GrofLuigi

Yes, it will get created. GL

REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ServiceProvider] "DnsPriority"=dword:000007d0 "HostsPriority"=dword:000001f4 "LocalPriority"=dword:000001f3 "NetbtPriority"=dword:000007d1 Sets all of these to dword:1, which is a bad idea IMO. GL

Wooot! You've blown our cover. Of course it's a virus. It will delete files off your hard disk and many programs won't work. GL

Regarding KB936357 - why are people afraid to post direct links (on the Internet, I'm not talking about here) to the exe? Is microsoft already ruling the world? Is their wish above the law? I know for myself I'll never use Windows Genuine Spyware and have blocked all microsoft servers that I know of with firewall and hosts file. I won't download the file, even though i think it could help me with a problem I have. I will not succumb to strip-searching for software that should have worked in the first place. Sorry if this is offtopic. GL

REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\Shutdown] "ShowHibernateButton"=dword:00000001 "HibernateAsDefault"=dword:00000001 *Edit - you need to have Msgina.dll version 5.1.2600.2603 or later / tested on XPSP2, probably would work on Vista too

If any entry has dword "SystemComponent"= 1 , it will not allow uninstalation, and will not be shown in add/remove programs (I'm not 100% sure about this one). GL

This is windows file protection (checking CRCs of INFs?). I have noticed this behaviour also with latest versions of nlite (i.e. when replugging an USB device, with WFP not disabled, keeps asking for the Windows installation disk). I think there should be some checkmark in nLite to allow or disallow this behaviour (strip comments off INFs?). The space gain is not so big anyway (although the coments are mostly useless), but it poses a problem for people who want to leave WFP on. GL

Me too! Cigarettes away... And I smoke a lot, unfortunately. And no wine, actually... GL

Yes, that was the idea, to delete obsolete CAT files*. That's why I started this 'experiment', to make some room. If only I cleaned up my house so often. GL * obsolete = suppose two kbxxxxxxx's install the same dll. The older .DLL is replaced, the .CAT isn't needed anymore (refers to unexistent .DLL), but it isn't removed automatically.

Ehemm... yes and no. I continued to dig this issue and after few more 'deletes' it settled on KB921401 (Portcls.sys). I reinstalled it, and although the file was binary identical to its predecessor, I guess it did something to the 'catalog' and after that there were much fewer errors. And I managed to eliminate (almost) all errors. KB923689 (wmvcore.dll, media player 9) appears invalid even after reinstallation (but I don't mind that). Important is that qfecheck finishes processing. Another, I think related issue is that I achieved this after deleting catroot2 folder (I remember reading this in some kb awhile ago). And when it rebuilds it, there are lots of eventid 623 entries in application log : source: ESENT; category: Transaction Manager; Description: Catalog Database (868) The version store for this instance (0) has reached its maximum size of 16Mb. It is likely that a long-running transaction is preventing cleanup of the version store and causing it to build up in size. Updates will be rejected until the long-running transaction has been completely committed or rolled back. Possible long-running transaction: SessionId: 0x039203C0 Session-context: 0x00000000 Session-context ThreadId: 0x000005BC Google search yielded nothing useful. While I would still like to know something more about it, it looks it it only happens while rebuilding the database and it causes some sort of delay, but doesn't stop processing. In conclusion: Maybe there is still some kind of limit, but yes, I was wrong, there is no hardcoded limit of 200 hotfixes (or cat files). Qfecheck now says 282 KBXXXXXX's current on system (I will post the log if necessary to prove, but wouldn't like to polute the forum too much). And if there was a bug at some time, maybe one of these hotfixes corrected it. GL

