aspenjim

The reason I ask is that I put a laptop DVD-RW in a mini-PC and had to remove the faceplate for clearance. Rather than damage the eject button, I'd like to put a shortcut on the desktop to the eject command. I've searched the windows directory and looked at all of the exe files and none of them resemble anything that would eject.

I get the same thing, also out of the blue. I'm using WS 2003 and have set the permissions to anonymous and I can get in some times and others I can't. I also can access it with RDC on some PC's and not others.

I'd like to hook up w/ gmail if it's not to late to jump on the bandwagon B)

@Nilfred..... that was HARSH @GotKarmA.... what's a pmi file?

Small Business Server premium would almost do everything you need.... however, it only supports 75 clients. You would need a Dell 2850 w/ a few 15k SCSi drives.

Use nlite. I have a a64 pc and have nlited all of the drivers sucessfully.

why don't they have a link to pe2005 opk. I'm dying to use a flash drive and as I understand it that version (I think PE1.6) has the ability to boot from a flash drive. I'm also a registered partner and can hardly wait for the subscription release that is supposed to have that OPK, due out this month. It isn't like them to have a download like OPK that is not password protected.

My advice is KISS.... Keep it simple. You are trying to run before you learn to crawl. This stuff isn't easy and takes even seasoned gurus lots of patience and practice and perseverance. I highly recommend just using a winnt.sif file (which gets read not executed right after the PC boots from the CD). It is an answer file and is the first place to learn unattended installs. You set yourself up for major failure trying to make all of that stuff work the first try. It may take 30 tries to perfect, and then when you get comfortable, things change (software, windows, updates, installation methods). You can execute your runonceex cmd on your current windows and get a feel for if it will work or not. When you execute it, on the next reboot, it will run and you will see your errors. So keep it simple.... you'll be far ahead of the game. my 2 cents.... and EDIT out your keys aj

No, you can't use it on anything except a Dell, same with the HP master key or the Compaq. All major OEMs have their own Pro and Home master keys. It's some sort of a royalty scenario. If you use a Dell master key on anything except a Dell, it will have to be activated in 30 days, and in any case it wil NOT activate. [edit] I misread your question. I didn't see that "unless it's a Dell laptop". I saw Dell laptop and assumed you meant Dell PC and Dell laptop.

How is it illegal? You own the software (or license) and the PC and it's not illegal to reinstall w/o all of the bloat the way you want to - not the way HP or Compaq wants you to see XP (full of advertising crap). You just need a legal OEM copy of XP so you can tailor the install with what you want and you can use the master key just they way the original OEM did. Or alternatively, you can install with the key provided on the COA and fight with MS people in India and be made feel like you are installing it on massive PC's. You didn't used to have to call to phone activate, but since early August, every install I've done on an OEM PC, it would not activate (using the COA key) over the internet. Regarding drivers, I always look in the OEM drivers directory (or whatever name they choose) and copy the drivers to a USB stick and then when I nlite the install, I use these drivers. (which are usually out of date just like xp is). Con is that sometimes you loose access to other (junk) software like Sonic CD burning, etc. With Dell, usually you can get it from their other CD's and the updates on their support website. End result is you get a much cleaner up-to-date install without bloat. The OEM wouldn't like this approach, but it is your PC and your license and fully legal.

Just for the record the 4 files that are different for each major OEM are... OEMBIOS.BIN, OEMBIOS.SIG, OEMBIOS.DAT and OEMBIOS.CAT. I've found that you can make your own customized (N-lited) install replacing those files from the respective original OEM's installation. I too have an IBM thinkpad and managed to substitute those 4 files and recreate the i386 directory from a normal OEM CD from say newegg.com. Dell XP CD's work fine as documented above as you can do about anything from nlite). I also reinstall XP on lots of HP's w/ XP home using the master key found using belarc or magic jellybean keyfinder. It's particularly sweet w/ HP's as you don't get all of the crap bloatware HP includes and don't have to call MS and beg and plead w/ them to reactivate an already legal copy of windows. Same thing goes for Compaq. aj

All OEM's have a master install key that bypasses activation. That's why it's such a pain in the a** to activate an OEM install if you use a regular OEM CD and not the factory CD or restore CD to reinstall Windows. It is now such that, you feel like you are being interrogated by the FBI when you are forced to call in each time that you need to activate a legal copy of windows. Every time I've had too, they want the make and model of the PC and a good explanation of why you are reinstalling windows. Once you are finished being on the phone for 20 minutes of interrogation, you swear that the next time, you will use "other" means of activation. aj

