GrofLuigi

Unplug the data cable. Or maybe possible from within the BIOS. GL

Agreed, no need to open another topic. Just to let you know there are some of us who think the opposite. GL (Edit: typo.)

Wow, that's many services not starting. Apart from b0rked installation (which seems most probable here), many things can cause that: - windows thinks is in safe mode - some really important dependency failed to start (like RPC) - there is no network card installed/something went wrong with it - virus or antivirus interfered GL

I don't know about upgrade CDs and licensing issues... Hopefully someone else will be able to answer that. Maybe you will need to buy retail XP. If you install SP3, you don't need SP1 and SP2 (they are included). There are also few more updates after SP3. If you work on only one computer, I think the quickest way would be to let Windows Update take care of that. One more thing - disconnect the E: drive during initial install so it would not mess up drive letters. After installation has completed, shut down and reconnect it. GL

You can try that too (preferably after checkdisk with or without recovery console), but nothing beats clean install. The "repair install" doesn't touch 3rd party drivers, doesn't clean registry and files from junk that piled up over the years, and malware (or bad drivers) can still survive. It might work, but if it doesn't - you have wasted your time and still have to do clean install. The only nuisance with clean install is that you have to redo your settings all over again... for Windows and all programs (after reinstalling them). But you get to format the drive "properly". If you're hellbent on repairing it, try some forum where users are willing to analyze logs (I'm not sure if you can do it here?) you post from HijackThis, AutoRuns or similar programs. In any case, you should provide more info (computer configuration, SP level, installed programs...) GL

Did the conversion complete OK, uninterupted by blue screen? Although I can't be certain, your issue looks like a driver issue (NTFS.sys is a driver too), but might be another driver... Since you can't go into safe mode, the first step now should be to try and repair the filesystem if it's damaged: Use-Windows-Recovery-Console-from-XP-CD. Use your XP CD. After that, boot normally and try to evacuate your documents/data to another place. I think it would be preferable to format the hard disk and install XP fresh. GL

Is there any other service that's not started? For Windows Installer and few other services it's normal (sometimes) to stop if it has no work to do. GL

UAC is intended to scare people off. And it will succeed only with those who are already afraid. That's MY opinion. GL

As always, make sure you don't make the common mistakes with nLite: - Do not run nLite multiple times on the same source (always start with a fresh copy of the original) - Make sure it's proper XP source version (not OEM - although they work if they are full), and the files inside are not modified before - Make sure you don't have any malware running on the working computer, and if you are sure you don't, temporarily turn off antivirus/antispyware realtime protection while working with nLite - Check if you have unwanted/obsolete files in keep/remove boxes - Take your time. Nothing in your posts indicates you've made them, but it doesn't hurt to check. GL

I had a very bad experience with a Zyxel dongle a year ago. Very bad driver. I did get it to work tho with XP SP2 wireless - but there were always problems. GL

Suspects (in order of probability, grouped): Ethernet (LAN) Wireless Ethernet (WLAN) (not likely) USB Ethernet (not likely) Firewire Network support (not likely) Infrared (very unlikely) TCP/IP Version 6 (not likely?) TAPI Application Support (not likely) Active Directory Services (not likely) MAC Bridge (very unlikely) Map Network Drives/Network Places Wizard (very unlikely) MAC Bridge (very unlikely) Map Network Drives/Network Places Wizard (very unlikely) Protected Storage (not likely) Internet Explorer-Disable Password-Caching (not likely?) Network-Hide PC in Workgroups/Domains (very unlikely) Start Menu-My Network Places-Don't display this item * (see below) Start Menu-Network Connections-Don't display this item (see below) ---- Not many suspects, I've marked everything related to networking, but most of them shouldn't interfere. I think your preset should work. Now, the main thing - on the installed computer, check if the following services are set to automatic and/or have started: Remote access auto connection manager Remote access connection manager Telephony Network connections They are essential for dialup. The following are also invoked usually: Cryptographic services Network location awareness There are also many drivers, like Remote Access Auto Connection Driver and similar in Device Manager - non plug and play drivers, but if they are b0rked, you've got much bigger problems. I think dialup will also be unavalaible if there is no analog modem installed. * - Sometimes you could get away with some of the services set to manual, but when you open Network Connections folder, you'll have to wait some time - depending on the computer, from several seconds to several minutes - before all items (mostly dialup) appear. GL

