jaclaz

Yes/no. Meaning that there is a known (easy) method that makes use of (simple) DOS and the "good ol'" WINNT.EXE, BUT needs a FAT formatted volume, you can get the general idea from here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 OR you need to first create a PE of some kind and from it run WINNT32 or WINNTSETUP: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/149612-winntsetup-v23/ There is even a further method, still using WINNT32, but it needs to be run on another PC running XP or similar, preparing the hard disk as "offline install". There is a possible workaround using PLoP as bootmanager on the internal hard disk (PLoP has a built-in USB stack that *normally* allows for booting from USB on motherboards for which there is no provision in BIOS): http://www.plop.at/ Additionally latest-latest EXPERIMENTAL versions of grub4dos do have a "own" USB stack (version 0.4.6a): http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/list And then use any among the various "Install XP from USB" methods/tools: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/157-install-windows-from-usb/ I doubt that you managed on a Linux box to make a NTFS filesystem that has a bootsector invoking NTLDR (and possibly a valid MBR code) as - generally speaking - Linux tools tend to partition/format without creating the MS boot code in either the MBR or the bootsector, but you could easily substitute those with a grub4dos installation to the MBR+hidden sectors (bootlace.com should have no issues under Linux with installing grldr.mbr). Once managed to boot from grub4dos, it could be easier to use a PE, even if booted from a mounted .iso or .img (still residing on the 80 Gb hard disk), but still you need a MS Windows running to make the PE. Do you have another machine running 2K/XP (or later) to which you can connect that hard disk? jaclaz

That is a "known" issue, in some cases installing the whole mass of bloat that Internet Explorer 8 represents is needed, in some cases it is just a matter of updating the updater utility. Some useful links here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/95b492d1-26e2-41bb-a7e5-86bb938997a1/xp-sp3-windows-update-error-number-0x8024d001?forum=itproxpsp It is one of those thing that noone actually managed to get the actual reason why (and proper fix) AFAIK. This one should be the "official" method : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968002/en-us jaclaz

Yep, and: http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/18645/hacking/d-link-backdoor.html and : OT (cannot really say if meaning off or on topic ) some news on US government IT: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/why-us-government-it-fails-so-hard-so-often/ A lot of pure bull§hit in the article, like the crazy idea that somehow Vista or 7 are actually better than XP (and even than Server 2003) and that 50ish guys should be better replaced by kids , but interesting on the "state of the art", particularly about the new EE mail system the government uses now. In this snippet: you can replace "federal IT" with "Windows 8" or "Surface" and "government" with "Microsoft" without losing any accuracy. jaclaz

Paying nearly 100 Bucks for an 8 Gb (VERY, VERY slow) USB 2 stick with a fancy numerical keyboard? Adequate if you really have some secrets and you are paranoid about them (otherwise any common encryption software is more than enough) and you actually *need* NIST FIPS certification. Come on . However it is seemingly a re-branded Apricorn Aegis: http://www.apricorn.com/products/hardware-encrypted-drives/aegis-secure-key.html by the good guys from portableapps.com jaclaz

The issue is slighlty different. I am not familiar with Parallels, so the following is just "generic" info. A "Virtual Machine" has *somehow* to emulate "real hardware", i.e. it needs to create "virtual hardware". As an example Qemu emulates a virtual hardware that comprises a "standard" BIOS and chipset and more than anything else a "standard" PCI IDE interface for mass storage. XP will use in Qemu the "Standard Dual PCI IDE" driver, which is of course included in any XP source. Another virtual machine, let's say VmWare, uses a LSILogic compatible "virtual hardware" and XP does not have by default those drivers. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2241 so that you need to "add" them (integrating them or using a "virtual F6 floppy" at install time). Creating the image on another PC is good only for "practice", because each XP installation is "customized" on a given hardware and (though possible) moving it on different hardware is complex. On the other hand, if you follow the idea of wimb's "universal XP" (or "hardware learning" XP) you will add (besides some space occupied by the driverspacks) a layer of complexity, whilst the original scope was "as simple as possible". jaclaz

