Zxian

Even an older 40GB 4200RPM drive with 2MB cache works fine for me to transfer files and watch movies. The typical transfer rate of such a drive is about 25MB/s, which is far higher than any movie that you would watch off of it. The higher the speed of the drive (RPM), the faster the bulk transfer rate will be. The larger the cache, the better the continuous file access will be. If it's simply an external storage drive, I'd just suggest getting a slightly higher speed, since it'll make transfers to and from the drive faster. The cache might help a bit, but not much. You can get 7200RPM drives for laptops, but it's really not worth it to lay out the money on that for a storage drive. 5400RPM will do you just fine.

LLXX's answer is right. I've never known it to cause lagging in games... are you sure that it's not something else that's a problem? You should only have one of them running at any time.

@Fredilingue - I think I hear what you're saying, but people are willing to lay down quite a bit of money on the hardware for their system. When it comes to the pirated versions of XP, it's basically a tradeoff between a new 300GB hard drive and an operating system. The only difference is that if you were to steal the hard drive, the local cops would come after you. And I can buy a licence for XP Pro OEM from my favorite computer shop for $150 CAD, XP Home for $100.

Moved to proper forum.

From what I can see, you've got two options. 1) Use Group Policies like XP_2600 said to restrict the programs that are allowed to run. Just make sure that all the default startup items are included on that list, as well as mmc.exe and task manager (and the other few common ones). 2) Wouldn't you be able to use "Run As..." for the programs that they need to run as an admin, and give the users a limited or other type of account?

If you've got the licence for XP Pro - why not use XP Pro? Something doesn't seem quite right here...

Personally, I'm on both sides of the fence on this. Should it be really necessary to check with the server everyday? Probably not. How would the same computer change from one day to the next? Only if the XP installation is found to have a non-legit key should it keep calling home - or at least one that doesn't pass the internal check, in which case all it should take is a phone call to MS to sort things out. Does it affect my day-to-day productivity at all? Not really. If the program starts up, connects, and then closes, all in the background and without me knowing it, it's not that big of a deal. It's the somewhat dangerous "out of sight, out of mind" thinking. TBH I've actually never even seen the tray icon. @JazKal - IMO, malicious is when it starts to do harm to your system, like the typical malware that we all hear about daily. This tool doesn't do any damage, nor does it erase your files or the like. As for profit - Alanoll made the distinction between making profit and preventing profit loss - there's a subtle difference between the two. Microsoft is entitled to a certain amount of profit based on the number of computers that are running Windows (and/or other MS products). The WGA tool is simply trying to make sure the numbers match up. In the end, there's the old saying: "Insanity is trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results each time."

A hard drive that is turned off should be able to handle being in a hand bag or something of the sort. I've got my 80GB drive in my backpack right now, and it doesn't have any problems what so ever. If you look at the datasheets, the maximum acceleration that these drives can sustain when they're off is on the order of a few hundred G's, which corresponds to a drop from a couple of meters onto a hard floor. When they're running, you don't want to be dropping them at all, but moving it along your desk won't do any damage. AFAIK, all 3.5" drives (the "one touch" type drives included) will require a separate power supply. Your USB port can only supply 2.5W of power at 5V, while all 3.5" drives require 12V - meaning a separate power supply is required. If you're looking for 80 or 100 GB of space that you can easily carry around with you, then buy a 80GB notebook hard drive (2.5") and an enclosure for it. This setup will only require a single USB cable (for data and power) and you can carry it in your hand luggage without any troubles or worry of hard hits or damage. Also, if you buy the hard drive on your own, you get 3 or 5 years warranty, depending on the brand, while a pre-made solution would probably only get 1 year.

@GeneralMandible - That seems like a really good quick review. Like you said - both are really good products in the end. @ZileXa - Yeah - the GUI for NOD32 could use a bit of an update, but that's why I set all the options and then just kill the GUI altogether. That way NOD can do its thing in the background and I never have to know about it.

Changelog Lotsa fixes... Winamp 5.23 Pro Winamp 5.23 Full (with e-music) Winamp 5.23 Full Winamp 5.23 Lite

In the end - it shouldn't be any different, but that's not always the case. If you've got a XP SP1 or XP Gold CD, I would highly recommend slipstreaming Service Pack 2 onto it. It not only saves time, but also usually saves any possible headaches that come from the upgrade process.

Glad to hear Wicket! It's always a pain in the butt to find incompatibilities, but when you do, at least you can do something about it (i.e. smash the offending component).

This is more Software than XP. Moved to Software Hangout

I'd suggest just getting the media from your manufacturer. There are slight differences in XP Tablet and XP Pro that might cause problems in future.

