InTheWayBoy

The way I see it, one of two things will happen: 1. Hopefully it will become illegal...in present day it's not. Then you would see it dwindle to nothing except a few rouges, who would probably stop one day...money leaves a paper trail after all. 2. The industry will learn to 'accept' it and develop a whole new working model to deal with the spyware threat...that means more antispyware products and services, which means more money out of pocket to opperate a computer. Everyone will continue to get rich (Even support people like me, cause I get paid to fix spyware, so technically I get money from it too!) off poor consumers...a shame. That's not a real in depth look, but just imagine the second. You'll see ever growing advances that are probably nothing more than a shame to protect you...AOL Super Spyware Protection service (Only an extra $5 a month!) and Longhorn Security Edition ($100 upgrade price!). Of course those are fake, but you get the idea. And don't forget little old Apple...they will first see a rise in user base, and then they'll start getting hit by spyware too. Then you'll need to develop new tools to fight the cause on a BSD based system...can't be cheap!

clarkconnect.org That's a really slick little linux distro that is designed to do most of what you want...I don't know about roaming profiles and GPO's...SAMBA might have roaming policy's but I'm pretty sure GPO is a MS thing. As for your question if it would be better to go linux or windows...to me I would say go with Windows. Since your a Windows guy it's easier to figure out Windows 2003 since at least the basic functions are the same...with Linux everything is different. Not hard to pick up, but it's more 'overhead' in the process. That said, I've been attempting to do the same thing with Server 2003 for the past month. I've got it pretty much like you...my cable modem runs to the server on one NIC, then out to a switch on another NIC. It's setup as a Domain Controller, with DNS, DHCP, and IIS for WWW and FTP. I have only three users, but all have Folder Redirection enabled (Which can be better than roaming profiles in most cases) plus various GPO's that dictate certain settings and software to be applied at boot. I also have my big HD on it that is shared out and mapped to all client via a logon script. I tell you this, it's been a bunch of reloads...mostly because there isn't much clear info on doing what we want it to do. Most is directed much higher at corporate levels, or very specific in one problem and not the whole thing. Of course, the other issue is cost...linux is free most of the time, and when it's not it's usually cheaper than the $650 cost of Server 2003 Standard. You can get Server 2003 Web for $350, but I don't know if you can do a Domain Controller with that version.

No way no how...system functions are too drastically different. You're only shot it either downgrade to Win95 or upgrade to WinME...shells of course.

So it should be installed right after an OS is installed? I could have sworn I read somewhere I was to install after updates and such...oh well! As for suggestions, I have only one: Anyway to disable the random reboot questions that Windows sometimes throws up? Not the one at the end of course, but I've had a few occassions where one or two steps into the install it asks if I want to reboot. I'm sure it's cause the computer is messed up, but still...anything? Maybe AutoIT scripts or something. And I forgot to mention that it's a great application, thanx you ever so much for it. Sometimes I forget how much time developers put in and how little thanx you get

Don't forget, all the screenshots and beta releases aren't using the new "Aero" windows acceleration...it's that 3D accelerated windows management crap, but I would think that would have some impact on the visual looks of things. But even so, I have to say, I think it looks horrible at the moment, I have 5048, and threw it on VMWare...not nice looking. Granted, I didn't get a chance to load VMTools so I was stuck with VGA. But even so, the GUI in general is very...ummm...over-hyped? I mean I can see some differences and possibly even benefits, but it's not all that impressive. Again...beta...but still, it's like MS is gonna pull a WinME on us. Longhorn could just be a super version of XP with more 'features' (Which of course means more bugs) and is gonna sell it as a major upgrade. I've even head WinFS isn't going to be included at launch.

Not to try and back out, but you have to take into account the possibility of bad hardware...as a tech, seeing that and knowing what you have said, that would be my next guess. That, maybe a BIOS update, or possibly that chipset just doesn't like Win9x. Could also be a driver issue...as much as Win9x is still in the market, it's mostly on old hardware. So new hardware might not have the best Win9x support...hell, some don't even offer it anymore!

try logmein.com then...it's really simple, too simple for some things, but to start out on you might like it.

If you want to use the file you already have, you need to expand it with the expand.exe command...I don't have the syntax handy but I think it's something like: expand sfc.dl_ Pretty simple...that should produce another file, sfc.dll, at which point you could do what you were mentioning. sfc.dl_ has been compressed to fit in with WinXP setup, so when you install WinXP it will transparently copy the file and then expand it for you...you can't just rename that file.

