Zxian

Or use Windows Updates Downloader and a batch file to download and install all of the updates you need.

No... Avast is freeware. You need to register for your licence, but it doesn't cost you anything.

Please don't cross post. This thread belongs better in the UA forum, so I'm going to close it here. Topic Closed

Both of the Bootable environments I mentioned keeps Explorer as your shell, instead of Nu2Menu (or whatever BartPE uses). I haven't yet played with WinBuilder too much, but the ISO that it creates is only 40MB or so... much smaller than most other PEs that I've seen. Reatogo has just about everything that you could ask for in a PE. It's got all the bells and whistles. Try them both out.

nLite can't do that for you. WinBuilder or Reatogo XPE are two bootable environment creators that I recommend.

Easiest? Huh? You're talking about using another piece of software in order to do what you could have done if you hadn't disabled a couple of services (Computer Browser, Server, Workstation)? That's not easier. I've got Windows sharing set up between my desktop and laptop. It's dead simple to access the shares on my desktop - just click on the shortcut on my desktop that points to \\server. As long as you don't mess with services or files - Windows file sharing works just fine. Here's a couple of things to check to ensure that File Sharing will work: Can you ping the other computer through the connection? Are both computers on the same workgroup, but with unique names? Right-click on My Computer and select properties. Under the Computer Name tab, you'll be able to see (and set) the computer name and workgroup. Do you have any Windows Shares enabled? To check, make an emtpy folder somewhere, and then right-click on it to select Properties. Under the Sharing tab, set the radio button to "Share this folder", and then select a name for it (if the default name isn't good enough). Go to the other computer, and go to "My Network Places". Click on the "View Workgroup Computers" link on the side. Windows might seem like it hangs or freezes here, but just wait. It'll get back to you when it's finished scanning the network. If it finds the other computer - great. You're pretty much done. If you can't do that, or if you want to create a direct link to the other computer, make a shortcut on your desktop that points to \\computer_name\share_name. See - no extra software. And the file browsing works just like a standard Windows Explorer window. Oh - and those who think that FTP is overall faster for backing up files? Try this. Get the trial of SyncBackSE (must be SE version for FTP capabilities). Set up a backup profile for some large directory. A folder with lots of small files will work better for this test. Set it to work over your Windows Shares, and run it and time it to see how long it takes. Then change it to work over FTP, and link that to your FTP server, and run it again. For me, it takes much much longer when using FTP, since there's a LOT of latency compared to Windows Shares. I've got the WRT54GL at home (essentially the same as the old WRT54G). There is no speed difference for me whether or not I use FTP or Windows shares to transfer files. Unless you've got a problem with your router, there is nothing about that model that would cause only Windows shares to not work.

@bonnestone - RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. The simplest example of a RAID setup is RAID1. You have two disks of equal size. When you write to the disks, the data is mirrored on the two disks. In otherwords, the disks have the EXACT same content at all times. If one of the drives fails, simply replace it and copy the data over (your RAID controller will do this for you). It's a simple way of ensuring data redundancy, so that it's difficult to lose data. There are higher raid levels, but you can read about them here.

iTunes 7 was a big mistake on Apple's part. A lot of users on Windows have complained about the problem that you describe, and some of them have been able to fix it by installing 7.0.1, but others haven't. If you're looking for software to use with your iPod, Winamp now has full iPod support by default. I would still recommend using ml_ipod in place of the default plugin, but once you've got that installed, it works like a charm.

@stephenrobinson - Please don't post in all CAPS. It makes it difficult for others to read, and we'll can still get the message that you're having troubles. As for your problem, it sounds like you might have to start from scratch. Registry cleaners often do more harm than good, and cleaning out your unused registry entries often doesn't do much for performance. If it's not being used, what difference will it make if it's not there?

Like Jeremy said, you can search for many of the things you're looking for on the forums, or on the MSFN Unattended CD Guide. There's also a lot more information in the Application Installs forum. Welcome to MSFN. Topic Closed

What he said... It's a single user, so the discussion about VLKs and corporate copies of Windows shouldn't exist here.

