Cartoonite

From the sounds of things, you have accidentally implemented a registry tweak (or a set of tweaks) that cause this behaviour. Unfortunately, unless you know exactly what tweaks you made, there is little we can do to help you correct it.

As far as I understand it, the Links folder is a subfolder of the Favorites folder that is created to be set up as a seperate toolbar within IE. The Favorites folder itself, as far as I know, is simply a collection of Bookmarks for IE. I personally don't know of a way to remove it, although I do know where the links it contains are stored (%userprofile%\Favorites). Nor can I say I really understand why anyone would want to remove their bookmarks. I can only assume you have your reasons. Best of luck with this, and please post back if you do find a solution as someone else may find it useful.

Are you applying the tweak during the installation of Windows, or afterwards on a fully-functional system? If during an uA install, at what point are you installing this tweak? I just tested this on my test system that tweaks the command prompt colour at the cmdlines.txt stage, and my backspace seems to work fine. Additionally, I only modify the text colour, not the background, although I can't see how that would make much difference.

Maybe I didn't explain myself properly. I was talking about installing programs from the CD during an uA install of Windows. Some of the apps that I want to install don't install nicely all on their own, and so I've had to create some custom scripts to get them to install silently the way I want them to. Here's a sample script. cmdow @ /HID FOR %%d IN (D E F ... X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%d:\WIN51 SET CDROM=%%d: start %CDROM%\Install\Apps\DaemonTools\awxDTools.exe /S start /wait %CDROM%\Install\Apps\DaemonTools\KillAwx.cmd exit This script sits in the same place as the installer and the other script that it calls. Using %~dp0 I should be able to greatly condense this script, like so: start %~dp0awxDTools.exe /S start /wait %~dp0KillAwx.cmd exit Needless to say, this is much shorter than the original. It may not seem like much, but spread across several scripts, that space could add up in a hurry. Besides, every byte counts.

If I am understanding this correctly, if the batch file were being run from the CD (E:\Install\ for example) then %~dp0 would convert to E:\Install\, even if the batch were originally called from a batch in another location. Am I right about this? If so, it will make my life much easier by not having to include the CDROM variable if statements in all of the batch files I use for installing my uA programs.

I thought I knew just about everything there was to know about batch scripting, but i don't recognize the %~dp0 that starts 2 of your command lines. What purpose do es that string serve, or is it just a typo error generated through copy and paste?

Nice work, Yzöwl. @FeTT! Do either of the two posted solutions do what you need? You were testing one suggested by lesliel just over a month ago, but never posted back to say whether or not it worked. Please do keep us informed.

Don't have them with me here at work, but you should be able to find them all in the ref.chm file that is included with the distribution tools on the Windows CD.

Last I heard, prathapml wanted to go through the entire new registry tweak file with a fine-tooth comb to ensure it met with his strict approval before linking to it in the first post. Until then, I believe he's posted a link to the updated one in the second post.

Not sure since I've never tested it, but attempting to run an uA install with autopartition=1 and no partition available with no installed OS and enough room to install XP could cause this error. That would also explain why gui_m was able to resolve the issue by swapping out the main hard drive. Unless you are running your uA from an answer file on a floppy disk, though, it doesn't explain why you get the same error when trying to run from your original CD.... Just a thought.

I believe that Windows File Protection (WFP) needs both a hacked dll file and a registry tweak to be disabled. If one or the other is not present, I think WFP would remain in place. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.

The script itself looks fine to me, HickoryShade. The only possible error I can think of at the moment is if this script gets run before the network drive G gets mapped. You only say that you are having trouble running this script. Could you be more specific? What kind of errors, if any, are you getting? Is the update file copying but not being run? Is it not being copied at all? Is the script not running on login like it is supposed to?

I'm trying, but the only thing I can come up with is: "Yeah, they need to be one after another." Sorry, it's late and I'm tired. The jokes are better (or worse, depending on who you ask) when I'm not afflicted with a burning desire for sleep. Common practice is to order the files in numerical order. I believe that is what the MSFN Unattended guide recommends as well. I'm not sure if it is necessary, strictly speaking, but it certainly can't hurt. (Unless someone knows otherwise. )

I don't think that's right at all. I think you should start another thread with your specific issue to see if you can get it addressed. Welcome to MSFN.

According to the download page for Ryan's Update pack (here) there is already a new hacked version available. Look at the bottom under Unsupported Downloads.

You are probably using the qchain.exe that can be downloaded from Microsoft. This exe file is actually a self-extracting archive that contains the real qchain.exe file. If that's the case, simply extract the file and the overwrite the existing exe with the one you extracted. As I understand it, this file is largely unecessary with the latest updates though, so you may just want to delete it outright.

Not a bad idea. This, theoretically, also means that any extra files left behind will also be cleaned up, something that would not happen just deleting reg keys.

My understanding is that inserting any/all of these tweaks directly into the Windows CD (rather than applying them from a reg file) would require editing the registry hives themselves. Since I have never attempted this myself, I have no idea how complex a task it would be. I currently run all of my tweaks from cmdlines.txt. Before my project is complete, I plan on moving to a two-file system that will install tweaks that should be applied system-wide (such as disabling certain services) from cmdlines.txt and those that I think apply only to my own personal account (such as the default colours for the command prompt) will get applied later, possibly shortly before the final reboot after installing all of my apps. Still, that is just my personal preference. However, I understand there are some tweaks that must be installed around the time of cmdlines.txt in order for them to take effect. I believe most of these tweaks are noted as such in the registry tweak file that's downloadable from the start of this thread.

