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Just saw this. Figured I should clarify some things. None of my method is after install. It is 100% removal prior to installing. Although my method is simpler (see below) I advocate using nLite as it's far more flexible for most of what people want to do. I give only one set of options, Nuhi gives you a lot more choice. Long explanation short, my files remove Registry junk that adds up to quite a bit, and that does make a speed difference in Win2k due to the way the Registry works (works differently in XP, 2k3). A LOT of IE junk is in the Registry... have a look at my IE.INF to see what gets deleted. Also, as Kiki notes, the IE core is entirely gone. Also, Internet Information Server, Internet Information Server Debugger, MS FrontPage Extensions, Fax Services, Indexing Service, Imageviewer, MS PictureIT!, Games, Windows Scripting Host, Task Scheduler, DCOM, Internet Connection Wizard, ActiveMovie for IE, NetMeeting, and the fake MS-Java. Outlook is not installed by default but I include an INF to do so easily. Also, you have to use Windizupdate since the MS Windows Update site is IE only. Nuhi is correct in that some compatibility is broken with help files and some programs like PCAnywhere and other Symantec programs. I honestly don't know of much else. My files do have some Registry additions to make the system think IE is installed, so many programs such as Office will work fine. I wouldn't say my main focus is hatred of Microsoft, but I will admit that this is not far off. I use Kubuntu and Windows both. My method in 4 steps: 1. Copy i386 to your HDD 2. Download my files 3. Drag and drop into i386 and replace the existing files there 4. Burn a new bootable CD.

What's wrong with using HFSLIP to do this? The feature is now totally stable... See special IE7 notes.

Shoots Hawaiian Punch out of nose What?! Which line? HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{97E2C371-FDDD-11CF-807F-02608C8D98DF}" ? That line? Let me know. i don't see any problem but I've been known to miss things.

Thought I'd chime in since I use both the HFEXPERT method as well as an $OEM$ structure (mainly I use the latter so that I don't forget how it works, heh heh). Although I know exactly what TC means, I think someone new to HFSLIP might not understand that this essentially means nothing with your $OEM$ really has to change. By no special care, he means you can continue to use it if you wish, but the HFEXPERT method is simpler. Oleg_II's Ramdisk example still remains an amazing example of what this method can do for you.

Dovete scrivere "I have read the instructions" prima di voi continuare o cambiare queste parole in HFSLIP come "si"

I bought them out. When I saw the size of the check he was writing I shot Pepsi out of my nose. TommyP just about fainted. According to the terms, RyanVM now gets full access to the HFSLIP Labs, even his own magna-card to access the 1,000 cubic liter refrigerator for all the beer and lemon meringue pie he wants. P.S. Here are direct links to RyanVM's files (he hates that): One two three four five Even though I'm through with the Win2k fileset pretty much (unless someone finds a big error for me to correct), I'll still be kicking around here periodically. I still have one issue with HFSLIP that I am working with TC to address. But other than that, it's on to learning Linux. I have been using both for a while and though there is plenty I can't do at the present moment in Kubuntu, it's time I learned (Vista's not in my future). Here, for no apparent reason, is a movie recommendation. All you HFSLIP guys, being technical, will love Primer. NTSC, PAL

Agreed, with XP there is not a huge advantage of going without IE. Windows 2000 benefits the most from not having IE. if everyone wud rather try to look at the simple 3 questions - which was the whole intent to open this topic, we wud have a better thread here. 1. Use nLite to remove IE and the core. You can go into REGEDIT and further remove any entries dealing with IE and it's DLLs. Because of the way XP's registry works, removing IE keys would not have much of an impact. Windows 2000's registry works differently (the whole thing is loaded, XP's is paged). 2. Once IE is removed, you cannot add it back. You would have to reinstall XP. 3. IE 7 is better than IE6.

I love this idea but I have to ask, monohouse, with that avatar, are you still using Windows? I can't read the text but it looks like you're not a fan of Microsoft

100% concur. What is your OS? Let me say this about removing IE... if you are asking about removing it and then in the very next sentence you are asking about installing IE7 at some unknown point in the future, then this means you really DON'T want to have an IE-free system, you only think you do. I have a theory that says that people who install without any IE whatsoever and then go and hunt down and delete all IE registry keys are only a stone's throw away from using Linux, whether they know it at the time or not...

