GrofLuigi

On a related note... Blackouts for users of pirated Windows GL *Edit: to put it another way, in 2010 (or 2014, whatever) when XP support ends, will 'support' of WGA end?

I think it should be in: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\System (I don't have anything in there currently to verify.) ProcMon says it's looking for it. GL

It reminds me of an old joke about two programmers: - how's your new job? - fine, fine... - how's the boss treating you? - fine, fine... - what does he pay you? - 1000 $ - that bastard! Couldn't he round it up to nice even number like 1024 ?! GL

Oh yeah, totally forgot about that. When some of Windows' device drivers (i.e. portcls.sys, usbehci.sys, usbohci.sys... don't know the exact name, but they are related to USB and audio) are updated through a) hotfix B) service pack c) windows update, they are not actually replaced untill you uninstall all devices that use them. This is different from, if, for example, tcpip.sys or other Windows driver/service is updated - then it's replaced immediately (or as soon as possible - at next reboot). Never mind, glad you fixed it anyway. GL

No problem here for several years - NF2 Ultra (motherboard Soltek FRN2 something) with XP SP2 (I think SP2 is the minimum for WORKING USB2 drivers). No special drivers installed. In fact, I could swear the chipset behaves 'smart' - with only one device plugged, it seems like whatever port it's plugged in, that port becomes "Enhanced" (that's USB2). (I have not tested this too much, but the transfer rate is always good). RJARRRPCGP, several suggestions (although I'm sure you already did some of that): 1. Check BIOS settings carefully 2. Plug the device in (every) other port 3. Verify in Device Manager you have at least one "Enhanced USB controller" 4. Combine 2. and 3. - keep plugging the Usb stick in different ports and in Device Manager apply "View Devices by connection" - find out which physical port is "Enhanced". HTH GL

Did you know your wish has just come true few days ago? GL

Seventh: Avast might be interfering Eight: As far as I can see, there is no problem with Common Controls in WinSXS (Visual C) except that it's prefetched. Clean up prefetch directory? (Others would disagree with this). GL

But there are problems with your audio devices (in the log, the app spends most of the time tinkering with audio): You have multiple wave, wave1, wave2, mixer, mixer1 entries (all wdmaud.drv) HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32\ They sometimes occur from multiple re-installations. Clean them up CAREFULLY and let there be only one of each of the above (UNLESS you have multiple sound cards! Then disregard the above!) There were already problems reported with this, and no less than with Adobe - Macromedia Flash. In any case, try unchecking "use only preferred audio devices" in Sounds control panel. Just in case, it might help. You can return it later if you want. Second: clean your temp folder (C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\Ustawienia lokalne\Temp) Third: Windows/IE7 might be disalowing the ActiveX control (seen as it tries to load Feature_XXX from the registry). Check control panel/internet setings/advanced; allow active content to run from cd... as well as IE -> manage addins; if you have the patience, check the Zones settings) Fourth: I still think it isn't healthy how much language bar is interfering; but OK; and just to let you know, Logitech driver and printer driver (I guess HP) are also involved a little (but unlikely that they would cause this problem). Fifth: Is H:\ the CD drive? Maybe some part of it is unreadable? Have you tried copying it entirely to some folder? There were some problems noted with Macromedia projector on CD . Sixth and last: You still didn't provide full log (including before app start and after app end). GL

I've seen this error quite often on old motherboards. It's nothing to worry about (XP has alredy blocked BIOS's access to potentialy dangerous ports, and these EventLog entries are only a record - notification of what has been done. And quite often there is no BIOS update for these old boards. GL *Edit: add more links: This and this. As I said, if you can't update your BIOS, there is nothing else you can do, but don't worry, everything is working OK. * Second edit: wow I got pwned

Hi, There is one interesting value S2003 looks for in the registry. I've always wondered what's it for, but it's not documented ANYWHERE. DowncaseSPNBecauseApiOwnerIsTooLazy (and quite humorous too). (SPN stands for Service Principal Name). It's trying to read it many times (verified with ProcessMon). Maybe you could try it if you want, if you think it applies to your case. I'm not at the computer with S2003 at the moment, but will be in several hours. Let me know if you want to try it, so I'll dig up the location (I think it was in services/tcpip/parameters). GL

Sometimes. What I do is - tweak them initially according to my ideas, then reboot a couple times (when installing programs etc.) and see if some of the services set to manual have started. Then, either make them automatic or disable them (if undesired). But yeah, generally, most of them are set to manual in the end. It's true that some of them can't start for themselves, but that's their problem. GL

Oops, DigeratiPrime answered while I was writing. I think that's not important (it just queries for the existence of the key, not asking for the name really. On my computer, there is no Default value in any of the DeviceClasses\{...} and it works fine.) I agree. This is a problem. It should be there.So now you have two pieces of advice. GL