Excellent, it sums up perfectly the experiences of a lot of people, confirming how the good ol' pen computing was not that bad. I will expand on it, re-stating how my personal experience with the Compaq Concerto was exceptionally good. The thingy had BOTH a keyboard and the pen (as replacement of the mouse) BUT allowed to connect instead of the built-in (and anyway not at all bad/flimsy) keyboard any "standard" PS/2 keyboard and mouse. Additionally had a VGA out (the thing had a greyscale display, but the graphic card output was colours). That was like 1994 - almost 20 years ago - I could carry with me the little thingy (including the keyboard), I could hook it up *anywhere* on "standard" peripherals, there was no "new training" involved, it ran a "standard" Windows 3.11, i.e. the same thing that we had on our desktops, had no need for fancy "gestures", i.e. I could use it as a laptop, as a tablet (I remember using it with a custom made Excel spreadsheet to quickly check an inventory by walking with it in a warehouse and checking on the pre-made list - but also jolting down "new" item descriptions), I could use it as a "brick PC", and it wasn't even particularly slow (486DX33 and 8 Mb of RAM) when compared to common desktops. It was at the time VERY expensive, much more expensive than the correspondent "traditional laptop" that was the Compaq Contura, but IMHO worth all the money that was paid for it. At the time the idea was evidently "let's give to an user on the move the SAME capabilities of a desktop and some more", so that the customer can do the same things he can do on a desktop in an as comfortable as possible environment while he is out of the office. Nowadays it seems like the idea is "let's remove from the desktop any useful feature so that the user can experience in the office the same reduced/limited environment available out of it". jaclaz

I'll just throw this on the table (before hiding my hand behind my back ). Pygments: http://pygments.org/ has a lexer for .reg files: http://pygments.org/docs/lexers/#lexers-for-non-source-code-file-types jaclaz

As rule of thumb, in the good ol'times of Bart's PE Builder, there was a saying like "Oh, no, it's a DELL". For some strange reasons DELL install CD's have a few modifications that need to be fixed to build a PE from them, it is possible that some of the same modifications *somehow* alter the working of nlite, since it involves a permission on a "services" key in the Registry SETUPREG.HIV. http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15138 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15138&st=29 jaclaz

Naah, if you are going through the wimb's app, just follow the instructions (they are complex, due to the number of options available , but they can all in all perfectly be followed with some patience and attention). You can make the VHD the "default" 2GB, using this approach: http://reboot.pro/topic/18547-vhd-xp-setup-install-xp-in-vhd/ and after enlarge it (I don't remember if there is an option to make bigger than 2 Gb .vhd's from within the program). The issue you may be facing is the availability in the "source" XP CD/iso of the appropriate Mass Storage drivers (if any needed) for your "Parallels" environment. You may want to NOT install the "whole" driverspack, but rather just the needed driver (in order to save some space). jaclaz

See here: http://reboot.pro/topic/16214-wow64/ http://theoven.org/index.php?topic=250.0 http://reboot.pro/topic/18071-32bit-applications-on-64bit-pe-session-winpe-4/ If you cannot (or don't want) for any reason use in of the ChrisR Winbuilder projects 7PESE (or WIN8PE) or the wimb makePE3 builder that do include the WOW64 subsystem, you may have better luck in replicating their behaviour than the OP's in the above threads. Some additional info is here: http://reboot.pro/topic/16544-create-a-bootable-winpe-40-usb-drive/ and consequently here: http://reboot.pro/topic/16544-create-a-bootable-winpe-40-usb-drive/?p=151209 http://reboot.pro/topic/11852-make-pe3-program-to-create-portable-windows-7-pe/page-31#entry151208

