RogueSpear

I have the set?.tmp files defined in my cleanup routine and have now for quite a while. Never had a problem. Anything that's under pchealth usually has to do with error reporting. It appears that all that stuff is safe to get rid of. A lot of cleanup type programs seek out .tmp, .old, .bak files for deleting. The only thing I would do, is if you're deleting *.log from %systemroot%, is to REM out deleting those files during times of troubleshooting. There's a lot of useful information in those log files when you're trying to track down a problem. I go so far as to script out creating a 7z file of all those .log files during RunOnceEx. That way you'll always have them.

@averagecdn, sounds good to me. Why don't you write out a step by step then.

@AltTeo, like ruudboek mentioned, you may want to take a peek at the drivers. I was merely presenting a possible cause to the problem as opposed to saying the drivers were not the problem. Honestly, there seems to be so many things that could cause problems like this. It's hard to diagnose correctly everytime, so it's usually best to take a look at the most common solutions first. These two are probably the easiest to test.

Just toss them into the DriverPacks folder with the rest of them. Bashrat purposefully designed the slipstreamer in a modular way so that new official, 3rd party, or individually made driver packs could be easily made and put right in with out much effort. I'm finally getting around to downloading these things. I'm going to double check and verify everything in them and them recompress them with the maximum 7z compression to hopefully save a little space (and thus my bandwidth). EDIT: I got busy jabbering here at work while posting this and not only did Fencer answer but xpmaniac4ever replied.

I went back to one of my setups and was surprised to find the forest root server points at itself and another domain controller as DNS servers. I'll have to look into it some more for a better explanation. Especially since everything is working and has been working for so long now, I've never had the need to tinker with it.

First backup your registry or at least back up the key we need to work with which is: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} Delete the keys LowerFilters and UpperFilters, then reboot. I had initially found this information from a Google search that led me to Windows XP Annoyances when I had this problem on a client's computer. I'm simply unable to find it again, but I did use this method and it worked perfect.

It's quite possible there's a driver issue. If your using method 2 with BTS, it's quite easy to just leave out one of the driver packs. Also, I don't believe you need qchain in your svcpack.inf. I believe that ended with NT4 or possibly after one of the 2000 service packs.

Another possibility is that you could be installing CD burning software that somehow is messing up the LowerFilters and UpperFilters registry entries. I had this happening with an older version of Nero that I repacked. More specifically this was back when I first started to repack applications and I didn't do this one properly, so the reg entries were getting fouled up. However, I've read of other's experiences with off the shelf software doing this as well.

Interestingly, there is a WMI namespace root\SecurityCenter, but my computer is showing no dynamic classes under it. So I really don't know how to use it or if it have a use yet.

I think WHERE is a valid command. I'm not all that familiar with using WMIC, but that's mainly because I access WMI through VBscript rather than through command. What I can say is that WHERE is integral to WMI construct.

I haven't tried and I'll tell you why. I always install .NET 1.1 from svpack.inf and then .NET 2.0 from RunOnceEx, even on my RIS installs. Everything else I push through GPO. The thing is that I've read a few things about it being not a good thing to uninstall .NET or if you do to uninstall in a particular order, etc. I looked at it this way - if it's not assigned via GPO, then there's less chance that another guy in the office will uninstall it from an entire OU with a couple clicks of the mouse. Whether intentional or accidental I don't want it to happen. And at least with .NET 1.1 being installable from svcpack.inf, any programs pushed from a GPO will install afterwards. Sadly the same can't really be said for .NET 2.0. There's a bug (intentional?) in Microsoft's installer for .NET 2.0 that prevents it from being installed from svcpack.inf.

When you install MSN Messenger it does use some sort of hash function to generate a machine ID for use with their servers. I believe this is how you could have two dozen computers all log in at once while all of them are on a private network (ex: 192.168.x.x). When I make my switchless silent installer for MSN Messenger I always remove any trace of unique identifiers from the registry entries so that they will be generated fresh upon first use. If I didn't do that I think it would perform a hash function and see that the machine ID in the registry wouldn't match the results of the hash. I'm sure I've described some of this inaccurately, but that should be the basic premise of what's going on. All of this, by the way, is a good thing as it should help prevent someone from spoofing you online if they were ever do to a registry dump of your computer.

Download .NET from Microsoft and decompress the self-extracting .exe file. There you will find an .msi file.

You didn't mention how many clients you're supporting, but from what I read I will assume you have a single domain controller that is handling all of your server chores. If this is not the case, you can adjust accordingly. You should have your domain controller acting as both a DNS and DHCP server. DHCP should assign the DNS server assignment as being the IP of your domain controller. The forward lookup zone should be configured as an Active Directory integrated type. And the DNS server assignment on your domain controller for the internet facing NIC (even it's the only one) should have the IP addresses of your ISP's DNS servers (Earthlink?). In a nutshell, all of your clients should be making their DNS requests to YOUR server, which will then query Earthlink's DNS servers. It's pretty important, I mean seriously important, to have DNS functioning properly in an Active Directory environment for thing to work properly. Now there's no way I could really tell you everything you need to know about DNS and Active Directory in a post, especially since I don't know too much at all about your network. The other thing is that I am FAR from being an expert at this stuff. Yes, I've implemented a few networks, but they're small and cut n' dry type networks. No JC Penny or Ford Motor Company type of enterprise network experience here. What I definately can suggest is that you run out to a book store and pick Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows 2000 Server (or the newer Mastering Windows 2003 Server) published by Sybex. I simply cannot recommend this author enough. Not only is extremely proficient in most things Microsoft, but he has a true talent for communicating what it is that you want and need to know very effectively. If you have a little time on your side, you can find it online at a pretty good discount as compared to a brick and mortar. But trust me on this, just bite the bullet and devote an entire weekend to reading this book. You'll be glad you did.

