Customizing and Automating Installations

You can customize the [Display] section answer file to ensure that Setup automatically detects the display resolution on a portable computer. Specify the optimal settings (you must know what the valid settings are) for the keys listed in Table 5.14. If the settings that you specify are not valid, Setup finds the closest match to the selected settings, but they might not be optimal.

Table 5.14 Customizing Display Settings

Key in [Display]

Usage

BitsPerPel

Specifies the valid bits per pixel for the graphics device being installed. For example, a value of 8 (2 8 ) implies 256 colors; a value of 16 implies 65,536 colors.

Vrefresh

Specifies a valid refresh rate for the graphics device being installed.

Xresolution

Specifies a valid x resolution for the graphics device being installed.

Yresolution

Specifies a valid y resolution for the graphics device being installed.

To ensure the video mode is properly detected by Setup

  1. Check that the computer BIOS supports the set of Video ACPI extensions.

  2. Check that the drivers for the video cards and displays are included in the \$1\PnPdrvrs path.

  3. In the [Unattended] section of the answer file, set the OemPnPDriversPath key to the \$1\PnPdrvrs path.

  4. In the [Display] section of the answer file, set the optimal settings for your portable computer.

For the most up-to-date information about hardware devices with Windows 2000 Professional, see the Windows Driver and Hardware Development link on the Web Resources page at https://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/reskit/webresources .