Zxian

I am sticking to facts (at least I think I am). Can you tell me which part of this thread has been a "touching story"? I really don't appreciate comments like that... and did I not say right below my list of services... I disagree. I know a number of users here who use laptops. grafx1 for example has problems with Windows File & Printer sharing a while back, and my guess is that he might have used nLite and removed a necessary component, or disabled a necessary service. In my situation (and others in a similar situation), it is used for File & Printer sharing, as it speeds up the process of notifying the network that my computer is now connected. I never said that it was needed... I said that it was used. You prove my point right there. You encounter this problem yourself with a desktop computer. You may know how to deal with it, but most people don't. For most people keeping the NLA service running will prevent them from ever having to deal with this situation. Again.... it's not needed, but Windows uses this service to aquire information. That's why I say that it's "Used for Network Configuration". There's nothing wrong about that. The suggestions that I give are as generic as possible. I know that there are a number of users here (and in the rest of the world) who do use laptops, so I can assure you that suggesting "desktop-only" configurations would lead to problems (like the one I linked to). From what I've seen, the list of sevices that I have set to automatic (all others to manual or disabled... need to make those lists) won't cause problems when people want to use their computers in the many ways that they do. If someone does find a problem when they set things up as I have them, then I ask them to let me know so I can add that to my reference (I keep documentation of my knowledge of the services - what they do, when they're needed, etc).

You seem like the kind of person who "needs" the absolute best, right here, right now. Are you really going to be happy getting those extra 3 fps in HL2 after having spent a buttload of money on top of what you've already got? If yes, then go for it. If not, don't. It's as simple as that. Honestly, you probably won't even notice a difference between your current setup and their next "top model".

My site is up and running (www.zxian.org).

Yup, Alanoll is working on an update of the site. Leave him alone to do it. The site will be a fairly significant update, so sit tight everyone.

Dude... go to the site...

LMAO... I love these word plays.

I'm insulted... I'm not a monkey.... no wait... yes, I am...

Nice... a good chuckle.

Or use apt-get update... Wait a sec! That's not Windows.... <==== has been playing with Ubuntu too much

Yes, with my method, you will have one window. Instead of listing every program that I install, I list the types of programs currently being installed. Who sits there and watches their UA CD install anyways... isn't that the point of a UA install? I haven't tried jdgordon's method, but then again, there's always VMWare for you to use.

I don't quite see how the title relates... but I understand the message behind the article (you linked to page 2 by the way.). The article has some mistakes however... The majority of the patches released by Microsoft were meant to fix the vulnerabilities that made Windows XP a target for viruses - not the other way around. Why would you release a patch to make your software vulnerable?My friends and I were discussing Microsoft's future after having a look at the Vista Beta. One of them - who uses an Apple Powerbook - suggested that Microsoft should follow Apple's lead with OSX and build a new OS from the ground up. The problem with such an idea is the fact that you would in all likelyhood loose all compatibility with programs designed for previous versions of Windows. OS8/9 and OSX programs are different, but then again, the size of the market that still uses OS8/9 is miniscule, even compared to that of OSX. It's also somewhat unfair to compare the development cycles of Apple to Microsoft. Apple's OSX has had several different versions over the past few years, each adding a little bit of new functionality to the previous version. Microsoft tends to release large updates with more time inbetween. When XP was released, it was a huge step over the previous consumer Windows OS, Windows Millenium (we all know the horror stories there). Linux still has a long way to go in terms of general usability. Yes, for simple tasks, it does the job. For most people however, if you want to do anything a little bit more advanced, it requires the command line, which scares most people ("You mean I actually have to type it in?!?"). I do think that the idea of modularity can be a good way to go about things, if done properly. It means a simpler method of upgrading components, or adding new functionality.

When I get too many installers on my UACDs (usually DVDs though...), I categorize them like OrcoXP said. For example: cmdow @ /HID @echo off FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:win51ip.SP2 SET %Z%=%%i:\Installs SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx REG ADD %KEY% /V TITLE /D "Programs Installing" REG ADD %KEY%\000 /VE /D "Category 1" REG ADD %KEY%\000 /V 1 /D "%Z%\Category1\Program1\Setup1.exe /silent" REG ADD %KEY%\000 /V 2 /D "%Z%\Category1\Program2\Setup2.exe /s" REG ADD %KEY%\005 /VE /D "Category 2" REG ADD %KEY%\005 /V 1 /D "%Z%\Category2\Program3\Setup3.exe /quiet" REG ADD %KEY%\005 /V 2 /D "%Z%\Category2\Program4\Setup4.exe /verysilent" <etc etc etc> Just replace the valid entries with your categories/programs/switches and you're set. If anyone has a better method, let me know. I'm still curious as to this CD.txt that OrcoXP speaks of...

@Black - What program shows the "down", A and 1 items in your system tray?

The power consumption of the Hitachi TravelStar drives is a bit better than the Scorpio (2.0W vs 2.5W). For the portable and ultra-portable market, this is a pretty significant difference. Hitachi is also the company that IBM has used for years... and IBM has always been known for their reliability.

That may be so, but some WYSIWYG editors add extra, redundant code to webpages that really isn't necessary, or can be done in a much more elegant manner. They're good for starting out, and getting a basic example of how (X)HTML/CSS works, but once you get into the nitty-gritty, it's better to do things by hand. That way, you also know exactly what's going on with your webpage.

