JoeMSFN

Winstall LE unfortunately insn't available from the original website, you'd have to do some digging to locate it. It is out there, just not from the original company.

The only problem with the "within a reasonable time" is this. A service pack ?!? Are they kidding? How is that a reasonable time ??? So it'll take at least a year before it's release to see this feature?

Do you know if you are using FAT32 or NTFS? Another possible answer (especially if you're using FAT32) is "space marked as used, but not part of a file" (I forget the term for that.) Maybe a scandisk or other file structure utility is in order?

When you tried to "Select all" files.... another thing to try is at a command prompt dodir c:\ /a /sand wait (very patiently) for the final tally. Also don't forget the "System Volume Information" folder (if you have "System Restore" turned on) can hold quite a bit of data, and won't show up on searching/etc unless you do some messing around/up with the permissions/ownership of that folder.

Sorry, InViSibLe Gr, it didn't work for you. I still haven't found any real documentation for the config.txt file. What you might be able to do put your commands (from your previous post) incml.exe /s pskill IncMail.exe pskill IMApp.exe into a incrmail.cmd file then in your config.txt put ;!@Install@!UTF-8! RunProgram="incrmail.cmd" ;!@InstallEnd@! I had to do that to get multiple commands to work... again not sure, but I was unable to get multiple "RunProgram" commands to work in config.txt. (it only seemed to do the 1st "RunProgram" line).

True, but I've often found the comments on experts-exchange.com to be sufficient to answer my questions. Just scroll way down. Those comments don't require subscribing.I'm not sure if the comments on that post answer the question posed here answer, but there is a script there. I would have thought that a simple "one liner" at the command prompt would have solved this issue. I want to do the same thing and would like to know what ultimately works. I get the cab url from "view source"; download it; extract it; then don't know what to do.

Don't suppose there's any way to recover the key from windows that won't boot the registry is intact? Basically Computer A doesn't boot. I take Computer A's hard drive and put it as a secondary in Computer B. I run the nifty util here on Computer B and tell it to get the Keys from Computer A's hard drive. Any chance of that? (or a registry viewer for the same thing?)

I have searched in vain for the full syntax of the config.txt file...But I'm willing to bet you need RunProgram=" and " around your pskill statements... It's not like a .cmd or .bat file. The only problem with my advice (going back to the lack of documentation for the config.txt file) is I'm not sure if it's ok to have more than one RunProgram statement per config.txt or if you'd have to have it call a .cmd file via "RunProgram" then do multiple program exections within the .cmd file... Also as a side note, (I think I've seen other's do it) is that the original post takes great pains to mention that the .msi file must be 8 characters or less. I have sucesfully repackaged (and it installs) the Adobe Reader 7.0.7.msi file (with a InstallShield Tuner transform file of equal length spaces and all) by just doing the backslash quote thing to escape the spaces in the RunProgram statement...

I was about to try the same thing. I had assumed that XPCREATE would have to "do it's thing" first. Then BTS' driverpack would have to be applied. I'm currious, tarquel, which BTS method did you use? I'm kinda torn between 1 and 2. I haven't tried it yet and am somewhat perplexed by the differences. Doesn't seem to matter too much any more on space savings as I have pretty much moved to DVD installs now. I was just wondering if you've found a particular BTS method works better (or at all) over another for the XPCREATE thing. 3Pete, it seems like extra time to have XPCREATE to make the .ISO file then extract the contents to do the driver pack thing. I assume there's a practical reason behind your technique. I have been kicking around the idea of having a script call XPCREATE.CMD (with the don't make an ISO option), then perform BTS driver pack integration, then make the ISO. Anyone tried this yet? Currious if there's any road blocks also.... but 1st things 1st.... Which BTS method seems to work best is the main question here (feel free to comment on my tangential thoughts too )

Maleko's suggestion is wise.... the ram upgrade will make a huge difference. Also do some serious digging for information if crucial says your laptop's ram is maxed out. I've found that (sometimes) you can actually add more ram than is listed as the max. I assume this is becuase of my little example here: My laptop was made when 128mb was the largest module. There are two slots. Everyone lists 256mb is the most I can add. Clearly today >256mb modules are available, so I should be able to upgrade to at least 512mb. Also (if you have some extra $$$) try getting a higher RPM hard drive, with more cache RAM. I saw it really speed up a 500MHz tower system. (I understand HD selection isn't that big for laptops, but give it a try). Finally to answer your question. XP on a properly configured system will run rings around 2k. I just make sure to set "Best Performance" in a burried property setting.