You did fine. From what I see, language bar is interfering. Here's my advice: Don't touch msctfime.ime. Disable the language bar at least temporarily. If you need it, you can turn it back on later by reversing the procedure. (If you follow that guide, you need also to check "Turn off advanced text services". Reboot. If you need the language bar, you can turn it back on later by reversing the procedure. Or, if you prefer link from Microsoft, here it is: Frequently asked questions about Ctfmon.exe. (msimtf.dll is closely related to cftmon.exe). Skip Step 1 in the article, do the Step 2, and Step 3 only as last resort. (don't mind that it talks about office, it's running all the time on Windows). Note: It is still possible that there is other cause (it IS accessing the audio device, for example. Also there are references to the VB libraries). I would have known definitely if you posted the log from before the app start (enable capture in ProcMon, then start the app). It would be much longer, but I'm willing to analyse it for you if you want. But first, try the above. GL

I've seen such delays, but not so drastic (5 mins max). From my experience, the most often encountered things would be (in order of probability): 1. For small delays, up to 2 minutes, Group Policy synchronous processsing (usually GPOs in several places - per user, per machine, etc... and are waiting in each other). If you set it to asynchronous whereever you can (and there are lots of places), you would get rid of the delays, but there would be all sorts of other problems with subsystems not ready yet for what's asked from them. 2. Services waiting on each other - it can be just one. Besides the essential ones (like PnP, RPC...) I often find other less obvious culprits for the delays (Telephony (if there is no analog modem in the computer installed in the computer), WMI, Event System, NLA...) - other services are waiting for them a long time before they give up. 3. See this (but it shouldn't be so drastic as in your case). 4. Overzealous antivirus. 5. Wireless (OK, you said it isn't). The above are for the client computer. Besides these, I would also suspect the server (yeah, but where - there is so much to check... I know.) HTH. GL

Another alternative, if needed. GL

Welcome! Attach (not copy/paste, it will be too big) in this thread your Last Session.ini (which can be found either inside the folder where nLite is installed or in the CD) and we'll see what we can do. GL

You're funny, but still... GL

ImgBurn from me too. The author has long-time experience with CD/DVD burning. The program is mature and very powerful, although it may not appear as such at a first glance. GL

I can second that. I replaced it and it identified wrongly some common formats that worked fine before. GL

I feel quite the opposite. One big reason is stability - hundreds of hotfixes between SP2 and SP3. There are very few new things (most notably the networking services) introduced and I can live with them because: 1. I understand they are needed for Vista connectivity 2. (In theory) In the meantime, Microsoft has learned new ways of doing things, so let's give them a chance. 3. No (massive) errors reported with them so far. 4. They can be nLited away (not all of them currently, but I hope that will be improved). So XP SP3 is a winner in my book. GL

I'm pretty sure it can't be done in IE6. Don't know about IE7. Any half-decent download manager should have (has) that option. I can guarantee FlashGet has. GL

You did well in this part. Here you should have found "terminal services" and "remote procedure call" in the same place you found "Fast user switching" and did the same as above.GL

Snipped to the extreme, just to show you what you're saying. If it works, then PC isn't idle.That's kind of pedantic - when your system has had nothing to do for a period of time, it starts to do something proactive, and it does not use all idle time to constantly shuffle data from disk into RAM.I replied short because there were many things to reply to, but anyway I think you caught my idea. Of course some housekeeping must be done, but I disagree that the computer (CPU, RAM, HDD) has to work all the time (as said, to make my money's worth). Also, I think I was clear on my opinon on prefetching. To give another example, I don't use indexing service(s) because my stuff is organized. When I need to search, 99% of the time it is in one folder with less then 100 items. Very rare, I search in 3-4 folders at once. And for that 0,01% when I do a full all-drive search, I just start it and get over with it when it's done, which never takes too long. But If I happen to see my hard drives grind all the time while the computer is idle (or half of the time, or quarter of the time), I would be very annoyed. But that's just me. Anyway, I think that indexing is extremely wasteful even for the average user (if such a thing exists). The disorganized one. Not knowing (or wanting to know) basic characteristics of file types or the filesystem. Why don't you turn it off, you say? Well I can and I do, but that's what my complaint about Vista (insert: every new generation of Windows) is about - less and less things are controlable. Maybe Indexing Service is switchable today, but won't be tomorrow. And a semi-example: in a fresh Vista install, at friend's, I saw around 10 scheduled tasks. (semi-example because I don't remember them exactly.) IMHO at least 7 of them were completely unnecessary. Bureaucratic stuff. Idle time can be put to good use in many ways (cancer research/distributed computing etc.) but this and similar (in my opinion unnecessary) tasks are imposed onto 99 % of the users that don't (care to/need to/are afraid to) tweak. GL

1. FileMon or ProcessMon. 2. Here 3. About the Director itself GL

Just replace the last few words with "there is no way to achieve fuel efficency" or "such a thing doesn't exist" and you'll see what I'm trying to say. Yes I want to buy a car with fuel efficiency but they sell me a car with a CD player.GL