fdv

i had a problem with SBC yahoo. as it turns out, they use a "Mother, May I?" approach to internet access. optimum online: turn cable modem on. plug into firewall. plug in pc. you're on the 'net. SBC DSL: an odyssey of pain, because their sh?tty software throttled the speed of the client's computer. i had to enter information from phone bills i didn't have access to (i'm the guy they hired to do the job, i'm not their accountant ) as it turned out, all the software did was phone home (i.e. contact SBC) and then allowed access to the 'net. i spent an hour on the phone with a tech before he FINALLY admitted that all i had to do was enter an IP address, enter the modem with it, and make an adjustment, and i would be connected WITHOUT their software. i wrote a letter of complaint and never heard back. i also CC'd the letter to Optimum Online and told them to use it in an anti-DSL ad. the bottom line here is that you have paid to access the internet via their DSL, and they are PLAYING GAMES. you do NOT need their software. you need the IP of their modem (something like 192.168.0.1, maybe 192.168.1.1, i forget). type it into firefox or mozilla or opera and have a tech help you to make the adjustments. the software is nothing more than a way to allow the machine to verify that you didn't steal the modem. tell them, as i did, that treating you like a criminal in order to connect to the 'net is a real a??hole move on their part, and that you'll write letters and keep calling until they STOP PLAYING IDIOTIC GAMES and make the adjustment in the modem and forget the pointless bloatware. i know this is a total pain, but in my case, the client had no choice but to use DSL. my reputation as a consultant was at stake because of SBC's idiocy and i sure made the time to set them straight.

hello all, i can in fact confirm all is working. however, everyone must be sure to download the latest HFSLIP. no silly desktop IE icon, fake IE shortcut in QuickLaunch, everything's working nicely. this set becomes the official set soon. the fake or dummy IE that launches your browser of choice sets a reg key for the path. right now, it's not clear how to reset that if you want to change it, so i have to put that in the documentation. the location is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\datafreak\dummy\path and if it's blank, the dummy IE program will ask for the path again.

changes / fixes in test set 4 (November 27), listed no matter how minor: - fixed ie desktop icon, thanks tommyp - fixed quicklaunch, thanks oleg_ii and tommyp - corrected buggy regedits in IE.INF - AXANT5 is empty (again) and the filecopy is (back) in IE.INF if this tests out allright it becomes the next fileset Jessevl sorry, no, no one is working on this actually except some nliters. i will be doing 2003.saugatak we actually knew this but we were focusing on AddReg sections in the new system DLL files. tommyp discovered that it was an AddReg section from an INF file, and not one of the shell files. we were all looking in the wrong place for the icon creation! HFSLIP has been changed slightly to skip desktop icon creation when processing HFSLIP10.INF. even if the icon is created on the desktop, double clicking it will launch the iexplore.exe "redirect" program. Ha!

hey guys, i have been away at relatives'... this seems to be it. my IE.INF does destroy QuickLaunch (to save typing I am going to just call it QL now) so i restructured IE.INF but it still screws it up... (i am away from home but i dont have the answer anyway). anyway it still requires manually creating the directory, and no one has found the trigger, the difference between the SP4 fileset and the new one i am testing (i know i should be able to figure it out but have not had time ) anyway, oleg_ii has the start of the problem, the two keys for Classic Interface need to be commented out from my IE.INF but there is something else; maybe a DLL that creates the directory, i dunno. i appreciate you guys helping so much, what with comparing filesets. if i had only known what i did would kill QL ah well, we'll figure it out. even if we have to create the stupid directory with an INF. then i'll just put that in good old AXANT5.INF. anyone got the RunOnce code for running CMD and creating the dir? even with this, i bet creating new accounts will have the same problem each time. i am convinced it is a DLL because IE.INF, even if i don't use it and blank it out, still allows QL to exist but does not create it. in TXTSETUP, i put a ;2 after files that were in the SP4 fileset but that i took out of my test set. in other words, ;1 was always out, and ;2 is newly commented out (removed). so, anyone wanna try my SP4 fileset with my test set's IE.INF just to be sure it is not the INF file? that way we'll be closer to the %$@%%$#ing answer.. i would but again i am not at home right now. FDV, who hopes to be home tomorrow night (i never really loved the holidays)

