Evan

Invisible, thanks for the suggestion. I already use UltraVNC for remote control and file transfer. The file transfer functionality in particular is pretty crude but gets the job done. Windows folder sharing is by far the simplest and most elegant way to share files however... in theory at least. Mr Snrub, thanks again for your input. I suspended my testing when I realized that mapping a folder (any folder) as a network drive solved the problem. I didn't have much time to do further tests. I wish I had time to investigate this issue further and do in depth testing. I'm afraid I might even have to try with fresh windows installations on both machines if I ever hoped to reach the bottom of this. But this is out of the question at the moment since I am in the middle of a heavy work period. I am going to make sure that the "folder mapping" workaround is indeed a solid and permanent one, I am hoping it is so I can focus on other things that matter more. If not, I will report back with more tests at some point. What baffles me is that noone else seems to know anything about this specific problem. Thank you for your time! PS. Both PCs use Grisoft AVG Free Antivirus

Thanks for the reply. Something very weird happened. I decided to try what you suggested. I took a shared folder and mapped it as a network drive on the 2nd pc. Previously I could not see the contents of this folder (it is actually a subfolder inside of a shared folder). When I mapped it, I could see the files in it from windows explorer! I did some further experimenting.... As soon as I map any remote folder as a network drive on the 2nd PC, it seems I can then view all (or at least more of) the shared files. I do not know why, it seems very strange and looks like a bug in windows file sharing. If this does indeed prove to solve the problem (I need some more time with this) then I am a happy man. Thank you very much for your input. Hopefully someone can share a similar experience or some more insight on this.

Hello, I will try and be quick and to the point... I have 2 Windows XP Pro based PCs. They are networked (usually WiFi but also tried on ethernet). PC 2 gets internet access through PC 1 and internet connection sharing. I have shared several folders in PC 1 which usually contain numerous files & subfolders. It appears to be working fine but here's the weird part, the 2nd PC does not see all the shared files! For example, I share a folder, I go to the 2nd pc, it sees *some* of the content, but not all! Without any apparent reason. No it's not hidden files. I am expecting to share a folder and all the contents inside, both subfolders and files to be available on the second machine. I have tried refreshing, rebooting, using the home networking wizard etc. Both PCs are on the same GROUP. Both PCs have different names as they should have. Both PCs are on SP2 + latest updates. What am I missing? Oh, I tried disabling the guest account, re-enabled it, no difference. Do you have any ideas? Thank you in advance!

*SOLVED* I have given explicit drive letters to all partitions in my system from XP's Disk Management. (Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management). Windows apparently stores and remembers the letter assignments for each disk/partition. When I first attached the new HD to partition and format it, I did so from my old windows installation. Then I somehow assigned specific drive letters to it. When I tried to boot from it, windows remembered those drive letters and the first partition was getting a letter different than the default C. The solution... Before imaging my old partition, I made sure to remove all drive letter assignments for all drives (except the boot drive which is assigned automatically by Windows) from the Disk Management panel. After I make the transfers and boot succesfully from the new HD. I can then reassign the letters as I wish. I hope this helps people with similar problems as mine.

Hello, to the point... I bought a new larger HD. I partitioned it, formatted, and transfered my data onto it, leaving the first partition blank for the OS. I have Windows XP installed on the 1st partition of my old HD and I wanted to transfer it as-is to the new HD. I booted from an acronis true image CD, made an image of my old Windows XP partition, and transfered it to the new one (the 1st on the new HD). The new partition is larger in size but acronis did not complain and all seemed to go well. Then, I disconnected my old HD and connected the new one to the same SATA cable (to avoid any potential device ID mismatches) and went on to boot into Windows. This was the "cleanest" way I could think of of doing this... but it failed to work. Windows freezes in the Log-on prompt. I have installed Recovery Console as well and it appears as an option in the windows boot menu. That also fails to load (freezes). Safe mode freezes too. And I have a sysinternals registry defragmentation tool running on every windows boot... it gives me an error message about paths and something about "registry not found"... so that's the only error message I can use as a guide. I have not changed any other devices in the system. I have not added an extra HD, I simply replaced the old one with the new one, on the same location, same SATA cable. How could paths have changed? Are drive letters embedded into the HDs themselves or does windows assign them at runtime? I am very confused and I would appreciate any insight and any suggestions on how to go about doing this OS transfer... or I am gonna have to do a complete reinstall (a week of total pain and agony) Thanks in advance!

One question... I have made an unattended CD without deleting any of the original files. I have only altered the winnt.sif. The disk will not display the recovery console nor allow me to repair an existing XP installation. This is my only problem with my unattended disk. Do you know how I'd fix that? It must be an entry in winnt.sif, can't think of anything else.

Hello, I am by no means new to programming. I used to do a lot of programming mostly with Java in the past. I have given up for a while, and now I am looking for a new language to allow me to build applications for Windows. I'd also like some sort of a GUI editor/environment so I can easily design the UI components. I'd like to go for C++ as it is very popular (I've only done some basic Linux C programming). I can't really afford Microsoft's Visual C package. I was wondering if there is something else out there that will let me do the job. I have seen some freeware packages but I haven't tested them yet. I prefer something not bloated, preferably conforming to standards, and the UI editor is a very important part for me also. Thanks for any insight.

Just a sidenote... Make sure the Task Scheduler service is not disabled. I think BootVis (and some other apps) rely on it to work.

