xolox

Thanks for your reply jaclaz. I've already (today) been able to install my 'local' windows 2000 on the C: drive. The setup previously was like this: Primary Master: The drive I use for college. Which won't be available if I'm at college of course. Two primary partitions. First partition (20GB NTFS) is for Windows 2000 for college. Second 60GB NTFS for my own files. Primary Slave: Local harddisk. One, big-primary-partition of 80GB. Secondary Master: DVD-drive Secondary Slave: CD-Writer I always wanted both optical drives as Secondary, because copying from optical-drive to harddisk would be faster, or so I believed. Still not 100% sure if that theory is ok, but it don't matter. I generally don't use cd-rom's or DVD's anymore. Mostly my internet cable-connection. So I now use my local harddisk as Primary Master, the DVD-drive as Primary Slave. The swappable drive is Secondary Master, and the CD-writer is Secondary Slave.

Good you got everything sorted out Wasim! Now for my problem I hope someone will still answer my (related) question... I use a bracket with a 80GB disk for college, and as storage for some of my files. But because I have to boot from this drive when at school, it's set as master. So I should change the boot-order for my pc, in order to be able to boot from my own disk, the primary slave. So when I bought it, I just installed the bracket, and all was good. It actually worked without problems! Then I did a clean install of Windows 2000 Pro SP4. With the removable harddrive inserted. And now, the partition Windows resides is the D: drive. No problem. Or so I thought at first glance. Then I found out quite some setups and configurations use hardcoded installation-path's! DoH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I'd like to reinstall Windows @ my C: drive. Is this as simple as removing the disk in the bracket, then installing, and then use the bracket again? Or not? Hope I've been clear in describing the situation...

You're settings are being reset by Windows. So you're probably gonna have to set this setting for each user, instead of the .DEFAULT user

Little something about the registry's RunOnce-key: RunOnce. Windows will make sure for you it won't run again. And don't delete the whole key just because of one entry! Just remove the entry, that's all. I don't know if anything else is in that key when your first boot. And Windows and Windows-apps use the key as well, so don't delete the key, just remove entry's, when you need to. You could also just add the info (if needed) in RunOnce instead of Run, and let Windows remove it for you.

jrzycrim gave me a tip that could help you aswell, check the post: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=159680 Hint: Windows XP allows you to set the write-permissions to every key in the registry.... So if anything get's reset, this could help. Check http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=245031 to see how you can batch these commands... Good luck! Hope this helped...

Hi! When I have the money for it, I'll just buy a better CPU-cooler, but until that time, would anyone know if it is possible to underclock my CPU on-the-fly? Like some tool that lives in my systray and detects that I only need 500 MHz to play some mp3's and surf the web? The computer I own is second-hand, I bought it about 2 months ago. I tend to work all night, but my girlfriend needs her sleep. And the CPU's cooler makes a s***-load of noise! So any suggestions, except "Get yourself a new cooler!"?! Thanks in advance! ps. This is what Aida32 says about my hardware, don't really know if all of it is needed, but here goes: CPU: CPU Type AMD Athlon-PECM, 1400 MHz (5.25 x 267) CPU Alias Thunderbird CPU Stepping A9 L1 Code Cache 64 KB L1 Data Cache 64 KB L2 Cache 256 KB (On-Die, Full-Speed) Motherboard Name: MSI K7T266 Pro (MS-6380) / MS-6380LE

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;179365. There's the registry-key Run, and the key RunOnce. Self-explanatory I assume. Just add/remove the runonce when your done... You can delete stuff with a *.reg like this: to remove a key: [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\KeyToRemove] to remove an entry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\KeyToRemove] EntryToRemove=-

I think what RaveRod means is that he first (during setup, e.g. cmdlines.txt) apply's regtweaks and makes user-accounts, then on the first boot into the created user-account (RunOnceEx, e.g. through the setting in winnt.sif/unattend.txt) he installs his apps and apply's the regtweaks once more, and then uses the command "shutdown -r -t 0 -f" to reboot Windows, and after booting again apply's his regtweaks once more, and removes all traces off the unattended setup, so not exactly $OEM$, but "$OEM$\$1\anything"... Edit: (Where the directory "anything" would be copied to the systemdrive's root, for example C:\) For example %systemdrive%\unattend (Which would be my setup, so that I can remove everything related to my unattended setup with one command "RMDIR /S /Q %SystemDrive%\Unattend") I think for the "second reboot", the third and last step, you would have to manually add your batch to the Run or RunOnce key of Windows... Edit: And about installing apps for all users: There's no simple way to do this... Some programs use user-profiles (In C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\), others use registry settings user-specific, instead of system-wide (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\), so they will only set these settings for the current user (And possibly be accessible to that user only). One way of solving this would be to install the applications for all users, but then things would get real complicated. You would have to create all user-accounts during setup, and then use registry-settings to auto-login each of these users one after another, installing the apps. But then you may still run into problems like the need for admin-rights to install applications. The other way of solving this would be to copy all settings, profiles and shortcuts to all users on the system.... For this you would of course need admin-rights. Anyway you do it, you'll first have to find out which applications install system-wide, and which install per-user. Good luck on that one.... Edit 3(!): Just for the possibility that you are talking about for example scripting-tools to use instead of when and where to do stuff: I use KiXtart, and am very pleased with it! Suitable for all your scripting-needs . See my previous post "KiXtart-scripts instead of Batch-files" for info.

