nmX.Memnoch

Yes. If you have an OEM CD from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc and are installing on said Dell, HP, Gateway, etc and it requires activation, you will have to call in order to activate it. Those OEM keys are no longer allowed to activate over the internet anymore. They will even ask you for the computer make/model (I usually get away with giving them just the make). So if it's never required activation in the past, it still does not require activation - it's still preactivated based on BIOS, etc? They didn't throw some wrinkle into the Windows Genuine Advantage software requiring you to activate? It's only if activation was required before that you now have to call in to activate? Thanks in advance. As far as I understand...that's correct.

Yes. If you have an OEM CD from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc and are installing on said Dell, HP, Gateway, etc and it requires activation, you will have to call in order to activate it. Those OEM keys are no longer allowed to activate over the internet anymore. They will even ask you for the computer make/model (I usually get away with giving them just the make).

Make sure you have OemPreinstall=Yes in your WINNT.SIF.

That's ok...we missed it to.

Also make sure you're using $1 instead of 1$.

The HKEY_USERS\.Default hive is for the logon screen settings, not the Default User Profile. To edit the Default User Profile follow these steps: Start > Run > regedit Navigate to HKEY_USERS Click on File and choose Load Hive Browse to the NTUSER.DAT file located in %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\Default User\. Enter a Key Name (i.e. DefaultUser) You now have the Default User registry hive loaded and can make changes. Note that this will not make any changes to users who have already logged onto the system. Also, when you're done be sure to choose Unload Hive from the File menu with HKEY_USERS\DefaultUser selected. If you don't unload the hive then Windows won't be able to copy the NTUSER.DAT to any new profiles because the file will be in use.

That's definitely it. Is the file getting renamed during install? If so, that's yet another problem because it shouldn't be...

The only version that doesn't require activation is the Volume (same as "Corporate") License version. All others require activation. The reason the Volume License version doesn't erquire activation is that you purchase the number of licenses you need for your organization and you get one Product Key to do all of the installs with.

Wow...good catch, I completely missed it. Yeah...you need to increment the 000 for each new item you want installed. Else you're just overwriting the value in the registry and only the last item added will be performed. I should've also mentioned in my previous post that the reason I do a sub-directory for Office2003 under the Office$ share is that I also have admin install points for FrontPage 2003 and Visio 2003 on the same share...which is also the reason for the seperate Office2003Transforms and Office2003Updates directories.