I use this in my cmdlines.txt ; Disable System Restore Service [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\srservice] "Start"=dword:00000004 Of course that is in a .reg file that is called from cmdlines.txt,

I saw this earlier and am playing with it now...the file has two versions inside...NT and 98. Now obviously you would use the 98 one, and you basically do just like sysprep and XP. Install, configure, run preptool.exe, and then image. Right now I'm testing the mini-setup part...very nice. Can't believe I never came across this!

3.47.0 Lastest version essentially...I run that previous post on the MSI for Daemon Tools, then I have this extra utility called DAEMount (Which is pretty handy I might add!) that installs after Daemon Tools. The setup program from DAEMount runs the application immediately after installation, so I also have a taskkill command...nothing works until reboot, but then I have a virtual CD upon reboot. I further enhance it by removing the tray icon using a simple registry file...here's the whole WPI chain: WPI: prog[pn]=['Daemon Tools'] uid[pn]=['DAEMON'] desc[pn]=['Virtual CD Emulator'] ordr[pn]=[60] cmd1[pn]=['C:\\DoctorPC\\WPI\\Install\\DTools\\Setup.msi /passive /norestart'] cmd2[pn]=['C:\\DoctorPC\\WPI\\Install\\DTools\\DAEMount.exe'] cmd3[pn]=['taskkill /F /IM daemount.exe'] rega[pn]=['C:\\DoctorPC\\WPI\\Install\\DTools\\Startup.reg'] cat[pn]=['Utilities'] pn++ Startup.reg: REGEDIT4 [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] "DAEMON Tools-1033"="\"C:\\Program Files\\D-Tools\\daemon.exe\" -lang 1033" Don't seem to have any issues with it...good luck!

This is what I use for Daemon Tools and I get no issues: Setup.msi /passive /norestart

Don't they have an exe for Firefox? I wonder if with that, plus a little AutoIT, you could whip something up?

They sing that they are very secure...in truth I don't care, so I don't know

I still use VNC when I need to, but I've been using LogMeIn lately...it's a smaller version of Remotely Anywhere, which is clunky at first but it's really slick. LogMeIn is free for just remote desktop (File Transfer Isn't Free), and it's great cause it doesn't need firewall support (Other than software firewalls approving the application in general). It is a service that they provide, so you have to go through them at all times, but it's really not a drag if both units are on broadband. It will run on Win2000 no problem...check it out, it's pretty swank! www.logmein.com

That's the program I use as well...easy and never really messes up.

RyanVM, that's exactly what I was gonna post! Didn't get to reload the RIS image so I just edited the sif file and added that, among other extra settings. No problem...still would like to know what causes it of course.

I see...guess I didn't get the meaning of those options...thanx ever so much!

Hmmm...never heard of that program...at least not yet I'm gonna reload the CD onto the server later this afternoon...going fishing now!

Okay, so here's how I see this all working...I have autopatcher and WPI all setup and ready to go. I have them both in my OEM folder, and I have the GuiRunOnceEx set to run AutoPatcher in unattended mode. I made a module for AutoPatcher to call WPI.cmd on the next reboot, so that WPI can take over and do it's thing. Now my question is this, I would like WPI to install all the defaults...meaning, when WPI is called it goes at it and installs all the programs I have set as 'default'. That way I can get all the common programs installed, and if done right everything would be unattended! I do have other apps in WPI, but I would install those on a case by case basis. Any help? And yes, I have searched and searched...the keywords are just really generic.

Couldn't you set it up to logon as Administrator once, then have a script to reboot the computer once it's logged on...the effect, at least the way I'm seeing it, would be that the image would load, install the hotfixes, autologon Administrator, then run a batch file that has a shutdown command in it to reboot...sounds good? BTW, I really don't understand what you mean by you have to logon...so setup installs, then installs the service pack...and then shouldn't it reboot, allowing you to decide which user to run?

And to further confuse you with more options, here is mine: Nero.exe /SN=1233-4567-3333-1234-4567-8634 /WRITE_SN /SILENT /NO_UI /NOREBOOT /NOLICENSE /NOCANCEL Of course upon further review, it's the same as two posts above, so nevermind...I'm just a moron

No nlite for me...that's what is so odd...

How are you installing WinXP? From CD or over network? Maybe we can figure this out on our own

Here's the error I'm getting: Windows Logo Prompt - Battery I click yes and everything is fine...but it doesn't seem to go any further until then, defeating the unattended purpose...thanx in advance!!!