Microsoft KB Archive/277705

= PRB: Answer File (Unattend.txt) File Has a Limitation of 256 Characters for OEMPnPDriversPath =

Article ID: 277705

Article Last Modified on 12/15/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

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This article was previously published under Q277705



SYMPTOMS
The OEMPnPDriversPath entry in the Unattend.txt file is limited to 256 characters. If the line length is greater than 256 characters, not all of the information is placed in the registry and some devices may not have drivers installed automatically.



CAUSE
This error occurs because of a string length limitation that is associated with the text that is taken from the Unattend.txt answer file and added to the registry.



RESOLUTION
There is a supported workaround for the problem:  In the distribution share that is used to preinstall Microsoft Windows 2000, locate the Hivesft.inf file. This file can be modified to include additional driver locations for use by the unattended installation. Search for the following line in the Hivesft.inf file:

HKLM,&quot;SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion&quot;,&quot;DevicePath&quot;,0x00020002,&quot;%SystemRoot%\inf&quot;

This line can be modified with as many additional driver locations as you need, with each location separated by a semi-colon.

For example, to include potential driver path locations of

C:\Drv\Other;c:\Drv\Lan;c:\Drv\Keyb;c:\Drv\Vid;c:\Drv\Aud

modify the line to read as follows:

HKLM,&quot;SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion&quot;,&quot;DevicePath&quot;,0x00020002,&quot;%SystemRoot%\Inf;%SystemDrive%\Drv\Other;%SystemDrive%\Drv\Lan;%SystemDrive%\Drv\Keyb;%SystemDrive%\Drv\Vid;%SystemDrive%\Drv\Aud&quot;



For additional information about a hotfix for this problem, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

276278 OemPNPDriversPath Value Limited to 99 Characters in Winnt.exe



STATUS
This behavior is by design.

Additional query words: winnt.sif unattended installation kbsbk kbopk

Keywords: kbprb KB277705

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