bizzybody

What? It's not done yet?

What's the latest version for Microsoft's USB Mass Storage driver in Windows 2000? I know I don't have the absolute latest, but niether Windowsupdate nor using the Windowsupdate option in driver update will give me the latest version. How about a download of the latest version "packaged" and attached here?

XP can still print to "local" AppleTalk network printers just like 2000 can. http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...etalk_port.mspx Apparently the protocol was "stripped down" to only support printing. What 3rd party AppleTalk protocols are there for XP, and/or has anyone looked into "transplanting" the full AppleTalk protocol over from 2000 Pro or one of the 2000 Server versions?

The cheap 98SE Update CD Microsoft used to sell would also upgrade Windows 95 to 98SE. That's why MS quit selling it so quickly, they didn't think to put in a version check to make it work only on 98 original.

Why hasn't a thread for this been made sticky yet?

Windows 95/95a has no USB support at all. There's a USB update patch for 95 OSR2.x but it only supports some USB controllers integrated in motherboard chipsets. A few PCI USB cards had 95 drivers available. There is extremely little USB device driver support for 95, so it's nearly useless. (Much like the Mac OS 8.x USB support!) 98 has full support for USB in chipsets and PCI cards, but many companies say their device drivers "require" 98SE. (How about hacking that native USB patch for original 98?)

Any version of Windows will install to any hard drive. You just need the boot files on the drive (on a partition tagged Active) the BIOS is set to boot from.

I go to the sound and multimedia control panel, check the box show volume control on taskbar, click apply then OK. Next reboot the volume control is gone and that box is unchecked. My soundcard is a Soundblaster Live! 5.1 (not Platinum) with the Live! Drive connector but no drive. OS is 2000 Pro.

It's not a problem in 9x. Just rightclick My Computer, click properties and it's the Device Manager tab. No having to go through that _then_ click a button which opens a _different window_. User Interface Hall of Shame http://www.rha.com/ui_hall_of_shame.htm More! http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?UserInterfaceHallOfShame Still more! http://web.archive.org/web/20010420094321/...iarchitect.com/

A client has an HP PSC 1110 printer/scanner. After moving the USB cable connection from one of the root ports on the PC to a hub, Windows quit loading the scanner driver. The printer function works fine. I've uninstalled and reinstalled and used the "cleaner" at HP's site and nothing has smacked Windows 2000 Pro upside the head and told it it's being stupid. The whole thing worked perfectly when first installed. It continued to work perfectly after she installed a Mustek BearPaw USB scanner. It was only after moving the USB cable connection that Windows decided to ignore the scanner half of the HP unit. HP's site says they're "working with Microsoft" on a fix. (And how long is that going to take? Going by the dates on the page, until the 6th of never!) After digging around the HP site, I found a link to a Microsoft "beg us for this hotfix" page about USBSCAN.SYS. MS says that there's an issue with USB "composite devices" that include a scanner. If the scanner is not the _first_ device seen by Windows in such a device, it's highly likely to not work, or work for a while then at some point just quit. That MS page gives a version and file date for the version (or later) of USBSCAN.SYS that corrects the problem, and says it's included with Windows 2000 SP2 or later. (Her PC is at SP4 plus all the later updates.) The USBSCAN.SYS on her PC has a higher version and later date. I've also found (in several hours of searching) that this is a problem with many brands and models of USB printer/scanners. I did find ONE message board with a thread on this problem with HP 1100 series that ended with one poster all happy, saying he'd got it cured after a couple hours on the phone with HP tech support. BUT HE DIDN'T BOTHER TO TELL HOW HE GOT IT TO WORK!!! ISTR that's a violation of Rule 3487 of Tech Support Bulletin Boards. 'When you figure out how to fix it, TELL HOW YOU DID IT!' (If I ran such a board, anyone posting 'I fixed mine!' without telling how and the solution did not come from other folks on the board, would get banned until they sent an 'I'm sorry' e-mail with their fix.)