I guess most of you know what this is about. It's a well known tweak to disable the "file open security warning". It's very popular, even in this board (mentioned in more then 40 threads - and I read them all ). However, all of them are only copy/paste, same as everywhere on the web - and the only credible source (The ONLY description at Microsoft) is very ambiguous. Do not preserve zone information in file attachments This policy setting lets you manage whether Windows marks file attachments that have information about their zone of origin. These zones or origin are Internet, intranet, and local. This policy setting requires the NTFS file system to function correctly and will fail without notice on systems that use FAT32. By not preserving the zone information, Windows cannot make appropriate risks assessments. If you enable this policy setting, Windows does not mark file attachments by using their zone information. If you disable this policy setting, Windows marks file attachments by using their zone information. If you do not configure this policy setting, Windows marks file attachments by using their zone information. Group Policy User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Attachment Manager Registry Subkey HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments Registry Entry SaveZoneInformation Entry Value On (1) or Off (2) So, what value is needed to be set? Positive or negative logic? The "entry value" refers to "policy setting" or "registry entry"? The main thing that raised my suspicion is that I discovered I had originally set the value to 2 (a couple of years ago - yeah, without reinstall ) and never ever seen the warning. I searched the whole registry and found it on two places - both were set to 2). And although I use so many reg tweaks I can't keep track of them any more, the LowRiskFileTypes tweak, which often acompanies this one, is not present on my computer. If it's another (which is quite possible), which one? And as I said, the only critical opinion on this tweak was this one (yeah, old threads are useful too), but the values aren't right, so again I'm suspicious. As I don't have the energy to fire up a virtual machine and install XP SP2 or 3 to do the testing (but will do later on if necessary), I'm asking for any further meaningful info on the subject. B) GL

Thank you for the information, it's very (potentially) useful. Potentially because: - the link you posted is a web installer. As they call it, the .NET Framework Client Profile “offline” redistributable package still weighs 255.6 MB (the link is in your first link). I can't see if the web installer is sufficient. (Tried to read it all, but my eyes hurt). - it can't be installed on Server. - 'PREVIEW' sounds like it's not even alpha. But at least they admit something is wrong with their bloat. About the cardspace: it's available as separate download for XP. Why would someone want to put shackles on him/herself voluntarilly is beyond me, but it's their right. And as we know, Microsoft loves to digitally manage rights. GL

I think AEL is available in nLite (but it's been a while since I nLited Server2k3). I remember I researched a long time when I first saw it, but never found any speciffic info how it works - it sounds like it's automatically adapting, but in real world it isn't. In any case, I ran a couple of years without it and it was never missed. I'm also unsure about the other bugs/oddities, but they are also seen in XP - I think the OS overrides some of them during the install. Maybe it's a matter of combination of removals/tweaks that gives these results, but I think they are not a showstopper - although it's always good to work as intended. Visual effects: maybe it's some issue because they are not defaults in server? Can't check now, but I think they're not. And I don't even pay attention to visual effects - I always tweak them afterwards and never remember what they were. Sorry I couldn't help more. GL

It's possible, I guess that would be a feature of nLite. I haven't used unattended network settings much - out of (superstitious) fear that something could go wrong - I transport my computer all the time and connect it to different networks. glassvial - maybe later, I plan to write something like a guide (mostly to explain some components to unexperienced users and my opinion if they are needed or not for some task - which might or might not be true or complete), but I don't have free time this month (overwhelmed with work). Not to mention I'm a little rusty - haven't nLited in a couple of weeks. GL

