Mordac85

Check for a loose jack. I had problems w/my headphone jack like this and the jack itself was not making a good connection due to the high usage.

Never done this, but I believe you can set those in a Theme. It may be a somewhat advanced topic since it isn't readily obvious but any good docs on creating XP themes should give you the details.

Disk I/O always has precedence over a running app, so if you're trying to send a file, copy it, unzip, etc that could interfere with any other apps depending on what is being done, how long it takes to complete the disk I/O, etc.

But did you do this before you sysprepped the system?

Why not make a copy w/o them and try it out? I doubt the $OEM$ partition would have anything critical to installing a basic vanilla Windows, but you do have to be careful with the OEM versions they ship w/systems.

Before you run sysprep, I would recommend going into the Advanced security settings, check the 'Replace permissions on all child objects...' and hit apply. That should push the permission changes down to the subfolders/files and correct whichever one may not be picking them up through inheritance. If you want to know what's causing the problem you can either step through each file & folder checking the perms like TheReasonIFail recommends or run filemon on your failed unit to see what file/folder can't be accessed.

Assuming this is the restore CD provided by Dell and not a vanilla OEM disk I'd say it was additional files used by Dell to restore your system to it's original state.

I think he's setting folder perms for the Users group to have full control on the app folder, but it's somehow not working after a sysprep -reseal. Do the permissions on the folder appear different between these two imaging processes?

We're glad to help, but it's hard to understand what you want to do when you say 'change user account images'. I'm assuming you want to adjust a user's profile settings (desktop environment and how Windows looks & feels) and configure some settings for the Default User profile. I'll also assume you mean you want to change the text in a dialog that appears during setup. A little clarification and we should be able to get you some answers or at least point you in the right direction.

Have you tried Dependancy Walker for the dll in question?

On your image master, did you originally set the permissions on the top level folder and use the check box to propagate them down to the children or just set it at the top and let inheritance pick up the child permissions? Also, where is the top level of the legacy app folder located, off the root, Program Files, etc? I've never run into an issue where I've had permission issues after sysprep -reseal, so this is an odd one.

I'm trying to figure out a method to uninstall a few items that appear under Add/Remove Programs\Windows Components after a system has been built. I need to remove: Internet Gateway Device Discovery & Control Client Update Root Certificates Games (std & Internet) I'm not sure if these are just registry entries or if there is something more complex. I've checked for system changes and found a number of these items listed in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Oc Manager\Subcomponents, but I'm not real confident that it is the only point of change. I have a base image and need to adjust with a simple reg file or batch script until I can revise my initial build.

I believe that is a system font item and would be controlled by your appearance settings for Message Box. However, I'm not sure if that would be a setting under your profile or the system so you'd have to test it to be sure. Of course you know this will affect ALL messages, not just the shutdown message text? afaik, Windows isn't granular enough to change the font settings of a specific dialog.

The issue with an Access database on the network is usually found when all of the data is stored in the Access database and you start increasing the load of concurrent users on the database. However, it sounds as if the data is stored on a SQL database and it uses Access as a front-end to the data. The hardware shouldn't have an impact on the ODBC connection. However, if you are using a different version of Access on these systems it may be causing you some issues. I would certainly recommend converting a copy of the Access database to Access 2007 as a test. It may be an issue with backwards compatibility and not so much ODBC.

You most likely have a process that is interfering or a problem w/AutoCAD. Try eliminating every possible app running at the same time (mail, AV, unnecessary services, etc) for a short time and see if there is a difference. If you can run this in Safe Mode w/Networking to test for any differences, that would be the easiest.