Me thinks you need to drop the []'s and the -r. Try expand f:/I386/explorer.ex_ c:/windows/explorer.exe

Use Ranish Partition Manager. See my post here for the links. Except also use it to delete the Windows XP partition, In addition to/instead of the boot sector. No need to fill the partition with zeros, just use "delete" to delete the partition. XP is uninstalled!

My clients that have tried Norton Antispam reported they liked it. However it only integrates with Outlook and Outlook Express (AFAIK). If you are using POP3, you might also want to try Thunderbird. It supposedly has a trainable filter. Also (depending on your ISP) if you turn on anti-spam at the ISP web interface for your account (works with POP account) those seem to work well.. But the downside with the ISP one is that you have to view the spam folder via webmail. Whereas the others you can view it via the convenience of your email client.

If your not worried about loosing your data, get either Ultimate Boot CD or just Ranish Partiton Manager. For simplicity, unplug the new HD Ultimate boot CD has the Ranish tool on it under "file system tools" (I think) Either way, run "Ranish Partition Manager". Select your boot partiton... (for get what it's called, but it's listed first). Then select Erase... when asked "Fill with zeros", answer yes. This "should" wipeout any partition managers..... Then your Restore CD should work fine. It seems that it's whining about the EZ disk software. The only reason EVER to install it, is if your computer's BIOS doesn't support the new large drive. And also I believe that the EZ software must be installed on the boot drive or else it won't load and thus won't be able to manage the larger drive. Here's one better.... just make your big drive the main one and "quick restore" to it.

Didn't even realize that this thread was that old... (I have this habbit of watching the main page and checking out the posts listed there ) Also didn't realize this was a UK list.... but in the U.S.

Is the "one more system" already physically on the network? Ethernet cables... etc.. If so, how are you obtaining an IP address? DHCP? manual entry? (I noticed the page you linked to showed that). Can it get to the internet? What's the "one system Win98" accomplishing that the "one more system" isn't?

All this talking about "Ad Muncher" I did a search for it, but mistyped the search and found "AdCruncher" http://www.softdevlabs.com/AdCruncher/ReadMe.html Anyone have thoughts on this ?

I know this reply is slightly delayed... but I figure I'd answer it anyway.... If you leave your software firewall wide open for local net traffic, then the only thing that would happen would be infections of unpatched systems on your net.... also you won't see the DNS lookups (assuming ... you use DHCP ... and that the router/firewall issues it's IP as the DNS server)... however after it has done the DNS lookup, it will try to go to the net at which point your software firewall should ask if you want to allow the traffic.... Not to mention it will make remote desktoping and sharing files on your private subnet a lot less complicated As a side note... I was quite amused when I saw someone's personal firewall ask "Do you want to allow Klez to access the internet?"

Yahoo's right, Assuming it's a peer-to-peer network (which was the kinda networking that made even Win 95 a dream) it should be a snap.... The only problem I've ever ran into was with Win2k/XP machines that used to be in a business environment and used to be part of a "domain".... even after I set it to "workgroup" mode and even created users on both computers with the same password, I still ran into road blocks... But if your XP/2k machines have never been part of a domain, it should be easy...... Did you need to password protect any of the shares? If so, it might be a little tricky, but not too bad. If not.... just make sure "Simple Sharing" is turned on and you'll do fine.... just share the folders you need..... Are you sharing printers too? If you want to share a printer local to XP to a 98 machine, and you want XP to serve the 98 machines printer drivers automagically, there's some tedious (but not too difficult) setup..... So what are you trying to accomplish.... Which machines are holding the file shares....? Are there any printers involved? If so which OS has the printer attached? (or are you fortunate to have a true network printer?)

