jaclaz

your answer: See also: Of course you may well re-ask this same question over and over, but it is not like the answer will change, if you actually need User Accounts, then a PE is not a suitable choice. jaclaz

Though, to be fair, it could be worse than that jaclaz.

I have troubles understanding the questions then. We are talking of two different things. You are talking of replacing the current MS shell with one replicating bit by bit the MS Windows 7 one. I am talking about replacing a MS shell with another one, not necessarily similar to the Windows 7 one. I provided the given link only to give you proof that changing the MS shell with another one, which has always been possible, is still possible, the fact that this replacement shell is completely different form the Windows 7 one is another thing.. Of course tomorrow the good MS guys may well decide to further lock down the OS and make this impossible or extremely cumbersome. It is as per today possible. Again, nothing more, nothing less. About the bolting pieces together "a little from here and a bit from there" is basically asking "will the several developers of the currently several different little utilities (either Commercial, Shareware, Nagware or Freeware) join together an provide a single, consistent, shell replacement identical to the Windows 7 one?" or "Will a software house produce a Windows 7 shell replica that can be used to replace in one single pass the stupid NCI?" And the answers to those are of course blowing in the wind. jaclaz

If I get this right, the issue is with the "bypass proxy server for local addresses", that, if checked/enabled adds the 25 seconds delay? Could it be some conflict with the Hosts file? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/262981 Is there any chance that the addresses have been added in IE "Internet zone"? Can you run a trace route in the various cases? (particularly the one with the 25 seconds delay) Is the behaviour the same if you use web addresses like http://myniceweb/mypage.htmand iP addresses like http://192.168.0.100/mypage.htm? I.e. could it be related to a DNS issue of some kind, are the result of running nslookup correct? Is it possible that one of the Windows updates in the last two months caused this? I.e. can you install a new "dummy machine" with a non "fully up-to-date" OS and see how it behaves? jaclaz

Additional related threads: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173732-xp-apocalypse-one-year-review/ http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/171606-xp-os-vulnerabilities-after-april-8-2014/ http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/171674-mass-hysteria-on-the-interwebs/ jaclaz

Using Xp is one thing (good ). Hacks (WHICH ONES?) are another, if you refer to the POSReady updates, there is a thread here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/171814-posready-2009-updates-ported-to-windows-xp-sp3-enu/ Using Internet Explorer 8 is yet another thing (bad ).Actual answers are: Yes. No. No.http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html jaclaz

Maybe a little bit too aggressive as a solution Wouldn't a clever use of CMDCMDLINE and COMSPEC do nicely? Like: @ECHO OFFSETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONSSET isdoubleclick=0ECHO CMDCMDLINE=%CMDCMDLINE%ECHO COMSPEC=%COMSPEC%ECHO %CMDCMDLINE% | FINDSTR /L %COMSPEC% >NUL 2>&1SET isdoubleclick=%ERRORLEVEL%SET isdoubleclickIF "%isdoubleclick%"=="1" ECHO SORRY, NO DOUBLE CLICK ALLOWED&PAUSE&GOTO :EOFECHO You won't see this line if you double click on the batch from Explorer.jaclaz

OT, and probably unrelated. Over the years I have had every kind of *queer* hardware issues as the effect of storms (or of power surges or of both). While the most typical one is obviously the PSU not working anymore, I had one case several years ago that may be loosely connected to your issue. During a storm a lighting struck near the building and (presumably or at least this is the most logical explanation we could find) *somehow* raised the "ground level" in such a way that several devices (on the "low voltage" side, not on "mains" side) were affected, namely: a couple of modules of the telephone PBX the serial printer connected to the PBX (but not the serial port module on the PBX) a couple network cards on different PC's (replaceable) some ports ONLY on a network hub/switch (but NOT the ones to which the above and the below computer were connected to) a small VIA EPIA motherboard (with an integrated network card stopped booting, as a matter of fact it took like three minutes to boot to Windows 2000 and then the network card wouldn't work properly/reliably). The strange thing is #5 as the network card diagnostics (in DOS, i.e. NDIS or whatever it is/was called) gave a fully working card as a result. However, in the immediate I disabled the embedded network card and added a PCI one and everything went back to normal. Later the motherboard was replaced and - just for the fun of it - I tried using the old, defective one for running just DOS (without network connection) and it worked fine, then I tried re-enabling the embedded network card and it did work (from DOS) just fine, still Windows 2000 would take forever to boot and then the network card had "intermittent" working. @Murf So, I know that it sounds crazy , but since the issue revolves around rpcrt4.dll, which is connected with network, if that machine is a desktop, can you try and see what happens if you disable the network interface and/or use an add-on network card instead? jaclaz