/ Seems like I was a little bit to enthousiastic about customizing the source-code I'm only 17 years, and have never really programmed. I mean, I use Javascript, Perl and some PHP. And I know how to do quite a lot with those. But it's completely different from programming in C++, let alone working with API's. And I've been trying to master C++ for a while, but I can't really get this thing from the ground... Perl is somewhat related to C++, but it's syntax is way easier, not to forget that it's a scripting-language, not a programming-language. To conclude: I'll first try and find some free C++ classes on the web, master those, and then try again... Thanks for you reactions though MCT! If I am succesful, I'll post the results here! Edit: Could an admin/mod move this topic to the "Programming (C++, Delphi, VB, etc.)" forum? Thanks!

Okay, I found the source-code for PushPin! I'm now installing Borland C++ Builder Professional to see if I can use this source for my own tool. Which would have no systemtray-icon, and have a memory-footprint off about, well, lets say, 5KB?!

Well I just worked through all 180 programs under the category desktop-enhancements from softpedia... Nothing yet.... Edit: Google found me this tool: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley...ware.html#ontop. Better then anything else up untill now Edit2: I found PushPin: http://moon1000.com/software/download/freeware/index.shtml. Even better. It's actually able to add the option to the context-menu of your window-title! But you first have to focus the window on which you need the option, and then doubleclick the systemtray-icon of pushpin. A bit overkill.... But now I know it's possible . Shouldn't be to hard in C++. Or would it? Nah, I'll just keep looking for now.

Hahaha, nice one... Found a freeware prog, "Transparent Window Manager", but it doesn't add the options to the title bars context-menu. It shows a list of windows, and I can customize them by enabling and/or disabling options with radio-boxes. Exactly what I didn't want But I'll keep on looking!

Well, I didn't really think of it as customizing Windows, but actually, that exactly what I'm talking about . So you're right. And I'll try Softpedia. Thanks for the fast reply! Took you only 2 minutes

Hi all! I'm looking for a simple tool that can give me some extra options for managing my windows, e.g.: Always on top, maybe hide in systray. I've found some tools, but first off all they require money, for something that I find pretty basic... Second, they've got all these fancy "transparency" stuff, and a dozen extra options. Don't need that, just "Always on top" would be good enough . Thanks in advance for any suggestions, XoloX

I've had the problem aswell. Also, when shutting down, I could see "Closing network connections" for 2 minutes sometimes! I've googled for it, and most people that had the same problem seemed to relate it to their network. Windows XP was designed to initiate network-connections on boot, but continue on to loading the desktop before all network connections are actually functioning. Look for it on microsoft.com and you'll probably find some whitepaper about Windows XP's boot-times compared to previous Windows-versions. Still, even though Windows XP is designed NOT to wait after initiating network-connections, it seems that sometimes it does... If you use a router at home, try and set the ip-address of your PC manually, see if anything changes. It sure helped for me . 1) Open a command-prompt: Start / Run / cmd.exe 2) Type ipconfig 3) Use the info to manually set it 4) You can set this info in the Properties-window of your network-adapter If I didn't forget anything, you should be able to set it back to Auto-discover or DHCP or something like that when things don't work. To be on the safe side: Don't blame me if this doesn't work (although I wouldn't know why not) Hope this can solve the problem! XoloX Edit: Now it seems like I ignored gameheads post... I didn't! I just thought I'd explain the process....

