Zxian

I remember reading one story about a person who was installing a program that needed two CDs. She called tech support and told them that she followed the instructions when the installer told her to "Insert Disc 2". What she didn't do, however, was remove Disc 1.

Only install both if you need both...

You do NOT want to resample existing MP3s. Doing so will cause a drop in sound quality. If you want to re-rip your MP3s, use LAME VBR encoding to get the maximum sound quality for file size.

People seem to forget this about Apple... Apple was originally a hardware company! Their software was designed to run on their hardware. It was interesting to see Apple make the switch to Intel. They're going to be using x86 processors, since they finally realized that that's where all the development is nowadays. There's just no competition to drive Motorola and IBM to develop a better G4/G5 chip. Not to mention (although it's been said before), that OSX uses a LOT more memory than Windows XP. For the absolute basics (i.e. web browsing, writing documents, e-mail, the simple stuff) XP is just peachy with 256MB of RAM. Forget about running OSX 10.4 with 256MB RAM... it'll be slower than a turtle on valium.

You forgot to search... http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t57913.html

1) Do you have SATA hard drives? Standard PATA hard drives should be visible in the file manager (A43 - I can't remember which is on UBCD). 2) What NIC do you have? Any NIC that is detected by the Windows that you used to build UBCD should be operational. 3) Did you get a specific error message? Also, doesn't Norton Ghost have its own recovery CD?

Did you search for "Disable DEP"? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352

sfc /scannow works with Windows 2000 as well. Were you ever able to view the file in AR7 on that particular computer? I'm wondering if there's a conflict with the font installation, perhaps from other software being installed (i.e. Any office-like program that would install fonts as well).

Which is exactly what he would get if he read the error message that came up...

Just fire up DVDShrink and go. It's a fairly straightforward program that makes a copy of the disc. The source files are stored on the hard drive after that, but you can delete them if you want.

Sorry coldoven. Sometimes I take the command prompt for granted. If you type in %systemdrive% and hit enter, it should move you to whatever directory you were last in on your system partition. Since most command lines are set to start in your profile directory (C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\), this probably won't make much difference, but it's a simple precaution. After that, you type in cd \. This will move your position (what you see at the beginning of the line) to the root, or base, of the partition (C:\ in your case). After that, the final command (dir /s > dir1.txt) will generate a text file in C:\ that lists the contents of your system partition (i.e. all the files on C:\). If you go to My Computer, and then C:\, you should see the text file there (named dir1.txt). Hopefully that's a little easier to follow. @Hyperhacker - No, it won't do much harm, but it's something that shouldn't happen in the first place. Hopefully we'll be able to dig to the bottom of this and make his computer work as it should.

You didn't read his post... he said that if you run setup.exe /? you will find the silent switch. Look at the error box one more time and you'll find the answer you want (actually read what it says).

Actually... you can use a program like WinMerge to compare the directory structures before and after. Before anything, open a command prompt (Start->Run->cmd->Enter) and type in the following commands: %systemdrive% cd \ dir /s > dir1.txt Then copy the files, and let the system fill up its extra 1GB of space. Then run the commands again, but this time replace dir1.txt by dir2.txt. Now you should have two text files in the root of your system drive. Open WinMerge, and open those two files. WinMerge will be able to show you the differences between the two (use the "Next Diff" feature). You'll be able to find the differences in the lines between them and what files are changing. Let's hope this works... *crosses fingers*

I'm on a Windows 2000 workstation with fairly strict GPOs set.... I don't have much power here. I'll have to try it on my laptop (XP Pro) and then from Linux in VMware. I'll let you know how it goes.

Nope... I still can't send a PM to Ðrзω™. See Screenshot - Opera 8.50

Hehe... you inspired me to write my second guide. Zxian's guide to Desktop Enchancements! Enjoy!

