Build Your Own Custom Xp 32 Bit

[Faizann20]

In this tutorial I will do my best to show you how to make your own custom xp. There of course is many different ways this can be done.
Here I will show you exactly how I build my custom xp versions. This tut will be for a 32 bit xp!

First you will need a base xp one with sp3 already integrated is better and one that has had no updates added a clean
xp sp3 is best to start with look for an msdn copy be sure its a clean source and prefered not to have the key already integrated
the key is not a big deal as you can override it with nlite when you do your unattended setup but I like my sources to be msdn and untouched

So first what needs to be done is for you to extract the iso of the base xp you have downloaded to a working folder on your hard drive
to do this just use your prefered iso program myself I like ultra iso open the cd in ultra iso (or other iso program/NLite) then extract to
the folder you have made for working on the build.

Once you have your build extracted to a working folder the first thing you will want to do is add your update pack to it, this is important
because you will be editing dll and cpl files for style purposes if you edit first then add your update pack some files will be replaced and you
will lose the work on them you did and have to edit again.

To add your update pack you will first of course need the update pack of your choice i prefer ryanvm update packs myself they are very
reliable and well tested there are different ones you can choose from off ryanvm's site so pick the pack that most suits your needs
myself I like ONEPeice's packs as they include IE 8 and WMP 11 all in one you can find the update packs here

Download Links:

http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=25&sid=fdf996c5212f7803c750e070a915ed1a

Now you can use the onepeice pack or if you prefer another then you can get the pack of your choice but if you want to include IE8 or
WMP 11 as well I suggest you also grab the separate addons for those 2 as well to integrate first before editing your build.

for separate addons of IE8 and WMP 11 you can find those here

IE8 -

Download Links:

http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5999

WMP 11 -

Download Links:

http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6442

Now after lots of testing I have found that it is best to add your update pack first by itself with nothing else to avoid any conflicts
so if you are using onepeices update pack then you would open nlite and select your working folder of the xp you extracted and proceed to use nlite
to add your update pack. If you are using another update pack with IE8 and WMP 11 separate then do the same integrate the update pack alone, I
also suggest integrating IE8 and WMP 11 each seperate as well.

so open up nlite and select your os folder, then hit next and go to the nlite options screen select the hotfix and addons button, then click next and select the update pack you would like to integrate.

then just follow nlite along and integrate the update pack this will take a few minutes, if you chose another update pack then after integrating
the pack, follow the same steps above and integrate IE8 and WMP 11 separate.

Now that you have your base xp updated with the update packs it's time to get to editing your xp files.

So go to your base xp folder and open up the i386 folder all the dll and cpl files you need will be inside that folder.

you will notice that all the files in the folder are compressed looking like this shell32.dl_ and we must extract the files from those
compressed files to edit them

to do this just rename the .dl_ to .cab and then use winrar to extract the dll or cpl file from the cab after you have extracted the file
make sure to delete the .cab file u renamed.

Now you have the extracted file you would like to edit there is many files you can edit in xp most would just be for updating icons
here I will give you a list of the more important files you will want to edit skipping a lot of the dll files that have to do with just icons
as most of those you will never see anyways here is the list

access.cpl - access icon only
admparse.dll - icons only
appmgr.dll - icons and a few bitmaps
appwiz.cpl - icons and bitmaps
cabview.dll - icons only
cmd.exe - icon only
comctl32.dll - icons only
comdlg32.dll - icons only
desk.cpl - bitmap and icons
devmgr.dll - icons and bitmaps
explorer.exe - icons, bitmaps and dialog properties
fontext.dll - icons only
hdwwiz.cpl - icons, avi
intl.cpl - icons, bitmaps, dialogs - region and languages properties
joy.cpl - icons, bitmap, dialog - game controlers properties
logonui.exe - file to change windows logon
main.cpl- icons, bitmaps, dialogs - mouse and pointers properties
mmsys.cpl- icons, bitmaps, dialogs - sound properties
msgina.dll - icons, bitmaps - logoff properties
mycomput.dll - icons
mydocs.dll - icons
netid.dll - icons, bitmaps, dialogs - computer name tab in system properties
netshell.dll - icons
newdev.dll - avi's, icons
ntkrnlmp.exe - boot screen
ntoskrnl.exe - boot screen
objsel.dll - icons
occache.dll - icons
photowiz.dll - icons, bitmaps
powercfg.cpl - icons, bitmaps, dialogs - power properties
printui.dll - icons, bitmaps
progman.exe - icons
remotepg.dll - icons, bitmaps dialogs - remote tab system properties
shell32.dll - icons, bitmaps, dialogs, avi's - windows main file
shimgvw.dll - icons, avi's, bitmaps
sndrec32.exe - icons
sndvol32.exe - icons, bitmaps - volume properties
srrstr.dll - icons, bitmaps, dialogs - system restore tab system properties
stobject.dll - icons
sysdm.cpl - bitmaps, icons, dialogs - system properties
taskmgr.exe - bitmaps, icons, dialogs
themeui.dll - bitmaps, icons, dialogs - display properties
timedate.cpl - bitmaps, icons, dialogs - time and date properties
user32.dll - icons, default cursors
winbrand.dll - bitmaps
WINNTBBa.DLL - windows install screen
WINNTBBU.DLL - windows install screen
wuaucpl.cpl - icons, bitmaps, dialogs - automatic updates tab in system properties
xpsp2res.dll - icons, bitmaps, dialogs