random note. ieuinit.inf is what actually creates the directory for the Quicklaunch. i have edited IE.INF so that it does not destory Quicklaunch anymore, great, but nothing ever appears there in the QL toolbar because the whole "microsoft\internet explorer" directory does not get created in Documents and Settings. so, there is space on the toolbar, and the computer thinks Active Desktop is still installed (a side effect of choosing to keep quicklaunch capability). so i have to adapt the inf but it appears to hinge around some IE dll files. so i probably will end up at a brick wall. i need to create a directory with an INF file i guess, that would be easiest, then that's done. when i create one with a filecopy -- in other words, when i have a filecopy in an INF and tell the INF to copy a file into that directory, windows obviously creates it. fine. but it creates a second account. so you end up with "Administrator" as well as something like "Administrator.54675423". so a filecopy op will not fix this. it's really confusing. quicklaunch appears intimately connected with IE. and i like it so much, too. i have not used my sp4 fileset in AGES. did i read that that does not kill quicklaunch? if not then obviously i made a booboo somewhere when i updated the fileset ps no one has delkey info for me to add to the MRUKILLER.EXE file?

my initials. i made an easy way to remove internet explorer from windows 2000. you download files, then drag and drop into i386 (replacing anything there already) and then burn, and you are IE-free. the page also has details how to make an updated fully patched and slipstreamed windows (2000, xp, 2003). click the graphic in the sig for more info.

see, this is odd. HHCTRL needs other files to work. and izarc just needs this one and not others? i guess alone it isnt too much of a problem. i mean, technically, it is exploitable, but without MSHTML.DLL maybe it's not exploitable in any meaningful way so perhaps its no worry. you could plug it into place in system32 and not have any worries i am sure. you know i have to admit. i am not a big one for pop music, etc but i grabbed the new madonna for my wife and i'm listening to it and it's great imo. just sayin'. totally random. i'm thinking i'm fairly done with the fileset. remember that MRU killer a few pages back? an exe that deletes history and such? if you folks send me registry keys (either .reg or .inf format, .inf preferred) of registry values that delete histories for other programs (say for example irfanview or whatever) i'll add them. it's easy. that stupid icon is impossible. so, i decided to be clever and i gave it a path to the fake IE which will launch your alternative browser (FF, Moz, Opera, kmeleon, whatever). guess thats it for now.

link fixed, thx

nLite. the SFCFILES.DL_ has been pre-modifyPE'd and is simply an empty DLL, shutting of file protection. others have been having trouble with nLite's latest beta and this file as well lately.

tommyp - it references it but doesn't actually do anything related to it, if i am seeing things correctly. the only reference in the file is in the Strings section. maybe this is the file where it used to be set up, but doesn't appear to be the case anymore. yes but at first i am concentrating on cleaning out the biggest most difficult monster of all, the 2003 registry.

no, i do know it's in IE.INF and it is something in the first addreg section that is either turning it off or killing the OS's ability to display it. i thought i had it figured out, so i removed the line i thought it was (the one that says " ; turn webview off" but that wasn't it, so it seems it was / is probably more than one line at work screwing things up. still working on it, sorry to say! it's really the only hurdle left before i adopt this as my new fileset... then i start work on windows 2003...

By the way, Poll!

Frank The Invisible Bunnyrabbit says, "If you're installing once a day, you need professional help."

Just curious Apologies if this poll has been done

that's allright; i am aiming to completely phase out my lists in favor of the_guy's lists. i have one modest request but i wonder what others think (maybe i am the only one who thinks this way) i'd like to see the lists of fixes more friendly... instead of this October 2004: 840987 MS04-032: Security update for Microsoft Windows http://support.microsoft.com/?id=840987 February 2005: *885834 MS05-010: Vulnerability in the License Logging service could allow code execution http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885834/* 842773 An update package that includes BITS 2.0 and WinHTTP 5.1 is available for Windows Server 2003, for Windows XP, and for Windows 2000 http://support.microsoft.com/?id=842773 you would have this: 840987 - MS04-032: Security update for Microsoft Windows Oct 2004 885834 - MS05-010: Vulnerability in the License Logging service could allow code execution Feb 2005 842773 - An update package that includes BITS 2.0 and WinHTTP 5.1 is available for Windows Server 2003, for Windows XP, and for Windows 2000 Feb 2005 maybe i am the only one who feels this way because that's how i used to do it? what do others think? i just want it to be friendly for new folks i guess.

