DonDamm

Maybe he's thinking about sending it to someone who might not install it for a month or two. I did that, so I understand. Of course you slipstream to make t as up-to-date as possible, but one of the things you do it for is to save time in the future. If you are constantly preparing new versions, then you're not saving much time at all. I like to keep up-to-date and fiddle, but I know many don't. They want to set it up and then only use it when they need it. If it auto updates, all the better. Now, I thought of a way you might do that, but it is not completely clear in my mind yet. First you have to be connected. Second you'll need to set the Automatic updates in the security center set to On. Then, you should be able to invoke the service through RunOnceEx on first or even second reboot. Now, offhand I can't think of how to set the AutoUpdates to On, but I'm sure there is a way. If I find it, I'll try to get back to this thread! ) Cheers,

You are correct that the Linksys and others have limited memory. In multiple tests the same slowdown in connection speed has been observed in many different configurations. With as little a ten windows open the thing became almost unusable. Particularly with VPN connections. The best one on the market right now in terms of memory (it has twice what the others have) it the one from Netgear. The WGT624 and the WGT624U are the fastest ones I know that can handle the number of connections you mention.

Nothing to flame. It's good advice. You might consider posting you RunOnceEx.cmd and your cmdlines.txt, at least the relevant portions. sometimes it really is just a misplaced comma or more commonly quotation marks!! Anyway, make sure you test the install in attended mode. That means have the files available where they should be and then run the command from RunOnceEx in the Run box. If everything goes the way it should, it will run from the UA disk. If not, then you have to trouble shoot your command, the transform file, etc. First try it without the transform file and see if it starts it. (In a VM this should be no problem). Then do the next thing up to where you are using the full command. that should help reveal where the block is. Hope this helps. )

Hmmm. You could try temporarily disabling your AV or stopping the service while you make the changes. In fact. just swpping out the list file seems to me to be a very clever approach and easily restorable. What's the problem with that??

Very handy app and one that will become more important as time goes on! Thanks for your efforts jdgordon ) Much appreciated.

Whatever I have isn't enough!! I've two 120s, a 160 and just added a 250. I'm thinking of switching to an array of 300s. I keep all current programs and and various OS installations available on the network. I tend to keep both an English version and a German version of OSs like Server 3003 in std, Web and Enterprise, WinXP home and Pro, etc, Mandriva, Ubuntu, yada yada. Then there are the virtual machines of which I normally have six or seven at any given time. Then there are the images for copying, install files for unattended setups and the iso images which are made from them. Pr0n doesn't even enter into it! Of course, I need my fix of English speaking TV shows like CSI, 24, Numbers, and the like. I usually get the whole season before I back it all up to a DVD. Nope. I'd fold up and die with just 40GB. My OS and programs take up about 8 GB and the back up image fits nicely on one DVD.

Okay, here is what you do. Create a 32x32 pixel icon file (I use Microangelo) with a transparent color and name it rcycle.ico and save it in Windows\System32 folder. Right click somewhere on your desktop and choose Properties. Click the Destop tab, then click the customize Destop button below. Highlight the Recycle Bin by clicking on it and hit the Change Icon button. Navigate to your new icon file and then click okay. Do the same thing for both the Full and Empty Recycle Bin icon. Back out and apply. Your Recycle Bin should now be invisible! Now, go to your registry and search for rcycle.ico. It should show up in this key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon] There are three entries there. Export this key to a .reg file or include it in your RegTweak file. Now make sure you put the rcycle.ico into your $oem$\$$\System32 folder for your unattended install and Bob's your uncle. You can address the name underneath the Recycle Bin by another Reg Tweak in the same key, but one level up from the DefaultIcon folder. Enter something like a period, or you could use Alt+160 which will give you a completely blank space. (enter that into Notepad and then copy it if you like) [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}] @=" " Now your Recycle Bin will still be there if you want/need it, but it won't show!!! ) Hope this helps.

Have you tried the Gentee website and gone to Support? Just ask them what the switches are for a silent install. I'll bet they'll tell you.

ripken204, that is a strange thing to say! Afterall the built in defragger is coded by Executive software and infact is the same engine without all the options you get in Diskeeper like scheduling and the performance map etc. Have you ever done any tests concerning access times before and after, stuff like that? If you did, I think you'd be surprised. Perfect Disk is a fine defragger if you want to pay for one. Actually, you can use the native defragger from the command line. I do that during installs, in fact.

Sory I don't have anything more to add. I still use SAV v10 and am quite happy with it compared to the Norton counterparts. As for the firewall etc, I rely on an older version of Zone Alarm (4.5) and use a hardware firewall in the router. What you say is ironic, but seems to be true about greater securtity. If your client has a hardware firewall, then you are probably okay with that configuration. Otherwise, I'd think I'd remove it or disable that portion and use another product. The Symantec Firewall is an incarnationof the old AtGuard firewall which was a good one, but a pain to configure properly. My feeling was that Symantec never really managed to get that part right and document it - as you've found out.

