PackBot > Best Practises and Recommendations

Recommendations for Virtual Machines Configurations

The following recommendations are optional, but failing to apply them may result in a limited functionality of certain features (especially silent / bulk repackaging):

1.Disable User Account Control.
When UAC is enabled, some tools may not work correctly due to lack of permissions, and the packages may not be able to run silently (user interaction is required).

2.Enable Auto-logon.
When auto-logon is enabled, the virtual machine boots the desktop directly without prompting a sign-in and without showing any Lock Screen. This is also important for bulk / silent mode, so that the user does not have to retype his password every time.

3.Review the Firewall Settings.
PackBot uses TCP / IP communication between guest machine and the host machine. Make sure that used ports are not blocked. By default, PackBot uses the port range 48654-48999 starting from lowest port numbers. The general rule is that your host machine must be visible from your VM guest so that PackBot can send the data back. If you are unable to ping your host machine from guest virtual system using host DNS name, then PackBot would also fail being unable to setup up a connection between two machines.

General Recommendations

•To get the fastest conversion possible, select RCP as the target format. By doing so, no post-processing is required and the queue of packages can be processed more efficiently. It is always possible to build the RCP to any format by either using a command line or the PackRecorder UI.

•Do not use reboots for packages that do not require them. A reboot can incur additional overhead, trigger Windows Update etc., and it also takes time to restart and boot the machine again.