Joe K

Well make sure you have plenty of ram if you're going to do much with graphics. Probably at least 1 gig 512 at the min. I did load XP on an old 450 pent II with 256 ram . It does run Integrator but slowly. That's about all I use it for and to access the net if I'm doing something on my other computer. It will burn a cd but I wouldn't expect any more. Joe

I also had freezes just scrolling through the folder SP2 was in. didn't matter if it was just the file or if I put it into it's own file folder. I found the Avast and it seems to work ok. I looked at Outpost firewall it looked like a lot of trouble to figure out. It was pretty aggrevating to figure out. I'd just partitioned my HD with Acronis so it did take me a while to get it sorted out. I had AVG give some false posatives in the copies of my XP disks too. Joe

I had some kind of conflict with AVG free and Zone Alarm free causing problems with mainly my download of SP2 for XP. The computer would freeze for 1-2 min. I switched Avast free and haven't had any trouble since. This happened on 2 different computers. Joe

I dumped the Norton antivirus because it became a such problem and resource hog. I just switched from AVG free to Avast after having a conflict with Zone Alarm. I was getting temporary freezes it turned out to be the XP SP2 file I had on the computer. I switched to Avast and no more problems. It happened on 2 computers. Joe

Try running 1 program at a time. Use Either Integrator or NLite to combine your Source cd SP2 and Ryan's Update pack. Then do tweaking with NLite or do it all with Nlite. Joe

You were right the files must have been compressed originally. I use the external HD for mainly backups. Thanks or the help Joe

Have you tried this site http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm This is where I get my Hosts file. I only had IE 7 for a short time and went back to 6 because of problems. It was pretty buggy as far as I was concerned. I didn't use it enough to notice if the Hosts file worked of not. Joe

When I installed my external hd it displayed the file names in blue so it was easy to keep track of which drive the folder was on. I did a clean install now all files are displayed in black text. Is there a setting to change this? I haven't found anything on it in my searches. Joe

One more thing I just remembered. After you make an entry to hosts make sure you dump cookies and temp files or ihe host won't block the site. Joe

It could. Go into Zonealarm Control Center click on firewall main tab and advanced and see if the hosts file is locked. If you have antispyware software it may lock it also. If you have some security suite as part of your antivirus it cold be there too. Just some places to look. Joe

Are you using Webroot Spysweeper by chance? It causes trouble with hosts files. Is the file locked somewhere as a read only file? Many programs allow locking Zonealarm and Spybot Search and Destroy. Joe

You might try changing the positions of the memory chips. Some computers are finicky about this. The largest size should be first. I put XP Home on an old 450 pent II with 256 ram. The original 2 64's chips and added a 128 while still on 98 and it worked fine. I did a quick check and the 256 chip may be the problem I think it can only handle 128 per slot. Go to Crucial http://www.crucial.com/ and use the memory selector to check. Joe

I suspect the price difference involves hidden taxes and tariffs. I know in Europe vat tax is added numerous times and each new level includes previous taxes. And it may reflect the extra cost of things like removing media player to pacify different countries. Joe

I found this site maybe it will help http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=607987 Joe

I'll be getting a new computer sometime this year. I was thinking about loading XP Pro on it also. I understand with dual boot the older system is susposed to be loaded first then the new system. Is there a a good way to do this when the newer system is preloaded without causing problems like this? Joe

If XP Full Retail is loaded on computer A what is involved in changing liscense to computer B? I understand it can only be installed on one computer at a time but is transferable. Is it necessary to call MS or is this done online? Joe

What are the main box makers using for restore medium with Vista? When I get a new computer I don't want to get stuck with some crumby hidden partition, one of the cobbled up discs like Dell used when they added hotfixes with or some one time burn your own disc. I've been thinking about checking out some of the local builders and see what they can come up with. Looking on Dell and Gateway sites it isn't easy info to find. Joe

Maybe this link will help. http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12 also go into run msconfig startup and uncheck unneeded programs. Joe

For the most part I agree with your advice on memory. For a really stripped down machine you can get buy with 256 mb. I loaded XP Home on an old 450 Pent II with 256 ram. It runs ok. I ran both Integrator and PowerPacker. I loaded a minimal version of Roxio and hooked up an external CD burner and it will burn a bootable disk. I tried this 4 different times and all 4 discs booted and I loaded one on virtual machine on my other computer. It is It takes about twice as long for Integrator and PowerPacker to run! I use this mainly as a spare. Doing something complicated like a registry edit it's nice to have the site up on one computer while you work on the other. I kept software to a min AVG Free, Zonealarm Free, Spybot and network software. You get spoiled with 2 computers.

I just saw this article http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/25/technolo...agewanted=print Looks like microsoft kind of fumbled again. I was so impressed with IE 7 that I went back to 6 because of software problems. I guess they can start the new year off by making lots of critical updates! Anybody else thing that the XP life cycle may get extended? A lot of businesses were slow to change ti it. Bill has been well known about being stingy to politicians. The incoming congress in general hates sucessfull big businesses making lots of money. Then there are all the greedy lawyers always willing to sue over anything they can dream up. Joe

I use Firefox most of the time but some sites still need IE. I'm not that impressed with IE 7.0 so far. Joe

I'm not sure if this is the right place or not. I've got XP Home SP2 and all critical updates. Since installing IE 7.0 I've noticed that temp internet files will not clean on exit. I can fix the problem by moving the temp file and it works until I sweep with Webroot Spysweeper 4.5. I've tried reinstalling both IE and Spysweeper but the problem still exists. Is there some registry fix for this. No response from Webroot on this problem. Thanks Joe

For a start download Powerpacker and open it up and look at the manual with it. I haven't tried 2 different systems on it but have done a disk that is attended or unattended. Siginet writes the code for Ryanvm Integrator to. he has another site http://siginet.ryanvm.net/forum/index.php . Look through the posts at the top on this section too. Joe

Check out PowerPacker XP http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=126 It's in the Member Contributed Projects section. I've used it to make a disk like you want. Post back if you have questions about using it. The instructions lag the program by a bit! Joe

I bought a copy of Microsoft OEM full version XP Home on Ebay and loaded on my elderly pentium II computer. I've seen all the posts about calling Microsoft to activate OEM. When I clicked on activate and filled in the info it activated online! When I did the critical updates IE 7 is now included in them all 63. When I activated I expected to get a prompt to call Microsoft. I didn't think IE 7 would be in critical updates until the nov release. I didn't activate immediately I loaded my security and network software first and experimented to make sure it worked first.