Pirate®, you've had a bad infection of a number of different worms on that machine. There is no way yu can be sure you got them all or that the files they affected are in their former state. That means there is a good chance the system is still infected with something. Just becuase an AV program doesn't see anything doesn't mean it isn't infected with something. Almost everyone here has recommended a reinstall for a very good reason. It is good that you were able to find a way to open the registry editor and to fix the association problem. However, you still had a very nasty situation. I noticed that your first screen showed 28 processes running, but only six were listed. Something is very wrong with that. Very wrong. I could never trust a system like that. If this is your machine, then you can manage it yourself, but if it belongs to your folks, then maybe there is another issue to deal with like your not wanting to tell them about the problem. Best advice: Tell them anyway. If you want to tell them there was sopme instability and that the only way to address it is to install anew and apply all service packs and updates, then do that. As noted the only way you could have that kind of infestation is to have run unprotected and visited sites with driveby downloads (there are many of them whether porn, games, crack sites, or whatever). You need to learn how to avoid those ActiveX controls and how to safely go to the sites you visit. Firefox would help there for now. Exposing a an unprotected computer to the Internet is like skiing without safelty bindings - not to bright. The statistics are that an unprotected machine will get hit within 5 minutes. I've experienced it in less time.

Not trying to be flip, but why are you using this program if it is giving you trouble or if it is not doing the job?

To make it even more confusing... they haven't put "a" on the ftp servers yet even though they reference it on the web site. No worry. Just wait a day or two.

Batch files are much more reliable than trying to include a command in the RunOnceEx. Instead of cmd /C RD /S /Q %systemdrive%\install create a cleanup.cmd file with the RD command in it and then call the batch file. I call my batch file directly from the CD drive, so instead of %systemdrive% I use %cdrom% and use a For statement with all drive letters at the beginning of the RunOnceEx batch to identify the correct drive. This seems to work well and allows the cleanup of *any* stray folders or files on the system drive. In fact, check out Fritz_saxi's flash file for credits (in the MSFN forum) which you can run at the end during that final cleanup and 60 second wait before reboot. It's brilliant! )

Yup. It's not yet on the ftp servers, either in the US or in Germany.

I just tried it out and I think it's great! It does the job, looks very professional, and allows acknowledgement to be presented. I just found a 49 sec version of the original StarTrek intro which fits perfectly! Good work, Fritz_Saxi! Thank you for making the effort. Oh, you forgot to put yourself in the credits!! )

@technoguy - Windows 2000 and XP can use portions of more than one physical disk to appear as a single "volume". This is also done in some RAID configurations. This type of "volume" is referred to as a "dynamic volume" and of course, requires some management to keep everything straight. That management involves some disk space and incurs extra steps in access. That is referred to as "overhead" because it is an inherent part of the process which is necessary and can't easily be changed. ripken204, it sounds like you've got it under control. )

Hmm. That's a bit more than normal. It is quite common for there to be some "cushion" at the end of an NTFS partitition. This is to allow for the creation of a dynamic volume and the overhead involved. However, it is usually smaller than that. I wouldn't worry about that small difference. Just keep it as unallocated space. Just make sure the C drive is primary and ACTIVE! Otherwise your boot files will end up on the D: drive and cause other problems, though it will let you install.

Just got back from a week up in Germany fixing some poorly configured Dell machines! I'm looking forward to trying this out! )

Hmmm. Sorry if you took offense. I didn't mean to imply you were an id*** at all. It just seemed that you hadn't spent much time with the guide or if you'd read it you had just skimmed through it. Most of us find that the information is pretty right on if you follow it and that, in general, they have tested it and found out that it is the "best" way. That doesn't mean that there aren't other ways, of course, and there are several other methods which even have their own forum sections here including Xplode, WPI, etc. Any time spent researching any of them would reveal that T-12 doesn't show up for Office in any of them. In fact, logically, you'd want to wait until the OS is completely in before you start program installations. That's why most things get done in RunOnceEx which was designed for that purpose. T-12 is okay for things like user account creation and some reg tweaks (not all), and of course, setting up RunOnceEx. I use it to install VMware tools when I'm testing because I hate running into the confined resolution of 640x480 which it starts with. In general though, program installations which make changes in particular registry hives and rely on the built in OS to provide some services are better off running after the OS is done installing. Office is a bit of a pig and I wouldn't want to interrupt the OS install to put it in. Also, you don't have to run from a batch file as you can do it from RunOnceEx. The Tranform file is really just a series of answers to the configuration of the interface and it doesn't have everything (I still haven't figured out where to make the Toolbars on two lines instead of the default one). Don't forget you can also copy over a normal.dot with any tweaks in that along with macros.

That sounds like the erstwhile Orrin Hatch of Utah!! He actually advocated that destruction of people's data or even hardware damagingj code!! Really. You should've heard him. He really has no clue. sigh.

This is from the FAQs: How to bypass Save As dialog box ,or make unattended installation? The Custom Edition supports those features. So, you might try using a 7zip or rar install.

The Run- folder is just the place msconfig puts the keys so they can be later restored. It is a clever trick which I use often when disabling keys that I might want to restore later. That way they don't get really deleted just made non-functional.

Have any of you tried Protowall? It happens to be a very good one. I'm still using ZA 4.5 on my main machine. early 5.1 and 5.1 versions had some issues that seemed to get better with later versions. Once you get it set up it just does what it's supposed to. In general it is user friendly. Sygate is fine too. I don't trust the ZA AV. I've always done well with the corp version of Symantec. Version 10 is great if you turn off the auto startup scan! In truth, this is a moving target, so check all the reviews and try a combination for a while. Then try another one. You'll soon know what suits you. Kaspersky gets high marks, but I'm not ready to switch.

The word "catalog" here just refers to files which contain a list of expected resources and where they are. IF a catalog file is missing, then the setup doesn't know what to look for, where it is located, or what it should do with it. So, it stops.