I changed my MSHTML installer completely to Oleg's, but I have never tested it. It is now in my fileset. However... Because of a fluke which Tomcat is helping me work on, MSHTML.DLL -is- now installed in the system32 directory. This is due to the way HFSLIP parses and adds filenames to TXTSETUP. It shouldn't be happening but I need to work with Tomcat to get this fixed. The reality is that even with these unnecessary files in system32, explorer still will not display web sites, nor will ActiveX controls be a concern, etc. So even with this bug in place the system is still quite secure. Request: I need a CMD file to parse TXTSETUP and generate a list of filenames with a semicolon in front. I -think- I had one once but I don't recall whop wrote it. I'm an INF writer not a CMD writer. Any takers? It would parse TXTSETUP and... make a list in another file... filename1.111 ;filename2.222 ;filename3.333 filename4.444 would make a TXT file that would only have in it... filename2.222 filename3.333 Any takers? Maybe TommyP made that little util for me.. I'll have to ask because I have little memory.

I'll offer my thoughts on the difficulty presented here. I don't want the following to be read as being offensive or dictatorial. I say all of this while being friendly, in the spirit of the forum. It's inevitable that you'll be asked why you want to keep things like the pictures of joysticks. To be clear, HFSLIP is geared toward replacing old files with new ones. Application add-ons are a happy side effect of what HFSLIP can do. I pick this statement out because it brings up a larger point: you're hesitant to use it based on a lack of understanding. That lack of understanding is a concern because HFSLIP "sometimes does things I don't want it to do." Do you trust the devs to make good decisions? I don't want to be insulting, but there has been no rush to document code because the devs listened to forum input on all sorts of issues. I would agree that understanding the code and the INF manipulation is a steep learning curve, but there are those here who do understand by reading source. Source commenting is something the principal players have been too busy to do, and HFSLIP has changed radically in a short time. That would take a lot of effort to keep up with. Tom certainly doesn't have the time, and Tomcat's quite busy. Back in the day, when HFSLIP was getting started, it made leaps and bounds as folks experimented with pushing boundaries and adding new features (before this forum existed). As an example, driver CAB merging was something that no one person knew completely... me, Oleg and Tommy studied system files, played with experimental builds that Tom issued hourly, and after about 6 or 7 tries we'd nailed the feature over a weekend. On Friday, we knew it was a feature that would be great to add, like nLite had. By Monday we knew how it worked so well we could probably explain it in our sleep. These days, we'd have to go back to our notes You're doing what needs to be done in order to learn. I mean, it's what we did. Examine source material on the Internet and do lots of digging. Even now, I know more about INF files and Tommy knows more about CMD files and if I want to examine a feature in HFSLIP I have to ask Tommy or TC. There is a lot to be said for asking specific questions. But you're trying to "learn it all," it seems, and I'm going to tell you what you know but maybe hate to hear: it's really tough and we were at the same point you are but it takes time. Ultimately there is more value in you proceeding as you are than in the devs adding comments to code (other than a section header here or there). I admit, commented source might get everyone here more knowledgeable a lot quicker, but no one really has the time, and this brings up a second problem: code won't give you all of your answers (read on below about this point). The specific questions you have (for example) about IE slipstreaming seem to be more related to why rather than how. A key concept here is that MS is about bloat. They make very sloppy code, and in order to implement something, they just throw more files into the mix. TommyP's original goal was to slipstream IE6, and that's about it. He spent a LOT of time writing code when he decided to go beyond that and slipstream hotfixes too. In any case, though I can't speak for him, I think TommyP would simply say, "trust me." Integrating IE 6 simply replaces IE 5 and to put it bluntly, there is a whole lot of detail that most people just don't need to know or bother with. Maybe it's nice to know that web channels worked differently in IE 5 than in 6 but it's one example of component-specific knowledge that probably isn't very useful. And a lot of components are like that. Another example: when the Post SP4 Rollup came out, we noticed the HAL ACPI problem. There was also an ATAPI file problem. MS reissued the hotfix fixing the ATAPI issue but they neglected the ACPI problem. The HFSLIP devs know this, but even with examining the source, you probably wouldn't realize what's going on there unless you know the backstory. This is what I mean when I say that there are things that are just trivia or background -- it's component-specific knowledge that probably isn't very useful. Yet another example: DOS-based installs. A DOS install uses DOSNET.INF. CD-based installs don't. In order to support DOS installs, HFSLIP would have to make edits to DOSNET. Since there was zero demand for DOS installs and TommyP had no interest in the feature, it wasn't implemented. Supporting DOS installs would require a lot of testing and a whole new layer of complexity. Code won't tell you this but the HFSLIP "senior citizens" like me know the backstory. Comments in code would have limited usefulness since if DOS installs were one day added as a feature, HFSLIP wouldn't just have a section that says "parse and edit DOSNET here." Large parts would have to be analyzed and rewritten a bit in several places. HFSLIP has a lot of elegant and very clever tricks it uses, and adding DOS support would again be work few are willing to implement, preferring to devote time to other features. HFOE is Outlook stuff. The best way to learn about Outlook is to expand and examine MSOE50.IN_. It's just copying files and adding a lot of entries to the registry. Oh, and a LOT of files and registry entries for stationery. Which I believe most users would not find very useful... (Gee, thanks Microsoft, for providing nice graphics that make my e-mails bigger and come through as attachments to non-Outlook users.) Different versions: wouldn't reduce code all that much. Older versions: I'm sure Tommy would oblige. Slipstreaming without HFSLIP: extract a hotfix with the /X switch. Take the new files and drag them into i386, replacing the old ones. The challenge there would be any new files not already in i386, and any new registry entries in the hotfix. Anyway, I hope this is a helpful start on some of these questions and issues. Apologies in advance if you knew much of this stuff.

