aspenjim

When a new base is released and I run the base exe file and the update checker, I sometimes get this error "Windows cannot find updatechecker_v50811.cmd", depending on what base is current. Am I doing something wrong? tia aj

What laptop do you have that will allow 2 harddrives and raid array????

Okay.... How can you trick (hack or otherwise) XP home into joing a domain? Here's why I ask. First I purchased 13 dell optiplexes from ebay and all but one was wiped clean before I got them. The one that wasn't had 4 different domains it could login to according to the logon screen. Now moving forward.... I picked up a maintenance account with our local county that doesn't have an IT professional. The Sheriffs office has about 25 PC's with you guessed it XP Home and a 2003 server. I think they tried to upgrade on a shoestring. The server is set up as a workgroup server. I'd like to promote it to a domain controller for obvious reasons. At this point, they don't have much more than a peer network. I've scoured the internet looking for a way, but haven't found it yet. I wiped the XP home PC clean, but am pretty certain that it had the same login screen as a domain logon. I used winternals ERD 2003 to access the hard drive and if I remember right the security I ran into led me to believe that it had been connected to a domain. You talked a little bunk, so here's a chance to make good on it. Thanks, aj

I was going by an ad at techbargains.com from monarch computer.... "AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor $269.99 - July 29, 2005 Monarch Computer has the AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor Socket 939 (Latest Rev E - San Diego Core) OEM CPU only for only $299 - $39 off Coupon: 1PH7-O7PZF8 = $260. No fan. Free shipping, tax in GA. $340+ elsewhere. " I ordered one from newegg and got an E4 revision and was curious what the difference was.

Whats the difference between an a64 3700 E4 and E5 stepping. I thought I was ordering an E5 and got an E4 from newegg.com along with another surprise. aj

When I do that, it always shows up to date def's then the next time i run liveupdate, it d/l's like 8 meg and reinstalls the defs. Am I doing something wrong? aj

i have a customers laptop that used to connect to a "preferred" wireless ap automatically, but doesn't anymore. they are using wpa for security. i've seen this before, but never figured out how to fix it. all of the settings are right (i compared to 2 identical others. its a linksys g notebook card and a linksys g router. i think there must be a reg setting to fix it. any ideas? thx aj

I use a ramdisk from (QSOFT) and have a reg file that defaults the temp, internet cache and cookies to the ramdrive. Then everytime it powers off, you have a clean pc, including the index.dat files. You need 1+ gig of ram though. The only time it is a problem is when a internet d/l is over the amount of ram you specify for the ram drive. When I know I have a bigger download, I disable it temporarily. It's works pretty slick for me. aj

Which NVDVD decoder, the 1.0 or the player 2.55? I have never got it to play. Seems like I would get a retangular black box on the screen and a mce type error. Let me know which decoder and I'll try it today and give the exact details and maybe a screenie (if that's possible from the shell). I was just curious what the interface would look like. Another related question... Is there a dvd codec that can be installed unattended so that dvd's will play in the media player 10. When I used to use autopatcher, it would install a codec and then when I'd try to install Xpack, i would get another error saying that there was already a codec installed and to remove it first. (which I never had an idea of how to do). To work around that, I'd install windvd 6, then install the xpack and remove windvd 6. thanks again, Jim edit... The codec autopatcher installed was dvdpack.msi based on Power DVD and it has switches to install unattended. However, it doesn't work w/MP10. I also d/l'd the NVIDIA Codec trial and it did work in the shell with an Nvidia card. I thought I'd tried it w/ nvidia cards before though. I know the last time I tried the 1.0 version decoder, it was with a non compliant video card. I've been trying to find something that would work (in the mce shell) since MCE's inception. I guess I answered my own questions.

You need to add the SAV v10 on your poll.... It works very well at detecting and removing spyware. However on the contrast, Norton's retail products are awful. I also think MS has a good product in the works with its beta AS.

I just got 2 dell 1704FPT's for $200. They are bright and quick and attratcive. they have a USB hub built in. go to techdeals.net for details. this expires on july 7th or after so many uses. quoting techdeals "Dell Home has got some new coupons good on their Dell LCD Flat Panel monitors. All coupons expire 7/7/05 or after a limited number of redemptions, whichever comes first. Dell E153FP 15" LCD Flat Panel - 25% off coupon code "7KTW3TF?3J441?" - $20 off coupon "L?PFZFKLZRLJ9F" = $151.75 shipped Dell Ultrasharp 1704FPT 17" LCD Flat Panel - 30% off coupon code "RH815946LQH5SF" - $30 off coupon "15MDTQRRV6V$2G" = $200.30 shipped" you apply the first coupon and then apply the second

