GrofLuigi

Hi, maybe it's TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper or IPSEC Policy Agent (less likely). I think those three services you can't start depend on each other, Windows Firewall being the most important, which in turn depends on the one(s) I mentioned. Maybe not directly, but I can see "a chain of events" here, like in this recent post here (your DHCP cannot start if you don't remove NetBios* from its dependencies). Does your Network Connections folder get populated when you browse into it (through Control Panel)? * It's not the same service, but it's part of the same network infrastructure tied together in XP. What would I do differently: - not remove Printers if I'd like to be problem-free - also remove all English keyboards if I don't need them (US, the default, 0409, the built-in, is not listed, so you can't lose that) - keep the following: IPSEC Policy Agent Message Queuing (MSMQ) Performance Logs and Alerts TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper WebClient but disable them. I found some things subtly break if they are removed. - reduce the number of services I'd change startup state of (I also found that changing too many doesn't always work). They can always be changed manually. For now, to try to make it work, maybe set (I'll use short names): EventSystem,2 NetLogon,3 NLA,2 xmlprov,3 NtLmSsp,3 PlugPlay,2 RemoteAccess,3 LanmanServer,3 GL

As far as I remember, at least on XP, "PerceivedType" is used as a helper to MIME types, meaning it's primarily meant to be used in IE environment. For normal use in Windows Explorer, opening a file by extension, won't work every time, depending on various restrictions on things like MIME sniffing and other Feature controls on the computer in question. GL

I can't speak for him, but my "layman's" explanation would be that the size of metal object needs to be large enough to receive/absorb the electrons that have been built up (or lack of them, but ignore this because the result is the same). So maybe smaller than a case, but definitely larger then a key - in "normal", everyday conditions one might encounter. GL

Don't open the last session, start processing your last ISO (unpacked, of course) as if it was a fresh source. Try to make minimal changes in this second session. Sometimes multiple processing doesn't work, but for small changes, it might. GL

OK, my idea is to share in this topic the experiences from "classic" tweaking (mostly from reg entries), excluding complicated "tracing" like in wonderful MagicAndre's guides, but others might share their experiences with that too, if it is the most notable thing that made the difference for them. So it would be like top 10 list (both more and less items are allowed ), because a poll is useles in this case. In the sense of this topic and my belief, "tweaking" is doing something to make Windows work better, either by changing the "safe default" to something that utilizes the hardware more, turning some component on or, most frequently, turning some unwanted component off and or/deleting files/reg entries. In my opinion, to "tame" Windows 7/Vista is a job order (or two) of magnitude greater than with previous OS-es. While with OS-es up to XP I could get the job (of clean install + updates+ installing few most needed programs + calming down) done in 3 days, with 7 I'm satisfied and confident in the OS installation only after 3 weeks or more. Of course, that time will go down with experience, but it will never approach the time XP requires. So here goes my list, from best to "less best, but still pretty good": 1. Install SSD - OK, I break my criterium with the first item, but I think it absolutely made most difference - on a 5400 laptop HDD, Windows 7 was unbearable, but even on a crappy first gen SSD it can be lived with. Other tweaks help, but this is the biggest quantum leap. 2. Use "Install Wim Tweak" / "DISM remove components" (Also pre-install "liters", of which I use Windows 7 Toolkit) - a great help to speed up cleaning, but of course, even though some dependencies are mapped, we're still a long way from a "safe" preset or list for everyone. 3. Turn off "Startup Event Trace Sessions" in "Computer Management -> performance -> Data Collector Sets" - The speeedup is noticeable immediately (OK, after reboot), at the expense of losing functionality that might or might not be needed. 4. Remove unneeded foreign language fonts - yeah, it still makes a big difference. 5. With the help of Sysinternals Autoruns and/or Nirsoft's ActiveXHelper, FileTypesMan, MimeView, RegDllView, ShellExtensionsView remove unnecessary things (Now you know why it takes me weeks to complete this. ) 6. Tweak services, of course. 7 Turn off IPv6 protocols (they are still not widely used today, but it might be needed someday). I noticed some speedup (maybe it's all in my head?). 8. Take ownership of files/reg keys - not a tweak in itself , but a skill that every Win7 tweaker must learn. 9. Plain old Reg tweaks - I can't really single out one or few that is/are most important and made most of the difference because there are simply too many of them (my XP tweaks folder is 300 KB, the new one for 7 is addidional 150 KB on top of that - many of the old ones still apply). 10 Boot tracing with Process Monitor - it's not the tracing that is important, it's deciphering and hunting for the undocumented registry entries that's fun for me. I strongly believe that it's better to "tell" windows what you want - leaving registry entries unpopulated is simply not an option for me. Of course, you have to find the default, which is not always easy to do or obvious, but it is still rewarding IMO. So, that's it. I hope this will bring some useful discussion. GL

@ericore I think that is purely a VirtualBox problem. I remember that VirtualBox wanted one particular version (much older) of Intel's drivers during install time (later it can be updated). I'm looking for the topic in the Vbox forum, but can't seem to find it now. Maybe it's this? But I'm sure there were others. Another thing (if I got it right), don't set your virtual machine to Vista mode, create your virtual machine having in mind the Guest OS - in this case, XP. GL

Maybe AutoAdminLogon (AKA control userpasswords2 + uncheck the first checkbox)? It doesn't apply exclusively to safe mode, but since Administrator account is unavailable on Home in normal mode, maybe that's it. GL

This is for Office 2003, but as far as I remember there is something similar, if not the same, in Office 2000. GL

It's a typo. It should be INF. GL

It must be said...

