MrMaguire

I think I know what the root of my problem was. When configuring the scheme originally, I selected the font named "Tahoma" from the list, because that's what I wanted. Well, I noticed that when I applied the setting (In this case for the active title bar as an example) and returned to the appearance settings page after closing it, the font field for "Active Title Bar" was blank! I discovered that DisplaySet doesn't set the scheme to use the regular "Tahoma" named font even if you choose it from the drop down menu. What it actually uses is the font named "Tahoma (Western)". Setting Tahoma (Western) in the Windows appearance settings doesn't have the problem mentioned above, and Windows will stick to that change even after a reboot. At this point, if you're lost, I can't blame you. Hopefully the screenshots help a little bit. After closing the configurator and opening it again. Notice the blank font field. It should say "Tahoma", which is what I selected. Same thing, but this time selecting "Tahoma (Western)". Windows will not default back to MS Sans Serif or that font that looks like Times New Roman with this setting.

Thank you all for the help. I was able to get the font change to stick after rebooting! I was previously using the built-in Windows configurator in the display settings. I manually changed every occurance of MS Sans Serif to Tahoma and then saved the scheme as "Windows 98 Tahoma", so it was easy to set it up again after rebooting and losing the settings. I'm pretty sure I have the correct display drivers installed. The drivers in use are what come with the virtual machine add-ons for both Virtual PC and vmWare. I can choose high colour depths and multiple resolutions at least. The DisplaySet tool linked was able to fix the problem. I reset the Tahoma font for each UI value and applied it, now the changed font sticks when I reboot.

I'm trying to permanently change the default Windows 98 SE system font from MS Sans Serif to Tahoma. I can change everything through the appearance settings, but when I reboot the fonts go back to MS Sans Serif and what looks like Times New Roman, which is odd. Am I missing something here, or is Windows 98 SE not capable of doing this. I'm using Windows 98 SE in Virtual PC 2004 updated using the Auto-Patcher. I've noticed the same behaviour in Windows ME in vmWare also.

I'd be interested in knowing if this was possible. Internet Explorer starting with version 7 somehow manages to accomplish this, even on Windows XP. There may or may not be some obscure add-on for Firefox that does what you want.

I just tried 2x speed. Same result. Trying to full erase the disc produces the same error too. Okay, progress: I just swapped the DVD burner drive in my Dell Latitude D820 from 2006, with the one from my Dell Latitude D531 from 2008. The burner is a TSSTcorp TS-L362h, so compared to the TS-L362d from the first attempts, I'm guessing it's a newer revision. It actually allowed imgBurn to erase and write an image to the Packard Bell DVD-RW disc. But on the verify round, it would not read the disc stating that the media was not ready. Opening and closing the drive did not make it work. And it seems that the data is not readible at all. I hope it didn't ruin the two discs it did this with. EDIT: I checked up on the Dell website. The TSSTcorp TS-L362d already has the latest firmware available on it. I'll have to check the L362h.

I'm having some trouble working out why I can't burn DVDs on this one particular computer. I usually burn DVDs (DVD-RWs actually) on my other computer, and it always works, every time. The computer having the trouble does have a DVD burner drive and I think it is properly functioning (I could swap the drive for another if need be, it does read the DVDs perfectly fine). No matter what software I use, it just doesn't want to erase the disc in preperation for writing new data to it. CDBurnerXP goes through the process without error, but doesn't actually do anything, and the process is far too quick. ImgBurn shows an error message regarding write speeds. A picture's worth a thousand words: http://s25.postimg.org/gpw35qqcf/IMGBurn_Not_Working.png I did try the AWS (Automatic Write Speed?) and 1x speed settings. Same error. I did do a Google search when I first discovered this problem. It lead me to believe that there is some sort of missing driver (I'm running Windows XP Pro SP3), but even after reinstalling the Intel chipset drivers, the problem is still there. I don't want to boot up my other computer just to burn a DVD, especially since it's not easily accessible right now. So any wisdom and expertise on the subject to spare would be appreciated.

