fizban2

unless they are looking to cluster or load balance then Standard edition would be the way to go for them, SBS might be an option at well (depending on what they are looking for) are you going to buy the server from a big provider (dell, HP, etc) if so you can pickup the license with the server, if you are looking to buy that few of licenses you aren't going to need any of the licensing programs the new media will have server 2003 SP2 on one CD and the R2 components on a second CD

From the GPMC work your way down to the domain level you want to work with, then choose the Group policy Objects folder, here you have the choice if you right click hte folder to backup every GPO or you can select individual GPOs from the folder itself

all the settings are actually set fine, just wwanted to find out if there were actual registry entries for them or if it was just settings in the security policy, thanks for the info though Memnoch!

using just ghost will give you 2 copies of the OS but in a domain envirnoment both those machines would be seen as the same, the SID for the machines will still be hte same unless sysprep is run on the machine to have it regenerated, that has not changed.

hi all, been trying to find out where some regsitry keys are set (if at all) from a GPO MinimumPasswordAge MaximumPasswordAge MinimumPasswordLength PasswordComplexity PasswordHistorySize LockoutBadCount ResetLockoutCount LockoutDuration RequireLogonToChangePassword ClearTextPassword tried hunting them down but could not find them, do they even exist?

if i Server A is something that is important that it can't be down. wouldn't created some sort of web server farm or clustering the 2 machines so that if Server A was to go down taht Server B would take over and no configuration would need to be done on your part?

audit is like a "dry run" of sysprep, allowing you to setup the computer before generalizing it again for the end user, i am not sure where the autologon settings are for sysprep. the only way i know of to get rid of it will be to rerun sysprep with just the /generalize switch to get rid of it. this will though return to computer to a state as if no one had logged onto the PC

read the Unattend.chm in the link to the documentation that i listed above

the windows installation is trying to install this file but it is not present or is not passing the integrity checks, you probably need to reburn the CD at a slower CD or rebuild the ISO that you used to make the CD

by using the /audit switch you effective set the machine to be systprepp'ed stage but then goes into an audit mode to install apps/ review configuration changes that had been made during the sysprep, to get rid of the auto logon you are going to have to sysprep again without the /audit switch

spacetech, what are the services that are not starting?

defiantly sounds like a driver issues. Seeing as netowrking works fine until he trys to get into Network Center, then the driver is hanging because it can't either call some property that required or it isn't there. looking at the dump would be the best way to find the culprit (at least fastest) guess i get another one to try out.

would have to buy the 64 bit upgrade, but you would end up having to do a clean install as there is no upgrade path from x86 to 64 bit

C:\Windows\Installer this is where the actual MSI and MSP files are copied, C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution packages that are copied down by WSUS or automatic updates reside here

another thing to think about is if you are willing to go to 64x bit Vista, if that is the case having 4 gig would not be a bad idea, granted in 32 bit you will probably see 3.5 at the best, but getting 4 gig will leave you better prepared to move to a 64 bit OS. plus the price difference can't be that great anymore

etfsboot.com can be found as part of the WAIK, it can be downloaded from MS

@ cluberti, have been doing uverenv logging, nothing has come up as out of the ordinary though. @iceman, all machines are part of the domain yes, of the domain the time changes only about 15 - 20 seconds

have you updated any drivers? are there any other errors in the event logs??

The application needs to be coded to handle aero, i haven't heard of a way to force an app to work with it, since it is windows that is making the decsion if it is aero compatible

Process Monitor 1.12

ahh, if worst comes to worst, you might have to run the MSDE installation on another machines, use process monitor to capture everything that happens during the installation, and manually rip out all the registry keys and settings on the machine. not the best soultion but it would work

are these 2003 server? if so there is no PDC and BDC anymore, they are both just DCs. as for software, either your software needs to have the ability to fail over to another box that has the same software installed (either stand alone boxes or in a clustered instance if the software supports it) Mdeamon did not look like it had any clustering ablility or failover features to work on multiple machines. you would need to check with the vendor of each application to see if they are clusterable or have failover features

ok, in your post you said At this point i would think that the installation Media is bad, there is a slight chance the copy you got was not good, if you can try with new egg and see if you can get a replacement, (not sure how long ago you got it)

glad to hear you got it working again!

what are the errors listed in the event log?