jaclaz

Yep, and - to be picky (as I am) - EasyBCD is IMNSHO also "border line" (if not downright over it) as anyway re-distributes a few MS files, beside mis- or under- documenting the grub4dos and ultradefrag that is underneath (not complying with their GPL license, i.e. not providing source, etc.), and "forgetting" the PLoP altogether. Just for the record at the time there was some bickering with the Author of the tool that completely failed to make the thingy compliant : http://reboot.pro/topic/17655-boot-into-3rd-party-efi-application-via-bcd/ nothing blatant - of course - still not the kind of quality/carefulness I would expect from a (largely Commercial) initiative. jaclaz

Yep, as said it is not easy , a lot of files went through the stupid doanload.aspx or thankyou.aspx and then possibly some through to conxion.com and they were not cached by the WaybacK Machine or - more probably - they were cached but we can't find them, most of the files for which we do have an actual download link are usually cached, but in the meantime a lot of places where such direct links were posted went down, it's a mess. Additional resource (just in case) sporting many such "direct links": http://erpman1.tripod.com/archive/wnt4upd.html jaclaz

Well, to be fair, you take something totally UNdocumented (the BIOS) that empirically and through years of experience works fine (though with a few limitations) and decide to create a completely NEW "standard" (the UEFI) senselessly complicated by having it developed by a committeee and OVER-document it, and you couple it with another NEW "standard" (the GPT) also developed by a committee, but this time UNDER-documented and then use anyway a non fully compliant implementation of both and let most motherboard manufacturers have each their own (different and not fully compliant - but differently) implementation, something is about to happen before or later. Nothing can be fully compliant with more than 2,000 - two thousands - pages of (BTW unclear and often contrasting) documentation, particularly if even each member of the committee do not respect the standard. Besides the MS or the Asus guys, the people to blame are IMNSHO the ones on UEFI.org, particularly the INTEL peeps, that pushed and helped this madness. jaclaz

Well, apart the use of the WAREZ you mention for which you won't have support here, the SSD might well be part of the issue, particularly when coupled with the EasyBCD and the *whatever* (possibly flawed) ways it uses grub4dos to mount/access the .iso. Try from USB with NO OTHER device connected to the PC if not the target disk drive. Try expressly with WinsetupFromUSb: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/157-install-windows-from-usb/ http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/120444-how-to-install-windows-from-usb-winsetupfromusb-with-gui/ http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/ Try the XP 32 bit first (as the tool was developed intiially for it and there were obviously many more bugs reports and fixes for it) and remember that you might need the modified NTDETECT.COM. jaclaz

Check also here: and on the Wayback Machine: https://archive.org/ (though not everything has been cached, sometimes files can be found) Consider how a lot of this files might have been renamed, when archived on this or that FTP site (or wherever) as an example WindowsNT4-KB840315-ENU.EXE, specifically for it (and for a few later ones), looky here : ftp://piekraste.daba.lv/pub/Service_Pack/NT_4/SP6/hotfixes-postsp6a/security/ It is not at all easy to find them (if possible at all) anymore jaclaz

see also this: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?444831-HOWTO-enable-AHCI-mode-after-installing-Windows jaclaz

@dencorso Naah, that is Vista or later. @Xiaonpang I am failing to follow you, if you "lack" an optical drive, on what (I won't ask why) exactly you are booting the EasyBCD stuff, another hard disk? That could be an issue as a lot of boards with the new stupid UEFI (even in CSM) have queer ways to enumerate disks, installing the XP from WinSetupFromUSB or RMPREPUSB or Rufus or - specifically in this case using a PE 3.x would be however next step. You'll need some patience, each of the methods mentioned above (and a few more you can find on the relevant section of the board) may contain *something* or *something else* that does not play well with your board so don't be put down if one of them doesn't work. Maybe you could boot from USB a PE pf some kind and check the VID/PID of the exposed controller (just to check that the BIOS compatibility mode provides the "right" ones). I am not at all familiar with UEFI based motherboards but I have read several horror stories about a same motherboard behaving differently when booted from this or that bus, you might even want to - if the size of the disk and your intended setup allow it - to actually install a PE 3 to a small partition on the disk to see what happens. jaclaz

