Mordac85

If you have any speech/alternative input options installed in an Office component, it will reappear after you run an Office repair. There must be another app similar (Acrobat maybe?) b/c I have removed every option like that I could find and it still happens from time to time on my system. And I only have 1 language installed!

Do you see the POST screen? Also, maybe check device manager back in the office to see if there is an issue w/the monitor. Are the monitor models the same and are any of the pins bent/broken?

Actually that doesn't sound bad. I have policies and a host of other corporate baggage to deal with but it's what it takes. I know everything that's loading and why and accept that it takes time. It's a computer not a lamp, but if you're really curious why not run bootvis and see exactly what is loading and how long it takes? The XP design goal was 30 sec and I'm sure I could come close to that if I ran a vanilla install. For me, the tell-tale signs of needing a rebuild are when apps start crashing for no reason.

afaik, no. The whole point of a file association is to tell the OS to use a specific app with that particular file type. Now, you could delete the file association altogether and when you double click it you'll be prompted to select which app to use. Of course, if you don't pay attention you could leave the default check box checked and re-establish the file association. But on the whole this kinda defeats the purpose of a file association.

I believe the file is designed to self-immolate when it runs on a client. Unless you plan on doing this again and again I wouldn't worry about it. I've been imaging w/Trend for years now and only have to run ImgSetup on the first login and pull the file from the AV server if I need to use it again.

fwiw, I found this nice little utility, PEtoUSB, which will transfer your PE ISO to the USB drive w/o a lot of hassle. I've been using it for a few weeks and love it. Next, I'm going to see if this would expand past PE to an ISO of my OEM media.

It's always the little things that bite you in the a.. At least it was an easy fix and you're much further with your image development than you thought.

What app has this as an item to save to? Also, what version of XP are you using?

Are the drivers for the NIC being loaded during mini-setup? I've never run into this but would assume that if the drivers loaded and you had a valid connection IE would proceed normally. Maybe your install of IE needs some tweaking?

So you want the workstation to act like the std TS on a server where you can have 2 sessions running such that the user on the console is not affected? You need to replace the termsrv.dll w/an older version (5.1.2600.2055 I believe) and adjust the registry, but it will probably violate the EULA and be wiped out if the file gets updated by a SP or hotfix. Depending on what you're doing, could you just use psexec and admin the box from the command line?

Boot to a WinPE/BartPE CD or slave the drive in another system and have at it.

I believe that the later is correct and when Windows doesn't find the exact filename it looks for the compressed version, so you may have to eventually alter the name.

Are you talking about being able to see the user's desktop so they can show you how they fubar'd it or just running a second separate terminal session using the same account?

Remember you'll have to edit this file again if it's updated by some SP or hotfix.

yes, let's not over think this. Where I come from idle means to do nothing.

If you can install or run an application with your normal login account you obviously have sufficient rights to do so and no prompting for credentials is required. I'm assuming you would like to restrict users from installing anything their little hearts desire? Try removing them from the local Administrators group, configuring Group Policy or placing your network install points on a share w/more restrictive settings.

Actually, in this scenario using OPHCrack is a waste of time if you have physical access to the box. Use Peter Nordahl's utility to set the administrator password to blank (*) and then login and change whatever password for the target account(s). If you used EFS and forgot the password then I guess you could waste the time, but...

If you don't move the entire profile that will happen from time to time. But, fwiw, the easier solution is to just move the entire profile so all your settings and docs are in one place and not strewn about haphazardly. I normally do this so I can blow away the main partition and reload the OS w/o messing with backing up my data. Just log back in once and edit the registry and I'm back in business as if nothing ever happened. But whatever works for you, there's just no way around your issue, that I know of, the way you're doing it now.

OK to start with look at what you do a lot of and see if it can be done with a script. I'm in a corporate environment and I'm always trying to get basic info about a user's system before calling them back. So what do I want to find out? Computername, IP address, etc? Now how do I do that now and can it be done with a script? Here's a snippet I use for the IP address that should give you something to see what's possible. Remember, if you can do something manually you can most likely automate it, so why sit around typing and clicking when you have so much computing power at your finger tips? for /f "tokens=2 delims=[]" %%i in ('ping -n 1 %1') do set IP=%%i nbtstat -A %IP% As for references, I have books for Perl since it can get complicated and my memory isn't that great, but otherwise I use online references for batch files and others. Rob van der Woude is an excellent reference to start with b/c he also includes samples of how to use certain functions and has a number of tips and scripting tricks. Labmice.net has some good references also. And Laurence Soucy has a good indexed listing of the basic DOS commands, mostly the std MS definitions so it's not as straightforward, but a good source for syntax. If you need more, please let me know.

If you aren't comfortable editing whatever format your image is in then boot with a WinPE/BartPE CD and copy your files in. Then either update your sysprep.inf file or load the HKLM hive and edit HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath to include every driver folder path.

I'd recommend you start with simple batch files to understand how to lay out the logic flow and the pain of syntax errors. Then move to something common to your platform like PowerShell or VBscript which open the doors to doing much more and being more flexible about how you do it. And remember, Google is your friend.

I take it you're trying to move your profile to a different location from the default? This ain't the way. From a different admin account, try changing HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\<your SID>\ProfileImagePath to the folder you want to move your profile to then copy it there from the System Properties applet.

You can use either CMDLINES.TXT or the GuiRunOnce section depending on what you're trying to do and when you want to do it. Check the References section of the Unattended Guide for more info.

Can you try to manually assign resources or remove the air card and check the resources for the problem device to see what they are?

It's not the drivers, it sounds as if you have a resource conflict. In Device Manager check the Resource tab for the problem device and see what the conflicting device is at the bottom.