jaclaz

Most probably (just a guess, mind you) Windows 10 was considered by the staff, but they couldn't justify to accounting buying 5 licenses to get hold of an enterprise version and they feared that Windows 10 would autoupdate in the middle of the show. jaclaz

Yep, the idea is that only some hives (not all of them) and definitely NOT root of the Registry (which BTW doesn't really exist) are editable. You cannot create a new hive in root because essentially root does not exist, it is only a sort of mounting point for the Registry backing files. The Registry (as seen by Windows) is a "volatile" structure "assembled" on-the-fly from a set of Registry backing files. The correspondence between Registry backing files and Registry (and the way it is accessed/displayed) , just in case: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/256986/windows-registry-information-for-advanced-users More details and a nice tool here: http://reboot.pro/topic/20848-dumpreg/ jaclaz

Oww, comeon. Here is a good question: Can a key (actually a hive) "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMWPAPosReady" be created in the root of Registry by importing a REG file? OP: Maybe the above can be rephrased as: I ran this reg file: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMWPAPosReady] "Installed"=dword:00000001 it did nothing to the registry, everything works fine, POSReady worked fine after I re-ran the corrected .reg file, i.e.: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\POSReady] "Installed"=dword:00000001 I can find no sign of it (the original, wrong, settings) in the Registry what actually happens when you run a non-valid .reg file? jaclaz

And - after a long time I didn't come across a "by design" change - here is one: https://www.ghacks.net/2019/06/29/microsoft-explains-the-lack-of-registry-backups-in-windows-10/ The actual MS page: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4509719/the-system-registry-is-no-longer-backed-up-to-the-regback-folder-start Basically, a scheduled task intended to backup something goes through without errors AND it creates the files BUT it creats them 0 bytes in size. I thought there was - even if much farther than I would have liked it to be - a limit ... And they also have the courage to call what actually made the backup[1] "legacy backup behavior" jaclaz [1] i.e. essentially a command actually doing what was expected from it

Well, my brother in law's automatic irrigation system and my nephew's home alarm system (which has also some "smart home" features such as remote (via Android app) switching on and regulating heating/cooling) both lost their date/time last week. While the second is connected (through a SIM/Cellular network) to the internet, the first is not. So, I would attribute at least the first case to little green men tired of stealing socks, but I am perplexed by the second case. Since - according to Gibbs' Rule #39: summing up your recent experience with mine Rule #40 must apply: or - maybe - Rule #36: We have too few data points to plot a trend/theory, a possibility is that little green men are both tired of stealing socks AND have an internet access. jaclaz

Well, in NT 3.51 times a "large" end user disk was around 300-500 MB in NT 4.00 times a "large" end user disk was around 2 GB so it is curious that you *need* much more than 2 GB for NT 3.51 use, and you can anyway have multiple (logical) partitions/volumes. There is NO way to prevent the NTFS update (which just for the record already happened with Windows 2000) and while a given service pack level (SP4 if I recall correctly) allows NT 4.00 to use the new NTFS version[1], I don' t think that the ame can be done for NT 3.51, basically because there is not the equivalent of a SP4 for it. jaclaz [1] and a couple tricks to have also chkdisk work: https://msfn.org/board/topic/169500-chkdsk-refuses-to-check-ntfs-volume-under-windows-nt-40/

Sure, it is possible. I actually once did it, in a particular double/triple boot system I made the whole NT4 (a secundary, "emergency" install) inside a folder under root called NT911. AFAICT it wasn't that much of a problem, the trick was at the time (and if I recall correctly) to: 1) install "normally" /but in \NT911 as opposed to the default \WINNT 2) duplicate the "Programs" folder and its contents inside \NT911\ as \NT911\NTProgs 3) use (good ol') COA2 to change all references in the Registry 4) reboot and delete the "original" "Programs" folder I did the same for "Documents", moving everything to \NT911\NTDocs, but most probably, cannot really remember, I did the duplication to another name inside \NT911 from another booted OS instance. COA2 can still be found here: http://digilander.libero.it/rareware/coa2.zip I later did the same, greatly reducing the amount/number of files also with Windows 2000, so I may be confusing the two OS's, it's a lot of years since I made those. A couple references (for Windows 2000): http://reboot.pro/topic/5679-a-mini-build-of-win2k/ jaclaz

