cluberti

Yes... so he could reinstall Windows. The problem is the OP doesn't understand what questions to ask, but the problem isn't wiping the disk, it's slipstreaming his boot drivers into textmode to avoid the 0x7b. Technically your response was accurate to the question, but it isn't going to ultimately help the OP solve the problem (because once the disk is wiped, he's still going to get a 0x7b on install without at least the disk controller drivers added to the installation media). To the OP, you will need to add at least the disk controller drivers to your installation media to be available in text mode before you'll get past the problem (and I suppose nLite isn't the worst at doing that, although it can easily be done manually with a method that works on 2000, XP, and 2003 systems). And in a nod to mainpage, it's not a bad idea to do a DoD wipe on your hard disk before reinstalling Windows anyway, to make it difficult for someone to take the disk and recover anything that was on it previously (not impossible, but really difficult without specialized machinery and a clean room ).

Do you have any specific instances or bugs that weren't fixed, or instances where they just made you wait? I've worked with MS many times, and this has most definitely not been my experience with any products (even support incidents on the free ones, like Internet Explorer). Microsoft has fixed pretty much every bug and security issue found with Windows 2000 right up until this past year (where they were unable to patch the TCP flaws, because the stack was many versions out of date compared to even 2003 and XP). Customers paid at most a few hundred dollars US for a software product, which has been maintained at least to that level (not including the price of the software itself in that equation). Frankly, 10 years of support is a long time (XP is going to ultimately have had 13!!!! years of support), honestly, and this policy is more time than practically any other commercial or open-source vendor provides support for any other product, and the longest OS support lifecycles of any OS vendor. Why would Microsoft open the source of a product just because they've ended support for it? For one, it would be a bad business decision for Microsoft (fewer sales of future versions as there's now a free one!), and second it could have the potential to create fragmentation in the market if the source was forked, etc. Not giving away your intellectual property isn't abuse of dominance, it's called good business strategy when you are a closed-source company. When you pay your bills with sales of that source code, you just do NOT give away those crown jewels, ever, unless pried from your cold, dead hands (and at that point you're likely out of business and capital anyway from the legal fees to fight said release of code).It's one thing to give away code for free and make revenue supporting and maintaining it (ala Red Hat), or releasing it without wanting or receiving any compensation (aka out of your own interest, or to scratch your own itch, etc), but it's quite another thing entirely to make money off of the sales of the code (and take a loss on the support/maintenance side of things). For a company that does the latter, open-sourcing the code would be the death-knell of that business.

If you ordered it with a credit card, and the advertised product was NOT 32bit Windows Server 2008 (for example, you bought what was advertised as 2008 R2 but got 2008), then call your credit card company and issue a chargeback. Get out your receipt, and any documentation you have to provide to the CC company that the product is not what was advertised/purchased, and you'll find that either you'll get your money back, or the vendor will want to talk when they risk losing the money back to the CC company. If you bought it with cash or a debit card, that's a lot harder to do.

It looks like it's just a webbrowser control - the default version of IE on 64bit Vista and Win7 is still IE 32bit, so if it's simply using webbrowser control calls, or the internetexplorer.application COM object, technically it would be using a 32bit "browser" (COM object, really).

I think you might mean, what does facebook use MD5 hashes for? Like a previous poster said - it's part of your authentication token. FB uses the session cookie, your user/pass hash, and an MD5 hash (probably built out of a few other pieces of info) to authenticate that you, are really you.

And? There aren't really that many serious developers out there that do this, otherwise we wouldn't (for example) have the abominations that are Adobe Flash or Acrobat, or even Internet Explorer. Optimizations aren't always for speed, also - sometimes you optimize for supportability, rather than performance. Just because an app is slow doesn't mean it isn't optimized. I would argue that's your opinion - they are out to make you think you need newer versions of their hardware or software, respectively, which may or may not be true. Ultimately, they do this because otherwise they wouldn't make much money - "buy this again!" doesn't sell as well as "this <new product> has this new <must-have feature>! buy now!". It's a chicken and egg situation - without pushing the hardware, software developers just won't bother writing for 64bit (that goes for both applications and drivers) - for example, Windows has been x86-64 64bit since 2003, yet it took until Windows 7 in 2010 to really push driver and software developers to start writing *good* 64bit drivers and applications. Is it necessary? Probably not, but it's not without benefit either. Seems like you really just want to bash Microsoft with your posts - perfectly fine opinion (maybe not incorrect in all scenarios either), but my opinion is that it's clouding your judgement to at least some of the facts.

You're almost right, if this is true - the XP name DID come about because of the greek letters chi rho, mostly because the bulk of the planned features from the original Cairo project from 1991 were ultimately released with Windows XP (some were in NT4 and Win2K, but most found their way into XP and SQL Server) - this would make XP the *actual* planned Cairo feature set, even though it's codename was Whistler. Given that Cairo was one of Bill Gates' biggest pushes while at MS, this seems most likely. Here's Chi Rho: ☧ Look familiar?