Hmmm. XP 32 bit would not even boot without BIOS CSM in UEFI (if you prefer XP is ONLY BIOS compatible and NOT UEFI compatible), and ONLY the IA64 (Itanium processor) version of 64 bit XP used UEFI. You need to go into your UEFI and enable CSM (Compatibility Support Mode) AND (maybe/possibly) disable a bunch of other options, you might need to check Asus documentation for the BIOS. Anyway make sure that ALL ports are set to IDE, see: http://www.overclock.net/t/1072574/problem-with-xp-on-asus-m5a97-evo and try an UNtouched XP 32 bit source (it is perfectly possible that you did everything correctly but - for *any* reason - the slipstreaming of the drivers failed). For the sake of the experiment, disconnect ALL other hard disks and keep connected ONLY the disk where you wish to install XP. jaclaz

Well, lots of things are not hard to imagine, the idea was to separate tested facts from imagination. Q1. (by jaclaz) Does the "convenience roll-up package" contain or deploy any file connected to GWX or "Get Windows 10" technology? A1. (by 351387) No, or at least I could find none of them (though Diagtrack service was re-enabled) Q2. (additional question inspired by NoelC) Does the above mean that any other update (offline or online) will NEVER contain or deploy any file connected to GWX or "Get Windows 10" technology? A2. (by jaclaz) No. Q3. (by NoelC) Who could possibly say whether it has ANY "thingies" in it? A3. (by jaclaz) Noone. jaclaz

Could it be KOmondo.exe? https://web.archive.org/web/20050311231336/http://download.microsoft.com/download/ie5/IME/5.02/W9XNT4/EN-US/komondo.exe jaclaz

Just to disambiguate, the UBCD is usually a reference to this project (Ultimate Boot CD): http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ or to this other one (Ultimate Boot CD for Windows): http://www.ubcd4win.org/ The "Unattended and Updated Boot CD for Windows 98" (IF this is what ~♥Aiko♥Chan♥is referencing) was not officially called UBCD (as a matter of fact it did include the UBCD, but that's another story), files were called Win98_UBCD ...: And I really don't think it was to be considered "warez", it was just a builder and you had to provide the files and of course the key, AFAICR, though the latest project files have not been cached AFAIK, some info is still available: https://web.archive.org/web/20070911110929/http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=53392 https://web.archive.org/web/20070912053035/http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=88008 and the earlier 35r1 version of the files can still be obtained (still through Wayback Machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20061223230206/http://www.iinet.net.au/~hiandy/code35r1.zip jaclaz

Just to disambiguate, it is correct that the convenience rollup does NOT include any of the GWX thingies? jaclaz

Good , still it seems (to me) like an overlay of complication. I mean, what is the actual issue with a "plain" .html page with links *like*: MediaPlayerClassic v1.71 for Win2K - MD5=bac8c681f6525c56091ba3ea2ae0ac4c or similar? jaclaz

If I may, I don't think that the question was about the reason why CLI was chosen over GUI, but rather about what was the reason/need to create a (seemingly very complex) Server/Client setup. I just quickly checked the github repository, but it seems to me like you are making an "engine" for a "database" of some kind, but it is not clear (at least to me) where the contents of the "database" will (hopefully) come from, who will maintain them, etc., and (still IMHO) it is not like "Just like apt-get" sounds like a "feature" to be pursued or "ideal" tool that one would want/need to emulate. I mean, isn't there the risk of falling in the classical xkcd standards trap? : https://xkcd.com/927/ jaclaz

... or use 7-zip ... jaclaz

Maybe you could experiment with WOSB: http://dennisbabkin.com/wosb/ whether different standby modes are available/work differently on your machine. jaclaz

Hey peeps, with all due respect , and if I may , lists would be more useful (for search/comparison/etc.) in a TEXT format than in some (lousy) images. And yes, I know I could pass those into some OCR software, but if you could post the list as text, it would be IMHO easier to deal with them. jaclaz

Well, whatever program one may suggest, it might result as being one among the ones you tested and you were not convinced about. Maybe you could list the several ones you tried and that did not convince you explaining why they didn't or list what in driver genius specifically is superior to the other ones or which features you actually want/need. http://alternativeto.net/software/driver-genius/?license=free jaclaz