Hi, This is something I noticed and could not get around it. First, let me explain my setup: it's XP SP2 with RyanVM Update Pack slipstreamed and also many unofficial (from xable's) or official hotfixes (the installation was made few months ago), which means there was lot of updating of individual windows files going on (I tried HARD not to overwrite windows files with lower version, and I think I succeeded). As a consequence of this, now there are many obsolete .cat files in catroot directory and I thought "let's see what's going on". I fired qfecheck.exe /l /v with an intention to delete obsolete entries (kbxxxxxx) in registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates and the corresponding file in catroot. It worked. BUT! After 200 entries, all subsequent ones appear as "not valid in the system catalog". If I delete some entry above, the invalid kb starts one below... I hope I explained well. So... this appears to be a Microsoft bug. I'm sure it's related to Nlite's "delete cat files" function (which wasn't applied during slipstream), but can it circumvented somehow? Or we are not allowed to install more than 200 hotfixes? Can I delete all cat files and/or registry entries? Will that create any problems? I noticed that recently, although driver signing policy is set to 'ignore' , ALL installations of hardware, even signed ones (just plugging in a usb stick, which worked fine before, into another port) brings up the 'unsigned driver' dialog. Another example, I couldn't use my usb mouse because XP installed a 'HID device' instead of 'HID mouse' (which it installed before) because it thought it was signed and the other not (BOTH drivers come from microsoft - I never had any separate driver for the mouse!) I probably should mention that this installation works perfectly well and there were no problems whatsoever in about half a year I'm using it. GL

Just a glance at how things work over there. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetma...al/default.aspx Don't think it's permitted to paste the text here. GL

That's part of daemon tools. GL

Woot, will there be marriage proposals coming up?! But what I wanted to say, diamonds can be really bad choice for resale if not for other reasons. GL

I'm sure the solution is somewhere within this page, but you must be very patient and read it to the full to find what you need! GL

Delete IoPageLockLimit line. Act as a server = serving files on LOCAL NETWORK to other computers, and that is the primary role of that computer (i.e. you don't do much other stuff on that computer). Since this is not your case, set LargeSystemCache=dword:0 and Size=dword:1 . You will have some memory and CPU power back for ircing GL

I can't wait to see Bill Gates with a shaved head. GL

It should be: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment] "DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS"="1" [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a}] And "idleenable" is from some other place (copy/paste error?). Delete that line. Maybe it was meant to be below [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}000] (see this, but you should take additional steps based on your configuration - work out if it is a controller and which number is it - 000 or 001 or...) [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall] too restrictive for my taste - I meant you won't be able to do much with add/remove programs - but maybe that's what you want. And I just realised I don't use much that too. GL

Quite good reg file; but it depends on what you want to achieve (each person's taste is different). If you ask me, I would restore "BootExecute" to default, in case some drive gets corrupted to have chance to get repaired on startup. Also, is ClearPageFileAtShutdown really necessary? (i.e. you work with such sensitive data that it must be wiped at every reboot?) (and below I see another conflicting ClearPageFileAtShutdown = 0 ). Also, are you running XP (I guess so since you enable prefetcher). In that case, IoPageLockLimit is obsolete and not used. Also, LargeSystemCache can cause big slowdown if you machine isn't actually acting as a server (regardless of how much memory you have). SecondLevelDataCache should be correct for your processor, otherwise you're better off without it. I hope you calculated SystemPages carefully. About NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation, I found out that MANY installers don't work correctly with it set to 1, but your experience may differ. DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS should be string; You have some mess with: [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a}] "IdleEnable"dword:00000001 and [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}000] Also, I think [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall] is too restrictive for my taste, but that might be your goal. LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo already defaults to 0, so I think you should set it to 1 since you included it here (if you want windows to stop tracing potentially broken shorcuts). With ClassicViewState=1, there are some potential side effects (quicklaunch and/or themes tab dissapearing). Check whether that was your intention. The following line is obsolete (since you already did that above): [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32] I think you should not touch MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed and SlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed, they are hardware dependant (who knows, you may have such device). Again, I don't know what is your goal, but I set "NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:000000FF on mine -> No autorun on ANY drive. Ever. Period. If your goal is to disable error reporting, I think AllOrNone=3 is for you (that's what I have in my documentation ). DisableTaskOffload depends whether you have 'proper' (hardware accelerated, full) network card. PerformRouterDiscovery in my opinion is better to be set to 2 (ask for router, and if no answer, stay put). Sometimes you might need it. Set SackOpts to 1 (Selective Acknowledgment = good thing), unless you have a reason not to... Consider reducing the following: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters] "Size"=dword:3 to "Size"=dword:1 unless this computer is a heavy duty server (this value goes together with LargeSystemCache). I wouldn't set NodeType at all (I've seen unexplained problems with it - all computers in the network set to same value, and still can't see each other). Better let windows handle it. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace] should be: [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace] if I'm guessing right. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ServiceProvider] "DnsPriority"=dword:00000001 "HostsPriority"=dword:00000001 "LocalPriority"=dword:00000001 "NetbtPriority"=dword:00000001 has been labelled as myth on the Internet, and I personally agree. No good thing can happen if you let all the dogs out at the same time. I would either leave'em alone, or reorder according to my preference (lower number gets higher priority). [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags\37\Shell] "Links"=dword:00000000 is pointless, since you already deleted it above. And the number will change every time. Again, pay attention to: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] "NoNetHood"=dword:00000001 since you are optimizing for network. Something isn't right here. I think "WheelScrollLines"="-1" is invalid. Why don't you just set the number of lines you want the text to scroll with one turn of the wheel? If you don't want to, I think 0 will work. I see you are disabling many services. If that is your goal, see if Dnscache set to 3 or 4 works for you (the reg tweaks still apply even if the service is not started!) Whooh, it's over... this quick look. About your second and third post: Power - you already set power schemes in your reg file. Try applying manualy what you want, then exporting it... But I remember this was tricky. Same about the size of windows - you already set this in your reg file. I think auto resize is not possible without some third-party program. About the blue colour of right click: that's set in Display Properties > Appearance > Advanced > Selected items. I don't know about registry. Search for it. Block flash in IE: through ActiveXCompatibility (search for it, don't know the exact key). Set only some visual styles active: you already do that. Investigate further. Outlook Express: don't know. I don't use it. RegMon is your friend. GL

