GrofLuigi

I think it's called Autoplay and it's controlled solely by the reg value I posted above. It's on a deeper (driver?) level then your first two items posted (by the way, I always disable that other Autorun* on Explorer level with NoDriveTypeAutoRun=ff and other tweaks). This Autorun (Autoplay) i'm talking about is always polling the optical drive and with the reg value I posted above can be stopped on XP, Server2003 (don't know about Vista), but on 7 it always shows the behavior described in my first post. Tried on Win7 RTM, SP1, x86, x64, IDE drive, SATA, drive... Always. The last two things you posted are for win8, of course, and don't apply. * "that other Autorun" = explorer seeking for autorun.inf on the root of the drive.

Consider this scenario... I set the dword value "Autorun" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\cdrom\Parameters to 0. After reboot, my DVD drive is disabled and in device manager it says "The driver cannot start". I tried it on several computers, same everywhere. Isn't it stupid that it checks the value, but can work with only one possible parameter? I want this so badly to work (disable CDROM autoplay) I can taste it. The reason is it finally calms my HDD light on the case down. Then I can work on any other reasons for blinking. Is it possible? GL * Edit: changed the word "Autorun" to "Autoplay"

It would be interesting to see if Classic event viewer works on 8. GL

Here it is for avisynth: REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avs] @="mplayerc.avs" This first part is only for checking. I doubt there's something wrong with it on your system. In my case .avs is associated with Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, but that shouldn't matter. Now see the second part with only the default icon and adapt it to your needs (your VirtualDubMod association): REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mplayerc.avs\DefaultIcon] @="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\AviSynth.dll,0"

I thought that they had learned by now to just create a .mpg video and simply play it on the tablet during presentations (it's not that difficult to tap on the screen at the right moment ). jaclaz You think they could get a video player to work for that long? GL

How Maybe you won't need to take ownership (first part), just add yourself with full control (click "ADD" when you're at the last image, then type your username, or Administrators, or Everyone, then click on the topmost checkbox "full control"). GL

I always disable the Language bar. And I've named the folder FastStart, placed it in various places on the HDD, gave everyone full permissions or restricted permissions to noone but me, to no avail. I see many people had promlems with it. But it's a topic for another topic and currently i don't care much about it. GL

I guess I could be considered an XP diehard, although I use mostly Server 2003 as workstation. But for all practical purposes, I could use XP and my attitude would be the same. 1/2. I had an honest intention to move to Vista/7, and I installed every iteration of them (every service pack as clean install) in dual boot, but they never won my heart enough to deserve the position of most used OS by me. I either tweaked them out to unbootability or was disgusted by the bloat when untweaked. I don't care about the GUI, I use Total Commander 95% of the time, but something inside me can't stay calm when I see all the unefficiency and wastefulness. XP/2003 isn't a star either, but with some work it can be 'calmed down'. For Vista/7, there is no hope. So now I have fully functional and lightly tweaked second boot of 7 SP1 which I rarely boot into because it gives me no joy. 3. I don't care about official 'support'. The only thing that could ever spoil the party would be manufacturer's conspiracy to not release drivers for XP. It's starting to happen now, but luckily most manufacturers still have some sense to not shrink their sales. On the contrary, I can't find x64 drivers for my cheap webcam and old TV Tuner card. 4. I miss Quick Launch. Every installation of 7 I've tried deletes it on reboot (although recreated as per some site instructions, and even if moved to another place; and believe me, I've tried everything), so I've adapted to the 'pinning' way, but it's not the same. Minor thing, but I bet it's another MSFT's way of disciplining users. GL

Regardless where it is, why don't you try: start /wait msiexec.exe /i PRO11.MSI TRANSFORMS="Unattended.MST"

Windows7 itself is more unfriendly towards slimming. I was never able to slim much without breaking something. For me, the most useful app of this kind is lego's Win Toolkit. GL

@submix8c, /sos also displays the otherwise invisible chkdsk screen (as triggered by autochk). That is when there is no check is scheduled, but how would chkdsk know if it didn't check the drive's dirty flag? I think the same screen is also shown if you boot in safe mode.

I have never seen C: listed first on the /SOS chkdisk screen, no matter how the partitions are laid out, and I use /SOS all the time. GL

I often see some benchmarking sites use Iometer for advanced analysis. For me, it's a bit more than I'd really want to know. GL

It shows I never got to really use or study Dvdisaster. GL

Check this? And maybe some other values in that registry branch (compare with other computers)? GL

HDTune is one of the most used tools to measure mechanical drives. It's used in most of the reviews, so you can quickly compare your results. HDTach is outdated (except maybe for IDE drives) because it's single-threaded and doesn't know about queue depths and other SATA things. GL

I had 100% succes rate with recovering bad disks (mostly video DVDs, but also others) with IsoPuzzle. I think it works on the same principle as Dvdisaster, but maybe the accent is on reading with different drives. I use three DVD burners in my computers. In fact, I was prepared to use Dvdisaster in case IsoPuzzle failed, but it never did. Just FYI... GL

Before I moved to SSD, I did similar tests and found out that even the difference between 512b and 4096b was negligable. There is some difference, but nowhere as big as when we read various documents on the subject. I didn't want to discuss about it because: 1) it would show I'm a cheapskate 2) It was not 'scientifically' tested and I wasn't sure if I made a mistake. But I still hold the opinion that you can't gain noticeable performance from increasing AUS and that such stories are overrated. Excluding RAID stripe size and SSDs. GL

This is a Win7Toolkit installation. But I'm afraid to dig deeper with i.e. dism or Wim tweak because I have ruined some Windows installations before (I just can't stop trimming ) GL

I have already disabled hibernation. I have already deleted some MUI files for languages I know I won't use on that computer. So far so good. I learned not to touch WinSXS. I'm just looking for additional 'easy kills'. I'm not that much hard pressed for disk space, but every bit freed on SSD helps. GL

...as a help to my filled SSD. These are the ones I picked: %systemdrive%\Recoveryand %windir%\System32\DriverStore I think I will defeat the permissions easily, but how to be sure the beast will stay bootable? I have a growing suspicion that exactly that will happen (unbootability). I chose them because they are large and (with my vague understanding of what they do) they seem nonessential, but I might be wrong. These are the assumptions: If I need the first one, I will use the DVD. The second one should be redundant, because there are already drivers in other places. <- Am I wrong with these two sentences? If Windows7 insists on them, can I persuade it otherwise through registry? Also, I accept suggestions on other folders to delete, and I have already deleted some. GL *edit: I found Driver Store Explorer which should be able to help me. Dissapointed I can't delete it all.

Some explanation here: Section "USB serial number". And the entire site is very useful. I personally have stopped bothering with this, every few months I keep uninstalling the non-present devices. GL

It works as expected, thank you very much. :thumbup I suggest this topic be moved to the programming forum, it might be useful to someone else. GL

Thank you! Unfortunately, it doesn't compile. Says: I have client profile. May that be the reason? Edit: In .Net 4.0 I have System.Xml.Linq.dll and System.Data.Linq.dll. I don't have any programming languages installed. GL

I need a program (may also be batch file or any other script) which will let me select a directory and then produce a listing saying: You have XXX .txt files You have YYY .doc files .... You have ZZZ .bmp files Where XXX > YYY > ZZZ and the program will need to figure that out, and also to list ALL filetypes. Optionally, let me select more than one directory. Mandatory: Recurse subdirectories. Does any such thing exist? GL