I only have 55 different Operating systems using grub4dos, but that is only an artificial limitation I imposed myself, because of the way I number them (in base 13). jaclaz

Maybe we could ask a mod to edit the title adding a "and still being so almost 4 (four) years later" jaclaz

By unpacked files you mean the .cab files that ar inside the DMF floppies, right? I don't think I ever attempted to install the "floppy only" version of 98 FE, in theory if you have all the .cab files in a folder on the hard disk it should work (just like 95 versions worked before and 98 SE later worked), but it is entirely possible that there is *something* preventing that. The good news maybe are that a guy with a lot of patience posted a video (more than two hours long) of a whole install of 98 FE for actual floppies, maybe you can in it find the exact point (i.e. which exact floppy or .cab file) when the issue happens: jaclaz

Very loosely, yes. But that is what is INSIDE the USB stick. What you will obtain (after having mapped the floppy image to (virtual) device) should be that of having to all practical effects a "A:\" drive containing the floppy image contents. Grub4dos can (or can not) be the "main" bootmanager on the stick, you can use *whatever* bootmanager or bootloader you normally use on the stick and chainload grub4dos (either grldr or grub.exe) from it. For the record the motherboard BIOSes (normally) only have limited suppport for USB, basically ONLY allowing access to the USB boot device so you cannot normally have both a USB stick and USB floppy visible at BIOS level. If using (again) grub4dos, its recent versions (of the 0.4.6a series) do have an own USB stack, so - maybe - it would be possible to access both devices, but due to the differences in the various motherboard BIOSes, it not a "universal" solution. There is a whole section of the board dedicated to installing (XP) from USB, as a couple (or more) additional tricks are usually needed, you should become familiar with the various tested methods/tools there: https://msfn.org/board/forum/157-install-windows-from-usb/ jaclaz

And the answer is yes/no (actually more BUT/BUT). Most USB floppy drivers won't work. BUT it is possible with some tweaks to the .inf file to have a USB floppy, see: BUT there is actually no need for a "real" floppy for F6 use, you can use grub4dos to map an image to a virtual floppy, see: 911CD is no more, still: https://web.archive.org/web/20090401085334/http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20543 and: jaclaz

Only for the record, UNlike what most people thinks, the $MFTmirr is pretty much useless as it is the mirror of only the first 4 (or 8) records of the $MFT. https://flatcap.org/linux-ntfs/ntfs/files/mftmirr.html jaclaz

Well, about the first part of the report, if you - at any time - had both the hard disks connected when booting XP, one of the two will have had its Disk Signature automatically changed. The one with the original Disk Signature will boot normally, the one with the changed one won't (stopping/BSODding at the time the drive letter is needed/assigned). This problem can be solved by modifying a couple entries in the Registry "MountedDevices". The second part is puzzling. Still, it could be connected to the first part. You need anyway to check the Disk Signature and the corresponding Registry entries on both drives, if the "install" volume is FAT/FAT32 you can use DOS and good ol'Registry Viewer (which is also an Editor) from DOS: http://paullee.ru/regstry.html jaclaz

Sure, do you want it black or with milk? jaclaz

Yep, but the easier/more user friendly solution is a PE (of some kind) and by now you should have not 1, not 2 but no less than 3 such bootable environments (on USB or on CD/DVD). Hint: A "normal" Windows Vista (or later, let's say 7) install DVD actually boots to a (very minimal) PE. AFAIK/AFAICR the offlinereg program and DLL run just fine in such a minimal environment, so you can simply make a bootable copy on USB of the install DVD and go from there: http://reboot.pro/files/file/340-quickpe/ or use the ADK: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-create-usb-bootable-drive jaclaz