It doesn't do it during the POST or during Windows' booting, nor does it cause Windows to pause or hang while the floppy is running. It just prevents access to the floppy drive until it decides to quit. Just starts in spinning as soon as Windows is done or almost done booting up. I'll try another floppy drive and see what happens. I've only had this one since I bought it brand new to install in a secondhand Packard Bell 486SX system in the early 90's. I've shifted it to every new or "new" personal PC of mine since. If it's kaputski, I'll pop a lable on it "My very first 1.44M floppy drive". (Sentimental value, y'know? ) It's given me a lot of good service over the years.

That's a good one for MDGx to put on his site. How about in XP?

Is that ALL the files in SP2.CAB?

I'm installing 98SE on a pesky PC-Chips 598LMR board. Installed Windows, the unofficial SP2, native USB drivers, directx 9.0c, an SiS 6326 PCI card because the junky SiS 530 built in video is totally unsupported by any directX past 7.1. All that tricky stuff that'd be impossible for a newbie to get reinstalled properly if the system gets hosed by a virus etc. (I know it'd be tricky because I did something in just the wrong order and hosed IE6's ability to access windows update, amongst other nasty problems. Got it all right the 2nd time!) I want to make a bootable CD that'll nuke and pave the system and restore the whole thing to "factory condition" just like what comes with a HP, Dell, Gateway etc box.

I thought of another one. "Save the bloody settings immediately!" There are so many things on Windows where settings can be changed but are not actually saved until the program is closed or Windows is restarted. This leads to problems when there's a setting that has to be altered to fix a problem, but the pocking thing keeps crashing so the setting doesn't get written because it can't do a normal restart to save the setting change that'll fix the crashing. Ye olde classic 'catch 22'. One more. "Totally ignore this @#%%ing device!" You know what I mean. When you have some built in device on the motherboard and it's "disabled" with a BIOS setting or a jumper, yet Windows still insists on detecting it and attempting to install drivers. You're stuck with this yellow (!) or red X sticking out there in Device Mangler, which just looks bad, and leads the (L)user to trying to "fix" it and mucking up the system. Sledgehammer would "invisible" such devices, blocking Windows from showing them in Device Manager, or preferably from even "detecting" them. (In an ideal world it'd also THWACK the clooless BIOS coder(s) with a #10 clue-by-four for not doing things properly so a disabled device will be completely ignored!)

I keep the floppy drive around because I work on PCs so I'm always needing to make boot disks for updating the BIOS or to put NIC drivers on so I can get the box on the LAN for shoving over all the other drivers.

Any way to shoehorn Windows Installer 3.0 onto 98SE?

