cluberti

That's true - I saw it on eOpen yesterday, so it may be available on your licensing site.

Define "doesn't work" please.

If you have a friend with an OEM CD (preferrably from the same hardware vendor), that would be best to borrow. If the license on the PC is valid, the media used to install the OS that uses the key matters little (as long as it's the correct OEM version). You might be able to call MS customer service and get a replacement media for a few dollars (sans key) as well, but I don't know if that is done anymore.

Your TAM should be able to provide you with media, if it is available.

I use this menu to boot PE images, hardware diagnostic tools, and BIOS upgrade floppies.

Internally, Vista's upgrade (even from XP) was like going from Win95 to WinXP. However, from a user's perspective, it's probably not going to be too different (the 2000 - XP analogy works well here). It's all under the covers, but hopefully some of the really neat usermode stuff will make it into Vienna.

Downloading the dump now - I'll take a look once downloaded and I'll let you know what exactly is happening.

IE7 on downloevel clients (read, not Vista) will probably always be vulnerable to the same exploits IE6 was vulnerable too, to some extent. Once it's on Vista and in protected mode, however, it would take a user a few "are you sure?" clicks to make this happen. Not impossible, but at least more difficult.

eOpen is a licensing term from Microsoft, and it's for Open license customers: https://eopen.microsoft.com/EN/default.asp Normally I'd say the medium was bad, but if you've tried multiple downloads and burns, perhaps not. I would suggest (if you can) trying the discs in a virtual machine (Virtual PC/Virtual Server or VMware) on another machine, just to make sure you don't get any errors there.

Since both kernels are identical (and report as server 2003 to installers), it probably won't matter which you choose. Also, since you have a license for server 2003, I'd say go with that to make sure you can run server apps without connection limits.

First, no, there's no way to stop those files and folders from deleting with switches as that code is hard-coded into the installer functionality. You can mark them as read-only once the install reboots into GUI setup, but I've seen that actually cause the installer to fail (but only sometimes). May I ask why you need to keep these folders? They're basically just expanded files from the installation media... If you want a reference to .sif file creation, you'll find great (and complete) documentation on the Windows OPK, downloadable from oem.microsoft.com (registration required).

Just give me a q-tip, a stick of gum, and a sock and I can fix anything. However, there are 2 specific reasons why I would suggest doing it this way: 1. Dumps never lie - they can be misleading, but they always contain the data needed to resolve a problem 2. There are specific load orders for kernel drivers and services, and I think one (or more) kernel service driver is causing your issue. This is currently the only way to troubleshoot that (short of uninstalling everything non-Microsoft and rebooting, and even that may not resolve it if anything is left behind). A dump of the issue should give me registers, memory, and call stacks of all processes and threads on the system at the time the system is hanging, and I can debug system hangs in my sleep .

The only thing I would have suggested trying (other than something other than AVG) would have been to install using the actual administrator account (if that wasn't done) and to run without UAC, as a test, to see if things worked right in that scenario. Obviously that's not a fix, but at least it tells us where the problem lies if that works.

And the chances of it doing so are slim - WinPE is supposed to be a launching point for imaging or installing Windows, and not much more. It took three versions to get WMI support, so don't expect .NET anytime soon .

You should use the ntpasswd utility: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

1. Configure for a complete memory dump via the keyboard (has to be a PS/2 keyboard, USB won't work at this point in the boot process): - Create or set the following registry value: Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters Value: CrashOnCtrlScroll Type: REG_DWORD Data: 1 - Right-Click on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and select "Properties"; this will open the "System Properties" window. Go to the "Advanced" tab and click "Performance Options". Click "Change" under "Virtual Memory". Set the pagefile to be located on the partition where the OS is installed, and set it to be equal to Physical RAM + 50 MB. - Also in the "System Properties" window, click on the "Advanced" tab, then click "Startup and Recovery". Make sure "Complete Memory Dump" is selected. You can change the location of the memory dump file to a different local partition if you do not have enough room on the partition where the OS is installed. You will need to reboot for these changes to take effect. 2. Time your next boot, so you know exactly how long (in seconds) it takes from the symptoms of the hang to start and stop - we want to dump it sometime in the middle of the "hang" period, so we need to know how long the hang behavior lasts 3. Reboot again, but this time hold down the RIGHT CTRL key and press the SCROLL LOCK key twice when the box is at the middle of the "hang" - this will cause the box to bugcheck and create a memory.dmp file. 4. Once the box reboots and comes back up, let me know and I'll give you a place to upload the memory.dmp file.

