Noise

As you probably know, many geeks and nerds use Windows XP. Windows XP is fairly complicated, and this confused many people who weren't geek-oriented. Athletic people such as jocks and triathletes were expecially confused by Windows XP. So Microsoft developed Windows PE for these more athletic people. The name is derived from something these people would feel comfortable with - PE class in highschool.

There has to be a better way to this then to use the SendKeys method. Although it will work, you could have alos used AutoIt for this. The "proper" way to do this is to identify the hex bits in the HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop\"TaskbarWinXP" in the registry. Toggle the QuickLaunch Toolbar on a off a few times and you will see that only a few bits are modified in the "TaskbarWinXP" value. You will need to convert the bits to binary and toggle the setting a few times to identify the bits. After the bits are identified, you can XOR them. This will leave the rest of the bits in the "TaskbarWinXP" area unaffected. This way you wont effect other taskbar settings that may have been modified. Your script is fine, but since you said you're a "programmer" I thought you might be up to the challenge.

Turn off spanning-tree.

FileMon.exe

You generally shouldn't use svcpack to install programs. Use cmdlines.txt for better results. Svcpack should be used for hotfixes.

Well you can always use your laptop with an external monitor. You will have to configure power management so XP won't goto sleep with the laptop lid closed. But it can make a good system with an external keyboard mouse and monitor. You're system came with a "Restore CDROM" instead of real Windows installation disks. I hate it when they do that. However, many time you can create a Windows XP installation CDROM from the files inside the Restore CDROM. Use the Restore CDROM to reinstall your laptop OS. Somewhere inside the files on your C: drive should be the entire Windows XP Installation CDROM copied into a directory. Usually these installation files are located in C:\I386 but sometime they are hidden elsewhere. The file in C:\I386 are a direct copy from the original Windows XP installation CDROM. You can use these file with programs like nLite or HFSLIP to create a new installation CDROM. Good Luck.

Use Ghost and I'll guarentee you you will have problems later. I'm speaking from 15 years of experience of corporate support. I am just saying this as a lesson learned: DO NOT USE GHOST TO DEPLOY WINDOWS I also do not wish to argue this point with the Ghost supporters. I consider them amatures, and they usually just keep making excuses and work-arounds for Ghosts (or any image deployment) shortcommings. They just like to use Ghost because it's easy and they don't have to understand how real deployments work. They don't usually support a large infrastructure. Few of them understand how link-tracking, SSIDS, Registry permissions and default profiles work - all of which are affected by image based deployment. The problems encountered by users of Ghost deployed images are usually not recognized by the support staff. They chalk up the intermittent application crashes and slow response times to "Windows Bugs" or some such thing. Again, I do not wish to argue this point again in these forums, you can do a search where I argued this point last year in detail. I just bring this up again because I hate to see image deployed buggy installations give XP a bad reputation because some amature admin doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

Spend the first week or two developing the server infrastructure. For this environment I use two servers. One for Active Directory / DHCP / DDNS; the other for WSUS and Group Policy application deployment (and redundant Active Directory). Forget Ghosting - that's a stupid way of deployment. Create an unattended Windows XP installation CDROM. You will probably have to use different versions of Windows XP Pro (OEM, VLP, Retail) depending on the current installed license base. If any PC are running XP Home, you will have to upgrade them. If you're lucky you can get a VLP license for the whole lot of them and make your deployment much easier. The installation CDROM should install Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all current Critical Hotfixes integrated. Don't use nLite for this, I recommend you do it manually - but HFSLIP is another option. If all your PC's have a floppy disk drive you can load the the winnt.sif file from the floppy disk while the CDROM is booting. This is how I do it and it makes it very easy. You can also use RIS for OS deployment, but I think the CDROM/Floppy method is easier and faster. Then use Group Policies to deploy your applications. Use the WSUS server to keep all your clients updated with the lastest Windows and Office hotfixes.

Thanks Xpaninity... Didn't know that existed.

