cluberti

You're right, I don't have a clue. I'm sure you work here, know all the in's and out's of the Win32 and Win64 APIs, and have gone through numerous x32 to x64 binary migrations. I've done none of these things, and of course know nothing about what I'm saying at all.

You could always do a system state backup of the SBS box and restore it to the mirror, but you wouldn't be able to have them as DCs on the network at the same time. You could always mirror the actual file and folder data via DFS and/or FRS, but the user accounts and AD information would only be able to be backed up and restored, not replicated in real time. If you want to do that, you'll have to pony up for another 2k3 standard license and use the "Transition Pack" migrate off of SBS: http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003...transition.mspx

Since the upgrade routine actually checks file versions and dates, you'll likely never actually be able to get it to work (XP is version 5.1.2600 for most system files and 2K3 is 5.2.3790 for most files). I suppose someone out there has done it, but knowing what I know about the setup upgrade routine, it'd be quite difficult to get working.

Normal is different for every system - and 50MB used in a svchost.exe process isn't all that bad, so I guess you could consider it normal (although with only 5 hours of usage since install, it'd be hard to say what's normal and what's not). If you want to reduce memory, reduce running services and unnecessary startup processes - this will do more to reduce the memory footprint of a running Windows machine than almost anything else (short of using nLite).

Changing the default email application is relatively trivial, and can (and should) be done in both the Internet Explorer options and the Set program access and defaults applet. As to the wireless not working after hibernation or standby, if it works properly and without issue before hibernate or standby and fails to work after coming out of one of those power states, then the issue is with the driver used for the wireless device in your laptop, and not the OS itself or the access point. Consider upgrading the driver, or purchasing better hardware. Using Linksys devices is a crapshoot - some are great, and some just suck.

Then script it in! I think you're missing the whole goal of the project you've been tasked with - the professor has taken a relatively menial and easy task and given you a few wrinkles that you'll have to work at to make this work. He's probably trying to get you to excercise your brain and do some troubleshooting, so go for it! You've already got most of the solution - figure out what you're missing, and how you can go about making the solution work to fit the requirements.

OEM versions are supposed to be sold with computer hardware, and yes, for the most part, the OEM software is then married to the machine. There's some gray area if you purchase the OEM software with a hardware component, as was allowed until September of last year, but for most circumstances yes, legally, OEM software is tied to the machine it's purchased with.

If it's an NT-based OS (Windows NT, 2000, XP, or 2003), google "ntpasswd".

Using software restriction policies will restrict software installation for everyone that GPO applies to for the most part, and as such shouldn't be used unless you have specific packages or executables that you want to make users not run. Also, relaxing security in the registry is dangerous, as it potentially opens up a machine to unnecessary security risks that it would otherwise not display. Can installing updates be done by regular users? Probably. Can you relax file and registry permissions to allow this? Also probable. Is doing this a good idea in the long run? I don't know about you, but I would say that doing something that makes systems vulnerable unnecessarily is probably not a wise choice (nor will it be easy to manage). This is the exact reason programs such as SMS, LanDesk, Tivoli, etc. exist - there's not a really good way to do this otherwise without opening up your environment to potential security risks.

If you add a printer with a driver already built-in (like a generic HP Laserjet 5 driver), does it work, or does it also give an error? If it gives an error, then yes, the OS is at fault. If it works, then the print spooler is working fine and your printer vendor tech support sucks.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServe...68ceb31033.mspx First link when searching for "wsus registry" in google too.

Then there is going to be some HAL checking, and only images matching the current machine's HAL will be displayed to the user. If only one image matches, you'll get this behavior - it'll automatically select the only image it can. You can get around this by modifying the riprep image files a bit - it's been discussed here before.

Another good test is to run the following command: telnet companyweb 80 If it fails, port 80 isn't accessible (for whatever reason). If it clears the screen after a few seconds, port 80 is working (and thus should be accessible via http).

Protection Manager from www.winternals.com does allow this sort of thing, but it's about the only product I'm aware of that does. And it isn't cheap . You'd be better off using a solution such as SMS to push out updates, since you need to do more than Windows updates. SMS (or other non-Microsoft patching solution) allows you to package things up and install them in the same manner Windows updates get installed, and the users will not need administrative privileges if the SMS client is on the machine.

I can vouch that if it's set up correctly (meaning everything in AD is working PROPERLY! ), limitlogon works just fine.

Download LiveKD from www.sysinternals, install the debugging tools for Windows from the microsoft site, then use LiveKD to gather a dump while this thread is consuming CPU. I'll take a look at the dump and let you know what's going on.

You've already posted them: You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Startup using the original setup CD-ROM - Pop the Windows XP CD in your drive and press a key to boot from CD when prompted Select "r" at the first screen to start repair - When prompted, press the "r" key on the keyboard to start the repair process. When it's done, your machine should reboot and (hopefully) start working normally again. If not, you'll have to reinstall.

And I disagree with you - not that a low-level format may not resolve it, but trying something as simple as a driver update before blowing away a drive seems like 5 minutes well worth it if it works .

Are these flat-file images, or riprep images?

To restart IIS on a machine, run the command "iisreset" from a command prompt or the run dialog box. If you're unable to open the site from the local machine, what DNS server(s) is/are configured in the TCP/IP properties of your NIC? Make sure you don't have any public DNS servers there, only your own.

Can you add a second DC to your domain and transfer the roles to the other DC via ntdsutil? If you remove the DC, the AD and all data within it will be lost. A good life lesson in AD - always have more than one DC and more than one GC server.

First, there was no reason to uninstall Exchange to move the databases - these can be moved post-installation via the GUI!!! Second, I would do a reinstall of Exchange 2003 on this server (including foresprep and domainprep). This should refresh the Exchange container of AD, and hopefully update the component's registration and AD registration data. Third, move the databases to whatever drive you wish post-installation via the System Manager GUI.

Well, the other option is to attach a different mouse, preferrably USB, and see if the problem exists with the new mouse.

1. Get a hold of Windows XP's i386 folder - I'm assuming you already have this from your post. 2. Copy this i386 folder onto a networked machine. It doesn't matter the OS, as long as SMB is supported (any Windows server or workstation OS, or Linux and Samba). 3. Create a share for the newly copied i386 directory on the Windows or Linux machine. 4. Use a network boot CD to boot a client, from DOS, to the network. You'll need a boot disk (or CD) that provides access to the SMB share created in step 3 over the network - pre-built ones can be found on the 'net, but my favorite for non-RIS installs (if not using BartPE or WinPE) is http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/network/. 5. Once you've got the client booted to the network, use the net use command to map a drive letter to the share created in step 3. 6. Once the drive letter is mapped to your share, simply go into that folder and use a the winnt.exe command to start the installation. You can create an unattend.txt file (same format as winnt.sif, just named unattend.txt) and place it in the i386 folder to completely automate the installation if you choose. If you do create an unattend.txt file, simply call it via "winnt.exe /s:X:\i386 /u:X:\i386\unattend.txt (where X is replaced with the drive letter you mapped in step 5). It really isn't very hard at all to do.