Thinkster

I have setup 'A' records in Forward DNS such that users trying to visit Social Networking websites will be redirected to CNN.com This works globally for all users, but is there a way to apply this DNS to a specific OU in Active Directory so that Admins may still access these types of websites without being redirected?

OK, I think I figured it out unless someone knows a better way. The only thing I'm concerned about is the use of CMDOW because the Antivirus programs usually kill this file and then the script won't run correctly. But here's the rough: cmdow @ /HID @ECHO OFF ping -n 2 localhost> NUL REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesImportSongsOnArrival if "%errorlevel%" GTR "0" (goto fail) ELSE goto pass1 :fail echo Key not found exit :pass1 echo 1st Key is present ping -n 2 localhost> NUL REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesPlaySongsOnArrival if "%errorlevel%" GTR "0" (goto fail) ELSE goto pass2 :pass2 echo 2nd Key is present ping -n 2 localhost> NUL REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesShowSongsOnArrival if "%errorlevel%" GTR "0" (goto fail) ELSE goto pass3 :pass3 echo 3rd Key is present ping -n 2 localhost> NUL REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesBurnCDOnArrival if "%errorlevel%" GTR "0" (goto fail) ELSE goto pass4 :pass4 ping -n 2 localhost> NUL Echo Machine tests positive for iTunes Echo Now Going to kill the keys! REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\iTunesBurnCDOnArrival" /f REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\iTunesImportSongsOnArrival" /f REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\iTunesPlaySongsOnArrival" /f REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\iTunesShowSongsOnArrival" /f REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesShowSongsOnArrival /f REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesPlaySongsOnArrival /f REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesImportSongsOnArrival /f REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v iTunesBurnCDOnArrival /f Echo Completed! ping -n 4 localhost> NUL EXIT

Thanks, I worte the script and got it to work with a little tweaking. I had to use the /v ValueName for some of them like below: REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival" /v NeroAutoPlay2RipCD /f Now the other tricky thing, Is there a way to silently run a script on startup that will check for the presence of a particular key or keys and if present, delete them? This is so if the user installs iTunes, certain reg keys will be present and only if those are present, will be deleted. Like this key for example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\iTunesImportSongsOnArrival

OK, so what I want to do is prevent people from having the choice to RIP a CD when Autoplay pops up after inserting a CD. The Branch is located at: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayCDAudioOnArrival] And the keys I want to get rid of are: MSRipCDAudioOnArrival NeroAutoPlay2RipCD NeroAutoPlay2AudioToNeroDigital And then within the Branch: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers] I want to get rid of the corresponding "subbranches" and the keys within EX: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\MSRipCDAudioOnArrival\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\NeroAutoPlay2RipCD and of course I want to get rid of Any/All iTunes keys as well. Is there a simple way i can accomplish this with command line scripting (batch script)?

If you are using WMP to rip or burn your music, you are probably using one of the worst tools (if you can even call it that). Again Winamp can let you burn a compilation CD as well although it might not be as obvious to do as other programs. If your looking to have complete control over the CD layout with custom crossfades/overlaps, and be able to control the level of each song including efx or eq, then you should definately get Sony CD Architect It's definately worth it!

Just disable hibernation. Hibernation causes more problems then it does good. I disable hibernation on all systems I work on to prevent potential problems.

With the exception of a handfull of desktops that were for a computer lab, I have formatted ALL computers that came pre-installed with Vista and installed XP on them. Unfortunately a lot of customers just run out to a big retailer like Best Buy or something to buy a new PC, which in my opinion is the Worst place to buy a new PC because all the big retailers carry is Junk! So I would pull your HDD, stick it into a desktop PC as a secondary drive, backup your data, Then format it and install Windows XP Pro.

You could show the average consumer a poorly built cell phone that looks cool and has all kinds of bells and whistles and they would be impressed. Flashy, fancy graphics is impressive to most but says nothing about compatibility, stability, administration friendliness, etc. Before Vista even came out, they were showing off built-in features (most of which are available with more stable 3rd party software) at the CES show. I was even, "that's cool". But of course they didn't mention anything about driver issues, resource hogging, that they changed everything, moved everything and renamed things that everyone is used to making it difficult to use from someone coming from a previous version of Windows. I'd say this experiment only proves that the average consumer is still the average consumer impressed by bells & Whistles...

Ended up getting this to work with a work around since NOTHING works properly like it should in Vista. I put three short cuts on the Administrator desktop to three separate batch scripts located in the Windows folder. Then I manually login as Administrator since AutoLogon doesn't work properly in Vista. I then wait for the network icon to become active (which takes about 1 minute), then double click on the shorcut called STEP1. Then I reboot, login again, wait 1 minute, then run STEP2, reboot, then do the same procedure for STEP3. It seems to work ok this way, but I gotta go around to each machine and do this. Kinda sucks when you gotta lot of machines, But what sucks more is that the customer went with Vista in the first place!

Not exactly... Corporate has a choice when your installing whether your installing on a server or a client. Maybe instead of Vliting it out, you can just disable the defender and it will work>?