Some manufacturers provide suitable "TRIMming tools". Intel, Samsung, Corsair for sure: http://wp.xin.at/archives/920 The one by Samsung is called SSD Magician. Please understand how the TRIM command doesn't actually "do" anything, it simply points unused areas to the "garbage collector" (which is in the actual SSD firmware), so there is not in practice much difference between a "TRIM enabled OS" that "continuously" updates this "list" and a tool that "periodically" does the same. Moreover, the part that actually does the work, the "garbage collector" has evolved in the meantime and some SSD's sport a "background garbage collector" that automatically/automagically scans the SSD in background and "finds itself" which data is to be reused/optimized. Remember how the TRIM doesn't work, even in 7, on "non-single" SSD's (as an example on RAID setups), it is only logical that either motherboard manufacturers or SSD ones try to make the thingy as efficient as possible independently from the OS TRIM command availability. jaclaz

Try the RegPad I posted a link to before, this could give you some ideas on a possible different way to view a "plain text" file which is a .reg file. jaclaz

Maybe, since Nuhi is back, we may ask him the actual "intentions" behind the original nlite license. It seems to me how the idea was well before the current (BTW senseless) BYO device approach (which is probably what Rhetro is needing the nlite for). Just for reference BYOD madness considerations: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163387-byod-ideas-opinions-whatever/ @Rhetro Basically nlite is not particularly needed in your case. Apart the "fun" of it (I mean "liteing" XP), the issues with a "stock" XP installs are two: amount of space on disk occupied amount of memory/resources/CPU neededthe first one is not (nowadays) much of a problem, a "normal" XP install + Office + some "normal" archiving space would go within 4 Gb, in a VM the actual disk access is usually very fast, so it is not a "real" issue. If you are truly "Commercial" as said before a XPlite would do and 40 bucks or so won't make that much impact on a budget that implies a Mac and Parallels, or you can serach and locate the n articles here and there on the 'net (though nowhere like the nlite and/or XPlite efficiency/thoroughfulness) there are a number of "tricks" that allow to reduce the used space, examples: http://www.marcofolio.net/tips/tips_to_shrink_the_windows_directory_to_create_space.html or http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=192199 the second one can be obtained through the advices on the mentioned blackviper site, by removeing/disabling the zillion unneeded services otherwise normally running in the backgroundjaclaz

A blast from the past : http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/437292-regpad-alpha-011/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070208094439/http://redllar.virtualplastic.net/regpad.html BTW NOT really-really what was asked . jaclaz

Curiously enough EXACTLY the SAME reasons why a multitude of people still use the MS Operating Systems on a PC, that is because they have "legacy", see here the actual meaning , please: http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/legacy-is-not-a-pejorative.html application/tools/whatever that do not (or do not easily) work on Linux or OsX (or my preferred "alternate OS, which is FreeBSD). What the MS guys broke (intentionally) with Windows 8 (and of course with Windows RT in a much more effective manner) is the non-written agreement about the possibility (often with just a few, simple tricks) to run "legacy" software. In the last few years (some examples): They removed (almost) direct disk access. They removed the possibility to run, simple, easy, .com files. They made the usage of a PC (for a non technical savvy user, possibly with limited access credentals) a "nightmare", they forced all the "home" users to implement a "corporation like" structure, with any PC being multi-user, having an Administrator and an user with limited powers, de-facto forced the use of NTFS (which makes very little sense on a personal device), invited everyone (thanks to the BIG OEM's too) to have the possibly most stupid setup with a single "monolythic" filesystem (anyone having run a CHDKSK /R on a laptop with a 500 GB hard disk, obviously a single huge volume with the pagefile on it - Windows cannot access this volume, do you want to schedule it on next reboot - from "safe mode"? ) . They forced the (senseless) Silverlight (deceased) and the (also senseless) mass of bloat which is .NET, besides all the crappy vearious Internet Explorer's. They made the system so complex (while still keeping it insecure enough ) that you (or at least the common user) is forced to use an antivirus, that will typically hog the system, devouring at least 1/3 of RAM and up to 100% CPU when booting. They actually deserve IMHO the lack of success they are now experiencing. jaclaz