And they're still 10s of thousands for an Itanium system nowadays as well. Itanium's market is really anything that needs ridiculous floating point perf (like database apps/servers), and supercomputing (and even then for the cost, a host of regular x86-64 (amd64) processor servers can be had for the same $ and perform better in almost everything - except floating point operations). Using the Itanic for anything other than databases, things like physics modeling, render farms (and it'd have to be really large), or something that needs 64bit arithmetic precision is really a waste of money - kernel-mode only has access to the first 32 FP registers, whereas a user-mode app has access to all 128 (which is partially why it's so darned good at FP operations). Also, they have memory bandwidth and FSB limitations for large-memory applications, so anything not tuned specifically to run at high perf on an Itanic will run poorly. Also, Itanic is faster than comparable PA-RISC processors (and most true RISC processors in general), but IBM's POWER can keep up at most things. Given Intel's EPIC architecture for the Itanic (rather than true RISC) means the code written for it must be tuned very carefully to get good perf - poor coding or a poor compiler will result in poor performance - while the same is true on x86/x86-64, those architectures are much more forgiving. Since we're talking about a Windows workstation for Itanic, this is a good point - there isn't much that'll run on an Itanic in the Windows world that isn't emulated (entirely) as x86, and the ia64 apps are very few. It's also worth noting that Windows Server 2008 R2 is the last Itanic OS from Microsoft, due to the fact that people running Itanium pretty much only run Unix - HP-UX, BSD, and Solaris. Buying a workstation today means getting an x86-64 machine and running an x86-64 64bit OS on it, whether that be Windows, Linux, Unix, or BSD. Itanic is a niche server product only, and while rumors of it's death are a little exaggerated, it's not a platform that has any real forward momentum into any other markets (nor any public plans by Intel to do so either).

A little late to the party, but it looks like it's an MSI wrapper given the command-line switches. Try adding REBOOT=ReallySuppress to see if that works.

hahahahahahaha - awesome!

Not only that, it looks like it redistributes non-free software, making it ultimately a warez distribution application (I downloaded a copy to see what it contained). Let's close this one down for now - use at your own risk, but don't discuss it here.

One question would be, where are we running this batch file? It might be worthwhile to see if using vbscript or powershell for this might be feasible depending on where this script is running, for what it's worth.

If you have the ungodly amounts of money required for an Itanium system, you probably aren't running Windows XP on it.

Hmmm -- seems regini can change perms, but not take any ownership (and has some limitations on HCKR as well). At this point, I'd recommend SetAcl to overcome this particular limitation - it's 32 and 64bit and quite small.

Make sure that all of the updates are valid - specifically, remove any updates that have been superseded by other updatesDetermine if you're going to slipstream the updates into the base WIM file, or install them after Windows 7 has finished installingIf installing updates into a WIM, use DISM /image:<mounted WIM file> and the /Add-Package optionIf installing updates into a running Windows 7 system, use pkgmgr /ip to install from the .cab file For example, to add a set of packages offline to a WIM mounted in C:\Mount as Windows 7 Ultimate, you'd place all of your MSU files in the folder C:\Temp\MSU_Files\, then run the following commands: - dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:C:\Temp\install.wim /index:5 /MountDir:C:\Mount - dism /image:C:\Mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\Temp\MSU_Files - dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\Mount /commit To add a set of packages to an online system, you need to first extract the the MSU to it's CAB files, then use pkgmgr to install the update from the CAB file. For example, installing the MS10-018 (KB980182) cumulative update for Internet Explorer 8: - expand -F:* C:\TEMP\Windows6.1-KB980182-x86.msu C:\TEMP\KB980182 - start /w pkgmgr /ip /m:C:\TEMP\KB980182\Windows6.1-KB980182-x86.cab NOTE that if you have multiple updates to apply online like this, do NOT extract all of the CAB files to the same folder!!!! This will cause some (or all) of the installations to fail.

Umm, regini?

32bit is fine if you're already using it - if it was a clean build, and all of your software and drivers were known to work under x64 I'd say go 64bit. However, if you're already running 32bit, and you don't plan on upgrading to Win7 x64, staying 32bit isn't really that bad an idea as well.

What's the question, specifically? Those hex values change the name of the My Computer icon to say %username% on %computername% (those are inbox system variables that will resolve to the logged on user name and the computer's name).

I also tried it by passing full paths in the file list, and it worked fine that way too.

Depends on the OS, but you should be able to run del /q /f <file list separated by spaces>. Note that if you do this, however, folders will NOT be deleted - rd must be used on directories/folders to delete them. However, this works just fine on files.