I have listed beside each one the items what you will want to change in each dll or cpl file and what the files are in windows

To edit these files you will need a resource hacker program myself I prefer restorator it is by far the easiest to use as to change items
all you have to do is drag and drop.

You will have to add resources in a lot of files such as bitmaps and make sure to change the dialog properties
in the cpl or dll file to show the bitmaps because even if you add them unless you adjust the correct dialogs they will not show.

The best way to do this is to have a build of the way you would like yours to look, then extract these dll and cpl files I have listed above
open 2 copies of restorator have them side by side open the already edited dll or cpl file in one and your unedited dll file in the other
you can then just drag and drop the dialogs to your unedited dll or cpl see the bitmaps and add any using restorator, to add resources
go to the top menu of restorator under the resources tab and select add resource.

Any resource additions you have to add make sure to number them the same as in the already edited dll or cpl file, also if you are planning on making your own pictures make sure you look at the bottom of restorator at the size of the bitmap and make your picture the same size.

After you edit your dll files and cpl files you will need to recompress them for the xp cd/dvd, to do this you would right click on the i386 folder and select from the right click menu command prompt, in the command prompt window you will need to type makecab then a space then the name of your dll or cpl file and hit enter so it looks like this

makecab shell32.dll

After you recompress the file make sure to delete the uncompressed file from the i386 folder.

If you do not have a command prompt option in your right click menu on a folder you can add it by doing this

Manually add command prompt to the context menu

1. In explorer, open Tools, Folder Options.
2. Select the File Types tab.
3. Go to NONE / Folder.
4. Press Advanced button.
5. Select New
6. In the action block type "Command Prompt" without the quotes.
7. In the app block type "cmd.exe" without the quotes.
8. Save and exit Folder Options.

Some people would say to use premade files you can download from different places on the web I avoid doing this because they are not all made from the same xp source some ppl may have xp pro some may have xp home and so on, some are for xp sp2 some for xp sp3, some ppl have these updates installed and some don't have the updates installed. You run into problems with not having the same file version and so forth if they are not the same then your xp will not install or boot so to avoid this I edit all my files manually.


When you are finished editing your files it's time now to add any other addons, tweaks, remove components, unattended setup and add drivers
the adding of drivers we will do last drivers should always be the last step when you make a custom os because if you edit after you have added the driverpacks you could end up breaking the driverpacks.

So now you would open up nlite again, open your working folder of your os, then on the nlite options screen you will click hotfixs and addons, components, unattended, options and the tweaks buttons.

Now any other addons that you would like to add you do first there are many to choose from. I don't add too many myself normally I put
as much on wpi as possible this way it gives the user the choice of what they would like to install. There are normal ones that everyone uses
you can add by default, directx, flash and shockwave players, net frameworks, java usually I just add directx and have everything else on wpi
but you can search around for what you like you will find good selections of addons at the ryanvm site or winaddons do not ask any questions on ryanvm related to anything not legal. Ryanvm is a 100% legal site and you will be banned quickly for asking and questions on those subjects. I will post a couple of pages here for you

Download Links:

http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6994
http://www.winaddons.com/

Now with the components button to remove parts of windows this is also
up to you what you would like to remove or keep, normally for myself

I just remove defragmenter cause i always include better ones than the
normal windows one. Remote registry this will keep your computer

safer as malware, viruses and such use remote connections a lot if you
ever get infected and it helps to prevent anyone connecting to your
computer via remote making any changes to your registry. Windows tour I
remove because who needs the tour I think we all know how to use windows
no need for the tour lol. I also remove Imapi CD burning (built in
windows cd burning) as most have other programs they will use for
burning cd's or dvd's.