It is just a matter of "trust". In 99.99% of cases people run programs (compiled .exe's) trusting blindly the Author that running them is "safe". In the case of batches there is one advantage and one disadvantage. The disadvantage is that since batch files are intended (generally speaking) to be run from within a command prompt there is a concrete probability that the batch will not be suitable for drag 'n drop and for running by double clicking it. (it is not the case of this one as correctly the Author has added PAUSE statements needed to keep the Command windows open and the batch is "interactive", but you will find a number of batches around that if double clicked will, just like a number of command line executables, smply briefly flash a black window on your desktop, and this is a very common issue reported "I double clicked on the file and it did nothing but flashing a black window"). The advantage is that since batch files are essentially "plain text" they can be easily inspected BEFORE double clicking on them, particularly where their scope is to run a potentially distructive command). This batch "automagically" chooses the drive letter on which the Syslinux.exe command is run getting it from the "self-position", the %~d0 parameter of the batch, which is a good thing that - added to the check for the drive letter NOT being the %systemdrive% will, when the user will follow instructions work fine in say 97.38% of situations, BUT IF it is run from a non-system partition/volume residing on the SAME disk as the %systemdrive% it will likely botch the booting of the system. Generically, the rule of the thumb with batches is to run them in a command window unless you are positive that they support correctly the other alternative possibilities to start them, i.e. double clicking or drag 'n drop. jaclaz

And even slightly better in a 9.5 mm hole : I will also risk to state that a 5 mm will fit BOTH a 7 mm and a 9.5 mm hole: jaclaz

It was only a proof that changing the shell on a modern system is possible. Nothing more, nothing less. Considering that - as you have noticed - the thingy is the result of the work (as a hobby) of a bunch (like "I can count them on the fingers of my left hand") of amateurs, consider what the good MS guys could do (if they wanted to). jaclaz

Strangely enough, I didn't mention blackbox casually http://blackboxdesktop.deviantart.com/ Hmmm. Possible logical flaw detected : if the new stupid windows 10 is being turned into spyware, it implies that current Windows 8/8.1 is not, which in turn would mean that the senseless pushing that MS makes to have customers use "online accounts" is done for the actual benefit of the users and to offer them a better experience .... jaclaz

At the end of the day isn't it what they already did with Media Player (or whatever is supposed to play DVD's)? The difference is that this way they will BOTH milk some money from the user AND be able to claim a raise in interests/visits to the Windows Apps Store. Conversely even if the "Enhanced Metro Photo Viewer App" will be given away for free, it will raise the visit counts and of course the number of apps available[1], it's seems to me like a win/win situation. Can anybody speak knowledgeably as to the feasibility of this idea? Define "knowledgeably". At least until XP it was a piece of cake to switch shells (possibly to something nicer/more useful than Wordperfect, like - say - blackbox, though . jaclaz [1] please read as "senseless metrics"

Translated to "good practice" the instructions mean: Once you will have copied the whole contents of the .zip file onto the USB partition (which will have in windows a drive letter assigned, let's say G: ), you open a command prompt (if you are running one of the stupid windows OS with UAC you will need to open it as Administrator) then in it type: CD /D G:\utils\win32 and press [ENTER] the prompt will change to: G:\utils\win32> and then you type: makeboot.bat and press [ENTER] As a side note I find that it makes little sense and represents a potentially dangerous thing to release a batch that can make damages if not run from the "right" device, the batch does have a check: but it is limited to the %systemdrive%, and the confirm goes through the *any* key press so it is perfectly possible, by mistake, that a non-system drive can pass the check. I would add a more explicit check *like* SET Confirm=NOECHO Syslinux will be installed to the disk where the volume %~d0 resides.SET /P Confirm=Type YES to confirm this is the right drive letter:IF "%Confirm%"=="YES" GOTO :OKECHO Batch aborted.ECHO Press any key to exit the batch.PAUSE > NULGOTO :EOF:OKjaclaz

Well, in this particular case, you will need to pay , and that would be one pound for a five minutes argument or 8 pounds for a course of ten) : http://www.montypython.net/scripts/argument.php jaclaz

I see , it is one of those "extra-thin" disks. Let me know if you need assistance anyway for the data recovery from the old disk. jaclaz

Selling the yearly subscription for the Enhanced Metro Photo Viewer App[1] to every lolcat lover, how can you survive without being able to see: jaclaz [1] Which, as a bonus will also support .png images.

