JoeMSFN

Depending on now much control you have over the initial install process of the apps, you could turn off the in-built autoupdate portions of all these programs, then have your add-on to "WU" to search for it. The other angle would be to use the autoupdaters themselves but instead have them redirected to the onsite server to look for updates. This would either be a host file entry or if the router can have custom firmware, just redirect it back to the local network (except for the "server" hosting the updates locally). For single to three computer installations (homes) this might be a tad impractical (who wants to buy another computer to serve as an update server). But for businesses (even smaller ones), this would be an excellent project. Also excellent for you pegging the home techie types that do have several computers. If you have a large enough network (no matter how small), downloading any kind of update (frequently these are over 40MB in total) only once would be excellent. Especially since the talk of capping data usage.

Since this topic is revived, and I stumbled upon the [url="http://www.chakuriki.net/en/world/"]new link[/url] by going through [url="http://archive.org"]the wayback machine[/url]; I thought I'd share.

I have the same issue. I finally decided to put SP3 into my WinXP UA installers and had the same issue. The Rootsupd.exe file might be newer than the one I included in my source because it has a date of 5/27/2008, but KB898461 is on the list of fixes included with SP3.

I release this in hopes to have a stop gap solution until Symantec releases their registry cleaning tool. It works for the one computer that had this issue. It plays fast and loose (sort of) with the registry, so... The usual disclaimers apply. Use at your own risk. Review the code before you use it. Modify it (even post your mods here) for your needs and/or peril. It may make things worse, including but not limited to corrupting beyond repair an otherwise working system. Now to (hopefully) save at least 1 other person, a lot (and I mean A LOT) of typing and mousing around. 1st some background info on the problem this fixed for me. I had an empty device manager after installing SP3 on a WinXP SP2 computer with a Symantec product installed. Turns out serveral people had this problem. Including one "solution" to delete all those keys manually and voila... devices in device manager were back. (also back were "Safely remove" in the system tray, as well as the network card icons in properties of "My Network Places"). That was insane! (well the manually deleting them part). To grasp the situation, I downloaded a most excellent Nirsoft utility to scan the registry and discovered over 5000 occurrences. That's a lot of manual deletions. All of them had some sort of enum and what not associated with them. Well long story short, download regfind from here. Get Autoit. Create a folder C:\regfind (if you want to use the unmodified IExpress .SED file). In that folder create "findit.au3" and paste the following: ; msgbox (0,"",$key) ; FileInstall ( "Regfind.exe", @SystemDir,1) $txtfileN=@DesktopDir&"\foundit.txt" Dim $i[1] $findme='$%&' $findme2='$%%&' ;$foundfile="found5.txt" $cmdfileN=@DesktopDir&'\madereg.cmd' FindReg($txtfileN) $txtfile = FileOpen ($txtfileN,0) If $txtfile = -1 Then MsgBox(0, "Error", 'Unable to open file. Main txtfileN "'&$txtfileN&'"') Exit EndIf ;$cmdfile=FileOpen ($cmdfileN,2) ;If $cmdfile = -1 Then ; MsgBox(0, "Error", 'Unable to open file. Main cmdfileN "'&$cmdfileN&'"') ; Exit ;EndIf $reges=0 While 1 $line = FileReadLine($txtfile) If @error = -1 Then ExitLoop $lineS = StringStripWS($line,1) $lineN = NWS($line) AddToAry($i, $lineS, $lineN) if StringInStr($lineS, $findme) Then ; FileWriteLine($fileout,AryToStr($i,$lineN)) $regdelCMD='REG DELETE "'&AryToStr($i,$lineN)&'" /f' RunWait($regdelCMD) $reges+=1 ; msgbox(0,"if",UBound($i)&' '&$lineN&' '&AryToStr($i,$lineN)) EndIf ; msgbox(0,NWS($line),"*"&$line&"*") WEnd FileClose($txtfile) MsgBox(0,"Deleted Registries",$reges&' registry entries deleted') ;FileClose($cmdfile) ;MsgBox(0,"Finished searching Registry",'Run the command "'&$cmdfileN&'"') Exit Func AddToAry(ByRef $i, $lineS,$lineN) while UBound($i)<=$lineN AryUp($i) WEnd $i[$lineN]=$lineS EndFunc Func NWS($str) $striped=StringStripWS($str,1) $ws_count=StringLen($str)-StringLen($striped) Return $ws_count EndFunc Func NextLine($file) EndFunc Func AryUp(ByRef $i) ReDim $i[UBound($i)+1] EndFunc Func AryToStr($i, $lineN) $sTmp=$i[0] For $x = 1 to $lineN $sTmp&='\'&$i[$x] Next ; MsgBox (0,"arytostr",$sTmp) Return $sTmp EndFunc Func FindReg($txtfileN) $HKLM="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" $subkey="SYSTEM" $key=$HKLM & "\" & $subkey ; $findme="$%&" $cmdtmpN = 'regfind.cmd' $dir2 = @SystemDir ; $outfile2=$dir2&'\'&$outfile $outfile2=$txtfileN $cmd2 = '"'&@WorkingDir&'\Regfind.exe" -i 1 -p "'&$key&'" -n "'&$findme2&'" > "'&$outfile2&'"' ; $cmd2 = '"'&$dir2&'\Regfind.exe" -i 1 -p "'&$key&'" -n "'&$findme&'" > "'&$outfile2&'"' ;MsgBox(0,"",$cmd2) ;$file1n = $dir2&'\regfind.cmd' $cmdtmp = FileOpen($cmdtmpN,2) If $cmdtmp = -1 Then MsgBox(0, "Error", 'Unable to open file. FindReg cmdtmpN "'&$cmdtmpN&'"') Exit EndIf FileWriteLine($cmdtmp,$cmd2) FileClose($cmdtmp) ; RunWait($cmd2) RunWait($cmdtmpN) ; msgbox(0,"","") EndFunc Compile it to an exe findit.exe Extract Regfind.exe (Downloaded from link above) Create "NortonXPSP3fixer.SED" [Version] Class=IEXPRESS SEDVersion=3 [Options] PackagePurpose=InstallApp ShowInstallProgramWindow=0 HideExtractAnimation=0 UseLongFileName=1 InsideCompressed=0 CAB_FixedSize=0 CAB_ResvCodeSigning=0 RebootMode=N InstallPrompt=%InstallPrompt% DisplayLicense=%DisplayLicense% FinishMessage=%FinishMessage% TargetName=%TargetName% FriendlyName=%FriendlyName% AppLaunched=%AppLaunched% PostInstallCmd=%PostInstallCmd% AdminQuietInstCmd=%AdminQuietInstCmd% UserQuietInstCmd=%UserQuietInstCmd% SourceFiles=SourceFiles [Strings] InstallPrompt= DisplayLicense= FinishMessage= TargetName=C:\regfind\NortonXPSP3fixer.exe FriendlyName=Norton XP SP3 Fixer AppLaunched=findit.exe PostInstallCmd=<None> AdminQuietInstCmd= UserQuietInstCmd= FILE0="Regfind.exe" FILE1="findit.exe" [SourceFiles] SourceFiles0=C:\regfind\ [SourceFiles0] %FILE0%= %FILE1%= and IExpress yourself an .exe!!! I am purposely not uploading my .exe for two reasons (well three). One, I haven't ever used one of those megadownloader type sites to upload files (also I don't really want to use up my storage space on my account here ) and two... I have no idea how dangerous this is and don't want a cookie cutter disaster. I figure if you can do the above, you have slightly more skills that "enough to be dangerous". Third, it has no checks/error detection and no attempt to put "polish" into it has been made. Now to cover what my script does. It runs regfind.exe with the "-i 1" parameter. What that does is space out the key names by one. That also makes it handy to count spaces and use that count for an array element number in Autoit B) . It creates a file on the desktop called "foundit.txt". (created with regfind called from the autotit script). Processes that text file, then deletes each registry key found with the offending cartoon swear characters. I originally tried to have the script create a .cmd file with the "REG /DELETEs" to run (as a safety buffer) later, but it was too much of a pain to escape all the % and & and whatever other characters there were, plus some are escaped with % and others ^ and just wanted to get the computer fixed. So boot in safe mode, and sign on as an administrator. Enjoy. PS: Did I mention run it in SAFE MODE. The keys won't be gone if you don't. Note: I've also encountered the $%&'()* keys (without the device loss) after SP3 update on other computers with Symantec products. If you run it more than once, foundit.txt on the desktop will be a zero byte file. So copy it if your curious and want to run it more than once to make sure the "deleted registry key" count is zero. Another Note: Why didn't I just use the Nirsoft util? For one, including ControlSet001, 2 etc it also included CurrentControlSet. Where the regfind.exe only included the numbered control sets (didn't want duplicate deletions). And two, that takes the fun out of learning how to parse the output of regfind.exe into some array structure that's useful.

