CoffeeFiend

I like adminstudio too, but sometimes when you just need to extract some files... Something like a WinRAR sfx works just fine too... There's many many ways to deploy apps and I don't always use the same one either. I'll even use AutoIt when it's I really have to (or to save a lot of time).

No, that's just the enclosure itself, but you can find 200gb drives (8mb buffer, 5yr warranty) for 150$ everywhere. That's 60$ cheaper than costco (almost 70$ considering you're saving paying tax on that 60$ too), 40gb more, and I doubt that the costco drive will have that 8mb buffer nor that warranty Since I didn't need that much of an external drive what I've done is upgrade a HD in one of my computers, and toss the old one in that enclosure (a 60gb drive, enough for my use). If you were'nt upgrading your PC either (nor needed the big drive) then a used HD off a friend or locals newsgroup could have been really cheap too... (I set up a friend like this with a cheap used 40gb drive I didn't use anymore and he's quite happy with it)

Official stated minimum requirements don't mean much. The "normal" xp install with a swapfile around a gig, the hybernate file nearly as big, IE caches, temp folders, system restore points and what not take significant space - plus what the OS actually takes up in system files... Even though I disable hibernation, system restore and such, I wouldn't go much below say, 6gigs or so. For decent performance and lessen fragmentation, they recommend something like 20% free disk space minimum. Temp folder wise, not only most installers leave files behind, but sometimes, like when archiving big files (compressing a gig+ of data or such) needs to make quite big temp files as well... 1.5gigs just won't cut it - no matter what microsoft claims. I'd really like to see someone running win XP sp2 (with a gazillion other processes running in the background as well like we see too often) on a pc with a 300mhz cpu, 128mb ram on a 1.5gb partition with all GUI enhancements and everything else enabled...I'm sure he'd be more than happy about his setup

These can be tricky to get to work sometimes on some laptops. I'd start by trying different slot configs in the bios (pc card/pcmcia) Lots of times this fixes it.

We need a bit more information... I'll start by asking if you're using simple file sharing. PS: Perhaps a more descriptive title would be more appropriate next time too

Hmm, a couple issues (?) I installed an old MassStrorage driver pack yesterday and found out it was updated so I figured I'd redo it with the new one isntead but I had 2 problems: -It couldn't download 7za.exe (which I found but you may want to fix it) -There were no instructions on how to modify dosnet.inf this time (nor the list of what to add) or is it not needed anymore? (haven't read all 19 pages yet - but I plan on doing it hopefully tonite) I'm using method 1, if that matters. Otherwise it looks like great work, definately the thing that's helped me the most on this website. Most of the other stuff (reg tweaks and such) can be found all over the place, but there are definately no substitutes for your package... I had done one at work for the cards we use the most, but it's nothing like this! (and it already took so long... it's not even funny) [edit] ok, I guess there is no more dosnet.inf updates... hopefully they will return or perhaps there is a guide on how to do it all manually? ...

Don't know how much costco will want for that (I don't shop there) but places like ncix have them on for 40$ ish (canadian) all the time (usb2, sometimes firewire too). Works well for me. Registry is a system.dat and a user.dat per user.

Uh, that isn't the same thing at all, that's just normal form validation (comparing keystrokes with a allowed keystrokes and with a mask) - gone bad (bad implementation). It's an event of the textbox or whatever that had the focus, and no, they don't have events fot alt-tab. There are ways to prevent a user from switching tasks - but not this way (I don't know your setup - nor why/how you want to do this)

Some installs seem to go wrong like that - windows 2k, xp, or service pack. You got 2 main options at that point. Spend a week trying looking at errors, debugging, testing, diagnostics, etc (logged modes, nt event logs, bootvis, you name it). You end up spending great deals of time and usually it never fixes all the issues, the pc is so messed up that it will definately cause more issues in the future - or spend a couple hours to reinstall it clean and not have problems with it down the road... When an install goes bad like that (or crashes during the windows install or something similar), I don't waste time with it, it's just not worth it.

I had that happen with a good portion of sp1a to sp2 upgrades... (on otherwise perfectly good working PCs) I'm not upgrading any computer to sp2 anymore - I just reinstall them from a slipstreamed XP SP2 disc instead. No more problems

Cri... who? @Doggie: that's suprising (that there was a canadian there) since I thought half of of Canada's would never even have heard about it...

I suppose I fit in with that job title too (along with webmaster, DBA, ... throw another dozen random titles, ...) And sleepnmojo's first post spoke my mind Really looking forward to retirement in a year or 2

Being your first post nobody will hold it against you, but if you do a search (or try common switches), you will find most of these.

v6 is much nicer when it comes to features but yes, it's also a lot slower...You can always install both, they can co-exist without any issues... That's what I do

You mean, follow these ? Either ways it's definately a no

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Definately storage, no doubts about it (how about a drive array?). AV editing, music collection, video server, you name it - everything you do on a PC consumes massive amounts of storage. Storage is the one thing you can never have enough of. Ever since I got my first computer years ago, storage has always been the first limitating factor. LCDs? I'll skip on that one, I don't like them at all, gimme a 21" trinitron and I'm happy.

You mean it doesn't make miracles and automagically fix everything and anything like they claim? I'm so surprised - NOT.

No need for encryption/SSH or anything on his home LAN...

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There's already like, 27 billion other "interesting" blogs on the web to read... Could be an idea to mention what's it's about as well, because otherwise I doubt most people would bother visiting to find out.

I use RealVNC as well. Works on 2000/xp/2003 and it's free. (there are other variants of it too like TightVNC and others) VNC has Access Control like you want based on Host IP Adress (and subnet) patterns, you can change the ports and everything else easily too. However, it sure won't replace my KVM by any means. I only use it to remote control *distant* PCs.

I see no reason to install 98 before xp (it's something I'd really want to avoid) unless it's a upgrade disc... BIOS updating wise, if he was running xp fine before those 2 crashes (not like his post really says) then it won't help... It's definately not the first thing I'd blame anyways. -If you could post more information about the BSOD's, that would help a great deal -Having more information about your system would help a lot too (motherboard, etc) -You can check your ram with memtest86 to make sure it's good -You could try a disk scan (surface scan wouldn't hurt either) -I'd check the power supply voltages in system monitor... many PSUs go bad like that and it causes problems too... Could be just about anything right now and we don't have much to guess from.

It has NOTHING to do with that. It's a matter of forwarding the proper ports to the computer you want in the router because of NAT. If my memory serves me well, it is port 3389. Forward it to the proper IP (you do have to pick one) and it'll work fine. Make sure to use strong passwords too as anybody can attempt to log in too once it's exposed.

XP has a bad dns caching bug too... There's a regtweak for that. could also be your ISP. My ISP sucked so bad at I that I run DNS on my server instead... Works nicely.