saugatak

@tommyp, I'm not as tech savvy as you are so this is how I interpreted what you suggested: I opened a DOS window and CD to HFSLIP director. Then I typed "IF EXIST FIX XCOPY /H /R /Y FIX\*.* SOURCESS\I386" In my FIX folder I had the following files: 1) Win XP SP2 version of NTDETECT.COM 2) Win XP SP2 version of ntldr 3) notepad.ex_ (made using Oleg's method, replace notepad with win32pad) 4) WINNT.SIF The results were: F:\HFSLIP IF EXIST FIX XCOPY /H /R /Y FIX\*.* SOURCESS\I386 FIX\notepad.ex_ FIX\WINNT.SIF 2 files copied. By see what happens I guess you mean check the SOURCESS folder to see if the latest NTDETECT.COM and ntldr are included? I did that and both are still Win2k versions.

If Guy does the Win2k list, I will help by pointing out any dumb mistakes he makes proofreading.

Is it possible to replace Explorer.exe with ExplorerXP, similar to Oleg's method of replacing Notepad.

@Oleg, don't have the technical knowledge to follow everything you did but it would be incredibly cool to create a welcome.exe and slip it into the FIX folder that created your profile and drivers. I will PM you my email. Thanks. I'd love to take a look at the script.

@Bilou_Gateaux, is there a post SP1 update to Win2kServer that has the latest NTDETECT.COM or ntldr?

@Oleg -- Is there a way to clean out unused drivers? How?

I guess you'd have to get 2k3 Server NTDETECT.COM and ntldr files from SP1 to Win2k Server. Anyone know if a later hotfix updates 2k3 Server's NTDETECT.COM and ntldr files?

Guy, just to clarify, you're talking about replacing Win2k NTDETECT.COM and ntldr with Win2k3 Server NTDETECT.COM and ntldr, correct? @tommyp, since I plan to do a test run soon, I'd be willing to give this a shot. Let me know if you think HFSLIP will cover this?

TommyP, let me know if you've fixed this issue in the latest HFSLIP and I will test it tonight.

OK I'm confused. Is it a Windows update or IE update? IE6.0sp1-KB905495-Windows2000-x86-ENU.exe should clearly go into HF if your're slipstreaming IE6. But what if you're not slipstreaming IE6? Can you drop it from HF if you're using FDV's fileset or going with IE5? BTW, just wondering, but what is the logic on sticking with IE5. Support for IE5 has dropped so no more hotfixes coming from M$. Either you would use IE6 or take out IE altogether with FDVFileset or nLite. Just a suggestion FDV, but would it be a good idea to drop IE5 coverage on your website, simplify things a little?

FDV, the reference to "IE5.01sp4-KB896727-Windows2000sp4-x86-ENU.exe" in the section of your webpage dealing with FDVFiles is obsolete. It should refer to "IE5.01sp4-KB896688-Windows2000sp4-x86-ENU.exe". You refer to the correct IE cumulative update file in the section of your web page dealing with IE5 and IE6. Also, I think that there is an additional IE6 update for IE6 Win2k users only, specifically IE6.0sp1-KB905495-Windows2000-x86-ENU.exe. It's buried in this link here. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS05-044.mspx

@FDV: For Win2kSP5 on your webpage, you still list KB899588 when its's been replace by KB905749. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS05-047.mspx Also, you didn't list KB900725, which replaces KB894320. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/ms05-049.mspx Also, the new IE5/6.01sp4-KB896688 replaces IE5/6.01sp4-KB896727. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS05-052.mspx

are out. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/ms05-oct.mspx TommyP and FDV, any updates to HFSLIP and FDVFileset based on these patches? If you need a tester for these let me know. I'm looking to rebuild with the latest patches.