@elbrute I've read what you're quoting NOT related to SLIPSTREAMing, but only related to INSTALLING it as an UPDATE. So the mystery continues. I have installed it via a XP Pro source (SP0) slipstreamed to SP3. This was via BartPE boot winn32.exe network install. Oddly enough dotNet 2.0 was offered as an update but not dotNet 3.0.

According to MS they recommend having SP2 first. Since I have various "pure" sources from gold (in my words "SP0") all the way to SP2, is it best to slipstream it into an SP2 source, or is SP0 as a slipstream source "OK" ? Edit: I realize that having SP2 1st is technically referring to what's installed and not about slipstreaming. I just wasn't sure if it also applied to slipstreaming too. I've read that MS wouldn't support non service packed XP and possibly SP1.

I've used all three as well (Classic, XP, Vista). I love the search feature in the Vista start menu. It's like having a command prompt with %PATH% equal to every folder in the system. With XP start menu, it can fill the screen with sub menus trying to get to the app, but Vista's just expands in the 2nd column. It's that screen space saving feature that made me vote XP. Perhaps they could have made it look more obvious it was a submenu/subfolder by making the deeper level move over a little more (perhaps 1/2 inch or so). Then it would probably be no contest as I REALLY like the search feature in Vista start menu. Or just perhaps I haven't played with all the options in both start menus to make them perfect. (It is possibly there are so many registry settings I've altered in my unattended discs over the years that XP is no where near it's default )

By any chance, is the optical drive your booting/installing from a SATA drive?

I think that typing speed test is both bogus and cool. Bogus in the sense I think it's inflating my wpm (or was it cps). Maybe I read the units wrong. It's cool since it actually will let you BACKSPACE!!! That always threw me off when using those typing tutor programs. When I hit the wrong key, I usually "feel it". So my inclination is to go back to correct it, not continue as though nothing happened. Then the backspace attempt counted as another error! GRR...

Sorry for geting your hopes up. I don't really deal with Adobe Acrobat, but just noticed those lines in the magicaljellybean beta and thought it was worth mentioning.

I know it's seems lenghty (although I am richer skillwise for the experience ) But the 1st line says it all. Perhaps I'll try to clarify. If there's some way of doing all this slipstreaming of office updates without using a "corporate" or "enterprise" edition of office, that would be fantastic. Unfortunately when I started doing this early on, every guide had the basic two steps. Create an administrative install point Slipstream updates Step 1 would always be a show stopper as the versions of office I used wouldn't let me. If there's a way to do that with Office 2003 Pro, 2003 Student and Teacher and 2007 Home and 2007 Pro (both OEM and retail) versions, I would be happy to hear it.

I believe the latest beta of Magical Jelly Bean keyfinder supports it. Support for all sorts of software beyond Windows 'n Office has been added. Check out these lines from the kenfinder.cfg file. Adobe Acrobat 6|Serial=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\6.0\Registration=SERIAL Adobe Acrobat 7|Serial=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\7.0\Registration=SERIAL Adobe Acrobat 8.x|Serial=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\8.0\Registration=SERIAL

As a security through obscurity tactic, you have the unique opportunity to call your "workgroup" something besides MSHOME or WORKGROUP. I know it's kinda cheesy, but if you are accidentally leaking netbios type protocols out (a possible danger if you're using a public IP). It will help (slightly) keep your computer from being browseable from the default workgroups.