Well...... I was gonna say VMWare, but you guys are totally right about VM installing all this (to me) useless crap! I don't need a virtual network, though I see it's obvious advantages... Just that it would be nice to ask during setup "Would you like even more services on your Windows box, that make it even more bloated than it already is?" It's not that I don't like VMWare, and I will continue to use it, but for a control-freak, I'd almost give the advice to use Virtual PC. Then again, VMWare is a lot faster. And the impression it gives is just more stable / professional. Just my opinion, so don't start and flame me on that one Overall, it would be nice if VMWare was a bit more subtle in infiltrating your system, but I still like it Edit: What's that "Junior Member" thing under my pic? Related to my age or the time I've been a member? Can't seem to change it on myself, so how come I've already seen at least 20 different descriptions? Did the admins/mods do that? Nevermind, I found out myself... Doh! It's just general descriptions, and only the realllllllly "big" members get their own descriptions. Sorry

@prathapml: I don't think Vann misses any Firefox regkeys. What he's missing is a way to install the flash plugin silently (i.e. without a browser-window popping up). @Vann: I use Mozilla at the moment, but the setup is exactly the same because Firefox uses the Mozilla codebase. Things to try: 1) You can run the silent Flash installer (flashsetup.exe /s) and after that use taskkill.exe to kill all browser-windows. But you'll have to know what's the default browser when running this install... You could also try: REM Run the Flash installer 'silenty' flashsetup.exe /s REM Kill all remaining browser-windows taskkill /F /IM iexplore.exe taskkill /F /IM mozilla.exe taskkill /F /IM firefox.exe REM Add your own exe's if another browser is the default! So that whether Firefox, Internet Explorer or Mozilla is the default browser, it would be killed. 2) You could also try to just copy the plugin and related files to Firefox/Mozilla's plugin-directory. For this you would need the three Flash-files: GetFlash.exe, GetFlash.exe.manifest & NPSWF32.dll, and the location of the plugins directory, probably C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins\. It works for me! Anyways, goodluck in solving the problem! Edit: First install the flash-plugin as normal, then copy the three mentioned files from the plugins dir.

Goodluck!

Till that day: keep enjoying your -relative- freedom

winnt32 is not a folder, but a program. There are two on the setup-disk actually: winnt32.exe and winnt32.msi. They both reside in the root-folder i386. So the command would become: Command1="i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons /unattend" But I don't know in what kind of a context you are thinking. Cuz this command will not work, because you'll need to specify the cdromdrive-letter. And you can't do that from the winnt.sif or unattend.txt (the same) file, because it's prepared before the installation, and before you could ever know what the driveletter will be......

Well, first of all, when a clean Windows XP installation boots up the Desktop IS absolutely empty . You'll first have to configure Windows to show the usual icons. But what changes when you do so is not that Windows creates actual shortcuts (*.lnk's) but 'virtual' shortcuts. You can't delete them. You can't edit them. And they don't reside in C:\Documents and Settings\*User*\Desktop. So no worries about deleting non-existing shortcuts... About those scripts: KiXtart (http://www.kixtart.org) KiXtart needs only one *.exe of about 250 KB. You can call it from a batch-file like this: kix32.exe script.kix And a script to create shortcuts: Dim $ProgramFiles $ProgramFiles = ExpandEnvironmentVars("%ProgramFiles%") AddProgramItem($ProgramFiles+"\Lavasoft\Ad-aware 6\Ad-aware.exe", "Remove spyware (Ad-aware)", "", 0, "", 0) AddProgramItem($ProgramFiles+"\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe", "Read Portable Document Files (Adobe Reader)", "", 0, "", 0) Here is KiXtart's online manual: http://www.kixtart.org/manual_index.html And here's a description of the function AddProgramItem: http://www.scriptlogic.com/Kixtart/htmlhel...programitem.htm I've never seriously worked with VBScript, but I know it can create shortcuts, and it won't be any harder then KiXtart-scripting. Just search the forums, or google for it. Good luck!

modpe is a program which you need so you can modify the file in such a way that they will be accepted by setup. If you just modify the *.cpl with Resource Hacker, then compress it with CabPack or MakeCAB then setup will reject the file and you will have no System-applet (or setup could halt, which would be even worse...) Check out the links to see what to do... Hint: http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/hacked_files.htm

As long as your desktop doesn't contain any valuable files.... Works just fine for me... I install all my applications, delete both the "All Users" and personal Desktop & Startmenu, and then recreate the shortcuts I need. But I use KiXtart to create the shortcuts, so I can't help you with that... I do know that for example KiXtart and VBScript can do shortcuts...

Runonce apps-setup Could you clarify? The way I read this, it seems like you're trying to install your applications from within the Windows setup?! Or are you talking about the hotfixes that can't be integrated into the setup itself, and must be run during Runonce... If so, did you seperate the applications from the hotfixes? This is the only way that I can think of in which the installation of the hotfixes could work, but the installation of the applications not... Could there be an error in the script that installs your apps? User-problem I had exactly the same problem, but I don't know if the cause is the same... I used While users should have been user.... This way, my user WAS actually created, but it wasn't added to the admin-group, so autologin worked, but it was a limited user... Password Maybe you answer file contains an encoded password while it doesn't say so, or visaversa? Or the password contains invalid characters (don't know about those though)? ------------------------------- Hope I've been of any use! Good luck!

Hehe, like your system-applet's new look zbeta!