You are not alone, sir. Shameless plug but with a different criterium. GL

KB2479871 says: "To disable the "Allow List," the AllowListEnabled value must be set to 0." I read that as "To disable the Allow List functionality". I guess it depends if the document contains any graphics that would need to be converted/imported... But logic sometimes doesn't apply to Microsoft... GL

I guess TIFF import doesn't go through filters. Procmon says it goes through GDIPlus, which in turn has some settings in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Gdiplus] "DisableBMPCodec"=dword:0 ... "DisableTIFFCodec"=dword:0 There you can disable TIFF if you want to. I myself just allow everything. GL

I did only this, Sir: install_wim_tweak.exe /o /l install_wim_tweak.exe /o /c PACKAGENAME /r because I'm a stoopid noob when it comes to Win7 and I don't know anything more. But thank you, Sir. GL

Second try. Win7 Home Premium x86 SP1. I came down to this... It probably can be better, but for now it's pretty good for my needs. Haven't tested it much, this install also goes to scrap because of unrelated issue. Multiple runs were needed, often with different chronological order of retries. And some restaring of VSS service and the computer. IE9 added some packages. Didn't touch them. Initial pre-install slimming was done with Windows 7 Toolkit 130-19A, but it also failed to remove some (many?) packages. I didn't count how many. GL

OK, a stupid newbie here. Removed too many of things on 7 SP1 online with install_wim_tweak.exe /o /c "packagename" /r Now there is BSOD on boot 0x12a - it cannot find licensed language packs. Of course, I suspect the following packages: Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package-wrapper~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~en-US~6.1.7601.17514 Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~en-US~6.1.7601.17514 Microsoft-Windows-Client-Refresh-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~en-US~6.1.7601.17514 I don't know if I removed all of them. I was so frustrated it didn't work (see observation below) that I tried multiple times with multiple things. What can I do to arrive to a desktop? System Restore is and was turned off. And an observation: This program didn't work until the services Volume Shadow Copy and MS Shadow Copy provider were started. For some reason, they couldn't start themselves. I waited for 16 hours. GL

In addition to what X and myselfidem wrote, you must copy the file sendmail.dll to %windir%\system32. Restore it from your original CD. You need just sendmail.dll, no other service or application. The component that removed it in nLite is Outlook Express (or something else related to mail, if any - I forgot if there is any other one related to mail). If you have the three prerequisites (the reg file from X, the dll and the empty file), then it must work. Finally, you may also try regsvr32 sendmail.dll, but it's the same as X's reg file. GL

If you can, by all means YES. MAYBE. Some have reported it has worked for them, some it didn't. But it is almost certain that slipstreaming SP3 won't work if done on Win7. Also, the resulting CD might not accept your original product key. (Maybe also if slipstreamed on XP - Microsoft has blacklisted some product keys between SP2 and SP3. But for now, disregard this comment of mine and try. I don't want to add more confusion... yet. Most probably, everything will be OK if done on XP). GL

@m4rk: This might be the topic for you (in the nLite forum): Integration of AMD / ATI SB7XX textmode RAID / AHCI drivers on an XP. Take the drivers from this post. For a more detailed explanation of the procedure, look at the first post of the sticky topic Integration of Intel's SATA AHCI and RAID drivers. Of course, disregard all references to INTEL. But it would be nice if you can post more details about your pc than just "HP Pavillion g6" (I see there are many different models). Is there any other number after it? Or can you find/share any other details about the chipset? GL

That's the conclusion I came to years ago. All that GDR QFE LDR talk aside, I am pretty sure that, in practice, the file with the highest version number incorporates the fixes from the previous versions. Of course, there might be exceptions, but I think they are in the minority. So it makes no sense too keep older KBs. GL

Some resources I use: The Hotfix Share My first stop. KB Update Getting sloppy? (started missing some KBs for older OSes) MS KB Articles Wierd (they replace some of the content with their own). Hothix blog Dead for a year. Microsoft Files Great potential, but underdeveloped. GL

I meant with 7 digits (they switched some time ago, probably when they realized they'll run out of numbers). So, the latest were missing? *Edit: Now I see... I was blind. The ... fooled me. *Edit2: Thank you for those I didn't have (KB2480093, KB2539164, KB929161, KB931320, KB937193-v2, KB941838) GL

Here they are, along with some notes. GL Hotfix_Server2003_Post_SP2.txt Hotfix_XP_Post_SP3.txt

Your list is quite out of date IMO (no KB2XXXXXX articles). I keep lists for 2003 and XP of latest KBs. The only criterium is: The hotfix with the highest version number of a particular file (mostly .dlls/.exes) wins and replaces any other. I make no difference between official and unnoficial (by request) hotfixes. I use them for years and never had any problems. Once or twice I offered to make update lists, but nobody was interested. I have compiled them from various sources (any one I can find, actually), download, unpack and check version. It can be regarded as "highest version hunt". Again I offer to make a list for anyone interested, nothing fancy, only KB number with (non-comprehensive) dll/exe/xxx name attached to it. Also, some obscure (for my needs) components (IIS etc.) might be missing. GL

I guess your help is very advanced, Thank you before. but, before I add this code, I want to ask, What code is this? New Key? New string? or New Binary? I just need a little more clarification. New dword in registry (regedit.exe). Or, copy the text in the box (starting with REGEDIT4) , paste it to new blank txt document in notepad, save, change extension to *.reg and double click to merge it to the registry. Reboot the computer and then try disabling the keyboard. GL