Well, no offense intended , but you do sound something like that . Of course offlinereg cannot boot, it is a program, not an operating system. You need a PE of some kind and add to it the offlinereg or boot to another (already installed) Windows OS and use offlinereg on it. If you like the Linux way, there is hivexsh (AGAIN a program, not an OS): http://libguestfs.org/hivexsh.1.html (but you won't probably like it). jaclaz

You could try the "other" (BTW IMHO "right") way, i.e. create a really minimal build and then add programs: http://mistyprojects.co.uk/documents/MiniXP/index.html Right now - for *some* reasons - the reboot.pro site (where you can find help/support and more info) is down, but the above has the basic files and the actual documentation. jaclaz

Old phones, yes. New ones, no. Thank the good guys developing Android for removing this useful feature, the good guys developing Windows for NOT providing drive letter/file access via MTP and the sheep common people for not having made a big fuss about it. There are workarounds, and third party tools, though: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/22979/drive-letter-for-mtp-connection-under-windows https://forums.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/495665-how-mount-mtp-ptp-drive-letter-usb-mass-storage-ums.html https://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/210019-how-can-i-get-drive-letter-windows.html jaclaz

Yes, it is not in Home edition. jaclaz

Try with Autoruns (MS/Sysinternals), it could be something on an external drive or a DVD, see: https://superuser.com/questions/1060908/windows-explorer-opens-at-every-startup Or good ol' by Mike Lin: https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=249#comments jaclaz

Sure there is (please read as "you have a "queer XP" ) it is schtasks.exe https://www.robvanderwoude.com/schtasksxp.php and it is the command line program to manage tasks, the whole stuff is then delegated to the related task scheduler service, mstask.exe is windows 9x/Me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Task_Scheduler jaclaz

Some news (not actually good news, still ...) : https://www.win-raid.com/t3802f42-Intel-I-O-drivers-and-Touchpad-in-Windows-Asus-Precision-Touchpad.html The issue with the stupid ELAN touchpad is not confined to the (stupid) Lenovo, ASUS has it as well. Although that issue above has not been solved Fernando (and the other good guys at Win-Raid Forum) seem way ahead of us (or at the very least waaay ahead of me) in the analysis of the problem, so you might want to - after having read the above thread - make a new one over there asking for assistance jaclaz

Can you post a link to the specific ELAN driver you are using? It must be seen how the installer is made, sometimes the installer executable itself contains some commands/Registry settings that are actually needed (or if you prefer, direct installing might anyway lead to *something missing* and fail - in a different way). I'll have a look at the devmanview output and see if I can spot anything jaclaz

At first sight everything looks fine BUT the third and second last images (System devices), it seems like you have some duplications there (but it is absolutely possible that your system actually has that many devices and that it is "normal"). Anyway Device Manager is not the "right" (no offence intended of course) way to list devices when there is this kind of troubles, and seemingly you have not set the "DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES" environment variable, so it is possible that a "phantom" device (or its driver) is involved in the issue. See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/315539/device-manager-does-not-display-devices-that-are-not-connected and: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/uninstall-hidden-devices-calling-ghostbuster/ You should IMHO try to re-install (if needed) the AMD and the ELAN drivers (in order to recreate the Code 12 situation), then get the nice Nirsoft DevManView, open it, check in Options that "Show non-plug-n-play devices" is selected, refresh (if needed) then select all devices and File->Save selected items to a tab-delimited text file. Then attach this text file, any willing helping member will be able to load the file in *any* spreadsheet program and order/filter/whatever the results easily. Even if this: https://superuser.com/questions/119236/this-device-cannot-find-enough-free-resources-that-it-can-use-code-12 is seemingly related to different hardware, the "root issue" of a conflict or race condition might be the same or similar. jaclaz