Takeshi

Did you include the /t:c at the end?

@cluberti Does the AlwaysUnloadDLL regtweak actually work in XP? I read somewhere that it doesn't? (I have Windows internals too but unlike you I haven't read it all yet!) It's a common misunderstanding about memory being released and that's probably why many people use such memory release utils.

The option to backup System State should work for XP Gold, SP1 and SP2, from my experience. I've been using it all along in different setups.

I haven't figured it out either but changing the location changes this reg key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\Geo Nation = UAE seems to be 224. So you might try putting this in regtweak. I find that US En ver of XP would set location as US even I change input locale to UK, for example. Using a Taiwan version (trad Chi) for examplewould set it to Taiwan. Are you using an US En ver of XP?

I don't think winnt.bat has anything to do with it. Try putting a blank winnt.sif on the CD. According to my MCSE books, the floppy should be inserted when the Setup blue text screen appears: not sure if this makes any difference.

Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc You have to free up the drive letters first if you want to use them on other partitions. And you can't do it all at once.

Thanks. After repeated trials including your suggestion, it seems to be the PC card. When I re-insert it firmly it can now find IP after a brief delay (but sometimes I have to do it more than once). But then leaving it untouched and reboot and it fails again needing the same remedy. Whatever the problem is with this, the other laptop (DELL) has no problem whatsoever so it's unlikely to be the router's problem. ============================================ Update: The PC card worked fine when tested on the other DELL laptop (with its own disabled first, and the Linksys PC card drivers installed properly). So there's something between the PC card and the Toshiba.

It adds Dir List to R click menu OK but doesn't actually write anything in the txt file (the first time it runs it asks me to create one). The cmd window keeps saying: The system cannot find the file specified. Or have I missed something?

http://www.petri.co.il/shell_enhancements_...p_2000_2003.htm

Start > Run > regedit Navigate to the above subkey. Not sure if that's the culprit but worth checking. If that's not the cause then there's something wrong with explorer.exe.

Yep, it works with png and gif (any animation will be lost). If the pic is too small it will be tiled to fill the window.

Thanks for the info on explorer. Although I haven't investigated this, I didn't think the system hive (HKLM) the registry in WinPE would be identical to that in the native OS. I can't think of anything else right now but the work around above is scriptable and can be implemented. Afterall if you have to tell someone to do a repair over the phone, the other person won't have WinPE on hand either, or will he/she?

NTDETECT.COM is not a DOS file strictly speaking. Win2K (and perhaps NT) uses it too (but older versions). There're excellent chapters in MS Windows XP Resource Kit which tells you in detail about the XP boot process and what files it uses. Then you'll know how XP boots. Also this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;314079 The i386 folder is not part of the working Win XP any more; it was used in the factory for unattended installation (but often left behind afterwards).

Perhaps it's something you uninstalled and left behind. You can't delete items in msconfig. Just go the reg key and manually delete it if found. It happens sometimes.

Check the Start menu prog list in the registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu2\Programs

There's no satisfactory solution for admin users on a local machine, but here you can at least restrict the services.mmc from launching at all by local GP. User Config\Admin temp\Windows Comp\MMC\ Restricted/Permitted Snap-ins Services > Disabled HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\MMC\{58221C66-EA27-11CF-ADCF-00AA00A80033} Restrict_Run: DWORD = 1 Of course any admin can change this policy back to enabled in gpedit.msc or regedit.

If you really want an ATI video card you don't have to have the AIW. You can get the ATI TV Wonder (or other alternatives) as an external box and the ATI PCI-E card to your liking. I would go down this route (or similar) when I have a new PC although I'm a satisfied user of the AIW 9600XT (AGP only). The mpeg2 encoding is excellent but I don't use its DVD player (prefer PowerDVD) nor the remote. I don't use the TV tuner normally because I connect my cable box to the input dongle using S-video.

The Linksys WNIC is part of the wireless kit: http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c...FVisitorWrapper and the WNIC PC card is the same as: http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c...FVisitorWrapper XP SP2 + all updates WNIC drivers 1.22.1.2004 from CD Toshiba Satellite laptop When it was bought almost a yr ago everything worked even with WPA encryption, SSID broadcast disabled, WAN and LAN MAC address filtering. Now it doesn't unless the above are disabled apart from WPA. The Windows Wireless Zero icon keeps showing the rolling yellow ball (renewing network address) or not connected. It can connect to the Linksys router or the Netgear (the AP part) but it cannot find its IP or gateway. ipconfig /renew, repair network, rebooting, reinstalling drivers all failed to solve it. I've tried my other DELL laptop (with its own WNIC mini-port) and it connects fine to both routers (can go online) with the above security features on. I strongly suspect the Linksys WNIC is faulty. But before contacting Linksys have I missed anything I should check?

Interesting problem. I'm not sure if it's at all possible to do a SR offline, i.e. from WinPE to say, an installed XP on C, by the SR GUI or command-line directly. You can call SR from Safe Mode with command prompt. The Recovery Console can't access the SVI folder. But I think there is a work around. Bear in mind that SR mostly backs up the registry and the files are all in the SVI subfolders, RPn (where n is a number denoting a SR point). You can improvise the priniciples outline in: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;307545 to replace the registry hive files from the RPn folder to the C:\windows\system32\config\ directory. So in essence you rename and copy these • _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to: c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\system32\config\system The n in RPn varies but you can read the time stamp to determine its date of creation. On a side issue, I haven't figured out how to add Explorer to WinPE: can you show me how?

From what I understand after reading various threads here, the /integrate method merely adds the updates via the svcpack.

IconArea_Image=.\background.jpg <------------------you phoot name in the same folder Q: How large or small should the jpg be? Would it take gif/png? That would mean putting a separate jpg in each folder. phoot? = photo?

I won't go as far as saying MS' recommendation is illegal: why would they publish illegal stuff on their KB? More likely is that the wording is a bit "vague" and can be subject to "alternative" interpretation. Leaving this aside, this does give some hint for experimentation.

The built in Administrator account (the root Admin as I call it) has the same admin privileges as other admin accounts added later. So you can use any admin account to do admin tasks. In XP HE, the Admin acc. is only accessible in Safe Mode, as you know. But in XP Pro you can use it in normal mode. In XP HE, there're no power user group. So they're either admin, limited or guest. but if uninstall a program under one user account, does it get uninstalled under all? A: yes

VMware/VPC won't be suitable for testing drivers. VMWare uses VMWare SVGAII display adaptor.

Those numbers are CLSIDs and they should be there. When you install programs and add-ons they often have CLSIDs to register in the registry. If you actually look up individual CLSIDs in HKCR you will find out what they are. So seeing them is neither here or there, it doesn't mean much to most people. I don't think just looking at these will get you much further. I would: 1. scan your PC with a virus scanner, whatever you have or online, if you haven't done so. 2. The Start button and taskbar is part of explorer.exe and this can be prone to errors, whether virus infected or not. So go to Safe Mode and see if the same happens. 3. Try creating another account and see. 4. Try the Taskbar Repair Tool (search Google). 5. If the above measures don't help then you do have some damage to the system whatever the cause. Try fixing individual files and registry keys is a non-starter. You best bet is to salvage your data and format/reinstall.