Idontwantspam

Um. Is it possible then that your domain admin disabled mapping network drives? Because it is a frequently used restriction which is easy to implement...

Is the server a domain controller, and if not, is it a member of a domain?

No, it's not possible to have group chats, it seems. Their chat is very... basic. They claim they'll be implementing XMPP soon, but so far they haven't. No way to change the sound, although with some work you might be able to write a greasemonkey script to do that. There are two 3rd party IM clients that support Facebook chat, making it more bearable. Digsby supports it natively, and Pidgin supports it with a plugin.

If you can find a command line app to change the resolution, you could have a script that checks the current resolution (which can be done by VBscript) and then IF it is less than 1024x768, change it to such, and if not, then leave it alone. That way the low-res monitors would get switched, and the other ones would be left as-is. While you're at it, you might consider enabling cleartype, if they're all LCD's. (Don't people mind looking at an LCD at 800x600 if it's designed for higher?!)

You could write a script to deny them write access to %userprofile%\desktop. Something like @echo off cacls "%userprofile%\desktop" /E /C /P "%username%":R exit Add that to everyone's startup scripts, and voila, they can't write to the desktop. * I don't know if I got the syntax 100% correct for cacls. You might want to check that I did it right.

Um?? It sounds to me like this would be bad for any users whose screens are greater than 1024x768 to begin with. If their screen is running at below that, it's probably because anything higher isn't supported by the monitor. It says the minimum is 1024x768; hence anyone using a monitor less than about 8 years old will almost certainly already be running at that resolution or higher. Is there any reason why it shouldn't run any higher?

I would try disabling it all together, temporarily, and seeing if that helps. If it does help, then we can consider how you could fix the problem. If it doesn't make a difference, then turn the paging file back on. The other option is if the paging file is so small that it's ineffective. Although a paging file is not mandatory for Windows to run, it tends to work better unless you have insane amounts of RAM. How much RAM does your system have? Also, just so you know, when you say you have 6GB of "memory" free, you probably mean of "hard drive space" left - memory is RAM, which is different from hard drive space.

In my experience using tsdiscon on XP, everything keeps running in the background. I don't use Windows Server as often, but I don't see any reason why they wouldn't. You're just disconnecting the session, not suspending it or ending it, so it ought to work. You could test that by playing some music or something and seeing if it keeps playing when you disconnect.

Well actually... The answer is "sort of". Since Windows Server 2003 has remote desktop, and supports multiple terminal services sessions, and since TS is what Fast User Switching relies on, it is possible to sign onto another account by disconnecting your session rather than logging out, and then logging into another account. Just run tsdiscon from the run box. I am pretty sure this works.

Helloooo? Where's XMPP (Jabber, Gtalk)!?!? Pretty much everyone I know has a gmail account, and as such we mostly use XMPP. I also have an MSN, Yahoo! and AIM account, as well as facebook chat, but I primarily use XMPP. I talk to people with facebook chat a lot as many people who don't have gmail use that, but I find it annoying and buggy. Facebook claims they'll be rolling out XMPP soon - that would be nice!

I notice you use wget... I wasn't aware that windows had wget, and it's a linux/unix feature that I've always wanted. Did you find it somewhere or write it yourself? And either way, could you link me to it? Thanks!

"A paging operation" indicates that maybe windows was trying to read or write from the pagefile. How much space is on the drive? There may not be enough for the page file to operate properly. If there is lots of space, just try disabling the paging file and seeing if that helps. It can be found in the System control panel applet, under the advanced tab. Good luck!

Have you tried mapping it from both the command line and the explorer interface? net use Z: \\server\share\ See if that works. If it does, there may be some problem with Windows Explorer. If not, then it's probably something else. Also, what services are and are not running?

You could have a script that displays the message, then adds a reg entry somewhere, which it then later checks for. If the reg entry exists, it doesn't display the message. If it doesn't exist, it displays the message. Then in the future, you can just remove that reg entry if you want the message to show up again.

In our house, have the following: A 2004 P4 HT Prescott desktop (3.0 GHz) A 2006 Core Duo Yonah laptop (1.6 GHz) An upgraded 2000 PIII desktop (? Mhz) An incredibly slow 1999 Compaq with an unremembered Citrix processor The P4 desktop is our main machine, and is on pretty much all day. It's a Dell Dimension 4700, and it sucks a LOT of power, and is always hot. I may pressure my parents to upgrade to an e7200 or at least an e2200, as the savings in power would be worth it. The Core Duo is my dell laptop, and is usually pretty cool and doesn't sap too much energy, but I always hibernate or put it to sleep when I'm not using it, so it doesn't take that much power. The other desktop is also a Dell, an old Optiplex GX110. I got it from a friend, and so far it runs really well, and we only use it on those nights when the computers are in high demand. Other than that, it rarely gets used. It's not exactly what I would call power efficient, but we'll probably be replacing it in not too long. The Compaq is a horrid machine destined for Free Geek ASAP. It was our only computer until we got the Dell P4, and it was slow, hot, and awful. We see no point in using it, so I'm donating it. Free Geek, if there is one in your area, is a great resource for old computers. They'll take pretty much anything, and if it can be refurbished, they'll do so and then donate it to non-profits and to volunteers. The closest one to where I live is quite a distance, so I don't get there often, but when I do it's great - the thrift store has lots of used hardware for cheap, and often things you can't find elsewhere. Computers that can't be reused get recycled. Another good thing that was suggested is donating your computers to a school. My school district has a relatively large IT budget, however the cheapest desktop you can buy through the district contractor costs over $900, so the schools can't usually afford a ton of new machines. As such, when a machine gets replaced, we take all the parts we can out of it and use them to upgrade the remaining machines that haven't been lucky enough to get replaced. We also love donations, as usually what most people are getting rid of is what we need more of. So! Ask your local school district if they want your computers, the answer may well be "yes".

I replaced Shell32.dll by doing this: 1) copy shell32_new.dll to %windir%\system32 2) open a command prompt 3) open the task manager and kill explorer.exe 4) type ren shell32.dll shell32_old.dll && ren shell32_new.dll shell32.dll 5) Hit enter 6) type shutdown -r -t 0 When you start up, it should be replaced. If not, then I probably missed some step of the process

You could probably find a floppy-sized thing that will allow you to download an image of a different OS from somewhere.

Agreed. If you don't do a full reinstall (which is also a good idea) then you should always at least run Crap Cleaner when you get a new OEM PC.

http://www.geekpedia.com/news305_Microsoft...Experiment.html

That was also reported on Slashdot... just so you know. And there was equal uproar. You may be right in what you say, but that issue was just heavily publicized on /.

Foxconn. Linux-stifling-behaviors aside, their hardware is pretty good. It's their software/stubbornness that is bad.

@jhorapalok Just extract the bmp from the zip, then replace the one in your bartPE files.

Ah.... well how old are they? Our family uses the classic logon even on XP and hasn't ever had a problem. Could your kids just remember to type in their name at the logon prompt?

I use digsby. It does make me a tad uncomfortable... but oh well. I've heard good things about trillian astra, although the old trillian p***es me off. What's wrong with pidgin though?

I seem to recall having seen some hack like this somewhere... I don't recall where though. I would try googling it. Alternatively, you could just use autologon - would that work?