I noticed the same update on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. It must be important, seeing as though we're in-between patch Tuesdays.

Interesting threads there, thanks for linking them, Jaclaz.

My experience with XPx64 is limited, but I wonder if there is a wow6432Node section of the registry like in 7x64 OS? If there is, maybe that registry key would work there. This is interesting. I did a search in the registry for "wow6432" and came up with a key in the following locations: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432node HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Wow6432node HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432node HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432node HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Classes\Wow6432node HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Software\Classes\Wow6432node HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19\Software\Classes\Wow6432node HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20\Software\Classes\Wow6432node And a couple of other places that (to me at least) don't really seem relevant. ___________ But even if we can get Windows XP x64 to spoof as POS Ready 2009 in Windows Update, the likelihood that the updates will install is pretty slim. As a lot of you know, Windows XP 64bit does use a slightly different kernel to the original 32bit version. So, I dunno. Really what we wanna do is try to spoof Windows Server 2003 on XP x64. If there's a way to differentiate between the two in the registry, it might work out just as well. We're just lucky that POS Ready 2009 is as poorly made as it was by the Microsoft engineers. __________ I think the way that Microsoft managed to differentiate from Windows XP x64 and Server 2003 on Windows Update and with other software, is through the "Hardware Abstraction Layer" number. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition: Version = "5.2.3790.4354 (srv03_sp2_qfe.080813-1204)" Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition x86: Version = "5.2.3790.3959 (srv03_sp2_rtm.070216-1710)" It must be the difference between those two numbers. 4354 and 3959. I'm pretty sure that this applies to Vista and 7 too with their Server counterparts. That is also probably the reason why some updates from XP or Vista such as RDC 7 refuse to install in the Server OS's.

Yeah... that's kinda why I didn't wanna try it, my only 64bit XP machine is my main computer.

Does anyone happen to know what happens if the registry modification is applied to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition? I would try it myself, but I have no way of testing 64bit software.

Okay, I've just tested the modification to the registry with Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs. It does work. But what's interesting about FLP is that it has its own registry flag for Windows Update. And I suspect that it was the first XP based OS that isn't specifically Windows XP to have it. Notice that I have the POS Ready 2009 flag too. I'm not sure if the two conflict with each other. I have tried to change and remove the Fundamentals key and DWORD value, with no success. I checked the permissions and it looks like Administrators for the local machine do have full control. So, I dunno. ____________ Also, I had no idea that FLP used a .WIM image for its installer. I wonder if the image can be extracted and added to a Windows Deployment Services server for fresh network installations? POS Ready seems to have a different setup. I did check the installation media and I found a .WIM image called "Setup" being 151MB or so in size. I don't believe that is big enough to contain the whole OS, probably just the actual setup portion. The FLP .WIM image is around 350MB for comparison.

Windows Server 2003 and XP come in both 32 bit and 64 bit flavours, there is very little difference feature wise between the two variations. So I imagine that the updates are nearly identical. You may be confusing Windows Embedded POS Ready 2009 with Windows Embedded Standard 2009. POS Ready 2009 has roughly the same footprint as XP, Standard 2009 however is quite a bit larger. Or at least the installation media is.

Well from what I've seen so far, the KB numbers between the updates issued for Windows Embedded POS Ready 2009 and Windows Server 2003 do match. In fact they even match with the updates issued for Windows Server 2008 and R2 and probably Windows Vista and 7. So I'm guessing that they're all just the same updates, and work just like any previous updates for Windows XP.

Well apparently the modification does work on Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, somebody who I know of tried it with that result. However, I haven't been able to get it to work on my FLP test installation. It is a rather junky installation, so I dunno. I'm guessing that it should work. Actually, I have a suspicion that POS Ready 2009 is based off of FLP.

I agree completely. All of those capacitors have been constantly subjected to the same stress and heat since 2005. My bet would be that the ones that haven't failed already, will fail soon after you get it working again.

And that didn't work last month, I assume?