Here's a quick VBScript that will parse all drives, and check all removable disks (USB keys, USB HDDs, etc) and CD/DVD drives for strFile (wpi.exe). If found, it'll execute the file via cmd /c, and loop the vbscript until the file finishes executing (then continue the vbscript). '// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ '// '// NAME: findfileonexternaldisk.vbs '// '// Original: cluberti at cluberti dot com '// Last Update: 14th May 2010 '// '// Comment: VBS script for finding a file on an external drive. '// '// NOTE: Provided as-is - usage of this source assumes that you are at the '// very least familiar with the vbscript language being used and '// the tools used to create and debug this file. '// '// In other words, if you break it, you get to keep the pieces. '// '// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RunMeWithCscript() strComputer = "." strFile = "wpi.exe" Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2") Set colDiskItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( _ "SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk",,48) Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") FileFound = FALSE On Error Resume Next For Each objDiskItem in colDiskItems '// Removable disk check: If objDiskItem.DriveType = 2 Then If Not objDiskItem.FileSystem = "" Then If (objFSO.FileExists(objDiskItem.DeviceID & "\" & strfile)) Then FileFound = TRUE WScript.StdOut.Write vbCrLf & "wpi found - executing: " & objDiskItem.Caption & "\" & strFile Set isRunning = WshShell.Exec("cmd /c " & objDiskItem.Caption & "\" & strFile) Do While isRunning.Status = 0 WScript.Sleep 100 execOutput = isRunning.StdOut.ReadAll Loop Else '// No file on this drive, do nothing and move on to the next removable disk End If End If End If '// CDROM check: If objDiskItem.DriveType = 5 Then If Not objDiskItem.FileSystem = "" Then If (objFSO.FileExists(objDiskItem.DeviceID & "\" & strfile)) Then FileFound = TRUE WScript.StdOut.Write vbCrLf & "wpi found - executing: " & objDiskItem.Caption & "\" & strFile Set isRunning = WshShell.Exec("cmd /c " & objDiskItem.Caption & "\" & strFile) Do While isRunning.Status = 0 WScript.Sleep 100 execOutput = isRunning.StdOut.ReadAll Loop Else '// No file on this drive, do nothing and move on to the next Compact Disc drive End If End If End If Next If FileFound = FALSE Then WScript.StdOut.Write vbCrLf & "wpi not found - exiting" End If On Error Goto 0 '//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ '// Subroutine: RunMeWithCScript() '// '// Purpose: Forces the currently running script to use Cscript.exe as the Script '// engine. If the script is already running with cscript.exe the sub exits '// and continues the script. '// '// Sub Attempts to call the script with its original arguments. Arguments '// that contain a space will be wrapped in double quotes when the script '// calls itself again. To verify your command string you can echo out the '// scriptCommand variable. '// '// Usage: Add a call to this sub (RunMeWithCscript) to the beggining of your script '// to ensure that cscript.exe is used as the script engine. '//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Public Sub RunMeWithCScript() Dim scriptEngine, engineFolder, Args, arg, scriptName, argString, scriptCommand scriptEngine = Ucase(Mid(Wscript.FullName,InstrRev(Wscript.FullName,"\")+1)) engineFolder = Left(Wscript.FullName,InstrRev(Wscript.FullName,"\")) argString = "" If scriptEngine = "WSCRIPT.EXE" Then Dim Shell : Set Shell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") Set Args = Wscript.Arguments For each arg in Args 'loop though argument array as a collection to rebuild argument string If instr(arg," ") > 0 Then arg = """" & arg & """" 'if the argument contains a space wrap it in double quotes argString = argString & " " & Arg Next 'Create a persistent command prompt for the cscript output window and call the script with its original arguments scriptCommand = "cmd.exe /k " & engineFolder & "cscript.exe """ & Wscript.ScriptFullName & """" & argString Shell.Run scriptCommand,,False Wscript.Quit Else Exit Sub 'Already Running with Cscript Exit this Subroutine End If End Sub

I don't think people using nLite really care about removing the options entirely - I think that's actually the point. I don't think it's a good idea to do so (EULA violations nonwithstanding), but thankfully the world doesn't run on what I think either .

Potentially - from the screenshot we have, the largest consumer (by far) of DPC time is ndis.sys calling ndisInterruptDPC, meaning the network driver is indeed responsible for some of that time. If the network miniport driver registered itself an ISR handler, it either shares an IRQ with another device or the driver must capture interrupt-specific data from NIC registers at DIRQL - both would cause calls into this API. It would be best if we had access to the data set itself, but a screenshot is better than nothing .

That only wipes the partition table, nothing else. Sufficient, yes, but not a complete wipe of a drive by any means (especially an SSD).