I will try again. The error about the missing operating system is a sign of (software) corruption of one or more "vital" sectors , that can happen on a perfectly working disk (hardware). The error at 2% in TESTDISK analyzing the disk is INSTEAD a sign of actual corruption of one or more physical sectors (hardware). While you can usually repair software issues by booting an alternate OS, you CANNOT repair a hardware issue. Additionally attempting a software repair of a hardware error on a disk may make matter WORSE. You have ONLY one option (short of consulting a data recovery specialist) attempt to salvage what data can be recovered from the disk (provided that the data is needed/worth something). If you have a valid backup of the data (or the data has no value) you can of course play with that hard disk whichever way you see fit. I don't see why *any* 2.5" SSD should not fit/be incompatible, it is a fairly common and recent machine with a SATA port, what is your doubt? jaclaz

Unless I am mistaken (which is very possible as the 48 bit LBA is so 2000ish ) the "normal" 9x files (without any patch or change) do work normally for volumes on larger than 128 Gb disks as long as the volume is entirely within the first 128 Gb of the disk. Since the OP has several partitions, roughly 30 Gb each, those should work (if formatted FAT 16 or 32) normally, while it is possible that the NTFS driver adds some checks/whatever... jaclaz

Well, there is not a "best" way, there are choices to be made. I like "flat", "simple" approaches, but the one suggested by NoelC in your duplicated thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173906-backing-up-2-computers-one-with-win7-one-with-win-81/ is good as well, particularly if you want to deal with it only through Windows 7 or later. I can make no head or tail of these sentences: 500+800+800> 2000 Just post a copy of the MBR (assuming your disk is MBR and that you made all primary partitions) or run GDISK (or correspondent) and post the result of the p option if it is a GPT: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/walkthrough.html When talking of partitions, you can choose between using sectors or bytes, Tb or Gb, and even Mb, are "vague" you never know if they are metric or binary (i.e. Gb vs. Gib) or how they are rounded (or truincated). jaclaz

Well, since the stupid google wants me to have a google id in order to access the stupid google play (android), I do have one, and since google asked me to provide Name and Surname I managed to have one in the form of NameAndSurnameXXX (as the plainer Name And Surname was already taken by a faster peep). jaclaz

Don't forget: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us Though we shouldn't be worried by the machines getting self awareness as ... jaclaz

Try using a fully qualified PATH (and not just the filename) to the directory where the install.wim is for the -source: value. I.e. (example given in post #1) jaclaz

Well, you seem like attempting to use grub4dos without having a basic understanding of the mechanism underlying. The mapping to (hd32) is not a "one-size-fits-all" solution, it may - at the most - be a "one-size-fits-most" one. Right now Reboot.pro (which is the officially unofficial Western support board for grub4dos) is down or having "intermittent access" due to some network/server problem, but you can check temporarily these two via Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20150318100434/http://reboot.pro/topic/8944-boot-any-iso-image-or-boot-all-iso-images/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130120142205/http://reboot.pro/topic/5041-grub4dos-iso-images-and-hd32-or-0xff-mapping/ If the access is restored the links are: http://reboot.pro/topic/8944- http://reboot.pro/topic/5041- and the guide here is OK: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm In order to get senceful assistance, you need to post your current menu.lst and the EXACT list of the .iso's you are trying to boot (if they are "standard") and the EXACT, DETAILED way the "custom .iso is built/created. A number of "common" .iso's are supported but for some less common ones "special" tricks may be needed (or in some cases it could even be impossible to boot them as .iso and you will need to setup their contents "flat" or extract some bootloader, etc.) . Additionally you want to become practical with the guide in the part that explains basic and command line usage in grub4dos. http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/basics.htm http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/cli.htm A menu.lst is more than anything else a kind of "batch file", just like you would do when putting together a batch script, you NEED to test sequences of commands on the command line and only once you have succeeded make them into the batch (or the menu.lst) as this way you get the grub4dos feedback or error for each command. Also please state the EXACT version of grub4dos you are using, or get a fairly recent one, if you used RMPREPUSB, the version of grub4dos contained in it, though if I recall correctly it is a slightly modified one, is OK. jaclaz

Maybe in this case you want to "clone" the partitions of the two hard disks into corresponding volumes on the huge 2 Tb "backup" and then periodically "sync them". You are well within the MBR "style" limits, so there are not any of the (BTW perfectly solvable) possible complications of GPT to be taken into account. Expecially if you (or your wife) are not going to re-partition the devices' hard disks, this would probably be the most simple approach and there are several Windows tools that can be used to perform the periodical "syncing" (since you are a Linux guy, think of rsync), the advantage of this approach is that should the need arise these backups may double as "bare metal restore". How are the current hard disks partitioned? Are you going to create the new disk layout from Windows or from Linux? jaclaz