I noticed most of the slipstreaming of Office updates requires and Admin install point. AFAIK that is totally useless if you don't have some kind of enterprise edition or corporate edition type disc (whatever the term is). Well I have had to chain a lot of updates and got sick of it, so I used IExpress to make little installers. That got very tedious (especially before SP3 for Office 2003 ). I wish I would have done this before, but I was bored and determined and cranked out this little bit of .CMDery Make a folder and call it what you wish. Something like "Office Update Maker" (hereafter called ROOT) Within that, make two folders (inside ROOT, not within eachother) @echo off setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion title "%~nx0" REM set TOOLS=%~dp0 REM set path=!TOOLS!;%path% REM set p set /a debug=1 set SRC_SP=%~dp0O2k3-SP\ set SP_File=Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe set SRC_EXT=%~dp0EXTRACTED\ set SRC_OHOTFIX=%~dp0ohotfix\ set SRC_Updates=%~dp0O2k3-Updates\ set BUILD=%~dp0BUILD\ set FINAL=%~dp0FINAL\ set SED_File=OF2k3SP3.SED set SRC_SED=%~dp0!SED_File! set DST_SED=!BUILD!!SED_File! REM the following gives exe REM echo !SP_File:~-3! REM the following gives Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU REM echo !SP_File:~0,-4! call :Prep call :Extract_files call :Copy_files call :MakeSED "!DST_SED!" call :MakeEXE call :CleanUp pause endlocal&goto :eof :Prep setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo :Prep) call :CleanUp rd "!FINAL!" /s /q echo making new directories mkdir "!SRC_EXT!" mkdir "!BUILD!" mkdir "!FINAL!" endlocal&goto :eof :Extract_files setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo :Extract_files) echo extracting SP updates for /R "%SRC_Updates%" %%i in ("*.exe") do ( REM echo "i="%%i echo extracting "%%~nxi" "%%i" /C /T:"!SRC_EXT!%%~ni" /Q echo renaming SP .msp files for ohotfix install order rename "!SRC_EXT!!SP_File:~0,-4!\*.msp" "2_*.msp" ) endlocal&goto :eof :Copy_files setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo :Copy_files) echo copying .msp files to BUILD area for /R "%SRC_EXT%" %%k in ("*.msp") do ( if !debug! GEQ 1 (echo copying "%%~nxk") REM copy "%%k" "!BUILD!" if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo fsutil hardlink create "%%k" "!BUILD!%%~nxk") fsutil hardlink create "!BUILD!%%~nxk" "%%k" > NUL ) copy "!SRC_OHOTFIX!*" "!BUILD!">NUL endlocal&goto :eof :MakeSED setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo :MakeSED) if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo 1 "%~nx1") if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo copy "!SRC_SED!" "!DST_SED!") copy "!SRC_SED!" "!DST_SED!">NUL echo TargetName="!FINAL!OF2k3SP3.exe">>"!DST_SED!" set /a File_Num=-1 for %%i in ("!BUILD!*") do ( if not "%%~nxi"=="%~nx1" ( set /a File_Num+=1 echo FILE!File_Num!="%%~nxi">>"!DST_SED!" ) ) echo [SourceFiles]>>"!DST_SED!" echo SourceFiles0="!BUILD!">>"!DST_SED!" echo [SourceFiles0]>>"!DST_SED!" for /L %%i in (0,1,!File_Num!) do ( echo %%FILE%%i%%=>>"!DST_SED!" ) endlocal&goto :eof :MakeEXE setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo :MakeEXE) pushd !BUILD! if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo iexpress /N !SED_File!) iexpress /N !SED_File! copy "!SED_File!" "!FINAL!" popd endlocal&goto :eof :CleanUp setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion if !debug! GEQ 2 (echo :CleanUp) Echo eraseing previous directories rd "!SRC_EXT!" /s /q rd "!BUILD!" /s /q endlocal&goto :eofCreate another file called OF2k3SP3.SED in the ROOT and paste in the following [Version] Class=IEXPRESS SEDVersion=3 [Options] KeepCabinet=1 PackagePurpose=InstallApp ShowInstallProgramWindow=0 HideExtractAnimation=0 UseLongFileName=1 InsideCompressed=0 CAB_FixedSize=0 CAB_ResvCodeSigning=0 RebootMode=N InstallPrompt=%InstallPrompt% DisplayLicense=%DisplayLicense% FinishMessage=%FinishMessage% TargetName=%TargetName% FriendlyName=%FriendlyName% AppLaunched=%AppLaunched% PostInstallCmd=%PostInstallCmd% AdminQuietInstCmd=%AdminQuietInstCmd% UserQuietInstCmd=%UserQuietInstCmd% SourceFiles=SourceFiles