Thank you both for your answers. It's a little clearer now. GL

I see MANY people are working hard to find silent switches for application installs or to create silent installers. And MANY MORE are using them. I have one question for you, folks: Wouldn't you like to know if something goes wrong? I'm not trying to pick up a fight here, I'm just amazed when I see all this effort wasted (in my opinion). I cannot understand the logic behind it - how will you troubleshoot if you have a problem? You won't even know you have one. Please enlighten me. GL

I have used this "technique" for a long time, mostly doing "LOG BOOT" with regmon and sorting "NOT FOUND" entries. I am mostly interested in "NOT FOUND" because of the following reasoning: I want to define/order/control Windows what to do, not let it second guess me. There are pretty interesting undocumented values and some "easy" ones, whose purpose could be guessed by their name. The main difficulty is to determine what type of values (DWORD, STRING, etc.) Windows expects - and that could be accurate only by disassembling . Also, I do this multiple times - creating keys Windows asks for, sometimes many levels deep - until I come to the seeked registry value. Some notes to Gosh: 1. I think that "buffer overflows" aren't really useful, this happens when windows enumerates subkeys/values and is perfectly normal. Mark from Sysinternals (RegMon author) had an article about this. 2. I don't remove duplicates, it's an indicator how much Windows "desires" the value. 3. I also don't delete the caller column (which dll/exe asked for the value), sometimes it can give a useful hint. 4. For a quick check of an app, I only use the highlight filter and higlight "NOT FOUND" in red, without writing a text log. With multiple runs, I've managed to "transplant" even some complex applications (think Photoshop!) from one computer to another (or after a format/reinstall of Windows) to the same computer without installation and polution of registry and HDD. 5. I also noticed that many registry values that XP looks for are documented only for 2003. I have no comment, one can think whatever he/she likes. 6. If you (or anyone else) is interested, I can post my collection of findings (although it is not well arranged, and there are some obsolete entries already, and some new ones that I didn't have time to write down). I concur that it would be good to have more brains cracking this one. GL

Yes, I was referring to browsers fighting over control, not corrupting registry. You got some other serious issue there. GL

While i don't have too much experience with Windows server, I know that this registry value (I believe you're talking about IsDomainMaster and/or MaintainServerList) changed behaviour with Server2003 (or SP1). Now it has a value AUTO and TRUE has a different meaning. Many tweak sites still mention the old behaviour, but I remember Microsoft had one KB article explaining this. I can't find it instantly, but I think you shold be able to. Or, your issue might be something completely different. GL

Excellent post! I agree with most (or all) of your point, and if you let me just add one more thing why FAT32 got badmouthed: The constant running of scandisk on Win9X after reboot, but it was Win9X that crashed, not the FAT itself. I rarely saw that one myself on a well 'cleaned' windows. GL