you pretty much nailed it, but they were all leftovers from other dead systems that would be another thing, and that's the whole idea of what i am getting at -- people going through what is IMHO massive effort (or expense) for questionable, minutely small gains that in some cases probably cannot even be measured.

okay, here's my system. Abit IT7 Max2, ATI Radeon 7000, 512MB Corsair 4000 memory, Pentium 4 2.0 GHz 4 hard drives for a total of something like 100 gigs what else. i dunno. anyway, at work: Abit IC7 G, ATI Radeon 9000, 512MB Corsair 4000 memory, Pentium 4 2.0 GHz 2 hard drives, 60 gigs total i know most folks here have machines that go way beyond these specs. anyway. i list these because what i want to ask... once you pare down the installed OS, why go further? i know i am asking the wrong crowd but it's least likely to get me flamed here. HFSLIP users i think mostly want to use their machines, not tweak them all day. i understand using nlite, but that's not really what i'm talking about. i am talking about the guys who would re-run nlite just so they can do a complete re-install on a one-week old system just so they can save a hundred and fifty kilobytes. reduction is one thing, i'm talking about extremists. i personally like a fast windows os, like 2000 (obviously). i don't like overhead i don't use, like fax DLLs in memory, that's just stupid on Microsoft's part. if IE were totally secure and local and internet zones did not leak into each other, i might use it, who knows. as its been said, ya can't un-swiss the cheese. really small files but why take out a component that you might use--or even one you don't for argument's sake--just to save 512k on a machine that has a 30 gig drive? why reduce the boot drive to 60 megs? here's why i ask: a good drive-space aware defragger will make the performance of a fairly loaded drive (say, a 170 meg install) about the same in a direct comparison. unused files simply will not cause any delay in load times and use of the operating system (again, the defragger has to use a good drive-space strategy, the built-in windows defragger is questionable in this regard). oh, and those who would talk about cluster-waste, this is NTFS, remember guys? and the kicker? performance geeks (especially XP users) don't even gut the MOST IMPORTANT thing that can increase their speed, the REGISTRY!!! they worry about a few kilobytes of files but their registries are weighing in at 20 megs??!?! WHAT?!?!? language files same deal. just because nlite makes the list look long does not mean these files take a lot of space. someone clue me in here please. these files don't amount to diddly. well, in total a few megs. again, as above -- so what? your machine has endless hd space. the os isn't even calling these files or loading them into memory. your defragged drive can let them sit unused without a problem because your defragger can put unused files at the end of the drive. and your swap file is on its own partition anyway, right? right?? (if not, it should be). boot times do these guys turn on their machine, time the boot with a stopwatch, and then post the results and pass out awards? i leave my machines running all day. i reboot every two weeks, maybe. maybe. source reduction a dvd-r drive can be found for under 100 USD / 85 EUR. a dvd blank is not that expensive. why reduce source? if you are reducing source on a cd-r, why? you can't fit ms office and windows on one cd-r. even if i burn all of my programs to cd-r, it takes one... i couldn't add them to my windows cd anyway, they all take 800mb. never mind adobe creative suite which is its own dvd. i'd need to reduce my windows install cd to about 10 mb (ten megs) to fit all of my other programs on the same disk, like nero, partition magic, dreamweaver, virtual pc, etc etc etc. XP users who talk about performance ok, i just do NOT get this one. they use xp, rip out all of the extra stuff so it's almost as slim as win2k, and say they use it because it's faster, or it's more stable, etc. faster or more stable than what? GEOS running on a Commodore 64? xp is pretty. it has to have hundreds of tweaks added to it so that it doesn't re-arrange your icons without asking, doesn't hide your desktop items, doesn't hide control panel items, doesn't hide task bar icons, doesn't try to cache stuff in the prefetch at boot time so booting doesn't take longer when you uninstall something later, doesn't mess with your start menu, doesn't offer some sort of retarded "shared documents" thing when you're trying to set up networking, etc. it has to be nlite'd to he?? and back just to strip out stuff so that it comes a little closer to the IE-free win2k. doesn't anyone actually use their machines anymore? does all of this reflect the general ignorance of the mass user who doesn't understand drive defragmentation or how windows loads DLLs? do people really need to reduce the size of their source because they are ALL putting 7 operating systems on one multiboot dvd? fdv, who is just not understanding any of this "reduce it to zero" stuff any more

sorry we threw you off NtegrA yes, the files are indeed interchangeable. you may rename the boot.img file and it will work. cdimage is "dormant" for now, to use sci-fi movie parlance until we figger some things about it out.