I have a PC that has not yet joined the domain, so contains only Local Users. I would like to join the domain but have it use the settings contained in the local profile because once I join it creates Users\Username.server which is NOT the same as what's in the Users\username account. So I'm thinking there must be someway to upload my customized Local account to the server so that it may use that as a template for creating the domain account and any future domain accounts?

I've tried all sorts of ways to make this work and it just wont work proper in Vista! I've got a .reg file containing: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "RenamePC"="C:\\Windows\\Activation\\joindom.cmd" That I double click to add to the registry which add fine. When I reboot the computer, it's trying to launch the script before the desktop completely initializes and before the network is "ready". and so the script bombs because it is Network dependent. My script queries the Network Card's MAC, but fails because Vista takes it's sweet a## time to initialize the network card. In fact it seems to take longer for the NIC to initialize if the script is running. If I boot up the computer normally without the RunOnce, the system becomes "Network Ready" much quicker. It seems kind of lame to me that I have to wait for everything to be ready and then manually launch the script, reboot, wait, manually launch script 2, reboot, wait, manually launch script 3. I've even tried having the script launch through Task Scheduler to trigger when someone logs in, but that doesn't even work. It says the task is running, but it's NOT! The more and more I play with Vista, the more and more I hate it!

Do you have anything to substantiate that you claim they (PATA & their cables) are "very unreliable" besides your personal experience? I strictly use PATA drives in all system builds because even though they may be an old interface design, It is also one that is WELL established and WELL supported. Sure the cables may not look pretty, but I'm not going after looks. The only time I've had a problem with a ribbon cable was from one that I took apart the IDC Connector, shortened the cable and re-attached the connector. Other then that, never had a problem with the brand new cables that come with the motherboard and sometimes with the Retail Package IDE Drives. So out of all the systems I've worked on, ribbon cables have never been the reason for messed up PC's! On the other hand, computers with SATA connections have been a big problem and less reliable in my personal experience!

May I ask why you would even want to put IE7 or WMP11?? Putting those two things basically degrades your system. If you wanted to improve your system, you should be installing Firefox and Winamp or VLC Player..

After that product key has been installed, there should be a utility to retrieve your key or allow you to view it (rockxp comes to mind, maybe google it). It shouldn't be something super secret, so I'm not sure why MS just doesn't display it for you. You should be able to take and Vista DVD and do a clean install using the key and start off with Ultimate rather then starting with Home Premium and then "upgrading".

I have done many many Clean installs and only had a similar problem once. Sometimes if Windows recognizes other drives or other partitions, it may choose to install to that drive/partition even though you don't want it to. I always have two partitions on my clean installs, One for the OS, One for the "Factory Restore". The important thing to do BEFORE you start doing anything is to disconnect ANY hard drives that are not your Primary IDE Master Drive or USB devices. Hopefully your using IDE as it's more reliable and less problematic then SATA. Then you change you BIOS options to Boot from CD First and you need to have a boot CD like Hiren's so that you can prep your master drive using a partition manager such as Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director. Preferably you want to partition & Format your drives in FAT32 and if you setup more then one partition, make sure you hide the additional partitions using the partitioning program (you can unhide them after the Windows install). After partitioning/formating is done, you can stick in your bootable Windows XP cd to begin installation. Just make sure that you choose to leave partition intact (unchanged) if it asks you where to install Windows. After installation and your computer is off, you may connect any other internal drives / memory card readers and then power up. Your Windows will remain on the C: drive. Also, if you hid any partitions, you can use your boot disk to access the partitioning program and unhide them. This is my formula and it's been working great for years. I don't think there is a quick reliable fix for your existing situation, so backup any personal data and use my procedure for a clean install.

Well from what I can tell according to your Task Manager, It looks like your not well experienced with computer setups. For one, your using Internet Explorer which means your likely to get spyware & viruses. You also have real player installed (for what?) and DAP (also for what?) You should go to MSCONFIG and uncheck a lot of items as there is a lot of stuff that doesn't need to startup everytime your computer boots. You also didn't mention your system specs. If your system is old or the CPU not up to speed or your physical memory is little, that can also present some problems. I'm not sure about the antivirus (AVP.exe), but you might try uninstalling that, then rebooting the computer to see if that lowers the CPU usage. If worse comes to worse, backup your personal data and do a clean install and be careful about what you install and stay away from Internet Explorer! Make Firefox your default browser!

Thanks Sony for the explanations! It's starting to make sense now! Just when I had XP unattended mastered, I have to move on to something completely different and have to relearn everything! I still got some more reading to do to better understand WAIK and proper XML creation and the different phases..

I got my script working. Of course there was prep work like obtaining the MAC ID for each machine as well as backing up the activation data from each machine to separate folders, but this will make it much easier for future deployments that I will be testing this next week. See the thread Here for more info... Special thanks to orev for the wonderful backup/restore application and whoever helped me 3 years ago or so with the original portion of the script!