Don't hold your breath on Symantec using the codebase from Sygate in any new projects. The purchase was a buy-to-kill scenario - not a buy-to-incorporate. The only downside with Sygate is that it's application based, as opposed to rule-based. It's still a good firewall, but if you wanna be really paranoid, then a rules based firewall is the way to go.

I'd agree with janus zeal on this one - I've got a 80GB drive in an enclosure like that and it's just fantastic. If ever you're at a friends' house and you need to back up their critical files - just plug it in and go.

You can download a 30-day trial of NOD32 from their website - www.eset.com I've always prefered NOD32 over Kaspersky - it's not me saying one is better than the other - it's just personal preference. Kaspersky is a very good on-demand scanner, and I've heard that the real-time scanning performance has improved with version 6, but I haven't tested it yet.

Hehe... I thought that might be out of place. I decided to take the cheeky route. But yeah... Norton is a pretty horrible product.

I'm sorry but you're wrong. You did post a workaround on how to remove the validation check. Doing so is illegal. You may have the Product Key sticker on the side of your case, but what you did and what you suggested that everyone else did is illegal. If you don't understand this, take a step back from your own computer and FPS count and look at what could be done with the information you wanted to provide. I'm sorry to hear that you're not getting the most out of your system, but I also think that telling the rest of the world how to work around (i.e. get rid of) the hotfix is wrong. If you look at other members here, they've also had the icon pop up and then go away. I have yet to see it again since I installed it, like BigBrit said as well. Think about it from other peoples' point of view. I left this thread open with some hesitation. I was hoping that people might see that what they were doing was legally and morally wrong. Apparently this wasn't the case. As for starting the thread in 'Site and Forum Issues' - it's already been done and closed. - Link This discussion ends here. No more talk about how to circumvent the WGA tool. Any further topics will be closed and members will be warned. Topic Closed P.S. I'm wondering how many of the users who have had problems use nLite... maybe there's a connection or something that gets broken? It's worth investigating if you want to get to the bottom of this legally.

Because the "solution" is illegal. Read rule #1 of the forums. Agreed. Any futher discussion on this matter goes there. Topic Closed

Have you read the MSFN Rules? I've let a lot of the members who posted "solutions" there off with an easy warning since they might not have thought it was that bad (since they had legal copies). Think about the warez junkies who Google for their solutions and find MSFN. Should this be a place where they find their fix? It's my responsibility as a moderator to make sure that the discussion in the XP Forums stays legal. The solution that was posted is as much a work around, and just as illegal, as any activation crack or hack that you might find elsewhere. Also, if you read further down in the rules... You haven't PMed me yet, and it's not very nice to try to go over my head.

No, it's not my job to keep Microsoft from loosing money, but it's my job here on MSFN to make sure that there isn't any illegal discussion. FYI, there was at one time such discussion here. It caught the attention of Microsoft's eye and MSFN was down for a while. I (and probably several others on this board) would rather that not happen because of a post like this one. Who said anything about lying or stealing? I have never directly accused anyone of using a pirated copy of XP, nor should I. How would I know what you're running on your computer? Don't put words in my mouth - it's not nice and it doesn't help the situation. I don't play first-person-shooters, but in all the other games I play (racing, RPG, etc), I haven't noticed any significant slowdown from one hotfix to the next. I've got some pretty crazy gamer friends, and yet they haven't had any problems with their systems either. I can understand that there might be problems from computer to computer, but the doesn't mean that we should go and find the quickest crack to get rid of it. Windows is a closed-source operating system, and hacking files to get around activation and validation checks is simply WRONG on so many levels.

@Anusha - Does this happen just after you've downloaded a big file? I know that NOD32 will scan the file after Opera has finished downloading it, and depending on the size, I'll get a couple of seconds of inactivity from my system.

Let me ask you this question and you'll (hopefully) see the difference between removing the WGA Hotfix and XPize or the uxtheme hack (etc etc). Does XPize cause Microsoft to loose any money? No. Why would they go out of their way to shutdown a product that makes people want to use their product more? Does the WGA removal cause Microsoft to loose money? It very well could. As for how much money Microsoft is loosing - I remember reading that something like 47% of companies here in Vancouver were found to use pirated software. Maybe not Windows, but it still gives you a general idea of how bad things are. I'm not sure what a 100 user VLK licence for Windows costs (I've never had to buy one), but I'm prety sure it's a fair chunk of money. By the way Ophiel X - I never saw anyone directly call you a theif. I'm just trying to prevent the person who Googles "WGA Removal" from finding information here that would cause Microsoft to loose money.

Wikipedia - Computer VirusI've never heard of NOD32 installing itself on other computers automatically... But honestly - "way too many horror stories"? I've heard of some incompatibilities (DX8 cards and the custom GUI for example, Azureus IMON problem), but never any real horror stories. Any links or specific examples? That's defintately cool. I'll be adding that to my USB stick.