My personal favourite is Media Player Classic. It's free and constantly updated, you can do a search for it in www.softnews.ro Do you remember the old media player 6.4? The one with the stock Windows interface. Well this one is based on that, but adds tons of extras under the hood (i.e. custom zoom modes, pan&scan for widescreen videos, codec configuration etc). Basically, the main difference in all those players is the interface and the functionality. They all use the system codecs and drivers to display the videos so all of them do the same thing. I personally prefer a player with no eye candy, one that is quick to use and goes easy on system resources. If you are like me, then do check out MPC.

Nope, all the original directories are intact.

Thanks for the reply. This takes care of the first part of the problem. How about the 2nd?

Step 1: Go to www.xteq.com and get the awesome and free X-Setup tool Step 2: This tool has a unique feature, it allows you to tweak tons of registry settings for Windows alright, but it also features a record function. This means that it records your tweaks in a text file. By renaming that to .REG, you can instantly import your favourite tweaks in the registry. This way you can create your own registry tweak presets, ready to use.

When installing from the original WinXP Pro CD... you have several options in the beginning like: * choose partition to install, and format if necessary * repair an existing installation (if found), use a recovery console, etc I have created my own WINNT.SIF file to provide with a full unattended setup BUT... I'd like to allow me to have the above options available. I think I managed to make the 1st one semi-available (i.e. choose installation location). But not the 2nd one. Anyone knows how to enable this? Thanks

There had been mentions in the past that SP1 degraded system performance for some people. There was a fix released (Q815411) but it's not publicly available and I think it doesn't address the problem sucessfully. I am using a Windows CD with SP1 slipstreamed into it and I would like to know more information on this subject. Is the SP1 slowdown real? Which users/software/hardware does it affect? Is it severe? And, is there no solution so far other than to avoid SP1 altogether?

The MSFN.org unattended guide recommends the / based switches on the hotfixes. I have seen some posts in here which use - instead of /. I was wondering what is the verdict on this one? Which is the best way to go?

Hello. I am currently setting up my new Windows XP installation on another machine. I was wondering if there was an easy way to transfer my network settings (e.g. dialup connection) from this machine (also running WinXP). Perhaps having all the settings in a single file. Thanks

I solved the problem eventually! **** that took me the best half of the day. I renamed/copied the file, but this time in safe mode. I would swear I had tried that one before multiple times. Something I must have missed... Uhm, now how do I make sure, double-check that Windows File Protection is active? I might have messed up any registry entries concerning the WFP in the process and I need a way to test.

I used the $$ method initially, but I made a mistake, I didn't place the dllcache directory inside the system32, I put it alongside it (duh). So the file in dllcache didn't get updated. All the rest attempts have been made on the installed Windows. I renamed the original file into uxtheme_old.dll, and pasted the hacked version over to system32 and dllcache.

A small mistake on my unattended setup caused the uxtheme.dll file to not get copied to the dllcache directory during setup. So, I tried doing this manually after Windows was installed. I disabled the Themes service, and replaced the file both in the dllcache and system32 directories. I also turned off WFP via the registry (not sure I succesfully turned it back on, how do I make sure?) before replacing the file. Next, I downloaded some visual styles from themexp.org. I placed them in the windows\resource\Themes directory. Each style in its own folder, as instructed in the readme. And guess what, when I try to select a theme in the Appearance tab, I only see the 3 options that WinXP defaults with. So... what could I be possibly doing wrong and how do I find out? I am kinda frustrated! Thanks for any advice.

Misunderstanding... I am not trying to replace the resources inside the files. All the icons in IE and Explorer, you can customize which will appear (from a predefined list) and in what order and so on. For example, the old CUT/COPY/PASTE icons are missing from the default installation but you can put them back (as I prefer to do). All these settings (and many many more) I need to make them default for each new user account.

I have used a bunch of registry settings to customize the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch. It is however pointless to tweak HKEY_CURRENT_USER because these settings will only apply to the first account. I have read somewhere that you can create a user account, customize it the way you want, and then somehow save the settings and be able to transfer them to other accounts. I am trying to customize mostly User Interface stuff (like the icons that appear in IE and Explorer, in what order etc.). Now, what if I did the above manually, how could I then place the necessary files in the unattended CD and replace them with the default options Windows uses whenever a new account is created? Anybody knows anything about this?

Hello, I am having a small problem. Normally, I only have 1 user account on Windows XP Pro. This makes Windows automatically log me on when I boot the system. In my unattended test setup, I only install the following items: 1. DirectX 9.0b 2. .NET Framework v1.1 3. Windows Media Player 9 4. Windows Hotfixes After reboot however, Windows now takes me to the Welcome & LogOn screen and waits for me to log on. Is this normal? How can I change this? Thanks

Thank you for the info... The only extra themes I have seen available for the new XP interface, seem to require some additional programs to be installed, like StyleXP. Are there really new themes out there which will install on a stock WinXP installation and will change all the graphics in the UI? Also, do I need to turn off system file protection to install the uxtheme.dll file?

There is a uxtheme.dll file mentioned in the guide. What is it? Do I need to install it? And do I have to turn off Windows File Protection beforehand? Thanks

"Q815411 Heap Algorithm Update for Atypically Large Heap Requests" I did a quick search for that patch in Google. Seems to cause some major performance issues for some users which is probably why it is not widely available. It is probably a good idea to stay away from non-officially released hotfixes, unless you absolutely need them. And in that case, I would not personally put them in my unattended batch script, you can always install them separately.