Takeshi

The pinned Start menu items seem to be recorded here under Favorites in particular: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage So it might be possible to apply this to all users. I haven't tried it because that's not what I want to do myself.

Use the bootcfg command.

Login as admin account user. 1. Disable Simple File Sharing. 2. Go to the folder's Security tab. 3. Add your account name to the Access Control Entry. 4. Assign Full control or whatever you want. It's really as simple as this. No need even to take ownership (although that will also work).

It's inadvisable to have the same SIDs on multiple machines! It's not directly related to WPA. The ideal situation is to use volume licence. The Sysprep GUI tool has a switch Don't reset grace period for activation (Pre-activated in pre-SP2; the command is: -activated) - not applicable for VLK media and for other versions the grace period is three times.

This is an unattended Windows question and has been covered before in that forum: here

There're cleaning progs which can do that but I don't use them. The problem is that IE cache is more than just your internet pages. IE keeps storing info in the index.dat file. It keeps building up in size. Just log on to another admin account or another installation and delete the whole Content.IE5 folder. That will do it nicely. So why bother with other cleaning programs? You can also write a logoff or logon script that does that.

Thanks. I'll keep them all. The new DVR was less than CAD50 anyway.

WIN51IC.SP1, win51ic.SP2 You only need SP2. The htm files aren't necessary.

Not sure if it's relevant but the folder name keeps changing: In $OEM$\$$\ it's backxp, in windows it's backup, in the registry it's backupxp. What's going on?

If iso in VM works but not the actual CD then it suggests CD media or reading problem. PS. code tags: put [ code ] in front, [ /code ] at the back of the text, without the actual spaces.

You can access SR points eventually by first using the RC to access the Repair folder and it's very convoluted. This gives you some idea.

Thanks for the replies. My system is quite old by now: AMD xp 1600+ MSI K7T266 Pro2 RU Enermax Power 350W 4 IDE HDs (two on IDE, two on onboard RAID) ATI AIW 9600xt graphics card AGP SBA card IDE NIC IDE card Pioneer DVD-ROM + DVR (on 2nd IDE) Yes having three DVD drives seem overboard. Previously I had this Pioneer DVD-ROM and Pioneer DVR 106D. The DVD-ROM I though had stopped working (didn't read discs properly). So I recently bought a new Pioneer DVR 111D for its DL buring ability. But after connecting the new DVR it turned out that the old DVD-ROM is working properly and the IDE cable is faulty. So now I have one DVD-ROM and two DVRs. I've run out of IDE slots. I could use the DVD-ROM as an ext. drive for my laptop too, as the laptop DVR is not region-free. What's the difference between a drive enclosure and drive adaptor?

Windows Service Pack appears to be one giant hotfix only because it's compressed. When extracted it consists of many files. I suppose you can build a self-extracting exe.

I'm thinking of mounting my old (region free) internal Pioneer DVD-ROM to an external USB 2 enclosure or IDE adaptor, thus leaving two newer DVD writers as internal. I'm not sure if the present power supply (350W) will cope with three internal DVD drives - although usually only one drive will be running. Are there any adverse performance issues connecting ext. DVD drives? Specifically I mean data transfer, interruption of play? PC or laptop are both running XP SP2. Or will the power be OK if only one DVD drive is running? Thanks for any advice!

Like most things it's best not to take up extreme positions. I haven't used the above mentioned security programs but rather than relying on it blindly and not understanding what it does, it's best to read up a bit about security first. Then do whatever is right for your needs. There're registry settings for this and that but they may not be what you really need.

Zxian: Page File setting is one of the most encountered FAQs everywhere. I think a sticky from one of these threads would be very useful. Or perhaps you and the other knowledgeable members could make a definitive tutorial on the subject. Time to put an end to all the perpetual misconceptions!

I don't know who is moderating the uA Windows forum so I'll post here. Glent posted an update to the Registry Tweaks in February on a new thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=66127&st=0 Although he's busy and calls it beta, should this replace the Pt. 3 sticky? The Pt. 3 thread is no longer clean and this version has numerous errors and so would mislead many people.

Another valuable contribution from Vadikan! With the US En CD media alone, I don't believe it's possible to turn it to a localised version. That's why you need the extra files in the MUI. When you compare localised versions of XP CD with one another, at least for CJK, the CD size is larger than the US.

I can only say, my 4 yr old MSI K7T266 MoBo with ATI AIW xt600 AGP with dual-VGA out (connected to 2 LCDs) works without any problems.

replacing XP's ntoskrnl (NT OS kernel file) with 2003's? Perhaps you mean ntldr.

Not knowing exactly where your partitions were and how you deleted them it's a bit tricky to pinpoint the problem. But, RC's bootcfg /rebuild command should rebuild your boot.ini. If the boot.ini is incorrect or missing you'll see an error message. You haven't said if there's a boot screen. If you don't then the boot.ini entry is set to boot automatically to the specified partition. If the above doesn't apply, I suspect your Windows partition, or at least where the Windows boot files (boot.ini, ntldr, NTDETECT.COM) are located, is set non-active at present. The minint entry rather suggests it's Windows PE on a harddisk, in which case it's a bit more involved and the WinPE subforum has articles on multibooting WinPE/XP.

It would help to know: 1. if you're actually using En or Arabic Windows XP. 2. If you use a full or altered (for example nLited) version as the source. 3. What is in line 66 of winnt.sif? 4. What is actually under the RegionalSettings section.

You didn't say if you use XP Home or Professional. There're some differences in accounts. In XP HE, the built-in Administrator account is only accessible in Safe Mode. The Ctrl-Alt-Del method won't do, only for XP Pro. XP Pro also comes with the Local Users and Groups mmc snap-in where you can manage user accounts and groups. Although the same file (lusrmgr.msc) is also present in XP HE, it won't work and I've never figured out why it's there.

The Content.IE5 folder is under special system attribute and you cannot see it properly or delete it while logged on as the current user. It's very simple: logon to another admin account (use the root Administrator account if that's not your account, or create a new admin user account if needed) and manually delete the whole Content.IE5 folder of the original user. I do this all the time (in fact I do it from an adjacent XP installation but the the underlying principle is the same).

It's a long while since I did physics but Zxian is on the right track. Signal strength is not the same thing as signal speed (velocity). If I remember correctly, electromagnetic wave travels at the velocity of light down the wire. But it makes sense not to have excessive lengths of cables.