Not bad... nice simple layout.

Seagate's 5 year warranty should be a big selling point... That's 2 years longer than any other company out there. I think that most hard drives are decent quality, but the problem is that people don't realize that they need maintenance as well. Good cooling is always a first step in keeping your drives happy.

Like how? There are so many more ways to make any Win9x OS crash than there is for NT-based systems (the shared memory of Win9x is a big gimme there).

Yes... to give you a simple example from my RunOnceEx file... @echo off FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\win51ip.SP2 SET Installs=%%i:\Installers SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx REG ADD %KEY% /V TITLE /D "Programs Installing" /f REG ADD %KEY%\000 /VE /D "Nero 6.6.0.16" REG ADD %KEY%\000 /VE /D "%Installs%\Nero\Nero_Custom_Setup.exe" /f On my CD, all of my program installers are located in a folder named "Installers". The above code (and folder layout) will mean that all the installers are run from the CD instead of being copied to the hard drive. When Nero is set to be installed, RunOnceEx will look at the <CDROM>:\Installers\Nero directory for the setup executable.

BlackViper's site is getting somewhat annoying (not to mention that it's not even up). Before saying I'm wrong... do some homework of your own. Wrong: If you have a computer that comes and goes from the network (laptop for example), then the listing of computers and resources is outdated the moment that the new computer connects or disconnects from the network. Having the Computer Browser service running allows the other computers to see that the new computer has connected automatically. For me, it takes a good long while before I can browse my laptop drives from my desktop if this service isn't running. Notice how he says: "Honestly, I do not even believe one needs to be running." Wrong: Read this. The NLA service is required for Windows to detect that it has been assigned an IP address. For most people at a computer, with it plugged into the network 24/7, this isn't a problem, since the IP is given at startup. For people with laptops who move from one wireless network to another, disabling this service will cause will cause Windows to display the "Aquiring Network Address" icon for approximately 2 minutes. This behaviour only occurs after installing SP2, though. With SP0 or SP1, this service was not required. USB Printer/Hardware (USB sticks) Sharing, also needs the following services:•SSDP Discovery Service (to acces) •Universal Plug and Play Device Host (to host) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I have a USB printer shared over my network, and I also have an external USB hard drive (it shows up under "Hard Disk Drives" in My Computer), which is also shared on the network. I don't have either of the two services that you have listed running. Just a question about general usability... why would you share a USB thumb drive? Isn't the point of one so that you can transfer files to it, then carry it to another computer, and access the files? Sharing it on a network seems somewhat silly to me... Universal Plug and Play is commonly used to automatically map ports for network based applications (i.e. any P2P programs that would otherwise need port-forwarding). This also means that a malicious program can map these ports and gain access to your computer. If you're worried about security, it's recommended to disable UPnP on your router and disable the SSDP service on your computer. You'd be surprised how many UPnP requests my computer gets when it is enabled on my router and I'm running BitComet (all ports already forwarded... no problems with speed). I've said it before... BlackViper's recommendations on services do not apply to everyone. There are some settings that he recommends that have caused me problems before. I've also come to question where he gets the values for the amount of RAM that each service uses...

Then there's the problem of "selective cleaning". MS-AS is known to ignore certain companies' spyware. I use SpywareBlaster and Spybot S&D for preventative measures, and Ad-Aware & Spybot for cleaning. If you setup the computer beforehand with SpywareBlaster & Spybot, you probably won't notice much difference between Firefox and IE in terms of spyware.

There is no difference between installing via batch file or RunOnceEx. The command for installing both is the same. In otherwords, if you have something like the following for your batch file: ECHO Installing ProgramX ECHO Please wait... start /wait %Installs%\setup.exe /s Then you would enter the following line in your RunOnceEx file: REG ADD %KEY%\XXX /VE /D "ProgramX" REG ADD %KEY%\XXX /V 1 /D "%Installs%\setup.exe /s" /f In both batch files (you use a batch file to generate the RunOnceEx list), you would define the Installs variable (SET Installs=<path to install directory>). (XXX refers to the next free number in your RunOnceEx file) Hope this helps!

Why do people say things like this? XP is about as stable as it gets, and Server 2003 is simply tailored towards running in a different manner... namely as a server. That means that it is better suited towards handling mutliple tasks at once, processor scheduling over multiple processors (not just the one or two you see in workstations), and other situations that aren't as critical for a workstation. I'll say this yet again (you can probably find this elsewhere). XP is not unstable! Poor drivers or bad software are unstable. If you recall correctly, there was an Uptime Project running a while back... the lead computer was running XP-SP1 for over a year! No reboots, just running running running. That's stability if I ever asked for it. I remember the UNIX servers at my university went down at one point because a student's assignment (Computer Science student) had mistakenly started asking for the same IP address continuously... so the server shut everything down. I personally think that this is a dumb thread/poll. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Yup... One more tip. IE and Opera will display tables centered by default. Firefox aligns them left. To get around this, you can create "dummy" cells that contain a simple no break space to the left and right of your actual content and set the width to "auto". That way it'll be centered.

In my Screenshot, Coolmon is the program that shows the hardware info as the text. AveDesk has the ability to do this as well, with SysStats installed as well. Look around at the Aqua-Soft forums for more info on how to. Search there... Unbeliever (the admin) has a twitchy "ban finger" for those new members who don't search. You can also do this with Samurize, but I've never touched that. All of those are free!!!!