I remembered..... Create a share on a server called Office$. Your users will only need read access to this share. I use the $ to keep the share hidden, although that's not a requirement. For the purposes of this we'll use \\SERVER\Office$ to reference the share. Referencing everything to the UNC path will prevent having to map the share for all of your users (which would negate the reason for hiding the share). On the share create a new directory called Office2003. Run an adminstrative install of Office 2003 (setup.exe /a) and point it to \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003\ when it asks for the install location. Now create two more new folders on the share called Office2003Updates and Office2003Transforms. Download all of the Office 2003 SP2 full files and extract the .MSP files to \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003Updates\. You'll also need the ohotfix.exe, ohotfix.ini and ohotfixr.dll from one of the full file patches. Place these files in the Office2003Updates directory as well. Rename the .MSP files as follows (this forces them to run in order): 01-MAINSP2ff.msp 02-OWC102003SP2ff.msp 03-OWC11SP2ff.msp 04-VISIOSP2.msp 05-PROJECTSP2.msp 06-ONENOTESP2.msp 98-OTKLOADR.msp 99-OUTLFLTR.msp All you have to do for any new patches is extract the .MSP into the same directory and keep up the numbering. The monthly Outlook Junk Filter updates are cumulative so just replace the 99-OUTLFLTR.msp with the newest version. Now run the Office 2003 Custom Installation Wizard pointing at \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003\PRO11.MSI. Create a new transform saving it to \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003Transforms\OFFICE2003.MST. Now you need to edit some INI files. Open the OHOTFIX.INI file located in \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003Updates\. Find the ShowSuccessDialog setting and change it from 1 to 0. Next you want to find the SETUP.INI for Office. This file is located in \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003\FILES\SETUP\. Change the following options as follows (default setting -> new setting): ;USERNAME=Customer -> USERNAME=Default setting for your users ;COPMANYNAME=my company -> COMPANYNAME=Your Company Name ;Display=None -> Display=basic ;CompletionNotice=Yes -> CompletionNotice=No CDCACHE=auto -> CDCACHE=0 DELTEABLECACHE=1 ->;DELETEABLECACHE=1 PURGE=0 ->;PURGE=0 Now add the following to the bottom of the SETUP.INI: [ChainedInstall_1] Path=OWC11.MSI TaskType=msi IgnoreReturnValue=1 CmdLine=REBOOT=ReallySuppress /QB Reboot=0 [ChainedInstall_2] Path=\\SERVER\Office$\Office2003Updates\ohotfix.exe TaskType=exe IgnoreReturnValue=1 CmdLine=REBOOT=ReallySuppress Reboot=0 I keep a copy of the SETUP.INI in both the \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003\ and the \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003\FILES\SETUP\ directories. Once you've done all of that you simply need to run setup using the following switches: \\SERVER\Office$\Office2003\SETUP.EXE TRANSFORMS=\\SERVER\Office$\Office2003Transforms\OFFICE2003.MST /settings setup.ini /qb /noreboot This should install Office 2003 with the options you chose in the Custom Installation Wizard, Install Office 2003 Web Components (Chained Install item 1 in SETUP.INI) and then apply Service Pack 2 (Chained Install item 2 in SETUP.INI).

If you want the directory name to stay the same why not do it this way? It seems the simplest solution to me... DEL C:\TEMP /S /Q MD C:\TEMP

Open the properties for the device and go to the Details tab. What does it say for the Device Instance Id?

Is this for a networked environment? If so I'd recommend creating an Office AIP...but don't integrate the service packs the way Microsoft recommends. The reason for creating an Office AIP is that you can prevent setup from creating the MSOCache directory (basically a copy of the CD) on the local hard drive. Then if you have any "Install on First Run" items they'll be installed from the network share. Tomorrow I'll try to remember to post details of how I have my Office AIP setup. I use a network share to install applications on a machine using RunOnceEx at first logon after joining the domain. This relies on logon scripts and a custom (but simple) registry value...but it works nicely.

Unless the image is restored to a different machine. This is one of the reasons the volume license keys don't require activation.

Anyone who has an OEM product key (i.e. from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. or purchasing an OEM version from NewEgg, ZipZoomFly, etc.) will have this problem from now on. It's something they started some 6 months or so ago.I had to do it the last time I reinstalled my "Dell" system.

Software RAID will always be slower than hardware RAID. I would highly suggest saving a few more nickels and getting a hardware RAID5 controller. NewEgg carries the 3ware 7506-4 for ~$265 shipped. The controller is also 64-bit/66MHz capable so it'll give you some extra throughput for your drives if you have a motherboard that has 64-bit/66MHz PCI slots. I did just notice that one guy mentions a possible compatiblity issue with these cards and Maxtor drives though. This may have been fixed with a firmware update for the card by now though. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16816116019 I just recently put a 3ware 9500S-4 in my Dell Precision 650 at work with four Seagate 300GB drives in two RAID1 arrays...so far it's preforming without any issues and is pretty darn quick. You do have a few other options if the 3ware/Maxtor issue hasn't been fixed: Promise FastTrak SX4060 w/ 64MB Cache (supports up to 256MB Cache) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16816102036 ~$200 Shipped Adaptec 2400S w/ 128MB Cache http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16816103135 ~$315 Shipped

Actually, the page file is not cleared at every reboot unless you tell Windows to do so using secpol.msc (Local Security Policy) via the Local Polices > Security Options > Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile setting.The only "danger" there could be is that the page file could become fragmented when it's recreated. This can have an adverse effect on disk performance. A good disk defrag utility (not the built in one) can take care of this though. thanks for that, never knew it i just assumed it was cleared just like ram No problem. A lot of people actually assume that. Trust me though, it's not something you want to set if you don't have to. Security policy where I work says that I have to set that on my servers...all of which have 4-8GB RAM and 2-4GB page files....even with Ultra320 15K RPM SCSI drives it takes FOREVER To clear a 4GB page file so I do not reboot my servers unless I absolutely have to.

