Martin H

It's not documented, but if you look at FDV's syssetup.inf, then under Infs.Always, then you can opt to have IE6 and OE6 kept. Also in ie.inf, then i can see that FDV is preparing an option for only installing the IE-core... CU, Martin

@TommyP: Thanks for your reply, mate I'm pretty sure that this will not help you at all, but just to make sure, then i'll state it nonetheless... I can maintain the Win2k update-list with all OS-component flavors, if it is instead made a stickied thread here on the forum, and if it is only listing security updates and high-priority non-security updates i.e. non-optional ones... The reasons for me not wanting to make update-lists, is that i refuse to spend time on anything not Win2k related, and since you want to have the Win2k list(and the others) as html(made with that excel spreadsheet of yours), and as i don't want to spend time learning html, or excel for that matter(i have no use for such things, so i've never bothered learning..). Lastly, then i apologise for me posting links, but i only did it because it was an out-of-band update and not a regular patch-tuesday type... Have a nice weekend, mate

@TommyP: Thanks for your reply, mate! Btw, the dx7 update on the Win2k list(KB961698) has on patch-tuesday been replaced by: MS09-028 - KB971633 How about you yourself just start maintaining an update-list of what you yourself uses(so you don't have to run VMs and use time on stuff you don't use). I mean an update-list of only Win2k-SP4 with DX9, IE6 and wmp6(and just have it as a thread here on the forum)... Then the XP and 2k3 users could themselves make their own lists... Also, if i where you, then i would only maintain the Win2k part of HFSLIP(as thats's what you yourself uses), and then let the other OS users make their own changes, but that's just me Anyway, if you can handle to support all three OS's with HFSLIP and update-lists, then more power to you, but i just think that it sounds all to much to handle personally... CU, Martin

@TommyP: A very small nitpick to when you are anyway going to update your update-lists, is that the removal-date isn't right on the Win2k list... (And my previous remark about an IE out-of-band update, is MS09-034, where KB972260 replaces KB969897...) CU, Martin

@TommyP You most probably allready knows this, but just in case you didn't, then there's an out-of-band critical IE update comming out tomorow(28'th juli) for Win2k, WinXP and Win2k3(moderate for that OS)... Sorry again if you allready know it... Out-of-band Advance Notification: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...09-jul-ans.mspx

The MSI installer supports a switch for disabling the installation of certain components, like the VMware authorization service, NAT and DHCP i.e. 'REMOVE=Authd,NAT,DHCP'. However, when doing that, then because of not installing the VMware authorization service, then an error is shown whenever one is trying to access a VM, but oddly enough, if not using the 'REMOVE=' switch to remove the VMware authorization service, but instead just closing the service afterwards and disabling it from starting up automatically, then one can access VMs without any problems... Also, I personally don't need either DHCP or NAT to access the network, so i also close and disable them from starting automatically, after the install has done... Here's an INF which will install VMware Workstation silently and close the three default services and disable them from starting up automatically(remember to change the serial): [Version] Signature=$Windows NT$ [DefaultInstall] RunPreSetupCommands=runpresetupcommands RunPostSetupCommands=runpostsetupcommands:1 AddReg=addreg [runpresetupcommands] "msiexec /i ""VMware Workstation.msi"" SERIALNUMBER=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /qn" [runpostsetupcommands] net stop VMAuthdService net stop VMnetDHCP "net stop ""VMware NAT Service""" [addreg] HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMAuthdService","Start",0x10001,4 HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMnetDHCP","Start",0x10001,4 HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMware NAT Service","Start",0x10001,4 You cannot install this INF with "rightclick and install", as it's an Advanced INF, so use this command instead: rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection install.inf Also, the above INF is for installing an admin install of VMware Workstation, which is done by running e.g.: setup.exe /a /s /v"/qn TARGETDIR=D:\Temp\VMWare" I personally use VMware Workstation v5.0, but this procedure also works fine with v6.x...

Not really. IE doesn't add startup process and such junk (unless you were referring to spyware). He was reffering to registry bloat... Anyway, i've read that the NT5.1+ kernel dosen't load the complete registry into RAM at startup, so that shouldn't really matter... (I use FDV's IE/Junk removal fileset, which removes a really big part of the registry, since with IE removed, then it's redundant...)

HFSVCPACK_SW1 for WinXP/2k3 and HFGUIRUNONCE for Win2K

It's recommended to keep the HF folder up-to-date, but nonetheless, when HFSLIP calls the updates with their extraction-switches, then the updates themselves overwrites older binaries with newer ones, but in some special cases, then binaries with higher version-numbers can have older file-dates, and hence, needs HFSLIP to make exceptions so the older binaries, but newer in version-numbers, are kept instead... Btw, the off-topic remark i made in my first post to you, about updates often being wrongly called hotfixes, i just wanted to make sure that you know that it wasen't directed at you! CU, Martin.

It's called updates and not service packs... (Off-topic: and it's not hotfixes either, as that's only the propper term used for unoffical updates which is obtained by request from msft, or included in the QFE branch of official updates!) Anyway, HFSLIP has three offical update-lists(check the stickied thread) with the high-priority updates and some optional ones, so you don't have to run WU/MU on a VM for those...

