Glenn9999

I understand if you have the screen in cold weather, the liquid in the display (that's what LCD stands for - liquid crystal display) will freeze up, and consequently the screen will not work quite right, at least until the screen is warmed back up. I'm sure you can do the web search and find out what that temperature is it freezes at.

The update mechanism was changed after SP2 was released, so you will only see the patches that do not depend on that mechanism (including the patches implementing that mechanism). When you installed the update mechanism patches, that made all the updates depending on that mechanism to install appear in Windows Update (yes 88 of them! LOL). (incidentally, there are 4 patches that are prerequisites for most of the others)

As a bit tighter rule, my understanding was that anything released before March 2003 has the potential to need QCHAIN. To be safe, I always interpreted that to mean anything that is not Windows XP Service Pack 2 just to be on the safe side, since Windows XP Service Pack 1 was released on September 9, 2002. Download QCHAIN.EXE here.

It works. The problem in it would be that you would get the Open/Save file dialog as a result, and I don't think it can be suppressed.

Computerworld

The list of what was done in each run is in the windows directory as batpatcher.log. Error 1603 simply means that the patch wasn't relevant to what was at hand. For example, applying an IE6 patch on a system with IE7 or applying an IE7 patch to a system with IE6 on it would produce the error. It shouldn't be a problem, unless Windows Update is calling for the patch afterwards.

The problem was that there was a very long time that it would take for the program to even come up (a minute or more). In my testing, the code would be successful to the Wait statement (either one) coded after the CreateProcess, but would hang at the wait statement. If I removed the wait, the program would come up instantaneously. As the original solution post indicated, NT based OSes require the SYNCHRONIZE tag when the process is created if Wait functions are to be used, so that deadlock may not occur (what I was observing), and the problem was solved once that was added to my CreateProcess call. Thanks for your time!

After I posted this, I had the thought to set an option in it as to what to do (Standby, Hibernate, Log off, maybe even start the blank screen saver like you suggest - in addition to shutting down the computer). It should be easy enough to do once I get the chance to sit down and finish it up. I'll just go ahead and post it to this thread when I get it to the point I'm happy with it.

Isn't WaitForInputIdle used to wait until the process loads, while WaitForSingleObject is used to wait for the process to complete? That was always my understanding (and I use both depending on the flags I pass the routine I use to call other programs)...

I posted this here because this seemed the best place (not sure of any better)...anyhow, is there any interest in a screen saver that runs another screen saver for a set time and then shuts down the computer (like if someone walks away from it a while)? I about have it finished for my sake, just was wondering if there was any interest in something like this for posting it here.

I figured this one out. For NT-based systems (like XP), you need to define SYNCHRONIZE as a attribute for the process in CreateProcess if you want to use any of the wait functions with it.

Because I can...

The thing about 'em. I'd worry about the weight on the USB plug, the potential of the battery part of blowing up or leaking (the usual rechargable thing). If I did go with a USB charger, I'd prefer something more like this

You might want to elaborate. You mean how to do multiple patches without sitting there going through the screens? Or something else?

No you don't have to. You can use wildcards. Search for files or folders named * would be sufficient in this case. Then you can sort the final screen in the details and see what the duplicate files are (another advantage).

Or do a search (Start|search) for all files, point it to the directory these sub-folders are in, and then copy the whole batch out of the search screen to the folder you want them to rest in.

Anything to get people to part with their money (and many will at the most laughable of things). I'm reminded of all the accessories people make for USB now-a-days in that respect. The latest example

Does anyone have suggestions on why it would be the case that I would call a program using CreateProcess and it (the called program) would not run for about a minute (like above)? I have a WaitForSingleObject call and it seems to be hanging on that in execution...

AVG Anti-Spyware, which used to be Ewido can be a good option. The link I gave is to a free version to try out (the scanner is free for perpetuity, but the real-time part will run for 30 days), but you can buy it for $29.95 USD if you like it (which has the real-time scanning options). May I also point out that you can schedule tasks to run at specific times? Or that you probably could load most of these options at start-up?

Is there any good documentation on Microsoft screen savers out there? I think I figured out most of what I need to know, but there's one thing that I'm not finding out: I notice that for configuration a number is passed along with the /C option (widely documented). Is there any indication on what that number means? (the parm comes across as "/C:12345" or similar) (I'm not finding anything good on web searches)

The other thought, maybe....does this file have an illegal character in it (to Windows)? A lot of times, files can have illegal characters in their names for Windows, but legal ones to other operating systems, like DOS. In fact, I just tried that on my Windows and got an undeletable (in Explorer) file out of it. If all else fails, try going into the command prompt and renaming it. Like for ABC<unprintablechar>.txt, use "ren ABC?????.TXT". Other possibility: a corrupt drive (chkdsk /f to fix that).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314493

Unlocker is the one I like to use for this (removes the file locks like in Explorer, too). Killbox is another one I read about that's spoken highly of.

In Windows 98, the boot-up process brought up either the default from IO.SYS or used a bitmap file called LOGO.SYS in the root directory. Logo.sys must be a 320- by 400-pixel, 256-color Windows bitmap file. However, Dos 6.22 did not do this, so you will have to find a DOS image program which will show an image for a few seconds and then quit to get an equivalent functionality. However, Windows 98 booted the rest of the way in the background while the image was displaying. You will not get this in DOS 6.22.

Whether the USB hardware supports DOS is an irrelevant thing. The relevant thing is whether the drivers you are loading in DOS for the USB hardware supports the device. I haven't run across any DOS drivers that support hot-swapping USB drives. Which means if you want the support for the USB flash drive, you will have to have it plugged in upon boot. That's how I've always run my flash drive when I was trying it out.