oftentired

Some things are sacrificed by continuing to use Win9x. One of them is a slipstreaming. I have found no easy method or program available to accomplish what you ask with Win98SE. You can manually download each update/hotfix. Then you will have them available for installation. Someone who knows how to integrate these updates/hotfixes into the correct installer might be able to help you out with the rest of what you ask.

Likely you have a bad registry value. Unfortunately it could be any of what might be a dozen or more entries. Quickest first shot at this might be to use ERUNT to backup and attempt repair of your registry. If that fails I have another idea but it is slightly more complicated

clicky here

In this case I would look at the running programs when you shutdown. One at a time test them by manually stopping a program before you shutdown the box.

I think this is still the best source but manual rather than automatic. http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp

All of these are highly informative. The Essential Guide to Installing Windows Me Clean Install Windows Millenium Edition How To Clean Install WinME

It could also be a failure to unload the user profile correctly. This problem has been addressed with a service. If you click the link and scroll down there are links to a download and more information. User Profile Hive Cleanup Service

Difficult to do on a Win9x box. You may have to resort to purchasing third party software that will provide security functionality.

I messed around with the RamDisk as instructed at the Nutty DSL site and had little luck with it. However, I searched the net and found this little thing which does the trick for it. And then I put the Temp Internet Folder on the RamDisk and boy does my internet fly now AR Soft RamDisk

Have you read this? DSL Nuts RamDisk How To

If your installing XP I've noticed on my single box install that whatever name I choose the setup will modify it to a name the includes the first four letters of my choice and then some cryptic babble made up by setup. I suspect this will happen on a multiple install that your describing and I suspect it is based on the hardware signature (activation code) that each system produces during setup. For example I typed in Four-SATA and it was changed to "Four-ygdtwe0p6s".

Also, Xcopy is an external command so xcopy.exe will have to be in the path or pointed to when you invoke it.

I cannot tell you how to slipstream this... but you could at the point where the installation wants to restart the box for the first time... take control and modify the registry to RunOnce a batch file which would contain your services commands. I've not done it and have only researched a little for your question but I think this would be done in the batch file using SC command. No doubt someone of greater ability than I could write a script to do the same thing. I will use the Alerter service for these examples: This will make the Alerter service run as a service that must be manually started. sc config Alerter start= demand This will make the Alerter service a service that automatically starts each time the computer is restarted and runs even if no one logs on to the computer. sc config Alerter start= auto This will make the Alerter service a service that cannot be started. sc config Alerter start= disabled You don't have to run this from a batch file you can open a command window and play with it to see what it does. It worked fine on my box. Link To Command Line Reference A-Z Definitions and Explanations

You may already know this... I cannot tell you the meaning of each particular binary value but I can tell you that if this registry key exists then the user has customized the sort order of the menu and this registry value is windows way of keeping track of which item goes where. If you delete the key the order resorts to the windows default sortation.

I know this works well enough in Win9x. I don't know what extra steps may be required in XP. Safe Mode maybe? Most definately admin. temporarily rename the IE folder run OE click a link when Windows asks you what is going on point it at your browser of choice after that you should be able to rename the IE folder back and OE links should open in your browser of choice

Why not use windows backup? It is on the XP Cd. Just install it and then create a backup that performs the task you need. Don't use compression and don't save the tree structure. Should work just fine.

You can try OffByOne... it has not been updated in a couple years but it should run just fine under Win95. Some webpages may not load properly. If nothing else it may work as a temporary solution until you find a better one. Because it requires no installation I have used it as a test browser and as a means to download drivers etc... for new installations of Windows where things have gone hokey pokey upside down. OffByOne

I found myself curious about this and I went to the Microsoft knowledgebase and typed in sysprep and came up with several interesting hits. Unfortunately there were too many to just start randomly guessing and posting them here for you. You could go to the knowledgebase to read them to see if anything triggers something for you.