Yeah, I agree, if other software gave edit+preview in real time, I'd switch in a heartbeat. I hate DW so much I can't even describe it.

I have a request for help but I didn't want to start a new thread. I am submitting my work site to browsershots and it just keeps dropping my request after 14 minutes each time. I need to see my company website in IE7. FireFox 3 would be nice too. So, all you IE7 runners. Could you load up http://www.nscp.org/login.php and see if it's got any text and a place to log in? FF doesn't display it right, due to some CSS hack I had to use to get things to work. It displays in Opera 9 and IE6. PM me or e-mail me. A screenshot would be nice but I just wanna know if there's anything there other than a header and a left-hand Flash menu. TIA folks

@Oleg -- By 'leaving in the source' you mean leaving it in the TXTSETUP file so that it would get installed? So in other words, you recommend not installing MSHTML.DLL the traditional way, during a regular install, and installing it afterward, using your INF, right? Just want to be sure I have this all correct before I put the info on my site. Thank you very much for this bit of detective work Oleg!

Whoops, yeah... thought I'd linked to hfslip.org. Sorry! I'll edit it now... (opens Dreamweaver)

Just add it to a reghive. Copy your CD to the HDD. Open HIVESFT.INF Add the line below Save Burn a new CD. I am not sure but I think USP5.x is English only. Of course I defer to Gurglemeyer's official answer on that. [Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$" DriverVer=06/19/2003,5.00.2195.6717 [AddReg] ; enable large block addressing HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters","EnableBigLba",0x10001,01,00,00,00

On a related note, I saw on a German language board last year some guy had hosted hfslip on his own site, rewrote most of the instructions, claimed credit, the whole deal. He forgot to change the contents of the binary... anyway, I'm sure he thought he was well beyond our reach until I had someone write some nastiness in German for me, and I posted it. Looks like this guy is bringing HFSLIP to the masses in Japan but keeping credit where it's due, which is good...

(I see Oleg_II has successfully tested HFSLIP's "forward time travel" feature) This approach would be a huge selling point (you have to admit, the $OEM$ do-it-the-hard-way crowd seems awfully slow to adopt) but all possible settings is going to make a mighty big file, no? What if we write a FAQ on this, and pin it, and have different approaches. For example, I like step one, but how about a user-created hfsata.inf that is put into the HFSATA directory (which a user creates manually, like certain other HF folders, to avoid questions from non-instruction readers). The user would inject the information from, (or rename the) inf driver file. I assume Oleg_II means to include them both in the DRIVERS cab file. Over all I really like this idea but IMO we should depend more heavily on user action for step two. Good to have you back, Oleg