Say again???? - Active Directory where introducte in 'Windows NT' (i just dont realy know, what version probebly NT-4.0 (or even as early as 3.5) Wrong. Windows NT 4.0 had a simple Windows NT domain model that was introduced in Windows NT 3.1 (which didn't stick around long because 3.5 was released and then 3.51 quickly after that).Active Directory wasn't introduced until Windows 2000. He said the application has an 8 user limit, but that doesn't mean there won't be more than 8 users concurrently connected to a share on that box. These are a questions that haven't yet been asked: How many people are in your organzation? How many peopl have access to the database? Not how many use it at once, but how many total people have access to it? Pushing those questions aside though...if you are looking at replacing the current machine you might as well get a real server with a real server OS that will allow you to host more than just the database. A database with an 8 concurrent user limit isn't going to be that resource intensive, especially on a newer server. Get a server with a decent amount of power that's stable and reliable--i.e. a Dell PowerEdge 2850 (2800 if you don't have a rack)--and consolidate things you have running on other servers (except for AD because that's a pain to move and I wouldn't have my AD controller doing other tasks anyway).

Actually, the page file is not cleared at every reboot unless you tell Windows to do so using secpol.msc (Local Security Policy) via the Local Polices > Security Options > Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile setting.The only "danger" there could be is that the page file could become fragmented when it's recreated. This can have an adverse effect on disk performance. A good disk defrag utility (not the built in one) can take care of this though.

If you are only going to be creating shares on the Windows Server 2003 box and it is your only server then you don't need to use DFS. Assuming we aren't talking about a large company, printing services shouldn't really add that much overhead to the server so that shouldn't be a problem either. By default your secretary will not have access to files on your workstation as long as they are stored within your profile or you setup a directory with limited NTFS permissions. You could even create a share on the server that no one has access to except for you. As InTheWayBoy mentioned, you could use the Routing and Remote Access features of Windows Server 2003 and completely eliminate the 3Com gateway all together (replace it with a wireless access point, or just turn off the gateway features of the device). This would allow you to use the domain accounts for VPN access instead of having to maintain another set of user accounts.

Has anyone been able to access the Registration Benefit Portal?

Along those lines I would recommend using the 2003 box as the DHCP server...especially if you're going to do an Active Directory. It'll make things so much easier with Active Directory DNS. Your 3Com gateway may not allow you to customize the DHCP settings other than the range of addresses it's allowed to give out. You'll want your Active Directory Domain Controller IP to be listed as the DNS address on the workstations.Any way you do your DHCP setup it will still be best to configure the 2003 box with a static IP address (this is required if it's going to be the DHCP server and/or Active Directory Domain Controller).

Yours is basically doing the same thing. You don't really need to use the :A or the /l though.

dotnetfx.exe /Q /C:"install.exe /Q"

Speaking strictly to the 32-bit versions, Enterprise Edition provides support for 8 CPUs and 32GB RAM (using PAE) to Standard Edition's 4CPUs and 4GB RAM. Those are the primary differences someone using it as a workstation should be "concerned" with. PAE will still limit each application to 4GB of virtual memory...but this was put in place for running multiple SQL Server databases on one machine. There are other differences such as Clustering support in Enterprise Edition, as well as some Active Directory services if you're using it as a Domain Controller. I wish they would do more to show the differences between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions on the page linked above instead of just including a bunch of foot notes at the bottom...