just wanted to second -I-'s post. perfectly said, and i want to re-emphasize that there is no reason to use XP programs, because the hooks are not where win2k expects them to be. the NTDETECT.COM and ntldr files are the only ones that can be swapped out for a performance gain. there might be others that maybe might work like perhaps MSHTML.DLL, and you could try them out, but i have no doubt they would degrade performance rather than enhance it.

i see some people saying the SP1 dx9c is incomplete, but i don't know on what basis this is said? is some software nonfunctional? tommyp and i, when he was developing slipstreaming for windows 2003 for HFSLIP (click on pic in sig) did a detailed analysis of dx9 and 2003 sp1. i did a registry analysis of before and after and found that only a few keys had changed. no files were replaced. a detailed analysis of dx9c files and their 2003 counterparts revealed that all of dx9c really is there. so, i am interested in a definitive answer on this, but i am in the 'it's all there' camp right now.

Hidden in HFSLIP was / is a nice feature that can save you ISO creators (like me) a good bit of time. It has now been documented. HFSLIP can make an ISO automatically! If you are NOT going to make an ISO or want to run nLite before making one, skip this. 1. Create a boot sector file from your Windows CD. You need to extract a copy of your CD's boot sector using Bart's boot image extractor. (Or use Google, you'll find it easily). Place original Windows cd into your cd drive Open comand prompt Type D:\BBIE.EXE E: (D is the drive letter bbie is installed on, E is the drive letter of your CDRom drive!) A file called “image1.bin” will be created on your hard drive. Rename this to BOOT.BIN and put it in HFTOOLS. 2. Download a Win32 build of MKISOFS.EXE from anywhere on the 'net. You could get MKISOFS.EXE here too. Put this file into HFTOOLS. The reason I recommended the Min32 build in PMs is because some packages come with, and require, CYGWIN1.DLL also. If the one you find and download comes with this DLL, be sure to include it in HFTOOLS. It's just nice to have a binary that doesn't require an extra DLL, and if / when the guy sees a bunch of traffic grabbing this file, I am sure he'll move or remove it from his site (I wanted to be sure that the HFSLIP regulars grabbed a copy). MKISOFS can be redistributed (we don't because there's no reason to make the download bigger when MKISOFS is everywhere on the 'net. The standalone Ming32 compile is rare though, and there's no source with it, and I don't want to end up being the only guy hosting it. If HFSLIP detects both MKISOFS.EXE and BOOT.BIN in the HFTOOLS folder, it will create an ISO called WINLite.ISO alongside your hfslip_xxxxx.cmd file.

Oops, that Distribution Share stuff was left over from ages ago. I will remove it; sorry about that. Slipstreaming DirectX 9c kinda throws the DOS installation stuff off. edit: but that's 2000. as for xp, now that i am thinking about it, why wouldn't an install from a shared resource work? Hmm <scratches chin>. uhh... calling all RIS guys? i bet if you simply copy xp's or 2003's i386 folder to a local drive like D:\ and ran winnt.exe from there it would probably work. across a network, i don't know. never tried xp or 2003 that way.

Oleg_II installed a RAM disk this way: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=59606 The thing is, you've gotta rewrite the INF to remove the filecopy stuff. I'll be trying this with my Laserjet 4 drivers but that's really a simple filecopy operation. muchlux, if you want to send me or post the INF for your IDE chipset drivers, I'll have a look and render an opinion. (If doing this, the best thing is to host it and link to it; if not that, then add it as an attachment to your post. Try to avoid putting it in a "codebox" because it will probably be way too long.)

ZenMystic Delete WINNT.SIF and it should let you specify all sorts of variables including destination. as for WMP 9, i really don't remember if it requires IE. i know it requires MSHTML to display it's stuff, so part of its functionality does require IE. but as tommyp points out, many alternatives exist and they are all, bar none, better than microsoft's media player. many will give you links to their favorite players; mine is the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack with Media Player Classic.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA that was good