@FDV, IE.IN_ is a prodigious amount of work. Couple of comments. In your original IE.IN_, you refer to "HKLM,SYSTEM\ControlSet002" registry keys and subkeys. For some weird reason, there are ""HKLM,SYSTEM\ControlSet001" and "HKLM,SYSTEM\ControlSet003" keys and subkeys, but no "ControlSet002" keys and subkeys in my Windows registry, both on this XP machine and on my VM HFSLIP FDV Win2k. I have no idea why the registry skips from "ControlSet001" to "ControlSet003" but that seems to be the case I think a search and replace of "ControlSet002" to "ControlSet003" will do the trick. With that said, below are the keys I found which should be "uncommented" to get rid of OS2 and POSIX: ; POSIX Subsystem ; HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Subsystems","Optional" HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Subsystems","Posix" HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Session Manager\Subsystems","Optional" HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Session Manager\Subsystems","Posix" HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Subsystems","Optional" HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Subsystems","Posix" ; ; OS2 Subsystem ; HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\""OS/2 Subsystem for NT"" HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Environment","Os2LibPath" HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems","Os2" HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Session Manager\Environment","Os2LibPath" HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems","Os2" HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment","Os2LibPath" HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems","Os2" Note: OS2 keys from FDV with "ControlSet002" replaced with "ControlSet003"

@FDV, not meant to criticize your fileset because it's fantastic, especially with regard to the main culprit, IE. The rest are just cleanup. I find your story of the Italian company that gladly used your fileset to rip out IE funny. I'd bet that with IE7 coming on but not being available for Win2k, and M$ history of providing security patches on older systems ranging from late to never, there has to be tons of CIOs/CTOs Win2k thinking . . . "We gotta get rid of IE6 because after IE7, M$ will never update it." I agree that 2 filesets are crazy. My idea was, get rid of everything and then have an optional install INF, if that's possible. It doesn't have to be limited to the above mentioned programs. I just don't know if the "Master Install INF" idea s doable because I don't know the dependencies on the INFs like you do. I'm surprised anyone still uses the OS/2 subsystem, but I probably shouldn't be as the people who use your fileset are probably doing all sorts of stuff that your standard user would not touch. Let us know how you and Oleg are doing on the .chm removal project and if I can help in any way.

@Oleg, I looked at a bunch of the files in COMPDATA. Yeah, it's junk. It's basically error messages for various drivers that won't work/install, haven't been updated for Win2k, etc. If you have a system where you know you don't have any driver errors, I don't think there will be any problems deleting COMPDATA. This might be why COMPDATA is useful in Recovery Console (which I don't use either) as it's looking for the error messages. @FDV, I agree with you, it's not necessary to modify your fileset to remove languages, especially if people around the world are using it to rip out IE on all their computers Also, Oleg's solution of just deleting out the languages you don't need from SOURCESS is just too easy. Re the .inf file to add back stuff, would it be possible to make one master .inf file to add things back? Then you could create a fileset where basically everything was taken out (.chm files, OS2 subsystem, etc.) and then all people would have to do is go through the one master .inf file to add things back. RE POSIX and OS/2 Even if you take out the above files, I think the registry still gets littered with POSIX and OS/2 keys. I say "I think" because I noticed POSIX registry keys on my HFSLIP FDV Win2k VM even though POSIX was taken out. Here are the POSIX and OS/2 registry keys: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OS/2 Subsystem for NT] Delete all keys & subkeys [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment] Delete the Os2LibPath entry [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems] Delete the Optional, OS2 & Posix entries Not sure if there's a way to get rid of these from FDV filesets, but they're not too hard to remove after installation. Also, because the files they refer to no longer exist, they're probably orphaned and a decent registry cleaner should get rid of them.

Here are some links on Office 2003 and the language problem. It appears that if you remove languages, you have difficulties autoupdating Office 2003. The fact that I can't use AutoUpdater doesn't concern me since I am using FDV's fileset. I'm wondering if not having all the languages will prevent manual hotfixes to Office 2003, i.e., download the hotfix, extract it and run it. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...20updates&st=10 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...04entry402004 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=41553