The first document is very very misleading...for example... Why does Diskeeper's 'yes" not have the extra quote after it? Some of Diskeeper's features that are misrepresented: Patented File Placement Strategy: Yes. It's called I-FAAST. Did Raxco completely forget about this? Consolidate Free Space Defrag: Yes (it's an option - set your secondary defrag schedule to "Comprehensive") Defragments with as little as 5% free space: No, but it only needs 10%. 20% or more is recommended, but not required. The document says it needs 15-20... which is wrong. And both of them are done by Raxco... not a third party group.

He did... you just don't want to try it. SP2 is much much better than SP1. There's a reason why old Service Packs have a limited support lifetime. Are your WinXP/Win2K comparisons on the exact same machine? There could be a difference between the chipset driver that's installed under Windows 2000 and Windows XP. -Source

Regedit tweaks actually don't do all that much to your system performance. If it's not an option that you can find in a menu, then chances are it won't make any change.

So just remove all the plugins that you don't want. That's the beauty of the plugin system.

Go for the standard Nexus fans at 1200 RPM (?). They'll be damned quiet and still move enough air to cool your system.

The Portable Media support is much improved now. Connecting and syncing with my iPod is much faster than it used to be. They've also fixed various bugs and added a new Dashboard feature, which I really don't care for all that much. On the other hand, they've made the media library even more modular, so you only have to install what you want. Don't want the History section? Don't install it.

The addition of the description that it was required for Office Updates must have changed recently (or after I stopped using it ), because every time that I used an nLited install, I'd have problems with Office Update. Good to know that it's been fixed though.You say that your install is "more nlitened" than your girlfriend's computer, but you don't say exactly what has been removed from each. Maybe you remove more in total, but leave that one required part necessary for DK to install. Languages - what if they need that? I know a lot of my friends who use eastern language support (they're chinese). Junk services - how do you know what services they'll need and they won't need?

Changelog Winamp 5.3 Lite Winamp 5.3 Full Winamp 5.3 Pro Winamp 5.3 Full with EMusic Plus Bundle

That still doesn't explain why he can't install Diskeeper on that one computer (which has been nLited). Even after running Dial-a-Fix to fix the Windows installer service, it doesn't work. How would you account for that? I'd point the finger at some component that was removed but is required. What Tarun is pointing out is that you simply cannot know the long term usage of a particular computer by someone else, and by removing components of Windows, you might be preventing the user from doing something that they need to do. In that case, the only "fix" to the problem is to reinstall windows, which can be quite a hassle unless you maintain a "perfect" UACD (which most people don't). If you install Windows for someone other than yourself, removing stuff might cause them problems. You don't want to do that do them, do you?

Do you use Microsoft Office? I remember a while back when I did use nLite that I would need to install Office Updates manually, since nLite broke the Office Update page. I don't know how or why, but it did. You might not have had problems with it, but others (including myself) have. Jeremy's been telling me that he's been having troubles installing Diskeeper on his girlfriend's computer, and my best guess is that it's something nLite related. I've never had a problem installing any software on a non-nLited/"tweaked" system, but on those that have been tinkered with, you need to find a workaround or a fix for it. There are other things that you can do to your system that are worse than nLite-ing, so I don't think Tarun or I have ever said what you seem to think we did. We're just suggesting that a complete OS is a happy OS.

I think his point (and mine) is that many "tweaks" actually hurt performance more than they help. In many cases, using nLite to remove components breaks dependencies that you might not see until the future. Applying this tweak and that one might cause things to run slower than they should (the whole prefetch "tweak" for example). In the end, many tweaks might just cause more headaches than they're worth, since they might even end you up with a computer that won't boot.

WUD just downloads all required updates since SP2. It doesn't matter if you install updates that you've already got, since it'll just replace files that are already there. WUD is IMO the best way of having all the critical updates. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have them installed (that's for you to ensure), but you can easily toss the updates onto a CD or USB key and run them on another computer now.

The best unattended CD maker is Notepad and MSFN's Unattended site.

Just FYI - Windows Updates Downloader does not install the updates for you. You'll need to either install them manually, or write a batch file to install them silently. It does give you a proper way of downloading the updates themselves so you can get the files straight from the source.