Glad to know I was missed even for a few brief hours.. seriously! I autorenewed the domain but they had my old address, and the credit card company came back as "invalid information" so they shut me down. I'm back in the game now though. And not in trouble thankfully! I've been doing my own electrical wiring in my house, the lady I bought it from never updated it. The wiring is literally about 100 years old. SO I am ripping and re-designing circuits. Takes time to do the job right though! Time. Timetimetime. Did I mention I moved a piano today? I am sitting here and it is 10 deg C here and it's not unbearable but jeez I am cold. Even with oil as it is I still hate spending money so I throw an extra blanket on the bed but I have to sit in the cold as I surf the 'net and my joints ache from the cold. Makes me feel old and I'm only 35, heh. Wrote a long, rambling letter to TP the other day; he's been scarce around these parts as well I see but I know he is busy as well. He has sworn me to secrecy and I am not allowed to say that he has purchased a weasel farm and plans to breed them for racing. So, about the piano. Hold on I need a yogurt, BRB. Anyway when I moved into my place, the old woman who lived her previously had TWO pianos. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot right, but yeah... two. One was broken. We asked her to leave the GOOD one. What's she do? Leave the place a mess and take the good one. No good dirty unicorn spanking midget tossing pirate licking whore. So I got / conned some gents into rolling it out the front door. Just as Diana pulls up, with her car in front of the walkway, and here we come with the piano. She moves it just as we send the thing careeing down my steps and onto the walk but even though it had casters it didn't go anywhere. It sounds stupid but I really had no place to put it so if it rolled down the street I was honestly going to just ignore it. Hey, who the heck is going to trace some random broken piano back to me? That woulda been funny... just get rid of the thing by rolling it down the street. I live in a place where if it HAD gone down the street, it would have ended up in an intersection. SO, yeah. That's what I have going on. Not much else. I'm lying, I leave for DC in t weeks for a national conference. Gotta act respectable for that. Suit and tie and listen to attorneys talk shop (these are not people who know how to have fun). I have not updated the site in some time, but as it's been noted, the process is mature and there isn't really much left to do. I still get really weird questions from time to time, even about XP... I still use Win2k and Kubuntu. Easy Ubuntu makes it a breeze. The more I hear about Vista, the more I realize it's a futile battle and the only future to MS products is either the FDV fileset for 2k or nLite for XP. Heye, did you guys hear about 10 security fixes on the 10th? Many criticals. Just loserrific. I took a sleeping pill 50 minutes ago and I'm nodding off... Time to go to bed, definitely. TTYL gents (and 2 ladies)

I add it to an INF. This is what the first few lines of my HIVESFT look like for example [Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$" DriverVer=06/19/2003,5.00.2195.6717 [AddReg] ; enable large block addressing HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters","EnableBigLba",0x10001,01,00,00,00 [file proceeds normally]

ACK! I'd better pull it before anyone does any more damage... Sorry folks

maxXPsoft sorry about that, if you know of a fix, let me know. That was unintentional. I'll dig into this and see if I can't prevent that from happening.

Edit: removed link until some serious issues are fixed! It worked for me but there are very obviously problems and it would be irresponsible to let more folks download and just run it. --- original post --- I've had this little INF for a long while. I mainly used to use it on people's XP systems when they downgraded from 2000 to XP. It has a bunch of convenient tweaks in it and I thought I'd might as well post it so others can benefit. Sure, the stuff is no big deal, but for example, Google how to remove the search dog and you get 20,000 pages of instructions on Registry Tweaks. All I wanted was an INF, not adding DWORDs... anyway, that's just one example. It also works on Windows 2003. It removes search dog, ZIP folders, MyDocuments, Web Publishing Wizard, the default obsolete version of MS Passport, integrated CD Burning, resets graphical and media file extensions, and a few more things -- be sure to read comments in the INF). This is an aggregation and maybe 50% of it is original work of mine, the rest I cobbled from various places on the 'Net.

No... It's something I did intend but 2003's odd quirks, probably defense mechanisms? acted up when I tried to edit the TXTSETUP and related INF and other text setup files. Lots of bluescreens. TommyP's sets are really the best we're going to do in this area.

It's stable and final. We're all done with this sucker. To truly convert, you need something like the 2003 to xp conversion program here.