Noise

MOONLIGHT SONATA, Understanding how user profiles are created is one of the most difficult aspects of supporting Windows. I have been supporting Microsoft products since the late '80's (really). Many people think they understand it, but they really only understand a part of it. This particular issue I ran into personally many many years ago in NT4. I thought I had it figured out, but I did not. The best way (and only way I do it) to modify the Default User profile is to load clean registry files during the cmdlines.txt phase of an automated installation. By clean registry files I mean they have been manually edited to remove any superfluous crap that may have been included during their creation. They contain the bare minimum needed to complete the desired setting. If you wish to copy a user profile from one user to another (or the Default User), there is another way. However, I do not recommend it as I have also had issues arise with this method. You must use the "Copy to" function in (XP) Control Panel/System Properties/Advanced/User Profiles/Settings. This "Copy To" function does not just copy. It clears out and resets the appropriate registry keys (and there are many of them) from the source profile. This avoids the problems with duplicate GUIDS and SIDS in the destination and sets reg_sz keys back to reg_expand_sz. Most importantly, it resets the security settings on the registry keys - Remember, registry keys have access rights, much as the NTFS filesystem has access rights. I could write a book on this subject, but I have neither the inclination nor the time. Frankly I've argued with a few "experts" here and have no wish to support my ego by trying to prove myself right, I know I'm right. I've supported thousands of desktops over the years and when I'm wrong it slaps me in the face. I have nothing but respect for the abilities of both GreenMachine and RogueSpear, especially with regards to their scripting ability. But understanding how Microsoft implements registry hives is a black art and 99% of the "experts" I've ran into do not fully understand it. You may (as you have) do something that seems to work OK. No errors will show up immediately, nothing immediately strange happens. However, later on problems will arise - especially in areas of cryptography and users rights. These errors will manifest themselves in strange ways. Things like "duplicate user", "invalid path" and "invalid credentials" may pop up. You may have an inability to access certain areas of the registry or may have inadvertently loosened your security settings. Errors will be especially apparent when you create a non-administrative user account. Or you may see no problems at all because you got lucky. It depends on how you use your PC. PS. I apologize for my tone in my last message. I have a tendency to be an arrogant hothead

OMG MOONLIGHT SONATA! DO NOT DO THAT! You can't just copy over a users registry hive into the defaut users. Man, I've seen some crazy s*** before, but doing stupid things like this will really cause weird things to happen in Windows later. Now, instead of slapping you across the forehead for spreading bad advice, let me explain it to you. A users hive (HKCU) is just chock full of things called Security Identifiers (SIDS). These SIDS are unique to ever user on a system. The Defaut User profile has a special registry hive where the SIDS are set to be changed. REG_EXPAND_SZ instead of REG_SZ. In addition, every user you create will have their internal file/directory pointers pointing to the Administrator users location. Windows may repair some of these - but not all. There are other issues that I will not get into because they take too long to explain. Suffice it to say - DO NOT DO THAT!@

I was just going to ask the same to the_guy. So I goto the Microsoft Download Center and I search for KB905474. I get squat. Nothing, not one hit. I do a search for WU as you suggested, not one hit. How exactly do you find these, Mr. one_guy, you guru of Microsoft Searches. Do I need to sacrifice a chicken or something?

Ya I noticed those too Hoffman. I'm having a hell of a time finding the integratible version of WGA. Anyone else have any luck?

That's a very nice INF file. Don't see too many of those these days

That works for me... You can try disabling the windows firewall service in your cmdlines.txt file: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\SharedAccess] "Start"=dword:00000004

I've been using >NUL and PushD and PopD for a long time, I'm very familiar with them. I had no idea you could use pushd and popd on the local system, I thought it only worked on network drives, very handy. I would have used the subst command, but yours is way better. The >NUL statement alone blocks the status message programs the programs issue. Are you saying the 2>&1 will block any secondary messages that >NUL would miss? Would the command 2>NUL be the same as 2>&1 in this instance? Thanks for trying to explain this, I'm just trying to understand better. The 2>&1 is very intreguing to me because I've never seen it used before.

Repeat after me... Short File Names! That's right - this is DOS, DOS don't like long filenames. You better be sure every **** file in your $OEM$ structure is in 8.3 format. Also, in case you care, entries in your srvpack folder and inf need to be modified for short filenames

Yzöwl, That is one of the coolest scripts I've seen in awhile. Very nice. But I'm curious about one thing, what is the NUL 2>&1 is the pushd and popd lines? I cant figure out what it does...