I'm thinking something more like this: Interesting chart though.

@NoelC Thanks for the software recommendation. I tried it and it doesn't show a CPU temperature. Just like SpeedFan and Speccy, it shows hard drive and GPU temperatures only. Core Temp just shows 0c. By the way: Happy post count! (666)

With everything that I've been seeing, experiencing and reading concerning SSD drives, I have decided that I prefer hard drives. Call me old fashioned, but I also prefer tapes and floppy disks over optical media and flash memory based media. @TELVM Yeah, it's a BTX system from 2005, with a Pentium D and I haven't managed to get some temperatures from SpeedFan or Core Temp yet. I've seen someone do the same modification to an Optiplex GX620 tower, except they didn't cut out the grill. To me, cutting out the grill for a little bit better airflow seems unnecessary and destructive.

Behold, it's patch Tuesday again. So get ready for crash Wednesday everyone! I just thought that I'd do a little update of the operating systems that we've been following in this thread. First up: Windows Embedded POS Ready 2009 Windows Embedded POS Ready 2009 is still getting updates. And once again, it has received the most updates this month, out of all of the OS's tested here. Note: The .Net Framework Update (KB2833941) isn't new. It's a stubborn update that my POS Ready 2009 machine refuses to install for some reason. Next: Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2003 is also still receiving updates. If you compare the KB numbers of the updates that are for the actual operating system and Internet Explorer, you can see that they match between POS Ready 2009 and Server 2003 (With R2 in this case). And now: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is basically in the same position as the regular x86 version, as far as updates are concerned anyway. As you can see, I have Office 2010 installed, and that is still being updated, fortunately. Something different: Windows XP Professional x86 - With the registry modification applied And now, the latest discovery of the Windows XP support fiasco. The registry "hack" that fools Microsoft Update into thinking that you have POS Ready 2009 installed, and thus allowing you to install the new updates for it. As you can see in the screenshot, the updates are the same ones that POS Ready 2009 and Server 2003 have received. As of the time that I post this, this "hack" still works. Microsoft apparently have caught on, and may be working on a "fix" for it, but in the mean time at least, it works as a method to keep your XP machine patched. And finally: Windows XP Professional x86 - Without the registry modification Once again, we come to plain old Windows XP Professional x86. If you have chosen not to go fooling around with the Windows registry, this is where you stand. You'll get updates for Microsoft products that are still in support, such as Office 2010. And surprisingly enough, you'll also get the "Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - June 2014". XP also received this update last month, and some were wondering if it were a "one off". It's looking like this is going to be a regular thing. So, if you use that tool, you should be okay.

Thanks for the heads up, Noel. I haven't looked to see what brand and series of capacitors my Precision 380 has, but I'll make sure to do some looking around on the internet at least, so I can see as to whether or not it was a real problem. A Google search regarding the Precision 470 returned this thread on badcaps.net. Apparently Dell used a bad series of Nichicon capacitors and supposedly redesigned the 'board with solid state capacitors later on. It's interesting that the plastic parts became brittle. I've heard of that happening to (mostly) old beige coloured plastics that are exposed to lots of heat and UV light, such as the Super Nintendo.

Ooh. I would have bet that it was a Dell Precision Workstation of some kind. I have a Dell Precision 380 myself, with a 2.8GHz Pentium D and 2GB of ECC DDR2 (Which I'm hoping to upgrade to 8GB). That's what I'm running XP Pro x64 on and I love it. I got this computer used and quite frankly I'd rather have old quality hardware than something more powerful but perhaps less durable and rugged. After a full day of messing with vmWare player and other things, Windows still seems to be perfectly happy, but I do shut it down every night.

I can't help but notice that you have 48GB of RAM and dual Intel Xeon processors. I assume you're running a workstation of some kind?

I wouldn't go as far back as far as 2000, I'd go back even further to Windows 95. That's where the classic theme started. True. But before Windows 2000, the "Classic Theme" was very different. It used a different font and different colours for everything.