Nevermind, I figured it out, I just had to think it through. But just in case this is usefull to anyone, here's the code: @echo off && Mode 80,25 && Color F2 TITLE OEM Activation ECHO. ECHO Determining Machine Name and Product Key... ECHO. ping -n 3 localhost> NUL For /f "usebackq delims=," %%i IN (`getmac /fo csv /nh`) do ( For /f "usebackq delims=, tokens=1-3" %%a IN (`type mac.txt`) DO If %%i EQU %%a ( Set strComputername=%%b Set strProduct=%%c ) ) ping -n 3 localhost> NUL Echo Computer Name should be: %strComputername% ping -n 3 localhost> NUL Echo Product Key should be: %strProduct% ping -n 3 localhost> NUL Echo Path to Activation files should be: C:\Windows\Activation\%strComputername% Echo. ping -n 3 localhost> NUL Echo Activating Windows... Echo. copy c:\windows\Activation\%strComputername%\*.* c:\Windows\Activation\ /y start /wait C:\Windows\Activation\activation_restore.exe --silent ECHO Windows should now be OEM Activated! Echo. ping -n 4 localhost> NUL EXIT Of course you need a lookup table file called mac.txt in the format: "00-E0-B8-80-59-06",PCLAB-01,CXXXT-988V6-GXXXX-8HP7R-H4KK3 " MAC ID ", PC Name , Product Key And you should have a folder in Windows called 'activation' containing subfolders with each computer's name. These subfolders should contain the OEM activations files (backup-cert.xrm-ms, backup-key.txt) from the respective computer. The root folder (Activation) should have the 'activation_restore.exe' file. By the way, the activation routine here is specifically for Vista OEM edition.

My goal is to query the MAC of the PC's network card and then look it up in a simple text database file in the format of: MAC,PCName,ProductKey,Path on each line. Once it finds the MAC in the file 'mac.txt' it should Display the PC Name, Product Key and Path on the screen just for confirmation, then it should change the PC Name, and copy contents from the path specified to C:\ABR and finally run an .exe file in the C:\ABR folder. Here's a sample of proposed mac.txt: "00-E0-B8-80-59-06",PCLAB-01,CXXXT-988V6-GXXXX-8HP7R-H4KK3,%WINDIR%/Activation/PCLAB01 "00-E0-B8-80-58-B6",PCLAB-02,W8HKH-4XXXX-HVRFD-GXXXX-2XXVG,%WINDIR%/Activation/PCLAB02 "00-E0-B8-80-58-41",PCLAB-03,DXXXF-78W4P-V8CBY-TXXX9-QX6QW,%WINDIR%/Activation/PCLAB03 "00-E0-B8-80-58-AF",PCLAB-04,RDM42-GK4BV-X72YB-RQXP3-RXDJJ,%WINDIR%/Activation/PCLAB04 "00-E0-B8-80-57-15",PCLAB-05,TXQ6B-3XXXX-Y6RXP-YTGGW-QXXX3,%WINDIR%/Activation/PCLAB05 "00-E0-B8-80-58-0B",PCLAB-06,XXXXP-XXX8W-MXXXX-H99R7-XXX9D,%WINDIR%/Activation/PCLAB06 Here's my partial script that needs refining and the part to rename the PC and copy files... ECHO Determining Machine Name and Product Key... ECHO. ping -n 3 localhost> NUL For /f "usebackq delims=," %%i IN (`getmac /fo csv /nh`) do ( For /f "usebackq delims=, tokens=1-3" %%a IN (`type mac.txt`) DO If %%i EQU %%a ( Set strComputername=%%b Set strProduct=%%c Set strPath=%%d ) ) Echo Computer Name should be: %strComputername% ping -n 2 localhost> NUL Echo Product Key should be: %strProduct% ECHO. Echo Path to Activation files should be: %strPath% Any help would be appreciated!

Anyone? I tried again, but this time I did not make any tweaks, removals or additions. I hit apply and told it to 'build' single version (which is Business) and then make .ISO. I used my own burning program to burn the ISO and it installed fine from that disk. So it seems like some kind of bug in vLite that changes something the Vista installer doesn't like, however I don't know exactly what it is..

Before you bought Vista, you should have researched it a little more and you would have probably found that it's not really that good. It's up there with Windows ME which was short lived. If your a gamer, I would recommend sticking with Windows XP as you said, the games run faster. Or you could have put your $300 toward a game console that's intended for gaming (like Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) As for MS Waiting 5-6 years, I think it's better they focus their energies into a better OS! Instead of taking all the negative feedback and trying to patch Vista, They can start clean and build in all the improvements from the ground up. Windows ME came out in 2000 and was replaced by Windows XP in 2001. Windows XP took 2-3 years to become usable by my standards and works fine today. But I thing Vista is following Windows ME's footsteps, that's why MS is working on Windows 7.

Please try Winamp then! It's much better then any of the WMP players and you can organize your library, rip CD's to MP3!, Burn CD's, Listen to online Radio stations and even transfer songs to many portable MP3 players including the horrible iPod!

If you still have the original OEM installation installed or can install it from a factory restore, then you can use this nice little utility that will backup the license and certificate from your computer and then restore it after you have installed your vLited version. You can burn the backup onto your DVD and run a script to automatically apply it after Windows is installed. See this thread for more info: