Zxian

That's pretty much it. I'd just suggest keeping the file (or the source from the install disk) on hand in case you run into a situation where you'll need it. I can't think of one off the top of my head, but you never know.

Generally not a good idea. You hit the nail right on the head with "if those particular DLLs are needed again they have to be re-loaded." If the particular DLLs are not needed, then Windows will automatically remove them from memory as needed. Unused memory is wasted memory.

I've said this many times before, and I'll say it again - the pagefile SHOULD be placed on the system partition. Here's the laydown of why we've got a pagefile in the first place. (Let's forget about 64-bit computing for the moment.) 32 bits means that we can access 4GB of memory (~2^32 bits). How much RAM does the typical computer have? 256MB, 512MB, or 1GB perhaps... nothing near what the system is capable of accessing. Instead of simply saying "Oh... I'm out of memory", Windows writes less frequently accessed chunks of memory (or pages) to the pagefile - which is on your hard drive. That way, it frees up RAM for another application to be used. Everyone who's ever done any reading on computers will know that RAM is faster than disk - no question about it. However, let's suppose you've got 128MB of RAM and two partitions. You've got your pagefile set on the second partition. Windows loads - you've got perhaps 25MB of RAM. Now you want to open up Word - which needs 30MB of RAM. The system will start to read the files from the system partition in order to load Word, and then you run out of memory. The read head on your hard drive then has to move across the disk platters to the second partition (which is on a separate location on the hard drive), write the pages to disk, and then move back to the system partition to continue reading the files to load Word. The more pages that have to be read and written - the more back and forth your read head does. Not only does that take more time - but it also puts more wear on your hard drive. If you put the pagefile on the system partition, the read head travels less - and takes less time to do so as well. End result: your system works faster. Even in multi-partition setups, Windows ALWAYS puts the pagefile on the system partition. If it was better to put it somewhere else - why wouldn't the guys in Redmond have implemented it? It's not that hard - choose partition E: instead of C: if it exists and is a disk drive. @LLXX - what about all the built-in features in XP that simply don't exist in Win2K? Obviously the more stuff you put into an operating system, the more resources it'll require. Take for example all the options you've got in the Common Tasks bar when viewing pictures. You can simply click there and be brought to your favorite photo printing provider's website. All these little things that people might take for granted come at a slight performance hit. @trodas - XP has more features to it than Win2K does. Chances are we don't use them all, but they're there. When it comes to the Luna GUI - it's actually much better for new users than the Windows Classic. Telling people to click on the green start button is easier for the user to see rather than just the start button (think about someone who's never used Windows before). If you don't like the Luna theme - you can find another one or use the Classic. As far as I can tell - there's absolutely no difference between the look of the XP Classic and the Win2K classic (except for 32-bit icons). When it comes to the performance "hit" - you're talking about loading about 3MB of bitmaps into memory. Bitmaps of the size we're talking about take no more time to load than having Windows generate the gray taskbar. When it comes to stability - I've also got a folding machine here at home. It's running XP Pro SP2 and the greatest uptime that I had was about 90 days. I ended up rebooting it to install a security update. The only time that I've had Windows be the cause of a crash was when I was removing a virus and hard deleted a file that was in use. After starting things up again, all was well. Any other BSODs that I've got have been either due to third-party programs or hardware failure. In the end - you can choose to not like XP, but simply complaining about it and writing a list of all the things that you think are wrong... how is that constructive? In future, try to make a more positive statement instead of just saying "XP sucks".

There isn't much reason not to use SP2. There's no speed hit once you've disabled the services that you don't want/need, and there's much more security in place compared to SP1. Go with the flow - update to SP2 and use the RyanVM pack.

Check out RyanVM's pack and the integrator that comes along with it. I've always used this method and it's not much bigger than an unpatched install source (maybe a couple of megs).

A computer in hiberation draws no more power than a computer that is shut down - i.e. zero! It's why it's such a great advantage to put your computer into hiberation, since you're back at a working desktop within a few seconds. Another great thing is that you don't even have to close your apps, meaning that they'll be ready to go right away.

@Andromeda - That computer, dispite having a Celeron 1.4 and 256MB of RAM is still PLENTY powerful enough for basic DVD playback. I've got my parents laptop - a PIII 700 with 128MB of RAM - and it plays almost everything just fine (H264 is the exception - still haven't got that working but it doesn't really matter). @DW - What program are you using to play the DVDs? You should try a number of them (WMP, MPC, VLC, etc etc).

What about the command prompt? Can you get in that way? If you can, try moving the files to another location and browsing them from there. It could be that a file is corrupted and the thumbnail of it is throwing Explorer.exe off (making it crash). I'm just throwing out a guess here though.

Minlogon is for XP Embedded - not XP Home or Pro. -MSDN - MinlogonTopic closed.

Please use the topic in the Software Hangout for this kind of discussion. Topic Closed

Have you tried looking in the Outpost window? Options->Plug-ins Setup That wasn't that hard now, was it?

Correct. Like Andromeda said, there's resistance in the wire. As a result, the longer it is, the lower the signal strength will be at the receiving end. And there you have your answer.

A ) How much RAM do you have? B ) Have you tried disabling the plugins in Outpost? The only ones that I've got running are Attack Detection, Anti-Spyware, and DNS Cache. When it comes to RAM usage... it's not necessarily a bad thing for a program to use a bit of free memory. If your computer always has 500 MB of free RAM (or something of the sort), then you probably don't need to worry. What's the point in having all this hardware if you're not going to use it? It's like buying a Ferrari just to go and buy milk every now and then. To give you a reference point - I've got 1GB of RAM. NOD32 typically sits around 20MB for me (goes up to 25-28 when scanning a large file, sometimes down to 15), and Outpost varies between 10 and 30. I'd say that these are completely acceptable values for a (near) total security package. P.S. When I say near - the only part left is you.

I'm not sure about the cutoff length, but the problem comes with the signal strength. If the signal were strong enough, then the length of the cable wouldn't be the bottleneck - your hard drive would be. USB 2.0 can handle 480Mbps (60MB/s) of data transfer - something that most regular hard drives have trouble keeping up with.

@ripken204 - hehe... he's seen the ways!!!

How much RAM is it using? It's sitting at 20MB for me right now (out of 1GB). I've got it running in normal mode, with only the Attack Detection and DNS Cache plugins working.

Look up. There's a stickied thread to teach you EXACTLY how to do this.

To extend what Jeremy suggested, perhaps the file you have is corrupted. Is it possible to find a hash of the original file (MD5 checksum for example)? That would help you determine if the file is intact.

Ah... that would explain why. Thanks for the info, even if it was disappointing.

I'd go for the Dell over the Acer. Acer's quality control isn't much to write home about. As for installing XP Pro - you shouldn't have any troubles in either case. I'd suggest still running any "backup recovery media creator" software they've got, just in case you ever run into a snag where their customer support requires it of you.

Get the G7. I've been able to control my PC from a few rooms away. No, but seriously - there's no easy way to boost the signal strength coming from your wireless mouse. You'll either have to buy a new mouse or find something else. Also, can't you just move the receiver closer?

Moved to Unattended Forum.

Moved to Technology News.

I only removed the weight in my MX500. I never found the middle click in there to be a problem, but then again, the MX500 doesn't have side-scrolling. It does feel a lot nicer than before. I'll see about removing the spring tonight though. On the other hand, I am getting used to the middle click on the G7. It just took a couple of days, but I barely notice it now.

Like everyone said - higher RPM. Also, chances are that your old laptop hard drive uses PATA (aka "IDE"). Only new computers (i.e. less than a year old) will have SATA, and even so, only certain models have it.