VersionInfo=VersionSection [VersionSection] FileDescription="MS Office 2003 SP3 with Updates" ProductName="OF2k3SP3" [Strings] InstallPrompt= DisplayLicense= FinishMessage= FriendlyName=Office 2003 SP3 and Updates AppLaunched=ohotfix.exe PostInstallCmd=<None> AdminQuietInstCmd= UserQuietInstCmd= Of course change the FileDescription and FriendlyName above to suit yourself. These will be visible in the properties of the final .exe. So these are probably the most useful things to change (especially if SP4 springs forth from Redmond). Next extract from either the service pack (or one of its updates) the following files ohotfix.exe ohotfixr.dll ohotfix.iniand place them in the ohotfix folder (created earlier). Do NOT add, but change the following lines in ohotfix.ini as follows MessageTitle=Office 2003 SP3 and Updates ShowSuccessDialog=0 RunSetupWatson=0 OHotfixUILevel=q Note: changing MessageTitle above isn't really necessary, I just like it for completeness. Now in the O2k3-Updates folder (created near the beginning of the process) put all your updates including SP3. My .cmd file allows you to have several subfolders if you 're like me and like to have the update inside a folder with a very long descriptive name of what it does. Feel free to put your direct d/l links and other non-exe stuff in there too. A special note about the .cmd file. Make sure to alter the set SP_File=Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe line to whatever you called the SP3 download. What it does is extract and renames the .MSPs (from the service pack) with a 02 before it so they will get installed by Ohotfix first. It then goes on to merely extract the rest of the updates' MSP files. Why 02 you ask? Well I remember when I was doing this by hand I had a need/want to include an update to be installed before the service pack, and from my understanding ohotfix.exe goes in alphabetical order and (again from my understanding) numbers are sorted before letters. Note: after extracting I do a fsutil hard link from the extracted folder structure to the temporary BUILD folder since I got sick of waiting for the COPY procedure (the CABing of IExpress takes long enough, and I'm sick of wasting GIGs of space with temporary junk. Also I'm trying to get in the habit of doing fancy stuff B) ). Feel free to change it to copy if fsutil doesn't work for you or if your not using NTFS or other situation where hard linking doesn't work. Also if you're curious about the temporary folders and extraction process, comment out call :CleanUp after the MakeEXE call. If I have the need, feel like being way to fancy, or just feel like avoiding something else I really should be doing, I might change the .cmd to test if the SRC and BUILD folders are on the same volume and the volume is NTFS and not UNC etc and use copy or fsutil as appropriate. Now run O2k3-SP3-MakePackage.cmd Look inside the FINAL folder and you will find an IExpressed installer with SP3 and updates ready to put in your chained install (setup.ini) or just carry with you to update everyone who hasn't gotten SP3 yet. Also the .SED file finally used is in there as well. I keep that around so I know exactly what files wound up inside the .exe without having to re-extract them. Please alter the SED file in ROOT with KeepCabinet=0 if you don't like to see .CAB files. I'm in an exploring mood and was curious about the differences between the CABinet and the self extracting executable. I never got a round to comparing them. But I might. The above stuff might not work with Office 2007 updates. I'm guessing since the 2007 compatibility pack uses a different extraction line. "%%i" /extract:"!SRC_EXT!%%~ni" /quiet where as the 2003 updates use (the VERY above) "%%i" /C /T:"!SRC_EXT!%%~ni" /Q By the way, I do have an extremely similar "script" for the 2007 compatibility pack, it's service pack and future updates that I can carry with me and install for people and also use in my setup.ini file for office. If there's interest I'll do a similar post for that too.