Maybe it has lost its registration so now it thinks it's not registered or is trial version - that's when it goes to read-only mode. Another possibility is insufficient permissions of the folder where you're trying to save to - try to "save as" in a good place where you know you have write permissions. Also, maybe it has remembered and defaults to some disconnected network drive or thumbdrive... But then it usually warns you. Really, many things could have gone wrong, but it's weird that reinstall didn't cure them. GL

Yeah, I don't know ANY normal everyday good usage of these services (most of them) and I personally delete many many more, but didn't want to give dangerous advice. Some people get crazy when system restore is disabled, and it may be useful for them, but I know how to recover from most of situations, and SR never did anything for me that I couldn't do myself. And I've learned some dependencies the hard way - when something didn't work months after the installation, and the number of installed programs has already built up to make a reinstall very tedious task... Now THAT's when you start kicking yourself. And yet it's always tempting to delete one more service or component for the (often imagined) speedup or decrease of bloat - that's both curse and beauty of nLite. GL

About the hardware: some cheap devices (yeah I use cheap devices ) have such drivers that rely on OS features to install/work. Or not so cheap. And you don't know what you'll buy in few month's time. Services: I knew you'd ask. Let's see... these are what I consider useless for MY home use: Alerter Beep Driver Distributed Link Tracking Client Error Reporting IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service Indexing Service Messenger Network DDE Performance Logs and Alerts QoS RSVP Quality of Service (QoS) Remote Registry Removable Storage RPC Locator Secondary Logon Service Advertising Protocol Simple TCP/IP Services System Monitor Telnet Terminal Services Text Services Framework Volume Shadow Copy Windows Time (And this is very conservative for me). True, some of them can be useful/needed, but for me I get more benefit from removing them than from using them. GL

Can you save a new document? (start new document, type a few words and try to save). Or are you opening another document and trying to save it? <- if this is the case, see THIS. But, to tell you the truth, it doesn't seem likely. Maybe something with registration (does it say registered?). GL

It's not, it's as quiet as a lamb. It's the OS and/or background programs that are making noise. I don't consider any system fully tweaked before I leave ProcMon open for 3 minutes and don't see anything inside. GL

Just kidding. Welcome to the forum. The thing is, we can't know how you're doing if we don't have your machine in front of us and don't know your usage patterns/needs. However, from just casually reading your ini, I can see you're pretty trigger-happy on hardware which may, or may not be a good thing by itself; but check if you get question marks in device manager; checking this in virtual machine doesn't work because it's presenting itself to Windows as totally different hardware and components. You need to test it on actual hardware (and I've seen many unexpected surprises). Otherwise, tweaks are as good as you need them - every person has different opinion on them; and also I would remove some more services - but that's just me. Experimenting is essential with nLite to find your sweet spot - unfortunately, it's also difficult because you have to start from scratch every time. GL

Is this the SP2 you are you importing? GL

Redownload nLite. It was updated. GL

Glad that all is well. GL

As seen in Microsoft's links here and here, this is potentially useful, but also potentially dangerous tweak to use. So this is more of a hardware question (I know they say Pentium 4 multiprocessor systems), but I've seen mentions of XMM instructions in Athlons too. Some places say XMM is SSE, some it's SSE2... The question is - how do I determine if THESE XMMI they mention are present in my processor? Everest and CpuZ don't mention XMM, I don't know if it means they are absent or the programs don't check. I've downloaded cpuinfo.de which promised to show, but seeing it incorectly recognized my CPU as Pentium 3, I'm very suspicious. Specific processors I ask about are Athlon XP (Barton) 2600 and Celeron 2.6 Northwood (in a laptop, but without fancy features), but it would be useful to know about more types. This registry entry is present in Windows Server 2003 (and I suspect in other Microsoft OSs too). GL