There's no difference; -ms was originally used, but is now deprecated in favor of /S...

You should use the latest beta, as IE8 slipstreaming was one of the things added in the betas...

HFSLIP slipstreams the SP into the SOURCE folder. Edit: Beaten by TommyP

Yes, adding the EnableBigLba reg-entry makes Win2k-sp4 support 48-Bit LBA adressing i.e. supporting HDDs over 137gb... If wanting to utilise this during setup, then the reg-entry needs to be added to the hive files. If using FDV's Win2k IE/Junk Removal Fileset, then this is done for you allready, and HFSLIP also does it for you if placing reg.exe(Win2kCD:\SUPPORT\TOOLS\SUPPORT.CAB) into the HFTOOLS folder...

I very rarelly use help files, so i haven't encountered any problems with v1.16 yet, but thanks for the heads-up, mate You're most welcome, mate

For help files I would recommend xCHM, as it's leightweight and has a nice simplistic gui with treeview and tabs etc. It also has an option for making xCHM the default reader for help files for ppl who don't know how to associate the CHM file-extension to xCHM manually... http://sourceforge.net/projects/xchm/files...16.zip/download

If wanting to remove the wallpaper from set-9, then either edit shell.inf, or add these entries to your 1st-logon tweaks/apps-install INF: HKCU,"Control Panel\Desktop","Wallpaper",,"" HKCU,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General","Wallpaper",,"" If wanting to remove readme.txt on the desktop, then either edit axant5.inf, or add this to your 1st-logon tweaks/apps-install INF: DelFiles=delfiles [DestinationDirs] delfiles=16409 [delfiles] readme.txt

Agreed! The new stuff are important for the majority probably, but just not for me and others who have an alternative and simplistic approach to how an OS should look, feel and function. Most of the new features in the new OSes I have no need for and will disable, and those that are actually usefull, I can get much better 3'rd party replacements for! Also, I need Windows Installer v3.1 for some installers, and NT4 only supports up to v2.0, but i don't need v4.5, and as a non-gamer, then DirectX 9.c works perfect enough, as H264 and DXVA is fully supported there also, and i've read that you can get evr support on pre-vista OSes, by taking evr.dll from .NET 3 and registering it, but personally i don't care about evr, as i prefer overlay mixer on bad GPUs and Haali's on good GPUs... Finally, i acknowledge that you have had alot of problems with Win2k and where glad to change to XP, but as you yourself admitted, then you had big driver problems at the time, so i don't think that it's fair blaming those issues on the OS itself... Most ppl i would think would agree that Win2k is a very stable OS, and that XP also is, as it's built on the same proven codebase(and as you now, the kernel changes weren't that big from v5 to v5.1). Back when i used XP, then my PC crashed all the time, but that were because of buggy soundcard drivers, but i wouldn't dream of blamming that on the OS itself and saying that XP isn't stable, as i think that XP is very stable!

...for free when the software is $69 and so it doesn't take a genius to figure it is warez. Please don't link to this kind of CD. I am really sorry about that! I honestly didn't realize that there where a copyrigt violation there! I just thought that they maybe where outdated versions which the author(s) had made into freeware(like UltimateDefrag v1.82 etc.), or that the author of the bootcd had gotten approval for adding those, since i have heard about that bootcd at so many places(legal!), but i have never actually used it, or the apps i quoted. Again, i'm really sorry about this, and i will remove the link imidiately!

My oppinion on this is that yes, Win2k is bloated for sure, and yes, NT4 was much sleeker, but we simply needed to change to Win2k, as there were several advantages over NT4, like e.g. USB support, WDM support, DirectX support over v6, Windows Installer support over v2, etc. and also not to mention the wealth of apps that only would run on Win2k and up... Then the newer OSes also includes alot of changes/fixes, but for some of us, then the new stuff just dosen't seem very important to us, and that frankly much of it is more of an annoyance than anything else, and when they then also are much, much more bloated than Win2k, then that's why some of us feel that we would just rather stick with good ol' Win2k! The endless comparisons of what RAM/HDDs and such costs is totally irrelavent to me, as it's simply not about that, but instead about that we don't feel that the newer OSes bring anything usefull to the table for all that extra HDD space and extra RAM usage! Yes, there are some apps that don't work on Win2k now, and more and more will come, but untill now i've not been affected by this... Just my 2 cents

To skip having useless files cluttering your hdd...

You can e.g. use PE Builder to make a BartPE BootCD with the tools you need... Edit: Edited because of having mistakenly linked to copyrighted material!

To skip the 15 secs waiting period, then the following entry needs to be specified in winnt.sif, but it only works for XP and not Win2k: [Unattended] WaitForReboot="No"

Sorry, mate; I have no idea why it won't register from syssetup.inf ??? You used to just comment it out in set8j: ;11,,fdeploy.dll,R;error 126 when registering

The article states that KB969898 replaces KB950760, but just not for automatic-updating, which then must mean that there's a bug in the automatic update engine, since the article states that you don't need KB950760 if you have allready installed KB969898...