diff engine

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carlos
  • Start date Start date
C

Carlos

I just ran the diff engine between a used SP1 install and a clean SP2
install. While the conversion seemed to have worked and the SP1
install is now SP2, it also seems like if the SP1 install had
everything removed from it making it the exact same as the SP2
install, so any programs I installed on SP1 after deployment just
disappeared making it be as clean as the SP2 install. I could find
almost no trace of any programs installed prior to applying the diff.
Is this how it is supposed to work?
 
Carlos,

I suppose so.

You've got two entities: A (SP1 image+apps) and B (SP2 clean image).
You used the Image Diff tool to get the difference between both: D = B - A.
Now you are trying to apply the difference to the first image: A + D. You will obviously get B - the second image - as intended.

Sorry for such trivial explanation but I can't seem to see what else you might have expected.

Seriously, the image diff report file (you can explore it offline, it is just XML) should have items that are deleting your apps
records from the image - from files to registry entries.

You may want to install your apps on the SP2 image first and then do the diff.

If all you wanted was just to apply SP2 to the systems in field and not to clean apps, user data, etc., you'd use just SP2 installer
of XP or all the QFEs that were created for SP1 in pre-SP2 times (with Desktop QFE included in the image this may not be a big
deal).
 
Yes, this is how it works. In the idiff.xml file, you need to add the files
and custom registry keys you would like preserved when going from SP2 to
SP2.

In fact, the whole key to using the tools is configuring idiff.xml
correctly.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit
 
Yes, this is how it works. In the idiff.xml file, you need to add the files
and custom registry keys you would like preserved when going from SP2 to
SP2.

In fact, the whole key to using the tools is configuring idiff.xml
correctly.

Regards,

Sean Limingwww.sjjmicro.com/www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit
Click to expand...

Hmmm that sounds interesting, so in theory I could go over the whole
file and keep registry keys and files from the apps I installed!
interesting, I may give that a try.
Thanks
 
Carlos,

I suppose so.

You've got two entities: A (SP1 image+apps) and B (SP2 clean image).
You used the Image Diff tool to get the difference between both: D = B - A.
Now you are trying to apply the difference to the first image: A + D. You will obviously get B - the second image - as intended.

Sorry for such trivial explanation but I can't seem to see what else you might have expected.

Seriously, the image diff report file (you can explore it offline, it is just XML) should have items that are deleting your apps
records from the image - from files to registry entries.

You may want to install your apps on the SP2 image first and then do the diff.

If all you wanted was just to apply SP2 to the systems in field and not to clean apps, user data, etc., you'd use just SP2 installer
of XP or all the QFEs that were created for SP1 in pre-SP2 times (with Desktop QFE included in the image this may not be a big
deal).
Click to expand...

Well I imagined that microsoft had somehow figured out the
differences between two images when it came to their software only,
which was way too much to hope. I actually first thought the tool was
going to compare my two SLX configurations and make a patch that way
but when I saw what it was really doing I sort of figured it wasn't
going to work the way I had hoped.
I guess I don't know how everyone else uses XPE but this tools is
almost useless to me. We install a few things on XPE and they are
different per customer so it would take a long time to recreate the
same software on SP2 and then get the difference from an SP1 image,
and if we were able to do that then why not just use the new SP2 image
with the freshly installed software?
Ohhh well, it was worth a try.
Thanks,

--Carlos
 
Carlos,

I feel your pain.
Although I keep thinking that if you know what exactly components you need to update (upgrade) - in your case it is the OS itself
going from SP1 to SP2 - then you should only use that component installers (as real installer or not, depending on what deployment
tools you've got built in the image). Why mess around other stuff like user data, 3rd party apps and etc.? You only want to go to
SP2.

Perhaps going through all the QFEs (SP1 to SP2 QFEs) is a laborious process. Have you tried just running XP Pro SP2 installer on the
image? I wonder if it is going to fail or allow you to update the system.
 
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