Nero Recode works for me. What? It wont copy protected media you say? Check out dvd43.com - this little program sits in your system tray and lies to any programs that access your DVD Drive that the media is unprotected. Works great for me. /you didn't hear this from me...

So, you're saying your wife comes barging into your room, pushes you aside and opens taskmanager so she can see what you're running??? I think you got worse problems than trying to hide running programs, buddy.

Any admin using nLite for creating corporate distributions should be shot. Don't get me wrong, nLite is great for home users looking to create a streamlined XP installation for gaming and such. But using nLite in a company environment is just plain incompetence. Try explaining to your VP that his stock purchasing program doesn't work because you tweaked the XP install and deleted html help, or something similar. Unfortunately, in the Windows world, there are many inept admins doing things like this, they think they are doing advanced admin stuff because they can walk through nLite menus. There are usually the same people that use Ghost to distribute images to PC in their company.

Couple things to try off of the top of my head... Make sure you have the latest BIOS flashed on your Nforce4 motherboard. In the txtsetup.oem try: [Disks] d1 = "NVIDIA RAID DRIVER (SCSI)",,,

Surround your directory entries in quotes: IF EXIST "%UUCDDRIVE%\ALL" XCOPY "%UUCDDRIVE%\ALL" "%SystemDrive%\UOS" /E /C /I /Q /H /Y That's may not be the problem, but it's good practice. Try turning echo on right before the "if not" statement to debug.

I just went through the same thing Dragonet. I love my X2, but I still have problems with some games and the dual core. Counter-Strike (1.6) still gives me problems, I have to use taskmanager to set the "Affinity" of the games process to use only one CPU. Just an FYI.

Ah I see your problem. I'm fairly sure there's no way to restrict the moving of folders and still retain the right to create new folders. I'm fairly sure that when you move a folder Windows is actually creating a new folder, copying the contents, and deleting the original folder and contents when the create/copy process finishes.

Well I'm no genius here... But have you tried taking away the "Create Folders" right?

I believe that the "Access this computer from the network" right is granted at the group level. By default the "Access this computer from the network" is given to the following groups: Everyone Administrators Authenticated Users You may want to consider moving your new user out of the Everyone group and into the Users group. This should keep the new account you are creating from accessing the PC over the network - in other words they must be logged on physically at the PC.

I tried most of the games mentioned here, and always eventually go back to playing CS 1.6. IMHO, CS just has the right look and feel. It's simple, I don't have to worry about binding a key to "lean" or crap like that. I have a nice system too (X2 4800+ / A8N-SLI MB / 7800GT) but that old Half Life engine just has the twitchiness I like. If you find yourself comming back to CS, stop by some of my servers: ]NsR[ Playhouse (CS 1.6): nsr.nuclearfallout.net:27015 ]NsR[ Penthouse (CS 1.6): nsr2.nuclearfallout.net:27015 ]NsR[ Puppethouse (CS:Source): nsrsource.nuclearfallout.net:27015

I hate my blackberry with a passion. My work gave the the Nextel 7520 version. The hardware design is awesome, and the reception is pretty good too. But the user-interface sucks a**. I've literally got enraged at trying to use this phone, many times. I've come close to shattering it on the floor many time too, if I couldn't play Texas-Holdem on this phone it would have been in splinters months ago. The GUI is absolute crap, it was programmed by idiots. If you get a call while using the web-browser, you better believe that you are going to miss that call. And if the software glitches, you will not be able to charge the phone, you have to remove the battery and reinsert it. I could go on and on, but I'm getting mad writing this.

I'd recommend ESet NOD32 Antivirus. It has an extremely small memory footprint, very little CPU overhead and it's has outstanding detection. Best of all - it's JUST a virus scanner, none of that extra fancy crap that can load your system down.

I thought you might be able to use %20 in place of a space (like in web pages). But that doesn't work either. Man, the built-in search in XP really sucks.

When you Start/Run/CMD, Windows uses a default.pif file to determin the setting for the command prompt window. At least thats how older versions of Windows worked. Search for a default.pif in your Windows directory and if present - delete it. Also, see if using CMD /D solves your problem.

TweakUI will allow you to disable Autoplay on media insertion. The, when you want to "Autoplay" open Explorer and right-click on the drive letter and select "Play".

If the user profile hasn't been created yet, then use the Default User profile. I specify the directory thusly: %AllUserProfile%\..\Default User