No, or at least it wasn't. JFYI: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/11/ftc-windows-tech-support-scams-took-another-120-million-from-pc-users/ http://www.networkworld.com/article/2849636/security0/ftc-gets-federal-court-to-shut-down-120m-tech-support-scam.html https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/141119icecmpt.pdf http://www.law.com/sites/articles/2014/12/30/federal-judge-wont-stop-tech-firms-2015-product/?slreturn=20160419130334 And an idiom/proverb: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/A+leopard+can't+change+its+spots jaclaz P.S.: Just in case some documents from the actual Court hearings are publicly available here:

Well, it is the usual format used BOTH for preservation AND booting an OS, using them as boot devices under A FEW, WELL SPECIFIED circumstances otherwise you have been pointed to some hardware that can use them AS IF they were optical media on a bootable CD/DVD drive in almost "any and all circumstances". So I would say that it is an EXTREMELY USEFUL format, but then what do I know? After all it's only around 10 years that I use almost *any and all* Operating System, including - specifically - the ones you mentioned booting them from USB sticks and/or in VM's using as storage format - when suitable - the .iso one. jaclaz

...meanwhile on other matters ... http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/18/stick-a-fork-in-em-windows-phones-are-done/ jaclaz

...or maybe you can hook the api call and inject a dll... http://jbremer.org/x86-api-hooking-demystified/ http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/2082/API-hooking-revealed (and yes, I know this does not answer directly your question ) Some related current tools/libraries: https://github.com/RelicOfTesla/Detours https://easyhook.github.io/ https://github.com/nektra/Deviare-InProc https://github.com/martona/mhook jaclaz

"things like" is not a very good incipit, booting DOS has some limitations, booting 9x/Me has some other ones, and XP may have yet different ones (and "installing" vs. "running Live" is different and will need further complications). There is not a "one-size-fits-all", if you are actually looking for something automated or largely automated, you should check Easy2boot: http://www.easy2boot.com/ otherwise (if you want to do things manually) you need to detail your requirements, as each OS - as said - may have some limitations or conflicts with other ones. In any case, the best tool remains anyway grub4dos to have a relatively easy multi-boot setup, make sure to get a recent enough version from Chenall (i.e. one of the latest 0.4.5c or 0.4.6a) or use RMPREPUSB (same Author as the above easy2boot, Steve6375), which is a "manual" preparing/partitioning/formatting tool for USB devices that does include a (usually VERY recent, though slightly modified) version of grub4dos: http://www.rmprepusb.com/ You don't really want to "backup" your boot CD's, you simply want to make .iso files of them (remember a .iso is a CD and a CD is a .iso), BUT TANSTAAFL: http://reboot.pro/topic/8944-boot-any-iso-image-or-boot-all-iso-images/ Your Mileage May (greatly) Vary, lost the specific OS's and requirements you actually *need* or *would like*, and I may point you to more specific info ... About disk image formats, the "best" ine is IMNSHO opinion the FIXED size .vhd, which is a RAW image with a single "CONECTIX" sector appended and that is "understood" by most if not all VM's AND tools (either as VHD or as RAW, ignoring last sector) and, more generally, can be dealt with just like a disk device (and besides, if needed, converting it from VHD to RAW and viceversa is easy as there are small tools for this). jaclaz

Well, you don't "accept" this update (in the sense that it is not on windows update), you willfully and intentionally download it from: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3125574 OR (thanks Alacran): http://reboot.pro/topic/21121-convenience-rollup-update-for-windows-7-sp1/ The KB page seemingly lists what is NOT in the "convenience roll-up package", and provides a handy 10.2 Mb CSV file containing the list of files inside the rollup. A quick search in it cannot find any "GWX" occurrence (which may be some good news), hopefully soon there will be reports on what happens when applying it to test machines. jaclaz

A word of warning (most probably unneeded). The NT 5.x and 6.x MBR code are NOT the same (though of course they do the same thing, i.e. chainload the bootsector or PBR of the active partition), there might be issues with Bitlocker/TCPA and NT 5.x MBR, though it is usually NOT a problem: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/mbr.html On 7 and later you can use bootsect.exe to restore also the original MBR, adding the /mbr switch. jaclaz