You get to read my story before I give you the code that solved all of this. Long long ago, when Vista was just another code named rumor and I didn't have an account on this site, I used a .cmd file in cmdlines.txt to create a default user account. All was good with my unattended universe. Then I stumbled upon the OOBE trick. I used to use the OOBEINFO.INI file with nothing more than [UserInfo] Identity000="DefaultUser"I had developed more skills and integrated graphics drivers and this was good for a very long time. Then I had a problem with a laptop that the graphics driver was installed, but OOBEINFO was skipped and I was greeted with 640x480 login prompt for the Administrator account. (I set a password in the winnt.sif file for the administrator). No autologon joy for me. Since I wanted as much of a one size fits instALL, I abandoned the OOBE effort and went back to the old way (useraccounts.cmd from cmdlines.txt). Then something caught my attention, my default user accounts (under manage) didn't have "Password never expires" checked. But new accounts created via the control panel did. I also wasn't comfortable with the "machine wide" /maxpwage:unlimited switch, since still no check in the box. After some (some meaning copious amounts) of searching I found out that there was no command line .cmd file suitable way of doing it, I could only do it via .VBS or other higher level scripting. Discouraged, but not giving up I also found out that .VBS can be run way early on in the XP setup, even before a real user logs in!!! And I had found a nice script runnable from my useraccounts.cmd file. Yeah!!!! All was good with my XP Pro installing world! The new PCs I've been building have all been getting XP pro. Good thing to since businesses use pro and I think MS has a greater lifecycle for that. So a little side effect from unattended Home went unnoticed since I hadn't done a Home install since I had switched from OOBEINFO to cmdlines.txt to create the default account. But lately I've had a run on XP Home re-installs (HD crash, spyware/virus invections, etc) so I decided to update my Home source with all the updates and other loving attention I've lavished on my Pro source. And I was greeted once again with the Welcome screen!!!!! (at least Administrator wasn't there) I had a new friend by the name of Owner. Thinking my install source was somehow tainted with some junk I went on another Google quest and learned that Owner rains on many a would be unattended installers parade. There had to be a way around this mess. Filled with courage from my previous successes and still wanting my one $OEM$ folder for everything, I set about to fix this. A little bit of .cmd coding and experimenting and I discovered that I could safely delete "Owner" and create my "DefaultUser" account. I once again had the warm fuzzy feeling of unattended goodness. But being the person I am, I wanted to have the ability to have spaces in my "Default User" account. The thing is, I run useraccounts.cmd from cmdlines.txt and useraccounts.cmd takes the first parameter as the username to create (I like flexibility too.) Well I'll just quote the username parameter ... um... wait... I can't do that with cmdlines.txt. I used to use %~1 (I like to remove quotes from parameters). After a little more searching I found that %* gives all arguments (except for the filename %0). Hurray!!! I have something that works in all situations. Or at least I think I do. So for reading my little novella above, you are greatly rewarded with the code I use to accomplish all this. Works regardless of graphic driver status (i.e. the OOBE problem avoided) Makes sure "Password never expires" is checked in local users under manage computer. (just like the control panel does!) You only get the default user you want in XP Home (as well as the others). If you double click it, you don't accidentally clobber an account called "Owner" since it won't work without a Username passed to it! For cmdlines.txt use [COMMANDS] ".\T12setup.cmd" "REGEDIT /S .\DefUserRegTweaks.reg" ".\RunOnceEx.cmd" ".\useraccounts.cmd UserName"The useraccounts.cmd above is all that matters. I just showed a "complete" cmdlines.txt for perspective. Now onto useraccounts.cmd @echo off setlocal set uname=%* title "useraccounts" if not defined uname (goto :eof) net user "Owner" /delete net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited net user "%uname%" /passwordreq:no /fullname:"%uname%" /add net localgroup Administrators "%uname%" /add start "Set Password Never Expires" /wait cscript "%~dp0useraccounts.vbs" "%uname%" //Nologo REM REGEDIT /S autologon.reg endlocal&EXIT And now for the .vbs which deals with the "Password never expires" check boxing. useraccounts.vbs Dim ArgObj, var1 Set ArgObj = WScript.Arguments 'Originally PWNVREXP.vbs 'Takes a username from the command line and makes it so under 'My Computer-Manage-Local Users-User Properties-Password never expires is checked WScript.echo "The current user is """& CreateObject("WScript.Shell").ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%USERNAME%")&"""" If ArgObj.Count < 1 Then Set wshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") strUser = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%USERNAME%") else strUser=ArgObj(0) end if 'wscript.echo "strUser="""&strUser&"""" strComputer = "." Set User = Getobject("WinNT://" & strComputer & "/" & strUser) Flags = User.Get("UserFlags") ' User.put "Userflags", flags OR &H10000 user.setinfo wscript.echo "Set ""Password never expires"" on account """&strUser&"""" Set User = nothing set ArgObj=Nothing set wshShell=Nothing set StrUser=NothingPut the above three files in your $OEM$ folder and create your unattended from various guides that other MSFNers have found in this wonderful cyberworld. Credits to me.... Adding the net user "Owner" /delete. Everything else I found. The useraccounts.cmd I found at the MSFN! (sans the username passed to it). And the VBS I stumbled upon somewhere. Don't remember where. And my bookmarks are way to numerous for me to search back and look. But I don't claim credit. I'm just sharing a full solution here. I don't care about checking the existence of the "Owner" account before deleting it, since for Pro, the error it produces trying to delete the non-existent account isn't a show stopper. The "Current Account Is" output from the .VBS is just my curiousity about what account is at that point. (didn't want to delete the currently logged on account). Turns out it %USERNAME% is all I get. I was hoping to see "default" or "system" oh well. Enjoy!