I suspect the unit carver is describing is similar to the one I use to share my own internet connection at home, a router combined with a 4-port hub/switch in a single unit. Unless he has mistakenly plugged one of his PCs into the WAN port of the unit (which I doubt, given the problem descriptions that have been provided up to this point) the two PCs are essentially as good as connected via a cross-over cable. I see no real advantage to taking the switch out of the path since I doubt the issues he is experiencing would be caused by a faulty hub or switch. He is talking about the Sharing Tab in the Properties dialog box of the folder you are sharing. Right-click the folder and click Sharing and security... to open this tab from My Computer or Windows Explorer. With Simple File Sharing disabled, click on the the Permissions button to access the permissions list for this shared folder. Do not confuse the Access Control List (ACL) listed here and the one listed on the Security Tab of the Properties dialog. This list controls access to the shared folder from the network, while the ACL on the Security Tab controls access to folders by users from the host machine. The window you should be looking at to set permissions on the Shared Folder should look something like this: Please note that in this screenshot the Share name of the folder in question is actually "Shared Folder." Yours should be labeled "Permissions of <whatever your folder's share name is>." This screenshot shows the default shared permissions, with Read access being granted to the Everyone group. As its name implies, permissions applied to the Everyone group will apply to anyone who attempts to access the share, unless they have their own permissions explicitly assigned. Since there are no other permissions assigned on this shared folder, anyone attempting to access it from the network will be granted Read-Only access. In most cases on a peer to peer network (which is what you are setting up), the default access should be enough. If not, you can set additional permissions here. Be advised though, that I suspect adding additional users or groups to the permissions list will likely require you to enter a user name and password when connecting to the share because the host PC will use that information to determine which set of permissions should be assigned. I have yet to find occasion where I was required to add any users or groups beyond the default of Everyone on a peer to peer network though, so I have never actually tested this theory. Hope this helps. Good luck and keep us posted.

First off, please do not double post. Posting your question in either this forum or the networking one would have been sufficient. There is no need to create duplicate threads that just clutter up the forums and make them harder to navigate. As to your problem, have you possibly disabled simple file sharing on one or both of the computers? Have you set the shares on the computer that is prompting for the password to "Depends on password" for whether to have read-only or full access? Are the accounts on both computers called the same thing? (i.e.: Administrator and Administrator) One thing you may want to keep in mind is that Windows XP user accounts also have a domain on which they are created. In the case of local accounts, the domain name is the same as the name of the PC. What you are actually seeing in the log in box is <Domain Name>\<User name>, which is a common format for Windows log ins. So, even if you create a user with the exact same account name on each PC, they will still not actually be the same account. The account on the first PC would actually be PC1\User, while the account on the second would be PC2\User. I've not done much testing with identical user names on different computers, but that may be causing some confusion in the system when you are being prompted for a log in. Hope this helps. Welcome to MSFN.

As far as I know, firefoxthebomb is right. However, he did neglect to answer your first question. Yes, the second partition will have a drive letter assigned to it automatically. However, as firefox said, you will have to format the new partition manually after installation.

I have all of those folders in my Windows directory as well, alex. While I'm unsure whether or not they are safe to delete, I believe their purpose is storing the files required for uninstalling hotfixes installed via Automatic Updates (possibly Windows Update as well). In an effort to avoid this, I plan on manually installing all hotfixes (as they are released, since my install CD will have all fixes up to its creation date integrated on it already ) after my next reinstall, which will hopefully be soon, since I'm rapidly running out of space on my current hard drive. Where are you taking the install size of the Framework from on your PC? Add/Remove Programs on mine has no size listing for it.

After installing half-a-million programs, my Start Menu starts to get a little cluttered. I launch many of my most common apps from the Quick Launch Bar (that is, after all, what it's there for) but there are others that I use less often that I would prefer to leave off the QLB. Enabling personalised menus for the Classic-Style Start Menu is simple, but I have had no luck searching for a way to do it with XP-Style menus. Is it just not possible? For those who aren't sure what I'm talking about, personalised menus is the feature that hides unused icons on menus (generating the little chevrons at the bottom to expand the entire menu, if needed).

While your at it, you can take the flywheel out of your car. I don't know what it does, so it must be useless. Secondly, last time I checked, the .NET Framework is an optional update. I would hardly consider that as Windows Update "bugging" me to install it. As to your size issue, alex, something definitely seems amiss. I'm not sure what size the .NET Framework should be, but my whole fresh install on my test system, including the Framework, page file (yes, it is included in disk usage, as far as i know) and many other programs is only just over 2 GB. You may want to consider doing a fresh install and monitoring your program installs to see what is taking up space. Also, before taking that step, you may just want to open up Windows Explorer and take a look at the C drive. See if you can find out where the files are that are using up all the space on the main partition. Hope this helps.

The whole point of System Restore is so you don't have to re-install the OS if something goes wrong, not just to preserve data files. Since data files are preserved by System Restore anyway, they should still be backed up elsewhere in case they somehow get corrupted. I suspect a far more likely culprit in this case is going to be uninstall files for Windows updates. I know my own system partition has gotten quite full because of these files. Once I do my next re-install (hopefully soon, since it will also involve some hardware updates ) I plan to install all updates manually rather than have Automatic Updates do it for me. Hopefully that will allow me to get rid of all the unneccessary back up files. I think combined they are chewing up about 500MB on my home system. System Restore and the Recycle Bin both operate on a percentage basis, so they can easily be set to use a very small amout of space (as little as 41MB on a 4GB drive) that they will then not exceed. I'm still waiting for the time they will allow me to set them to lower than 1%. Do I really need a 2GB recycle bin just because I have a 200GB hard drive? Anyway, hope this helps. Keep us posted, GLO.