As a long time Windows user, since version 3.0, (and DOS since 2.1), I've experienced much of the utterly stupid things in Windows. What I've wished for is what I'd call "Sledgehammer For Windows: Make the @#@%# thing work like it ought!" Sledgehammer would have features like "Nail it down!" that absolutely blocks ALL attempts by _software_ to bring any window or dialog box to the front, accepting only real mouse clicks or Alt+Tab for bringing windows to the front. This would also have the option to force ALL windows and dialog boxes to create a Taskbar button. Another feature would be "HEY! I'm typing here!" that puts a total stop on any attempts by software (ESPECIALLY forms on web pages) to yoink the cursor somewhere other than where the user is entering data. You've all experienced it, you've entered your username and tabbed down to the password field then YOINK you're typing your password in the username field IN THE CLEAR for any shoulder-surfer to see, or you're clear down on the 15th field of a form then ZAPPO! the cursor has been shanghaied back to the top of the page, or just as you hit Ctrl+V to paste into the e-mail body *FWIIIING* it's moved the cursor and you've just pasted a 359 character URL into the To: field. Next is the "New Hardware Install Idi*t". Since Windows 95, Microsoft has proven their "skill" at NOT being able to create a "Wizard" that deserves the name. As you all know, the "Wizard" creates lists of locations in the Registry that point to where drivers are, where the Windows install files are etc. The stupidity that has been kept through so many versions is that the "Wizard" constantly forgets to use those path lists! "New Device found. Duh, where are the drivers?" __"Right here!" "Awright! Dem's da right ones!" "Duh, where are the drivers?" __"Right here AGAIN you $#@@$!" "Otay!" *copy-copy-copy* BONK.WAV! "Duh, where are the Windows xxx install files?" __"Oh bloody #%%@#! The exact same place they've been ever since Windows was installed!!!" "Otay!" *copy-copy-copy* BONK.WAV! "Duh, where are the drivers?" __"AAAAAAAAAGHHHHH! Who wrote this POS 'Wizard'?!" See, a "New Hardware Install Idi*t" would only need to be told ONCE where anything is. The Idi*t would also allow the user to go DIRECTLY to "Have Disk", bypassing all the PnP and scanning and other useless, time wasting garbage. One more fun feature of Sledgehammer would be "Reverse Gear!" which would EXTERMINATE the auto-forward "feature" in web browsers. This would not only stop those annoying website hijacks that zip you off to porn sites, it would also force the browser to make the Back button actually go BACK one page at a time, stopping on any page that bumped you to another page automatically. It would even have a pop-up saying "This page wants to automatically go to another page. Let it do it? / No f-in-way!" Yes, Sledgehammer For Windows would have a BAD ATTITUDE because that's what all these STUPID things have caused Windows users to develop. For those of a more 'sensitive' nature, Sledgehammer could be provided with a 'Milquetoast' checkbox that delivers 'work safe' dialogs. There's more, but I can't think of them right now at 4:29AM Mountain Daylight Time! Please post your own stupid things Windows does, and suitibly "attituded" names for the Sledgehammer feature that'd fix it. Then wouldn't it be nice if someone could make Sledgehammer for real? (Yeah, right, dream on! Never happen! My bet is Longhorn still won't be able to remember where anything is.) Edit: Just remembered a Windows irritation that lasted from Win95 through 2000. NO ICON GRID! Why was it removed from 95 and why wasn't it restored until XP? Sledgehammer would somehow restore the icon grid feature to Win9x, Me, 2000 and NT4.x.

Oh, duh! 2000 Pro. I don't leave my computers running due to this town's electricity supply being rather iffy at times.

It wouldn't hurt to install the USB 2.0 drivers, might fix the motherboard resources problem. Could be resources for the USB 2.0 support, eh? Go to http://www.driverguide.com The old login for everyone still works. Username is drivers and Password is all. Now go to Advanced Search, drop the first box to Names starting with A, then drop to ASUS. Drop the next box to USB then click Search Database to bring up everything there for ASUS and USB. There are some USB 2.0 drivers listed, dunno if any will work with your board. There are two hits for a 1.3 meg file listed as being for 98SE USB2.0

Is there anything with 2000 Pro that'll let me clenup/compact the Registry like is possible with Win 9x? In 9x, boot to DOS mode then enter c:\>regedit /e backup.txt then wait for the command prompt to return as it exports all valid data. Next enter c:\>regedit /c backup.txt then wait for the counter to hit 100%. (If either step fails, time to nuke and pave.) Is there anything similar for 2000 and XP? I have NTREGOPT but it doesn't seem to do very much. I know there's a ton of junk in my registry because there's only 0.00001% of software authors knows what "uninstall" should really do...

But what about it running the drive, with no disk in, at EVERY bootup, for at least five minutes? SOMETHING is attempting to access the floppy, but I haven't been able to ferret out what it is.

Thank you!

Is there a way to force the USB system tray icon always appear when ANY USB device (other than hubs) is connected? Currently it does not appear when I have my Lexar 128meg thumb drive or my USB/IDE cable (with drive attached) plugged in. Thus there's no way to tell Windows to stop the device. I just have to wait until I figure any pending writes are done and yank it out, then Windows bitches at me for not using the icon (which isn't in the systray!) to stop the device. I found the exe it uses for that icon, but with one of these devices plugged in, it won't launch manually.

Is there a way I can make a shortcut directly to Device Manager? Don't tell me "It's just one more click."! It's one more layer of obfuscation, one more window to clutter the desktop, more time and worst of all, MORE ANNOYANCE to get to an essential piece of the operating system. Did MS bury it even deeper in Longhorn?