Very likely, as said before, what you get is the TTL of the return packet, and it is the router that only sends TTL 64 On my (XP) PC, if I ping "self", I get TTL 128, if I ping my router I get TTL 64, if I ping other PC's I still get TTL 128, but if I ping a (network) Brother printer I have, I get TTL 60 , so I believe that is the "target" that sets what you get back. jaclaz

Well, you can try to ping localhost (or 127.0.0.1), which gave you 255 against pinging "self" with the actual PC IP address 192.168.x.y and pinging other devices in your intranet (if it gives 64 the matter is nicely explained, IMHO). jaclaz

Well for all you (or I) can know, it is very possible that the PC "attributes" a TTL (time to live) of 64 for packets belonging to the intranet (192.168.0.1 and most probably 255.255.255.0) and a longer 255 one to the ones going "outside". jaclaz

It is possible, but what you get is not AFAICU the "remaining" from the TTL you attribute to the ping (which is the time to live that you give to "your" ping, i.e. how many hops are allowed to get to the target) but rather what remains from what the target attributes to the "return" packet, i.e. how many hops were encountered from the target (if the target gives to the return packet of 64 - like a number of servers do, this would explain the behaviour nicely). Try running this : for /L %A IN (1,1,20) do @ping -n 1 -i %A 8.8.8.8 | FIND "TTL"then ping the "intermediate" servers and see what results you get. Or use this as a batch (pingttl.cmd): @ECHO OFFSET target=8.8.8.8FOR /L %%? IN (1,1,20) DO (FOR /F "tokens=3 delims=: " %%A IN ('ping -n 1 -i %%? %target% ^| FIND "TTL"') DO ECHO %%? %%A & ping -n 1 %%A | FIND "TTL")Any intermediate "hop" may provide a pingback or not, and decide to give to the forwarded packet a different TTL. jaclaz

Try doing another thing: ping 127.0.0.1or: ping localhostWhat do you get as TTL (64, 128, or what)? Then check this: http://www.corenetworkz.com/2013/08/change-ttl-value-set-ping-packets.html jaclaz

The "last freeware" (stable) version should be 2013-08-01, which is available from a number of hosting sites, namely MajorGeeks, here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/parted_magic.html The Source Code which should be here is seemingly also not updated (at least the tar): http://beefdrapes.partedmagic.com/source/ We will see how this change in distribution will affect the popularity of the thingy, since it is free (as in free speech or "freedom") software, anyone is free to get a copy (paying for it) and to redistribute it, so I wonder how long it will take until newish versions will be all over the net. jaclaz

No, you cannot "remove" a password that is NOT there. jaclaz

There are some reasons for the change, see here: http://adrian15sgd.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/making-money-out-of-rescatux-and-parted-magic-binary-being-pay-only/ http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTQzNTI Obviously (but I doubt how much "fairly") all old versions have been removed from the sourceforge repository. jaclaz

Most probably you do not want to "remove" the password, you rather want to by-pass it. This may (or may not ) be what you want to try: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163190-passpass-bypass-the-password/ YMMGV jaclaz

Good, happy it worked for you. Just in case, and for anyone coming here, it is complete nonsense to talk about colour of cables of a CA-42 (or similar phone USB adapters). One of the reasons why a CA-42 is NOT advised is that most people that will use a CA-42 are not very practical with this kind of things and will have issues in finding the "right" cables. To this you add that there are at least TWO kinds of CA-42 (one that needs an external 3-5 V power supply and one that does not as it takes the power from the USB side) and that the CA-42 has been manufactured in several factories (the original Nokia one) and in countless other ones (the "fake" ones, even those perfectly working). In each of those factories, in various periods or "batches" of production every possible wire colours may hae been used to connect anything to anything else. To find which is which use the known connector pinout on the "Nokia phone" side, see here for an example: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds/?p=881965 or just google for the pinout: https://www.google.it/search?&channel=suggest&biw=1283&bih=854&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=ca-42+pinout&oq=ca-42+pinout jaclaz