@SmaugyGrrr Good Tip about the BIOS @extremepilot Take SmaugyGrrr's suggestion. I've seen older 865 chipset Intel mobos suddenly have RAID support after a BIOS update. Note some will never have RAID like D865GLC. I think the PERL will do it though. Also you might have to have 2 SATA HDs connected before you can try. (I understand "what's the point of a 1 drive RAID", but you might not have the money for 2 drives and want to start it with only 1 ... etc.) I remember the process was kinda convoluted (compared to newer Intel chipsets/motherboards) Steps: (not necessarily in this order). 2 drives plugged in Edit BIOS (somewhere) to tell it to use RAID Run the RAID setup (after BIOS does it's ram countdown and other goodness). Via <ALT><I> or <ALT><S> or some other key combo indicated on the screen (hopefully, but it will be really fast) Fortunately newer Intel mobos like the 9xx series are bit more friendly and more obvious in this matter. I hope yours supports the RAID that your looking for.

When I create files with the same base name and the only thing unique is the date I prefer: YYYY-MM-DD--HH-MM-SS where HH is 00-23 (the time only being necessary if you need that kind of granularity) I also enforce the length of the mask above by inserting a leading zero for anything that is one digit. i.e. MM is 01-12 DD is 01-28~31 etc. It sorts nicely in a file/folder list. That is the only reason I like year month day order for a filename (and of course 24 hour time if necessary).