Yes, It's called ad-hoc mode. Either configure the IPs manually, or do an ipconfig to see what each got defaulted to. It's kinda tricky to get them connected, but I've done it before.... One of the laptops had some 3rd party utilty to manage wireless settings and that made setting up ad-hoc a breeze. The other laptop just had XP zero config and "saw" the other laptops fake network... Not sure how to create ad-hoc with XP though... (but might be moot point if you aren't using XP ) And just for completeness.... The accesspoint mode is called "infrastructure"....

Well about:blank I have as the default in IE (I install all computers that way too, then adjust to customer preferences) cuz sometimes there's no net connection and it's just painful waiting for IE to timeout... As far as the browser I actually use Firefox, I've kept it @ it's default. If nothing else, to boost the statistics of how much FF is run.... (of course mostly with Cookies set to session only).

As far as the specifications are concerned, you didn't mention how much plain old SDRAM in the "lesser" machine. If I remember right, Win 98 took a hit with too much memory (it couldn't cache it all properly) and thus slowed down... Hmmm... Never mind, I think that was with TAG ram and 486 mobos.... I must note however that I did have a "boot race" between some beefy Pentium 4 (at least 1.3GHz if there ever was such a speed) and my Athelon 1300. The AMD just flew rings around the Intel setup. I'm assuming it has always been slow on the "fast" machine. If that's the case, perhaps the specs might be great, but it could be a poorly engineered board. Also in the bios, do you have optimized settings? or a ton of wait states and such slowing you down there? Maybe your BIOS is too old and there's an update to fix it.... Also what hard drive are you using? I've seen the same computer go from snore to a decent jog as far as speed increase with an HD that 8MB cache and spun at faster RPM..... Just some rambling thoughts to consider...

Must admit I've never tried Opera.... Before I discovered Firefox/Firebird/Phoenix... (Think I started @ version 0.7), I was partial to the new Netscape 6 although it kinda sucked as it was buggy (or should I say sucked as it was kinda buggy?) Netscape 7 was real cool... (much more stable) It started with the ditch MS and try to use free stuff, but after using both, I've found my two top (real) reasons I like Firefox (over IE)..... Since Firefox stores it's bookmarks in one file (html), it let's me have two different bookmark pages with the same title! Since IE stores a favorite as a file, if I want to bookmark a web page and the site keeps the same "title" tag, I have to rename the previous favorite before I can save the current page. When I visit web sites with micro fine print, I can resize any text whereas with IE, it seems to only enlarge a limited amount of text on the screen.

@edit ooops... didn't know I couldn't put a link in a poll choice (and I don't know how to edit them) ... sorry For your convenience, i hyperlinked the choices in "Card 1" and "Card 2" below.... Here's the things I've noticed between the two..... Card 1 is a USB 2.0 laptop card. Has a lifetime warranty. Comes with an AC adapter. Card 2 is a USB 2.0 / Firewire laptop card. 10 bucks more. Has a 90 day warranty. (has firewire though) Just wondering if the vast hardware experience of the forum members might be able to steer me towards / away from a particular product. For $10 extra I get firewire (and hardly a warranty). And before anyone asks, I have two primary laptops (rarely use them both @ same time though). One has firewire, the other doesn't. Neither has wireless built in, but since I am a proud owner of a usb wireless card, it doesn't matter if either takes up the slot for my cardbus wireless card.

Well jondercik, the "official" site did have the parenthetic statement below however the unattended.sourceforge site seems to have a bit more positive of an outcome with the switch Also on the "official" site Which would make my question, what is a "standard MSI" as it relates to all this.And also why is this "no longer necessary"? Thanks gloubs for the links. Although now I'm left with more questions that I started out with. (well actually I had none until you started this thread )