Always be careful what you remove as well as even though you think it's
something you don't need a lot of times it will be required by other
apps and you will

end up getting errors trying to use things. Like the built in windows
messenger is better to disable rather than remove you will find

that you will end up getting msn messenger problemsand some other errors
in oulook and so forth if the built in messenger is removed. Or like
myself I never use

windows media player as there are much better media players out there I
removed this once as a test and I was getting lots of issues

with other apps you would not think have anything to do with windows
media player but they do. So its better off a lot of times to just

disable things rather than remove them from the os.



Now nlite will move to the unattended section here is where we set the
answer file for windows install so it does everything on its own, this

way you do not have to enter any info during install





On the general tab under unattended mode I will have it as fully automatied

IN the product key boxes enter your windows product key

I will put checks in turn off firewall, skip oobe and turn off hibernate

System Restore service I will disable

These choices are of course up to you in the end this is the way I do a setup



Under The users tab

In personal add full name and description

In the autologon box change to administrator

Password put the check in blank password



Owner and ID tab

Add computer name, workgroup, fullname and org



On the regional tab add language you want default and timezone



On the desktop themes tab

Add in the default theme you want to use make sure you have the theme
saved in your c drive windows folder, resources folder, themes folder

navigate into there and select your theme

Also make sure on the right u change the default theme box to your default theme msstyle



Next under the options button on nlite

Here you will set your tcp/ip patch, enable 3rd party themes patch so
you can use any theme you want and disable sfc windows file protection
you want this disabled so that windows will not replace your edited
files with windows original files.



Now tweaks button on nlite

first off click the show advanced in the top right corner so you can see all tweaks

now this is all up to user preference here there are many different sections I will post here a list of some tweaks I would add

but you can choose what you want this is under the general tab



[Tweaks]

Boot and Shutdown-Show Administrator on the Welcome Screen

Desktop-Internet Explorer icon-Hide

Desktop-My Computer icon-Hide

Desktop-My Documents icon-Hide

Desktop-My Network Places icon-Hide

Desktop-Recycle Bin icon-Show

Desktop-Wrap icon titles-Enable

Explorer-Add (un)register libraries in Context Menu

Explorer-Add 'Command Prompt' to folder context menu

Explorer-Associate additional file types with Notepad

Explorer-Change Windows Explorer folder view-Details

Explorer-Classic Control Panel

Explorer-Disable Prefix: Shortcut to

Explorer-Disable shortcut arrow

Explorer-Display the contents of system folders

Explorer-Launch folder windows in a separate process

Explorer-Show Drive Letters in front of Drive Names

Explorer-Show extensions of known file-types

Explorer-Show hidden files and folders

Explorer-Show protected operating system files

Internet Explorer-Disable Download Complete notification

Internet Explorer-Disable Market Place bookmark

Internet Explorer-Enable Google URL-Search

Internet Explorer-Keep IE URL-History for-20 Days (default)

