Installing the Novell Netware Client from scratch is a tedious process.  You will have to install the Novell Client, restart the computer and then login Workstation Only and configure the Novell Client, only to restart again in order for the settings to take effect so that you can log in.  This how-to document details how to create a custom Novell Client Installation with the Client settings preconfigured.  This eliminates the need to restart your computer twice, as well as eliminates the need to configure each and every setting manually for each and every computer.

Browse to the admin folder of the Novell Client install and double-click nciman.exe (Novel Client Install Manager.  NOTE:  You can only run the nciman.exe for the same version of Novell Client that is installed.  Meaning if you have 4.91SP2 installed, you cannot run the 4.90 version of nciman.exe on your computer.)

The following window will appear;

At this point there are two options.  If this is the first configuration of the Client you can select File – Import Registry.  This will import the settings from your workstation into the nciman utility.

From there you can configure the individual settings, the same as you would from the Novell Client Properties window.

The alternative is to go to File – Open File and to import a pre-existing configuration and import it into the nciman utility or to do it from scratch.

Once the pre-existing file is imported, you can configure the individual settings, the same as you would from the Novell Client Properties window.

When you have finished configuring the Customized Novell Client go to File – Save As and save the file in the root of your Novell Client Folder.

The easiest way to launch the customized Novell Client Installation is to use a transform file in conjunction with the acu.exe (Automatic Client Update).  The syntax for the installation can be found in the setup.bat file.

The setup.bat executes the Automatic Client Update with switches that direct the installer to use the transform file.

acu.exe /D:no /NSP /u:yorkoffice.inf

The switches for acu.exe are below;

Tags | Netware, Networking, Windows XP