I would like you to consider a particular technology called DLP. With Plasma which when it goes, the whole thing is useless. With LCD you possibly have dead pixel issues as well as viewing angle issues. It's possible that more high end sets have eliminated at least the viewing angle problem (picture is not visible left or right of center). With DLP, the only thing you have to replace is a bulb. A very expensive bulb, but it is a user serviceable part. (at least in the two Toshiba models I've used regularly). The only annoyance is the Dish PVR that drives the picture, the lower half of the bottom entry on the Guide is cut off, and there are no adjustments for reducing overscan. But I assume that's just an issue with the Toshiba units. The one freaky effect with DLP (spinning mirrors) is that if I move my head really fast (like I'm signaling "no") and blink just right, I get a rainbow effect. But for normal viewing I've seen nothing but a fantastic picture.

I have found that installing various dotnetfxs still show up on WU if I don't reboot a time or two. I discovered this effect when I read that dotNet 3 contains v2 also. So I just installed 3 from a manual download and it listed v2 as an update until I rebooted at least once (it may have taken two). I'm guessing there were some files in use/clean up issues from something that ran on reboot after the install. Once I did the rebooting, the v2 went away as an update. Have you checked it after rebooting (possibly at least twice)?

I vote "love it" (with the qualifier, compared to v6). Things that are great. I love clicking my scroll wheel to open a new tab. I can't tell you how many times I have gotten the "scroll arrows" on 6. (Yes I am a regular Firefox user). 2nd, it zooms most text!! I can't tell you how many web sites I visited in v6 and it wouldn't adjust the micro sized text one bit. (The biggest reason I used Firefox). Too bad the CTRL-mouse scroll wheel, font size adjust direction is opposite of Firefox. I hate making all the text micro small when I meant to make it big. On to my biggest gripe about v7 (well any IE version) Now if they could only go to an XML (or other text file) system for storing book... er... favorites. Reason being, a favorite is a file. The filename is determined by the <title> tag's contents. A lot of sites when you navigate to subpages, don't change that text, and when I make a favorite out of multiple pages on the same site, I have to rename the previous ones or deal with that dreaded "overwrite" previous one. Firefox, I can have multiple bookmarks with the same name. Ok. the font size adjust and same name of a bookmark are a tie for why I used FF over IE. The biggest draw back to IE7 on XP is if I check the "Download Updates" box during install, it seems to add forever to the install time.

For those waiting for install shield tuner for Adobe Reader 8. Well they have something a little different... get it here. Download - Adobe Customization Wizard 8 according to the above page. Key Features: • Optimize the behavior of the installer by including silent installation, preserialization, multilingual, and custom setup choices • Remove previous versions of Acrobat and Reader • Suppress the EULA, registration prompts, and the Getting Started window • Embed licensing information for easy license management with Adobe License Manager • Customize key application preferences — turn off automatic updates, add and set default job options, and customize collaboration and security settings • Remove shortcuts from the desktop and the Start menu Direct HTML dl link Direct FTP dl link

Usually a safe guess, however some sick and evil person could have relocated it. Probably want to have a look at Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders] "Local Settings"= (or if not current user, replace with the appropriate S-whatever). If you want to be complete as possible you should export that key to a variable. Only problem is while browsing for the above, I found "local settings" hard coded quite a bit. Maybe explains why it isn't an environment variable.

How awsomely almost timely for me! We were having DSL problems and the ISP was having me switch between DHCP and static IPs (not a lot, but it's easier to run a script than right click/properties a bunch of times etc.). I will have to remember this for later. Thanks phiban for the question that lead to gunsmokingman's answer!

From my (very limited) understanding of dial-up connections. If you've got above a 33.6k connection (raw, not actual throughput), you're taking advantage of the modern stuff in the modems. In order to get above a 33.6k connection, there must be only one analog to digital transition in the connection between you and your ISP. Your end is the analog, and the ISP is the digital connection. If it gets processed anymore than that in between you can never hope to have anything greater than 33.6k.

Many thanks for that way cool link!!!!@joan_toko As far as just the "hitted parts", Maybe... if your lucky it's just the connector... if the circuit board is cracked.... then outlook is not so good. Also if you've never soldered... don't let this be your practice . Buy some cheap kit and assemble it to learn. Another skill you need to practice (again not on your laptop) is de-soldering... Very critical to get the bad parts out of the way.