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HOW TO: Force Windows File Protection to look to the local hard drive for the SP installation files |
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This article explains how to get Windows File Protection (WFP) to look for its source files on the local computer rather than removable media. This way, when Windows File Protection needs these files, it doesn't have to prompt the user for the original location.
Occasionally the installation of certain applications will cause Windows to prompt for the Latest Service Pack CDROM. The reason that this behaviour occurs, is because the installation has overwritten Windows system files with an older version. The process that tracks and flags these occurrences is called Windows File Protection.
What is Windows File Protection?
Windows File Protection monitors system files and their versions. If a system files is overwritten with an older version Windows File Protection replaces the replaced file with the original (newer) version. Unfortunately, not all files are stored in the WFP cache, and therefore require the original installation; which is why the CDROM is prompted for. If the SP was installed from a network location, and that network location can be accessed, this will not occur. The same goes for a local installation, i.e. the installation files were on the local disk.
How to resolve/ work around the CDROM prompt?
There are several ways to avoid being prompted for the Windows Service Pack installation CDROM during an installation. The continuous availability of the network location it was installed from being one. However, the best way is to keep a copy of the i386 installation folder on the local disk, and reference this location from the registry.
The following instructions tell how to do this.
Firstly, you need to extract the SP installation files to the hard drive. The extracted installation files are contained in one folder called i386. To extract the files, navigate to the location of the SP .exe and run the following command from a command prompt:
D:\Win2kSP4_EN -x
Choose a location for the extracted file, e.g. C:\
(Remember, the extracted files are in a folder called i386, so simply extracting to C: won't add lots of files to the root; it'll just add one folder).
Once the extraction is complete, the following value should be changed in the registry:
ServicePackInstallPath
This should be set to the parent folder of the i386 folder, not explicitly the i386 folder. For example, if we extracted to C:\ (full path of C:\i386) only C:\ would be referenced in the registry.
This can be found under the following key:
HKLM\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Setup
Document information
Author: Paul Williams
Written: 08-06-2004
Version: 2.0
Last updated: 07-08-2007
Last updated by: Paul Williams
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How-To 