A little. MS tends to make their help file technical enough that it makes you feel you need a degree from MIT to sort out the technical jargon. I even find that out trying to slipstream service pack into products like Office. They are always using every possible variable possible. Simple minds need simple instructions.... LOL I realize that the OPK is highly proprietary and not meant for the general public. I eventually learned how to do Oem Preinstallation for Win98 and you had to follow every step to the "T". I'm shooting for a Small Business Certification and this is one of the required electives to Master. They also offer 3 day instructor led classes, but the closest one to Colorado is in Illinois or Cali. I'm near Denver. I'll sit down and sort it out using the CHM files (hopefully). Maybe I'll write a guide for this Website on the subject as a return contribution. With everything related to MS software, once you get through the verbage, it's usually pretty simple. I can also post to MS's OEM forums and prolly get quick and straight answers. AJ

I have a MS Action Pack subscription and finally got around to installing OPK tools and would like to tackle learning to install XP with winpe. I went through the setupmgr and ended up with the OPK directory and a floppy with winbom.ini. I followed the directions on MS's OEM site about how to make a boot cd. I successfully made a bootable cd, but don't know what to do from there. Information on the internet and even this site is pretty sketchy on this subject. I'd like to do all of this with virtual pc, so I don't have to tie up several PC's to understand how this all works. I'm also not quite understanding the concept of "master PC" and "technician PC" any help would be greatly appreciated. It's too bad there isn't a powerpoint or flash tutorial somewhere out there on the internet that would demistify this. aj

While on the topic... Would some of you programmers explain exactly what it does. I know of lotsa websites that need speedtest.dslreports.com for one and yahoo's games always need java..... But in intelligent terms, exactly what does it do???? thx aj

Search google or ms for tweakui for xp. After you instal it go towards the bottom of the list and look for logon (or autologon) and you can set the default user there. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx and choose tweakui and choose the 147k d/l aj

I have 3 nice desktops (including a new shuttle sn95v3 w/ an a64 xp3700 in it and 2 74 gig raptors) and an ibm x31 notebook. If I had to give them all up (and all three are quite nice, the 2nd best being an shuttle sn45 w/ a xp3200 in it), I'd take the notebook a hundred times over. I spend hours and hours on it.... mostly reading this forum..... hehehe. My third pc is a media center w/ a p4 - 2.66 in it. It's basically for my kids.

This usually happens when xp crashes do to overclocking, etc. I've fixed many pc with this exact same problem by using the recovery console and running chkdsk c: /p /r or using hiren's boot cd 7.0 and running chkdsk c: /f /r

I have tried it with the integrator and had the same results. I've even used a Gateway home OEM and slipstreamed SP2 and then sliptreamed the update pack. I replaced the file gdiplus.man with the original file and it worked, but stopped and said there was an error in line 5 with the file control.man. I haven't had a chance to try it with Pro OEM. We tend to get spoiled with all of these nifty little tools.

Was it with XP home? I even tried using a Gateway OEM XP home w/o any service packs. I slipstreamed sp2 in and STILL couldn't get by the error. I need to get this figured out today.

Content.ie5 directory contains the temporary internet files cache, along with the contraversial index.dat.

I'm not sure where to post this (besides ryanvm's forum) which I have also posted to. I've repeatedly gotten this error at T=39 using xp home Oem, retail and upgrade. I've tried every possible combo to get past it that I could. I've used genuine xp cd's, tried xpsp1 cd's and a fresh sp2 slipstream to no avail. Here's the error.... Error: SXS.DLL:Syntax error in manifest or policy file "D:\I386\asms\10 \MSFT\Windows\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.MAN" on line 4. *** Error: Installation Failed: D:\I386\asms. Error Message: A component's file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest. *** Fatal Error: One of the components that Windows needs to continue setup could not be installed. A component's file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest. *** I've been watching this forum and msfn forums for others having the same problem. Either, nobody's using this update pack w/ home or I've got alot of bad cd's etc. It bums me out that I can't get past this problem. I've tried it with Virtual PC and a real PC and the same thing. I've tried integrating it with nlite and ryan's integrator. The only thing I'm removing with nlite is system restore, messenger service and error reporting service. I've tried it with and without the other 2 addon packs. I didn't have this problem w/ xp home and update pack 1.21 and 1.22b. Again, I've used a fresh iso and also original cd so there isn't any remnants of any past updates. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't had this problem with the pro versions of xp doing exactly the same process. TIA aj

Or you can make a small partition and copy the i386 directory and boot with a dos bootdisk and run winnt.exe. you can also a full unattended installation with a couple of switches (forget the exact syntax though).

I also live and swear by acronis. It is quick, reliable and affordable.

The best is a mixture of all.... goto http://www.hitmanpro.nl and d/l hitmanpro. It uses 5 spyware scan engines and the command line version of mcafee and trendmicro and several other components. It's only caveat is that is doesn't fully run unattended in safe mode, (which is the most effective way of malware removal). It does use a trial version of webroot, however.