Internet Explorer-Set Homepage-www.google.com

Internet Explorer-Set IE-Cache limit to-20 MB

My Computer-Add Administrative Tools

My Computer-Add Control Panel

My Computer-Add Folder Options

My Computer-Add Recycle Bin

My Computer-Remove Shared Documents

Network-Allow receiving Remote Assistance-Disable

Network-Disable administrative shares

Network-Disable restoring mapped network drives on logon

Network-Remote Desktop-Disable

Performance-Disable Optimize harddisk when idle

Performance-Disable Tracking of Broken Shortcut Links

Performance-Disable Warn on low disk space

Performance-Disable WBEM logging

Performance-Do not cache thumbnails

Performance-Processor scheduling-Programs

Privacy-Disable Error Reporting

Privacy-Disable File MRU-List

Privacy-Remove Alexa

Security-Always show Updates under Software

Security-Disable Antivirus notification

Security-Disable Firewall notification

Start Menu-Add Administrative Tools menu

Start Menu-Control Panel-Display as a menu

Start Menu-Disable and remove Documents list from the Start Menu

Start Menu-Remove Search For People from Search

Start Menu-Remove Search the Internet from Search

Start Menu-Remove Windows Catalog shortcut

Taskbar-Disable Group similar Taskbar buttons

Taskbar-Disable Hide inactive icons

Taskbar-Disable Language-Bar

Visual Effects-Active window tracking speed-Fast

Visual Effects-Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing-Disable

Visual Effects-Combo box animation-Disable

Visual Effects-Cursor shadow-Enable

Visual Effects-Display mouse pointer trails-Disable

Visual Effects-Fade out selection-Disable

Visual Effects-Gradient captions in windows-Enable

Visual Effects-Keyboard shortcut underline-Enable

Visual Effects-Menu animation-Disable

Visual Effects-Menu shadows-Enable

Visual Effects-Menu style-Normal

Visual Effects-Show translucent selection rectangle-Disable

Visual Effects-Show window contents while dragging-Disable

Visual Effects-Slide taskbar buttons-Disable

Visual Effects-Smooth edges of screen fonts-Clear Type

Visual Effects-Smooth-scroll list boxes-Enable

Visual Effects-Tooltip animation-Disable

Visual Effects-Use a background image for each folder type-Enable

Visual Effects-Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop-Enable

Windows Media Player-Accept Privacy Statement

Windows Media Player-Disable starting with Media Guide

Windows Media Player-Enhanced privacy settings

Windows Media Player-Optimize fullscreen mode behavior



Now under the services tab

This again is up to user choice what to disable or switch to manual you
will find a list of all windows services here on this site

showing you what is safe to disable or switch to manual you can read a


description of what each service is and what it does so you

can choose how you would like to set these.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

This will complete the nlite part except for the creation of the iso which you do after you have finished everything.



At this point you will now want to add drivers to your os, the best way

to do this on a 32 bit xp is to use driver packs from driverpacks.net

You can add all the driver packs you want and use their base to integrate the driver packs into your os.



The driver packs site is here

http://driverpacks.net/downloads

A tutorial on how to use driver packs base to add drivers to your os can be found here

http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1449

There are some other things you add to the os before you create the iso
with nlite this will be added to the root of your working folder



First open your working folder and create a new folder called $OEM$



Inside that folder create a folder called $



Anything you add in the $ folder will go to the root of your hard drive on install in the windows folder



Inside here you would make a folder called resources then inside that
you would make a folder called themes, your default theme you added

in nlite along with the msstyle folder you will need to add here along with any other themes you would like to add to your os.



You will also need to make another folder inside the $ folder called web
inside that folder you will make a folder called Wallpapers

In this folder you can add any wallpapers you would like in your os make
sure if your theme has a wallpaper that you add the wallpaper to this
folder



You can also make folders in the $ folder called Cursors, Media, fonts,
if your theme requires any special cursors or fonts or sounds make sure
you add those to these folders cursors in cursors folder, sounds in
media folder and fonts in the font folder.

You can also add any extra cursors, sounds or fonts you would like installed with the os in these folders.



You can use wpi to add any apps to your iso to be installed by users choice



Adding wpi to your os



This tutorial will teach your how to add windows post installer to a vista or xp custom operating system



First you will need to download the windows post installer you can get that from here

http://www.wpiw.net/The_Dark_Side/home.html

Get WPI tut on site:-

Have fun creating your own xp

Faizann20 Reviewed by Faizann20 on 15th Feb 2011. Build Your Own Custom Xp 32 Bit In this tutorial I will do my best to show you how to make your own custom xp. There of course is many different ways this can be done. Here I will show you exactly how I build my custom xp versions. This tut will be for a 32 bit xp! First you will need a base xp one with sp3 already integrated is better and one that has had no updates added a clean xp sp3 is best to start with look for an msdn copy be sure its a clean source and prefered not to have the key already integrated the key Rating: 5

[Netguy]

OMG ~! Gr8 Copy + Paste ! Gud Work FAIZ !

[ENC0DE]

I don't really use XP anymore, but i will definetly have a read later on

[Faizann20]

Yeah I copy pasted but thats a nice Tut.

I made my custom Xp in 2009 and that got huge hits! thats why posted here.

I know how to customize a window, if anyone has any problem, contact me

Thanks

[Chris2k]

As a custom xp dev, this tut is exact.........

[Faizann20]

Just Keep Enjoying it!

[thefboo]

would try it out..but will it slow down the pc or something like that?

[JGM]

I built my own custom XP a couple of years back now and it became very very popular I was very surprised just how popular it was.

JGM.