w2k4eva

Not specifically about being off the network for a long time, this machine I'm on now had that situation without trouble. But yes, if Windows gets confused about your hardware - like if something mangles the startup settings for the PlugNPlay service, then you reboot - it can happen, even with no actual hardware changes, just because Windows is confused. I had that happen here in March. Not sure about "now", but I know the online activation did work for me on 22 Mar 2015.

bump . . . Surely someone else has seen this problem? Any ideas for how to solve it?

Easy, just use IE (any version or OS from W2K IE6 upward, maybe even W98 IE6? haven't tried that one but have used W2k and it works there) to visit http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx It has to be in IE, other browsers won't work. It may ask you to install an activex control if you don't already have it. Once that is done, the site should normally let you search for updates by KB number, OS version, or some other keyword(s), so you can download them for offline use. Or for WEPOS2009 fans, find stuff not available in the regular MS Download site. Unlike using WindowsUpdate in Express mode, you won't get force fed anything here. Or you may get an error message like: To use this website, you browser must have the user data persistence setting enabled. To enable this, follow these steps: In Internet Explorer, click Tools , then click Internet Options. Click the Security tab, then click Custom Level. In the Settings dialog box, under the Miscellaneous section, find Userdata persistence and click Enable. Click OK twice to save and exit. but for some people this does not work, or they already have that setting enabled but still get the message anyway. This is the problem that I started the other thread about.

FWIW, reading your post made me go check my event logs (I hadn't otherwise had any reason to look since nothing seems to have gone wrong here) and I have those same 6 event log entries at each reboot starting from the day I installed those 3 updates. I also have 2 of the extra entries for TEMP and TEMP.NT AUTHORITY (but not the 3rd .000 one) under Documents and Settings, timestamped at last boot. However I do not have the extra "Account Unknown"s. The date of updating my profile matches the date I installed the updates, despite having rebooted several times since then. And the timestamp under Documents and Settings for my profile folder is some six months old, and does not match last boot time nor the date under the User profile display. Not so sure it is anything serious as there are no symptoms here other than the eventlog entries, or at least nothing that changed on that date - I have had the weird permissions thing described in my other thread for as long as I've had this machine, prior to installing those updates. I did also install other updates that day as well. Likewise here. I also have the proper version mrxdav.sys 5.1.2600.6708 from KB3019215. The only version of tlntsess.exe I have is buried under windows\$hf_mig$\kb960859\sp3qfe - in hindsight I probably shouldn't have bothered with KB3020393 since I am running XP Home which does not have the telnet server. I also run Avast Free but am using version 6, with the sandboxing features turned off; this is an older system that does not have the hardware to support virtualization. I do not have CryptoPrevent nor MBAE. I do have FF w/Noscript, SpywareBlaster 4.6, Spybot 1.6.2 and MBAM 1.75.0.1 but do not use TeaTimer so none of these should affect booting, Avast would be the only one in that category. I do not have Cubby (or any other sync app) either so that can be ruled out.. Just for giggles, are you able to use the UpdateCatalog on any/all of the user accounts on your machine? Do you even have more than one "real" user account?

Not as a daily surfer, and it's been an age since I booted it, but yes, I *DO* still have a Win3.1 system (it dualboots an old slackware install too). I think I even have those old install floppies that came with it. As for the services, lots of people tweak those. I think you would have started seeing any potential issues years ago, like at the next reboot after you adjusted them. If they didn't give trouble back then I doubt they are relevant now. In any case there is always the reference stuff compiled at http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-xp-x86-32-bit-service-pack-3-service-configurations/ if you can't remember what the default values are or want to look up more details.

I have come across an older system (vpr matrix 180R) that I am in the process of rehabilitating. It is presently running XP Home with SP3 and most official updates installed, plus some unofficial ones derived from PoS2009. (It is not using the registry hack.) It is not part of a network, just a standalone system. Being Home and not Pro, it has never been part of a domain. It also has some user accounts "kenny" created 28 Nov 2002 2:50PM and Administrator created 28 Nov 2002 3:01PM. Checking Windows Update history shows that Service Pack 1 installed 06 Apr 2003 so the system must have originally shipped with plain XP; other files/folders are dated 29 May 2002 12:23AM which I think must have been the original install time. Farther down the list of update history, Service Pack 3 was installed on 8 Mar 2009 8:17PM by the previous owner. I am not the original owner, so after the system came to me I created another user account, "me" on 23 Jun 2014 2:01PM. All three of these are admin type accounts. After applying some updates like the newer WU client I got Windows Update to work without issues. The Update Catalog, however, is not working for user "me"; it gives that notorious error message that userdata persistence needs to be enabled. The message is clearly wrong since that setting already IS enabled. Googling turned up the usual stuff about how to set userdata persistence that was already set. The only other thing I found was KB909444 which had some mention of file and folder permissions. I did find that folder C:\windows\registration did not have Read and Traverse permissions for Everyone so I added that. The permissions along that path are now: However it still gives user "me" that same message (even after several reboots). As an experiment I tried user "kenny" which was the old account, and that one just works! So the issue seems to be something about permissions that is different on the newer account, since both are supposedly admin type accounts. Are there any other folders, files or possibly registry keys that may have wrong permissions besides the ones listed in KB909444?

Not that I actually do all the stuff in these links (I like my own setup better), but if you are into "lite" these might be an interesting read: https://forums.comodo.com/install-setup-configuration-help-cis/comodo-firewalldefense-lite-no-antivirus-no-trusted-vendors-t74633.0.html http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/making-avast-the-lowest-overhead-av-available.263940/

For a firewall I like an older version of Comodo, specifically 3.14.130099.587, I put this on all my builds from XP to W7. I prefer this one to any of the version 4 or 5 releases since they actually took away some features that I use and I don't like the other stuff they have added since then. Re the older one for W2k, I think it does not have the Defense+ component which is one of the things that I love about Comodo! Their site does not host any of the older releases though, so you may have to get it from an archive site such as http://www.filehippo.com/download_comodo/6975/ This version is only 43MB rather than 215MB for the latest. When installing I generally uncheck the optional addons and toolbars, also uncheck the AV component. My w2k builds generally get an older version of ZA Pro (5.5) since I have a multipack of licenses for that. For AV I have been using Avast 6 (not that 7 is bad, I just prefer 6), but avoid the behavior shield and sandbox features, also I don't care for the web reputation plugin or google chrome but these are not too hard to turn off. (The trick to installing it is to first adjust your system time/date to December 2011 beforehand, enter a license key, then adjust the date back to the present.) At least with AV there are quite a few to choose from. I wasn't going to use the too-heavy features they have been emphasizing in the newer releases - virtualization is just too much for an older system to support, they don't have the RAM to go there. I picked Avast based on what is NOT in the user license agreement - the others I looked at had too many objectionable items for me. I do not want software that claims the right to arbitrarily grab files off my hard drive and send them home without asking or even informing me, and that item was in all the other EULAs I looked at.