MODIFICATION TO FDV FILESET TO REMOVE OS/2 SUBSYSTEM FDV's fileset removes POSIX files, but leaves OS/2 subsystem untouched. At this point in time, I doubt too many people need the OS/2 subsystem. I think this is the way to do it. I'll test it out tomorrow after the latest Windows updates come out tomorro and include them in my latest HFSLIP FDV Win2k and report back. This link tells you which files need to be removed to get rid of OS/2 and POSIX. http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/memory-1.ars/2 WINNT/system32 directory: OS2.exe, OS2SRV.exe, PSXSS.EXE, OS2SS.exe, and POSIX.exe PSXSS.EXE and POSIX.exe are commented out in LAYOUT and TXTSETUP in FDVfileset, but the OS2 files are left alone. FDV, is there a reason for this? In addition, there are the following files not mentioned in the above article: WINNT\system32\os2\oso001.009 WINNT\system32\os2\dll\doscalls.dll WINNT\system32\os2\dll\netapi.dll I commented out all of the above OS2 files in LAYOUT and TXTSETUP as follows (example taken from TXTSETUP, same files as LAYOUT but numbers differ): [sourceDisksFiles.x86] ;doscalls.dll = 1,,,,,,,8,0,0 ;netapi.os2 = 1,,,,,,,8,0,0,netapi.dll ;os2.exe = 1,,,,,,,2,1,0 ;os2srv.exe = 1,,,,,,,2,1,0 ;os2ss.exe = 1,,,,,,,2,1,0 ;oso001.009 = 1,,,,,,_x,6,1,0 What I found weird is that there are a bunch of files that appear to be related to the weird "oso001.009" file which appear in both TXTSETUP and LAYOUT oso001.007 = 1,,,,,,_x,6,1,3 ;oso001.009 = 1,,,,,,_x,6,1,0 oso001.010 = 1,,,,,,_x,6,1,3 oso001.012 = 1,,,,,,_x,6,1,3 oso001.016 = 1,,,,,,_x,6,1,3 oso001.029 = 1,,,,,,_x,6,1,3 These files look like they relate to the OS/2 subsystem ("6" is the key to OS/2) but aside from "oso001.009" I wasn't able to find any other file starting with "oso" so I left those alone.

@ Oleg. Thanks for the tip. 2 things: 1. I read somewhere in the nLite forum (can't find the post, they have their version of the 76 pages of posts also ) that Office 2003 requires all the languages. Do you know if there's any truth to this? 2. I get deleting unused languages from LANG. I presume WIN9XMIG and WIN9XUPG refer to upgrading from Win95/98/ME editions and that's not an issue for clean installs. I presume WINNTUPG is for upgrading from Windows NT and that's not an issue either, don't need it. I don't know what the role of COMPDATA is, however. What do I lose by deleting it?

Oleg, I like your style The only issue I see is that when you make so many mods to TommyP's and FDV's filesets, and then they come out with new ones, you have to make those mods again. As for the codecs, I prefer to just install the K-Lite codec pac with Real and QuickTime Player Alternative in one go since I use FDV's fileset to rip out WinMedia Player. I think it's cool of FDV and TommyP to listen to our suggestions and if the suggestions make sense and enough people want them, they incorporate it into the next version of the program. That way, fewer mods to the fileset all around.

I've read in other forums that using NTDETECT.COM and ntldr does lead to a faster boot so I'd like to get it in there and give it a shot. @TommyP and FDV, is it possible to just replace the NTDETECT.COM and ntldr in SOURCESS/I386 if the FIX folder method doesn't work?

@Oleg Are you talking abouth the LANG folder in the SOURCESS\I386 folder? Just delete extra ones is your suggestion?

@tommyp It is not a dumb question, but I am 100% sure I put in XP files because this computer I am using now is XP, and I used its NTDETECT.COM and ntldr. I compared dates and filesizes, and the NTDETECT.COM and ntldr in FIX are bigger files and later dates than the Win2k NTDETECT.COM and ntldr. This is the computer I want to rebuild with HFSLIP FDV Win2k because XP is slowing this computer down a lot. I'm doing some more work on FDV's files and I'll run HFSLIP again. I've been researching what files to take out of the OS/2 subsystem (which IMO is completely extraneous) and will post shortly.

Ooops! I am changing it back right now. I didn't touch accessor.inf. Just looked at it now. I agree with your choices there. All of the files you left untouched are useful or have co-dependencies. The only thing I'd do is use the method Oleg suggested to replace Win2k's built in Calculator and Notepad. If you have a real Paint program (which I don't) you might want to take out Paint but that's about it. OK I'll check it out. P.S. I agree with you and Oleg that the help files are not needed and can go. P.P.S. I read in the nLite forum that if you take out extra languages (one of my suggestions earlier), Office 2003 won't work right as it's built to use all the languagues M$ supports.

@FDV, using latest HFSLIP and FDV fileset I believe as now I download the latest just before running HFSLIP. My error log is attached. P.S. I think Oleg's idea to remove help files is a good one. They're pretty much useless and if you can run HFSLIP, you can Google, hit M$ knowledge base and MSFN forums to find the answer you need anyway. ERROR_REPORT.TXT