OK, let me ask because it seems no easy solution is out there.

I work in an IT department supporting a large number of PC's and we are
about to upgrade about 1,000 of them. We have 4 RIS servers, a 2003 server
(mostly) environment and clients use various OS's like XP and 2k. All, of
course, under AD and RIS is integrated with AD for computer name, etc. Now,
I am packaging numerous apps with AdminStudio to port into SMS. I have about
a dozen systems that I am using to build and test these packages on. To
achieve the best practices regarding application deployment testing, a fresh
installation of the OS should be installed and the application deployed using
a fresh OS to ensure that each package is fully installed. So I am
constantly reloading each test box OS. I also like to work remotely from
home, and I am limited to one fresh install per system before I cannot use it
again without physically being in front of the box. Using RIS and booting
from the NIC limits me by having to press F12 each time I boot the system to
get into RIS. I have looked through a number of network boot disk stuff and
can't find one that satisfies being able to launch RIS without physically
being at the system to provide authentication for the network and selecting
which image to use, etc. I can't remote control a booting system from home
without a client being loaded on the host end, right?

My question is this - Is there a way to launch the RIS installation process
from say, a XP command prompt? I have yet to figure it out. The only
solution that I can come up with that is viable is using the ghost.exe
program from Ghost CE (with command line options) on a small DOS partition
that I can set to active from within XP and have it run via autoexec.bat and
restore a locally kept partition image automatically upon booting. I can't
install anything "extra" like TrueImage or other apps under Windows. I need
a completely bare-bones fresh install (except for the repackaging software).
Anyone have any thoughts or potential solutions please let me know.

Basically, how can I start a RIS installation via a command window in XP?


Thanks
UCG