I released LastOS7 Builder with a single preset and a Script, all you had to provide was Win 7, Drivers and Updates, much like today's Builder. TheFreezerBox had taken over the work on SetupS by this Stage, he has been very active and not only added in the communities ideas and fixes, but put in many of his own ideas that turned out to be great. Ghost came along to make the Builder script even better, he had to cause it didn't work with his PC, he needed boot drivers added, after figuring this out he became addicted to LastOS modding like the rest of us. At this time I met CrabDancer, he was an ex C++ Programmer who was looking for an important hobby to get involved with (to make use of the skills he had to offer), He had talked to me about making a GUI for LastOS7 Building, I'd said not enough people would be using it, but I would REALLY like to have it myself, his first results were too complex and didn't take the years of LastOS concepts, so I decided to join the efforts to make the Builder GUI, the results were good, then he added the wim parsing (which I couldn't do myself), CrabDancer had to leave after this, life was in the way (as it gets from time to time). Luckily Ghost had acquired a taste for RealStudio too, meaning he was able to keep working on the Builder to make it as good as it is today, every idea I've had for the builder he's managed to create or even improve upon. At the time of LastOS7 v1 bphlpt had come to improve the way ssWPI did things, our app library was growing for ssWPI, but none of the optimizations were in place to handle a large collection. BP managed to design a Database solution that at first I didn't want in fear it would stop ssWPI non central approach from working, I had already used a local Database to store the Mega Game Packs, to speed up Launching the Launcher, but his idea was one I'd never considered, a Database in the parent of every folder with apps and the ability to refresh them as needed. After bphlpt's work on the Database's and other optimized code/bug fixes and features I wanted but could never get working (Multiple Shortcuts in Launcher mode etc) it was my turn again. I made ssWPI use an Online Database, this allowed ssWPI to be installed on any PC and be used to install apps straight off the Internet. Trouba has been around LastOS for a very long time, he has found many great additions to LastOS's and provides the community with up to date applications and graphics as his time and Internet permit. C0d3Z3r0 has been following LastOS for a long time now too, his job has always been to find the things we always miss, this not only included the simple things but some of the worst bugs LastOS tools/releases have had. At the middle of 2011 we all stopped working on everything, except Trouba and TheFreezerBox who continued to update things, by February 2012 I'd given up hope that LastOS would ever progress more than it had so out of a desperate act I deleted LastOS.org, I though I would end it all and move on with my life, but less than 3 days later and the Team had restored a backup and continued on their own :| - I was hoping that a new Team Leader would be born and LastOS would continue, but after another month of things plodding along I decided to start "poking the ants nest" as a way to get more response, I ended up alienating myself and pissing off all of the team, so after sulking for a few more months I noticed that still LastOS lived on, but it wasn't advancing as fast as I'd like, after 4 months of ignoring my friends and being miserable, I asked for forgiveness, they instantly forgave me (I was very surprised) and I asked if I could lead the team again. That brings us to 2012-05-15 the day we start again, we will build a better design and start off development with me as Team Leader. Our existing history will be for reference only with every idea we've ever had, reworked and concentrated on, our tools should be of professional quality now instead of the hacks we've been making do with since this story began. * I am thankful to all the team members who have helped build up LastOS in to what it is today, many of the people who have contributed along the way (not mentioned above) and to my wife who has kept me fed and happy while I've been designing and discovering what LastOS is *
I was working on my own project that was revolving around the use of winnt.sif and reading and experimenting with automating the install of winxp. Finding out how to add drivers for various hardware that was not included with the standard install. I was researching other methods like Windows Post Install (WPI) that used the internet explorer with self contained web pages that could run sctipts to install various apps. It also had a database of apps with the various silent switches. This led me to lastxp and i loved the idea and concepts that LiveFreeDead had created and i asked him if he need help with his projects. So my contribution was the help menus as i had skills in writing user manuals and later help.chm files that were included in some of the tools that gave details on how to use them along with pictures to help the user of the tools. I also wrote a manual on how to integrate drivers into LastXP which help some users with their issues. Then along came LastOS and i have been a great fan of it and helping out wherever i can.