Will DVD's actually play in the nedia center shell (as opposed to media player, etc)? Every time I've tried, it crashes the media center shell. I've tried several codecs (like nvdvd decoder 1.0, nvdvd 2.55, dvd xpack, etc). I've tried a multitude of video cards (like 9800 pro) all with the same results. Any ideas, or will the mce shell not work? tia aj

Yowzl... many thanks. one question... it always asks for confirmation of overwriting the reg entries regarding the sourcepath. Is there anyway to have it automatically make the entry? Oops.... one more question.... what does the /f switch do? i made great progress this weekend.... got my runonceex.cmd to work properly the first time (using the guide) and was able to have reader 7.01, jre 1.5 and netfxsp1 to install (unattended). thanks again aj

Yowzl... many thanks. one question... it always asks for confirmation of overwriting the reg entries regarding the sourcepath. Is there anyway to have it automatically make the entry? Oops.... one more question.... what does the /f switch do? i made great progress this weekend.... got my runonceex.cmd to work properly the first time (using the guide) and was able to have reader 7.01, jre 1.5 and netfxsp1 to install (unattended). thanks again aj

I've been studying the tutorial. if fact just made an amazing discovery after trying several attempts at the runonceex.cmd way of installing apps.... i have to say yes to oempreinstall for anything to happen within the $OEM$ directory. I have (thanks to the help of yowzl) found a nice way to copy over the i386 directory. I'm working on installing simple stuff like acroread701.exe and netfxsp1.exe. There is so much to learn and s little time and this is a huge site with thousands of good ideas. Reminds me of an old phrase mucho pinocha, pokita tiempo hehehe aj PS... whats the EX of RunOnceEX supposed to signify?

What's the difference between runonce.cmd and runonceex.cmd? what's the ex part mean of runonceex.cmd? Finally, when would I use each and when would i use the guirunonce part of winnt.sif? thx aj

Very nice... Well done... can't wait to try it out aj

I already tried that (i thought). When I type in %systemroot% in the run box, it brings up the windows directory (same as %windir%). Thanks aj

Okay, It copied the i386 directory inside the windows directory. What can I change to have it copy to root of the c drive?

You could just copy the winnt.sif file to a floppy (if you still use floppies) and make appropriate changes and it will look first to the floppy for setup information, before it looks to the i386 directory. It's a PITA to type in product keys and user information during an unattended install. That kinda defeats the purpose of it being unattended. just my 2 cents aj

I've been doing unattended installs for quite some time now, but have never learned how to do basic things like copying the i386 directory to HD and resetting sourcepath to c:\i386. Would someone give me several examples of the portion of the winnt.sif that would accomplish this for me. TIA aj

I got the same error, except mine said line 8.... the line the pnpdrivers started. I tried it seven times on Sunday and finally ended up choosing method 2 and that worked just fine. I'll be curious to see what the answer to this is. aj

**** that's alot of information. I have a couple of unattended files for both win98 and me, that I got working pretty good. I also got it to install IE6 unattended. My files are on my server at work. They may be a little easier to understand. I can give you this little tidbit... you need the retail versions to make it completely unattended, else it stops at the EULA and makes you click okay three times through the EULA, cdkey and name/organization. I also made a very cool win98/winme AIO that would boot and let you choose which OS and then from there on out it was completely unattended until IE6 was installed. I haven't worked with it for a few years though. I'll post mine tommorrow from work. 98 is a kinda dead OS now, however. aj

Skunk.... One more thought. The main reason that this is a problem is that it runs at ~597 mHz when it thinks its on battery instead of 1400. Jim

Skunk.... I concede, you're the true guru. I gotta question for you. I've got an X31 and since I upgraded the next to last bios and embedded controller, and if I unplug and replug the AC adapter, it never knows its on AC until I reboot. I've upgraded and downgraded the bios and embedded controller with the same results. It didn't have this problem until I did a bios upgrade. It looks to me as if battery charging has a problem, because the last 2 bios upgrades has to do with battery charging. Having said all of that, it does charge even when it thinks its running on batteries. I know this isn't a windows problem, because when I try to upgrade the bios "diskless", i always get a message that the AC must be plugged in. The only way I can upgrade (and downgrade) the bios is using the unattended switches. I use this several hours a day, so I don't want to part with it for a RMA. It's under warranty, and the IBM folks thinks its the systemboard. It is a 2672XXY. What do you think the problem it. You can got to the downloads for this model and see that it has a couple of bios upgrades concerning charging the battery. Thx, Jim