ODBC is very simple but can really end up being a pain if it isn't setup correctly. I'll assume this is XP because of the forum this is in so go to a system that is working fine. Then go to the Control Panel (Start->Settings->Control Panel) and under Administrative Tools open the Data Sources (ODBC) snap-in. Now I have no idea how the database is accessed or what type it is, but look through the User DSN, System DSN or File DSN tabs to see if you can find one that stands out as the one for this application. Then highlight that DSN, note the driver used and hit the Configure button. Now write down all of the settings that you can about this. When you're done, hit Cancel to avoid applying any changes you may have made while looking at this. Now go to a system where the application is not working and compare the ODBC settings. Chances are you either do not have an ODBC entry for the application, you don't have a database driver loaded or there are incorrect settings. If this is a Microsoft Access database based application, you may run into connectivity issues with multiple users on a network since Access is not designed to be used that way. Knowing the application or database type would also help.

Or use HFSLIP to slipstream them, once you get them downloaded, to create an updated XP source. Personally, I normally only bother with the service pack b/c it's easier to let it run for the remaining updates while I'm doing something else.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS07-040.mspx It's not anything special and avilable directly from Microsoft. Next time maybe try the Search function?

fwiw, I customize the Default User profile and have this setup the way I want. Haven't had an issue with it once I copy the configured profile over to Default Users. But that's not necessarily an option for unattended installs.

There is no such thing as SendTo in the All Users profile, it's a per user setting. Try putting it in Default User instead. As for the FullName, I'm not 100% on this, but I believe that if you are not in a domain it will use that info to create the initial user account.

Just got my new Dell M4400 and E6400 in and had a problem running Ghost 11 (Solution Suite 2.0). I was trying to make an 'as rcvd' image and Ghost would hang once it needed to enumerate the drives from the ToImage menu selection. I checked the BIOS and found the SATA Operation set to IRRT which was new to me. So I changed this to ATA mode and no problems. Haven't tried it w/AHCI but expect it to run just fine. Has anyone else come across IRRT issues with Ghost yet or if this will be some major headache in the future? The thing that gets me is that it's some kind of mirroring utility for a system w/at least 2 drives per this page, but that really doesn't make much sense to have on a laptop w/only 1 drive installed by default. Dell seems to be doing some weird s**t.

I assume so, as long as you don't need to refer to the install sources after the first reboot. But then again, isn't that much the same as RIS or BDD? Seems like you'd be reinventing the wheel.

fwiw, I have a utility CD I built w/BartPE and I also have the ISO setup in my TFTP server for PXE boots when I don't happen to have my CD w/me. The problem w/the XP image would be that it would have to be an image of a system that has already been built and run through mini-setup. In the long run, I would think a terminal session would be an easier and faster solution. However, to answer your initial question, yes, in most instances a normal bootable ISO is used for diskless/PXE boots. As for step by step directions, I'll assume you have a bootable ISO XP image and the necessary permissions to make changes to your servers. Configure a TFTP server in your domain (assumed service name is TFTPD) Create the TFTP directory that is a local folder on the TFTP server Set the Directory value (REG_SZ) of HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\tftpd\Parameters Copy your XP ISO, ntdetect.com, NTLDR & startrom.com to the directory listed above Create a test file called winnt.sif in the TFTP directory and include the info below Change the name used in the rdpath value to match your ISO filename (no paths, just the filename) Configure your DHCP server Option 066 (BootServer HostName) to the FQDN of the TFTP server Configure your DHCP server Option 067 (Bootfile Name) to startrom.com [SetupData] BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)" BootPath = "\i386\System32\" OSLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdexportascd /rdpath=XP.ISO" Please note that there are many variations to this that depend on your environment and what you're trying to do, but it's a start.

The strength of the local admin password has no bearing on how vulnerable you are to external attacks. HOWEVER, if someone does gain access the first thing he, or she will try is a blank password b/c that's Windows default. If I worked there, I wouldn't want you to reset the local admin password b/c I love having access to everyone's system/data, especially when the CEO is talking about personnel cuts. Internal or external source aside, can your company/group afford to have all their data accessible as if it was posted on the bulletin board in the lunch room? We periodically run an admin script that sets the local admin password to a 12+ character complex phrase that is changed by security every 90 days.

I do too. Right now mine covers 27 different models of desktops, laptops and workstations. Driver management is a b**ch, but I'm still saving cycles over having to maintain separate images or extending the build time with an unattended install routine. For my environment, it's the best solution.