VPN's are great. That's also a very very wide topic. A topic I assumed (perhaps mistakenly) was beyond the scope of the question. Consumer grade VPN? Like a couple of Linksys endpoints. Enterprise grade VPN? Like a Cisco PIX or VPN Contentrator, Checkpoint, NetMotion, etc. I sort of figured that with the question that was asked, the intent was not to bring in a consultant or some other service, but rather to just get the job done using in-house talent.

I believe that they ARE slipstreaming. I think the problem is either a bug in MS Update or the slipstreaming process isn't importing the registry entries to indicate that they're installed. Testing all of this out has been on my to do list for a while now, but it's just always being shoved aside.

What about it? The man asked a question and we tried to answer it. I've pretty much given up on preaching security unless someone specifically asks about it or it's a client of mine. Once you mention some kind of suggestion regarding security, it starts what is practically a religous war here, with everyone chiming in what they claim to be the best advice.

Things we need to know: What you're doing in svcpack.inf and cmdlines.txt and are you integrating any drivers for PnP enumeration. Cmdlines.txt takes place before your first reboot.

I would forward that port to his desktop computer rather than the SBS Server. You probably don't want a technological neophyte terminal servicing into the company's main server. Better that you take the risk he does something wrong to a workstation. By the way, if the only thing he wants access to office type files (Word, Excel, etc), you may want to consider setting him up with a Gmail account and then installing Gmail Drive at work and home. I did this for someone a few months back and they're pretty happy with the arrangement since all he wants is access to word documents and spreadsheets.

I don't have anything against Robocopy, I just like to invoke as few command line utilities as possible and always try to keep things "native" so to speak. For starters I don't have to worry about if someone has robocopy or not and further if I don't have to open up a cmd thread then all the better. In my book, speed is nice, but not necessarily the end all be all. It is kinda nice that mine clocked in fastest though

While it's not purely VBscript, what I do is call upon AutoItX.dll to perform those functions better suited to AutoIt, but from within my VBscript. I made a proof of concept script, which I actually use now, that goes through the install routine for Microsoft Student 2006. Option Explicit On Error Resume Next Dim fs, ai, colDrives, objDrive, strOEM Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set ai = WScript.CreateObject("AutoItX3.Control") Set colDrives = fs.Drives For Each objDrive in colDrives If fs.FileExists(objDrive.DriveLetter & ":\WIN51") Then strOEM = objDrive.DriveLetter & ":\OEM\Student" Next '** Subroutine; Run through Student install routine Sub InstallStudent ai.Run(strOEM & "\Setup.exe") ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD", "Welcome!" ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD", "Welcome!", "Button1", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "End User License Agreement", "MICROSOFT SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS" ai.ControlClick "End User License Agreement", "MICROSOFT SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS", "Button2", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Customer Experience Improvement Program", "OK" ai.ControlClick "Customer Experience Improvement Program", "I don't want to right now.", "Button4", 1, 1 ai.ControlClick "Customer Experience Improvement Program", "OK", "Button1", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD", "OK" ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD", "OK", "Button1", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "&Next >" ai.Sleep(7000) ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "&Next >", "Button1", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Web Companion" ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Web Companion", "Button5", 1, 1 ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Web Companion", "Button6", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Tree of selections" ai.ControlSend "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Tree of selections", 876, "{DOWN}" ai.ControlSend "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Tree of selections", 876, "{DOWN}" ai.ControlSend "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Tree of selections", 876, "{SPACE}" ai.ControlSend "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Tree of selections", 876, "{DOWN}" ai.ControlSend "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Tree of selections", 876, "{ENTER}" ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Tree of selections", 801, 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Create Desktop Shortcuts" ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Microsoft Student", "Button3", 1, 1 ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Encarta Kids", "Button4", 1, 1 ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Encarta Dictionary Tools", "Button5", 1, 1 ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "&Next >", "Button1", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "Ready to Install" ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "&Install", "Button1", 1, 1 ai.WinWaitActive "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "E&xit Setup" ai.ControlClick "Microsoft Student 2006 DVD Setup", "E&xit Setup", "Button2", 1, 1 End Sub '** Run Tasks InstallStudent Please note that you have to register AutoItX.dll for the script to run. I include the file and register it as a part of my Update Addon Pack (see my sig for the link). Also of special interest is this line: Set ai = WScript.CreateObject("AutoItX3.Control")This is what will give you access to AutoItX's functionality.

While it may be possible to something like that, it's also possible that it will be flagged as malicious software by antivirus software. It could also cause problems with a firewall. If you are developing a software application, I would suggest modifying your application to do these things rather than mess around with the TCP/IP stack.

I posted a VBscript that determines chasis type and installs the Cisco VPN Client only if it's a "portable" computer. You can find it in my guide to RIS (link in my sig). It uses a Case/Select structure, which is probably what would be appropriate for what you want to do.

Definately need some details here. Is your SBS behind a router or firewall? Or is it naked to the internet? More importantly are you the network administrator or the CEO of the company who owns the network? If you don't have control over the network, it may be impossible to access it remotely. If you don't have permission to access it remotely but you do anyway, you could be putting your job (and maybe more) on the line.

If you download the new V4 beta enterprise version, it comes in the form of an .msi file. There's also documentation on configuring the settings both via Group Policy and by using registry entries. Should be straight forward enough. So far I tried it out by doing a GPO push and configuring via GPO as well and it works like a charm. I'm going see if I can't make a switchless silent installer for it and get the thing to install at svcpack.inf. I must say though that with IE 7 Beta 2 it's starting to seem less and less necessary.