Martin H

Sorry, but could someone please clarify, please... If having activated Windows, or using a Volume License(VL) version(RANT: and no, it's not called a VLK version!), and not having WGA Notifications installed, not having auto-updating enabled, and not using IE(alexa?)then does e.g. WinXP phone home still? If true, then i apologice for my ignorance, but i've just never heard that before(with the above in mind!). Thanks in advance.

Yes, if not removing drivers(hfcleanup), then "built-in" drivers(which are signed by msft), takes priority over non-whql drivers(which all added drivers are with this method; the INF edits breaks whql) even though the added drivers are newer... Windows setup ranks non-whql drivers with a lower rank than WHQL/msft provided ones(higher actually as lower is better...), even if the version/date is newer on the added ones... MSDN: How setup ranks drivers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa477008.aspx

I know about the WGA-N update, but saying that e.g. XP phones home upon boot is WRONG! A correct statement would be XP with WGA-N update phones home, or XP with all high-priority updates phones home...!

WRONG!

Just wanted to add a recommendation for the DOS/Windows/Linux freeware app: Partition Saving (savepart.exe - 379k) It can backup/restore completelly unattended with an answer-file, is small enough to fit on a boot-floopy, supports NTFS disks from DOS(an empty file needs to be made first), is on it's 11'th year of development and is still maintained... Finally i've found a freeware alternative to Norton Ghost 2003(DOS) i.e. unattended, fit on floppy and NTFS support from DOS. Also, Norton Ghost 2003 wants to mark all the partitions on the HDD on first run, which i don't really like... I preffer DOS-based imaging apps(with NTFS support) as they can fit on a single boot-floppy and boots much faster than BartPE/linux based solutions...

Nitpicking: In the description of cmdow, then it's not a DOS box which is hidden! Sorry...

Yes, UltimateDefrag is good, but if looking for an alternative, then the freeware MyDefrag(succesor of JkDefrag) is capable of doing nearly all the same things, e.g. optimize for the faster HDD area, defrag MFT and it even includes it's own scripting-language so as to allow the end-user to script just about anything he wants for the fileplacement operation... Personally, then i still just use JkDefrag, as i don't have use for the new functionality and like using cmd parameters instead of inlcuding all the scriptfiles etc. I preffer JkDefrag ower the built-in XP defragger, because JkDefrag is faster, automatic i.e. defrags all partitions and quits by default, does file-placement and can defrag big files etc.

Many ppl think that XP is just an eye-candied 2k and nothing else, and yes, i agree that there are a bunch of useless background services and eye-candly fluff, but if disabling all of that crap, then there actually also are some REAL performance improvements... http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx IMHO, then one of the most important is better multi-core support + support for more than 2 cores... The pre-fetching stuff though, i'm not a fan of personally and always disable as one of the first things... Anyway, my point is that if disabling all of that cruft, then IMHO you'll get a system atleast as fast as a 2k system, but with additional much better app/driver support additionally! As a final point, then i know that this is completelly subjective, but i've had my 2k system crach 2 times by reading a scratched backup disc, and not only crach(bsod), but also completelly borking the HDD partitions and not being able to detect them afterwards, whileass when doing the same on XP, then no bsod crash, and it just kept reading for an our or so(same drive and computer and updated drivers on both!)...

I don't know much about the visuals, but other than that, then for some: Improved performance of filesystem and registry handling. Improved performance of system calls. Improved multi-core support/supporting 2+ cores Faster startup, hibernate and resume. Driver rollback Cleartype

@jvidal Off-course i had read the KB-article before replying and also didn't use that update myself, but nevermind that, and i see you and Mim0 has come to a nice agreement @Mim0 Just wanted to add that i'm sorry for not having replyed to your request about my INI file(i posted about the filechecker's auto-update function didn't worked for me even when having UPDATECHECK=1 and DOWNLOAD=1 + wget.exe in HFSLIP folder). My computer crached and i'm about to set-up another one(luckilly i have all backed up), and i have now tried the most recent version and no problems found! You don't need to reply to this post, and i just wanted to say thanks for all your continued efforts! (and also for being one of the few which actually understands the terminology differences between an update and a hotfix! )

I strongly disagree with removing KB977377! An update-list is not a list of EVERYTHING which needs to be downloaded and integrated, but ONLY serves as a possibillity to the end-user of what's available to choose among. All security updates and advisories obviously belong to a Post-SP3 update list... In mimo's filechecker there's both ini-settings for disabling advisory-notifications and an exclude-list... Just my 2 cents...

Sorry Tom, I thought that we should only post if having a problem with the betas... Anyway, me to is succesfull, allthough I installed yesterday with rev.F and not the newest rev.G, but i'm using ENU so that shouldn't matter i believe... All is OK with XP-SP3-ENU, HFCLEANUP and all security updates and high-priority non-security updates for the standard XP-SP3 components(except MRT, WGA, Package Installer and Windows Update Engine). Thanks again for all your efforts, mate!

Latest cumulative TZ update is: WindowsXP-KB976098-v2-x86-ENU.exe. It's listed on mimo's XP-SP3 list as a non-security high-priority update to be placed in HF. If it still dosen't work for some other languages like the HFSLIP article states, then couldn't you please allow ENU versions in HF, instead of blocking it like previously...

IE is not just a browser, but also the MS HTML display engine which other components makes use of e.g. Windows Help and Windows Explorer(web-folders, typing URLs into address-bar) and other apps to display HTML, so i would say that IE patches would be sencible to apply, but not that it's needed to upgrade IE if not using IE(the browser)...

@Tom Shouldn't this be removed? I've just re-installed with latest TZ-update(ENU) in HF as per mimo's list and tzchange.exe/tzchange.dll/reg-edits is updated... Sorry for off-topic...

@mimo About filechecker: Here there's a problem with the updating... I've enabled updating + downloading and have wget.exe in HFSLIP dir. When running hfslipfc.cmd then i can see it states new version available(even though i'm using the latest i.e. 100206), and then when it tries to download the new one, then it comes up with an error about a missing url for wget.exe and shows the wget.exe help-output and then the normal check begins... About update-list: The High-Priority update: KB971737 is called Optional in it's notes section. Btw, to see which updates is High-Priority and Optional for the standard XP-SP3 components, then i would recommend checking out Xables list, which is very precise and very fast updated: http://xable.net/xp-sp3-update-pack-contents.html

Have you checked out HFCLEANUP? Here's a list of the driver-reducers in HFCLEANUP for XP: Driver_ATM.rdv Driver_DisplayAdapters.rdv Driver_DisplayAdaptersOldStyle.rdv Driver_IBM_PS2TrackPoint.rdv Driver_IBM_Thinkpad.rdv Driver_IBM_Thinkpad.rin Driver_ISDN.rdv Driver_LAN.rdv Driver_Logitech_Wingman.rdv Driver_MODEMS.rdv Driver_MODEMS.rin Driver_ModemsXP.rdv Driver_MSFT_Sidewinder.rdv Driver_Multifunctional.rdv Driver_PortableAudio.rdv Driver_Printers.rdv Driver_Scanners.rdv Driver_SonyJogDial.rdv Driver_SoundCard.rdv Driver_Tape.rdv Driver_ToshibaDVDCard.rdv Driver_Wireless.rdv With all the reducers in HFCLEANUP(not just drivers), you'll get an ISO of 130megs(with all critical updates slipstreamed directly into source)...

Unfortunetly the updates have different links for different langauges, and it's not possible to do: 'WindowsXP-xxxxxx-%lang%.exe', as the the links differ with more than just the languages part... I made one for Win2k but just with the ENU updates... Maybe ppl could contribute with the different languages-links to mimo for this to get implemented...

I myself prefer HFSLIP with it's HFCLEANUP feature. It's not GUI based, but you just unzip the HFCLEANUP archive into a folder and delete the unwanted reducer-files and then run HFSLIP. Unattended and no NET-dependency, that's how I like it

I think we're talking past eachother In IE.INF then 'DeletePartial' deletes files which 'FullInstall' copies over, but 'DeletePartial' dosen't delete the optional reg-entries which 'FullInstall' sets... I did redownload and the revision where set-2b, just like yesterday...

Some installer-types supports specifying the install-directory through a command-line parameter e.g. '/D' for Inno Setup and NSIS installers... Also FYI... winnt.sif: [Unattended] ProgramFilesDir="foo:\bar" Registry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion] "ProgramFilesDir"="foo:\\bar" I guess also temporarilly by adding 'set programfiles=foo:\bar' before the app-installs in a NT command script...

I'm back on WinXP/HFCLEANUP now... Yeah, i know i'm not good at making final decisions LOL, but now i'm changing over for good! Anyway, first post updated with a tip for making procmon work: Delete 'OSOptions_FileSystemFilterMgr.REM' (contains just 3 files and a inf...), as it needs filesystem-filters for doing the monitoring... Btw, i'm stumbed that there's not more interest here(in the forum, not just this thread) on HFCLEANUP(and FDV's XP fileset)... Come on guys and gal's, make use of these fantasic offerings from Tom and Fred! No more need for that extra step of running nLite(with it's extra 23mb lite-framework which also writes to '%windir%\system32' and to a msft system reg-key, and which cannot be run unattended when needing to add new updates to slipstream) and not only for the memmory savings, but also just for things like much faster/smaller backups/defrags/vrus-checks etc. etc. Come on mates, you know you want it Have a nice weekend everyone! CU, Martin.

Hi again, FDV! I'm just sitting and looking through your INFs and i really like what i see and am looking forward to testing it out Anyway, i just wanted to ask you something, though... When keeping the IE core only, by uncommenting 'ie.inf,DeletePartial' in syssetup.inf, then to me it looks like that the following addreg sections still are added: ie.addreg.opt, ie.addreg.runonce (from ie.inf,FullInstall)... Shouldn't there then not also be added a delreg section under 'DeletePartial', or alternativelly another commented-out entry under infs.always: ie.inf,CoreInstall...

Thanks alot for sharing this, FDV I will tryout your fileset later, but first i'm trying to locate what reducer/file(s) borks procmon with Tom's HFCLEANUP reducers... I'm glad you've added winnt(32) install-support, as IMHO, then the best thing about that, is that we can use BartPE as a stub-loader for formatting C:(while leaving D: alone) and then calling winnt32 to start the install (I hate having a complettely unattended cd EXCEPT for the formatting part) Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for your efforts, mate! CU, Martin.

Sorry about that! I'm affraid i don't know if ghost32.exe has a shutdown-parameter.. As for PE, then i only have experience with BartPE where shutdown/PSshutdown etc, don't work, so i used Paraglider's shutdown.exe tool instead which can be found here: http://www.paraglidernc.com/plugins/plugins.htm Sorry again!