Ever wondered how to get your desktop looking like this? It's fairly simple actually. It just takes the right software and a bit of time. Some of the software that members here often use are listed in this guide. XPize - XPize Link XPize is a program that will replace the original images and icons in XP with nicer looking ones. There are a couple of extra features bundled with it as well (TaskSwitchXP, new screensaver) that make it even more appealing. Best of all, it's made by XPero here at MSFN! AveDesk & SysStats - AveDesk Link - SysStats Link This is one of my personal favorites. It's a program that creates "desklets" on your desktop. These desklets can have any functionality, ranging from a simple shortcut, to displaying the weather forecast, to RSS feeds. Samurize - Samurize Link Samurize is another desktop enhancement program that makes it very easy to display your system information on the desktop (see right image above). There are many many premade configurations available at the Samurize website and elsewhere on the internet, so you can simply download the configuration file and run it. Konfabulator - Konfabulator Link I haven't played much with Konfabulator, but it offers a similar feature set to AveDesk. The advantage to Konfabulator is that there are hundreds upon hundreds of pre-made widgets available to download. The popularity of Konfabulator has increased recently since it used to be a paid-for software and is now freeware. Docks I'm going to make this section general, since there are several options to choose from. ObjectDock RK Launcher Yz Dock RocketDock Docks are meant to emulate the OSX dock. They provide a neat place to store your shortcuts, as well as possibly displaying system information (with SysStats for example). Each has their benefits, and as for which is the best - that's up to you. Longhorn Sidebar - Sidebar Link Some people have managed to make the Sidebar from Windows Vista run on Windows XP. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a direct link (for legal reasons), but Google should be able to point you in the right direction. WindowBlinds - WindowBlinds Link WindowBlinds is a skinning engine for Windows. It runs on Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP, allowing you to have the same look on your Windows 2000 computer as your Windows XP computer. There are some features that WindowBlinds provides over the standard Windows skinning engine (animated caption buttons, extra sounds, etc), but it does use a bit more resources than the default skinning engine. It's lots of fun, but I'd only recommend this if you have a more powerful computer (i.e. less than 3 years old). If you want to find lots of good skins for WindowBlinds, check out WinCustomize UXTheme.dll Hack - UXTheme Patcher Link This patcher will patch the uxtheme.dll file (the file responsible for your Windows theming engine) to allow you to use non-Microsoft signed themes. The best part of this is that it doesn't use any extra resources unlike StyleXP, and it's completely free! The patcher works on Windows XP, Windows 2003, and has partial support for Windows XP x64. CursorXP - CursorXP Link CursorXP is a program that will skin your mouse cursor and provide a little bit of a flashy appearance. A screenshot doesn't really do it justice, since most of the cool parts are in the animations. IconPackager - IconPackager Link IconPackager is a program that allows you to easily change the default icons on your system. You can find pre-made icon packages at WinCustomize, or build your own from icons that you find on your system or on the internet. LClock - LClock Link LClock is a very simple program that makes the Windows' clock look like a Windows Longhorn Clock. LClock also comes with a simple but configurable popup calendar that opens when the systray clock is clicked. Y'z Shadow - Y'z Shadow Link Add a shadow to all your windows and menus!!! You can also make your menus transparent. Simple, lightweight, and easy to configure. Y'z Toolbar - Y'z Toolbar Customise your toolbar exactly to your liking! Hundreds of themes are available to download, and make your Windows look that much nicer! For more toolbar skins, check out DeviantArt. DeviantArt - DeviantArt Link This site is pure gold. If you want to find wallpapers, icons, themes - just about anything - this is the place to look. 'Nuff said. That's about it for the "mild" customizations. By mild I mean that the above programs won't change the functionality of your system. You can go one step further and use alternate shells to take your desktop to a completely different level. Some of the favorites include: - LiteStep - Aston Shell - Talisman - GeoShell - BB4Win - (BlackBox for Windows) Don't use these unless you know what you're doing. My personal favorite is BB4Win, but that's just because I use BlackBox in Linux. If anyone has any suggestions or additions, let me know and I'll add them to the guide. Final notes - @DarkWader, I used your desktop as an example. I hope you don't mind. If you do, let me know and I'll remove the image. - If there are any concerns about the legality of some of the material here, I am more than willing to discuss the matter, or remove links/content as necessary. - @Mods/Admins - Sorry about the source of the UXTheme patcher. It's the best one I've found on the net, so I figured that I'd share it. - Don't complain to me if this becomes an obsessive hobby like it has for some of us (*poke* 'Dagonet *poke*) EDITS 1) 2005-11-20 - *slaps self for initially forgetting XPize* 2) 2005-11-24 - Added LClock, Y'z Shadow, and Y'z Toolbar

I've got the Intel 2200BG wireless card in my laptop, and using both WZC and the Intel ProSet, I can't tell a difference in the speed of the network. The Intel packetbursting is a hardware setting in the device properties, so the software that connects to the wireless network doesn't really matter. The feature set of ProSet doesn't impress me much either. There isn't much that it can do that WZC can't. Oh... and I'll take the 30MB of free RAM as well.

I've used Sophos since we get a free licence of it from my university (see here)... it's ok, but not what I'd recommend people buy. The update system was not very intuitive, and finding options and settings was more difficult than it should be.

@keytotime - I was looking for that THG article...That's the one that explains it all... @FAT64 - They're not just "toys" in XP Pro. They're features that admins may need for properly configuring a network. Not to mention that File&Printer Sharing (i.e. proper permissions) is a lot easier in Pro.

Like Crash&Burn said, the browser doesn't do anything on startup. It means that it's waiting for me to tell it where I want to go (since I don't always go to the same place when I open Opera). As for Google searches, it's a matter of typing g Some random stuff and Opera redirects me here. That being said, it's about:blank for me.

Have you tried safe mode? Or safe mode with Command Prompt?

Try using programs like Sequoia or iDisk to try to track down the used hard drive space. Obviously something's changing, so you should be able to find out what's different before and after. You could also try to make a batch file that compares two files (the directory listing before and after) and prints out the differences. I'll see what I can come up with if you don't know how to do that yourself.

You've got to be kidding, right? XP anything is better than Millenium... A clean install of XP on my VMware is 1.5GB. Not 3.5GB. XP Pro, no extras, no nLite. Not sure where you get the extra 3GB from. Just google it. As for what it does, it allows you to run a software RAID5 array just like you could with Server versions of Windows. The RAID5 array is not hard drive type limited either, so you can mix SATA with PATA drives at will.

He was being straight forward. Some people see that as rude, others take it for what it is. The argument about open-source being insecure doesn't hold much ground. Ever taken a look at the Firefox source code? Wanna parse through all that just to find a security flaw? You're much better off testing the program hard and keeping track of anything that doesn't behave like it's supposed to. If you want a really good look at anti-virus solutions, look here. Have a look at the last two tests (the Aug 2005 On-demand and May 2005 Proactive) and see for yourself. Kaspersky rates highest for on-demand scans, and NOD32 is the highest for Proactive scans (i.e. no previous virus record on hand). Unfortunately AntiVir doesn't hold much ground in either test. The best freeware AV solution by all accounts (this site and others) is Avast.