Sure there is - it's in Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup\FolderLocations (when using Windows SIM).

Have you never heard of WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment)? Remember that the NT installer is more than 10 years old, and hasn't held up well in terms of drive sizes and partitioning. If you use Microsoft's WinPE (which is the recommended way to start unattended installations, especially for Vista, going forward) or the BartPE derivative, this can be easily scripted.

Well, I'd see if there are driver updates from nvidia (probably not yet, but worth a check). Considering it's the vendor who supplies drivers for the Windows disc, I'd be mad at nvidia for making crappy drivers .

Ah, but I nitpick - you posted the German version (which was indeed available yesterday). This is EN-US .

First, you can dual-boot an OEM copy of Windows with Ubuntu (or any other OS), and as long as you install the other OS after installing XP you shouldn't run into any problems - it can work the other way 'round too, but sometimes XP has a habit of wiping the MBR and not recognizing the other OS, so it's safer to do XP first, other OS second. Second, like it or not, Windows requires WGA to function for the most part, and WGA does check the validty of your license hen installing Windows Updates (or the IE7 upgrade). It also checks with Microsoft periodically to verify that your copy of Windows is legitimate outside of the Windows Update process as well, but it's a necessary evil for Windows users going forward (it'll be in all Microsoft software going forward), and there's no legal way around it. Third, OEM keys are handled differently than retail keys by Microsoft's licensing servers, and a recent change was supposed to require all OEM copies to not be allowed to reactivate without contacting Microsoft customer service - however some people have reactivated OEM copies online after this change without having to contact Microsoft. You can still reactivate without issue if you have to contact Microsoft, but your experience will likely vary here on whether or not reactivation will work online after the first build. Last, corporate media refers to Volume License media, or media from the VLK. If you've got an Enterprise or Select agreement with Microsoft, you usually get VLK media for installation in your organization with special VLK keys. This is different from retail or OEM copies of XP (and there are two different versions of OEM even - retail OEM and manufacturer OEM). This really doesn't mean anything to you, as an individual you're only going to find retail and retail OEM for purchase from stores (online or off), or get a manufacturer's OEM copy with a new PC.

You might want to search MSFN for this - that topic gets discussed frequently (especially in the Unattended Windows forums).

If the machines are identical (and let's assume they are), it's going to be an issue with a file system filter (FSF) driver misbehaving and hammering the disk during file I/O (that's really the only time we use them, unless they're actively used by an application). The reason I believe this is because all I/O on a machine has to go through all FSF drivers on the system (regardless of whether or not they have anything to do with the file transfer), as that's the way the kernel is designed (and that's how antivirus/antispyware/backup software works). This will likely show up as the antivirus or antispyware package, but I've seen blackice and zonealarm do this on occasion too.

It's a bit of a stretch to call it a bug without any knowledge other than a handle open by explorer.exe. Also remember that explorer.exe runs Microsoft and 3rd party code - if you run autoruns and shellexview, disable all non-Microsoft items and reboot, and the problem with explorer.exe still persistst, then you have more of a case. For now, it could be ANY application on your system with a hook into explorer.exe causing this, and that's more likely than explorer.exe holding a handle open for no reason - especially considering this would likely happen to all video (or at least .avi files) if a bug in explorer.exe exists, and it'd probably be a pretty well-known one by now, too.

Well, I am they and I can vouch that it's true. ALL RTM builds of Vista are 6000.16386.061101-2205, dated 11/2/06 (note the date in the build number of 1st November 2006, 10:05PM UTC). I've been running this codebase since 11/6, with no problems.