Thanks for bumping this Kev, I almost missed this awesome info. gunsmokingman, I'm having a problem I'm hoping you can help with regarding these scripts. Whenever I run your scripts (all versions - vbs and hta) the computer name shows my domain name, not the computer name. I'm running Windows XP joined to a old fashoned NT4 domain. I get the same error when checking other XP PC's over the network.

Thanks jrf2027, looks good to me. Anyone have the latest download url for KB892130 (WGA)? (looks at one_guy) EDIT: I found the 892130 Full Download here.

Thanks for the update on the Windows 2000 stuff the_guy. That's a lot of work. Anyone have a list of the XPSP2 updates that were outdated by yesterdays updates?

How does one go about getting the product key? I ordered the DVD from MS for $4.00, should I expect the ProductKey to be e-mail to me or included with the shipment?

Once you start dabbling in the world of Registry permissions all bets are off. You have to be EXTREMELY careful, registry key permissions are all over the place, it's one of the main ways Microsoft keeps security in XP. If you used Resplendant Registrar to change anything already, you can be fairly sure you hosed your system. You have to 100% sure of what you are doing.

"the bs part is i have an original xp key, but for some resion it says its invalid... im reading it right off the certificate." That's because you're using the wrong media to install Windows. Your CDKey is probably for Windows XP Home OEM edition. You are probably using some pirate version of XP you got off the net, and expecting your CDKey to work.

^^ I think it was a flitch in the matrix. As far as I understand it ports are big open spaces full of ocean water. It would be very difficult to hide, and all the little boats would have no place to go.

It's been a long time since I ran 98. But I remember I had a little freeware utility that would do that. You'll have to google for it though, I don't remember the name. Windows 98 by its self does not have the network activity icon.

Sounds like you may be trying to overcomplicate things. I'm not 100% certain I understand what you want, but try the net use command to connect a drive letter... net use * \\server\share /user:domain\user password /persistent:no This will map a drive from one system to another using the credentials specified.

There's a new new technet article on Preserving OEM Pre-Activation when Re-installing Windows XP. This is a short to-the-point article that I'm sure many people will find useful. Edit: Actually this article is kind of old. But was just reciently published on technet.

Ah that sucks. There was some good information on that page. Old, but still good. Anyone ever figure out if Gosh was a male or female? Not that it matters, just wondering.

Disable Active "html" Desktop

I just look at the creation date of the Default User profile directory.

I have the exact same setup - but with older catalyst drivers and it works fine on my 2003. Did you enable DirectX before you installed the ATI drivers?

Djé, Just do it like I said. Quit over thinking things. During cmdlines.txt things are not what they seem... magic can occur. Don't edit your reg files and replace HKEY_CURRENT_USER with HKEY_CURRENT_USER\.Default or something similar. You're not being clever, you're screwing things up.

InTheWayBoy, Here's a brief description of how I do it. First. You create a bunch of small registry files that are given to a certain task. Here are two samples: TempDir.reg Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment] "TEMP"="c:\\Temp" "TMP"="c:\\Temp" NumberLock.reg: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard] "InitialKeyboardIndicators"="2" This method is better than having all your registry settings in one big reg file. For example, if you wanted to modify your installation for a laptop computer you would just delete NumberLock.reg before you create your CDROM. Trust me, you don't want to enable NumberLock on laptop's it will drive you crazy. Once you get all your reg files done (I have 83 of them) put them all into a directory in your $OEM$, For example: CDROOT\$OEM$\C\INSTALL\SETTINGS This will create a directory on the destination C: drive with all the registry files in it (C:\INSTALL\SETTINGS). Now all we have to do is load them during cmdlines.txt. Here's how I do it... First, a simple cmd file to loop through all the reg files and load them: CDROOT\$OEM$\SETREG.CMD @echo off echo *** Default Registry Settings for %%i in (C:\INSTALL\SETTINGS\*.reg) do regedit /s "%%i" Then, we tell cmdlines.txt to run the above script: CDROOT\$OEM$\CMDLINES.TXT [Commands] ".\SETREG.CMD" And that's it. Every profile created on the new PC will have these registry settings incorporated in it. If you need to add a registry setting later, just throw the reg file into the settings directory.