Creating the Custom Operating System Install Image
Sony do not provide you with an installable operating system CD, so you need to obtain one somehow. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the operating system we will be using in this guide comes on two CDs. I don’t know whether it is possible to obtain these CDs from Sony, because I am a Microsoft Developer Network subscriber, and my subscription grants me access to all of Microsoft’s operating systems so I needed to look no further. It is possible to obtain the CDs from Internet sources like torrent sites. I don’t know whether doing so is legal or whether CDs obtained from such sources would work reliably, but my feeling would be that it is the product key you use for the installation that determines the legality of your installation, and you will be using the legitimate product key on the sticker at the back of your PC. Obtaining a working copy of the MCE 2005 CDs is beyond the scope of this guide and I will assume from this point on that you have legally obtained copies of these CDs.
Now that you have your two MCE 2005 CDs, you need to download and install a brilliant little free application called nLite. This utility allows you to take a copy of your Windows operating system CDs, make changes such as embedding drivers, hotfixes, product keys and settings, then burn the image back to a bootable CD or DVD. It can be downloaded here: http://www.nliteos.com. This guide was written using version 1.2.1 of nLite.
Note: Unless you have done it already, the nLite installer will make you download and install the .NET Framework 2.0. It will take you to the Microsoft URL to do this, and after you have installed the framework you will have to restart the nLite installer.