TheFlash428

Are you sure the key provided to you is the actual hex code? Some manufacters support what is known as a "passphrase", or somthing similar that is translated to the correct security code. If the code you are entering is truly a hexidecimal code, then you may be able to tell because there should be no letter higher than "F" (A,B,C,D,E, and F only). If there are other letters, you may actually be trying to enter a passphrase, and you would need to get the hexidecimal code it translates to. It may also be possible that the wireless router is using a level of encryption not supported by your wireless card(?).

Go to command line and type: netsh interface ip set dns /? netsh interface ip set wins /? To get a list of commands you can use to configure DNS and WINS from command line. Once you figure out the parameters you need to change your settings, you can put that in a batch file to run as a login script. I would provide further assistance, but I have never actually tried to do this myself...

yeah, when updates are installed, it pretty much always creates a restore point--simply restore your system to a point prior to the update installation. I have done this before with success, I have even restored an SP2 computer back to SP1a before, and it worked just fine.

I understand that, but... many of the devices that used to install automatically, like USB mice, keyboards, and many of the USB flash drives--but now they do not, they wait for user intervention. This wouldn't be a big deal, but some of our PC's only have USB for input devices (no PS2 ports), and what happens is when we build a PC from an image, we find ourselves unable to log into the computer because the mouse and keyboard do not work (unless the exact same model mouse/keyboard are used and plugged into the exact same USB ports they were on during the image creation). Previously, on the exact same model computers, after an image would be installed we may have to wait a few minutes, but this hardware would install automatically, thus allowing us to then log into the computer, which is why I thought it may have been some kind of update that broke the automatic hardware installation(?). I have even tried turning on "auto-login", but even this does not help because there are no available input devices to click "next" on the "add hardware" wizard that keeps popping up to install the input devices. Anyway, if anyone has input on this, it would be appreciated--I have not been able to find anything.

I too cannot get this to work--it loads the drivers for my wireless card, I can see my network on the list of available networks, but I cannot get any communication. DHCP will not assign an IP address.

If you have a vista beta 2 dvd from microsoft, then you can boot to it and do a format/fresh install from there. If you run the installation routine from your current windows installation, the option to format the disk will not be there, and you will have to install over your current OS.

Took me 7 days--be patient. It looks awesome--a friend of mine had the original beta version that was released to developers, amazing what improvents have already been made. (too bad I can't get wireless to work though).

This problem has been bugging the heck out of me lately too...does anyone know if this has to do with certain windows updates? I manage a lot of computers on a corporate domain, and a few months ago all of a sudden I'm having to visit people's computers every day to enter administrator passwords to install thumb drives, usb mice, keyboards, etc..., when this type of hardware used to install automatically.

Sure a celeron may be capable, but I think Andromeda was only stating fact--a celeron running at the same speed as it's pentium counterpart has less cache memory and slower bus speed, making it a slower chip. Intel designed the Celeron in order to produce a less expensive chip that could adequately drive a home system for the average home user. If the problem truly is too many background applications and services running, then a celeron chip is more likely to show signs of overload than say a P4 chip.

Not an exact answer to your question, but you can also always check out Scriptomatic, Microsoft's WMI script generator, which automatically generates scripts based on just about every WMI class (which could be used to accomplish your task, plus thousands of others). Scriptomatic

I've actually had better luck with a Knoppix CD (Linux live CD). You can download an image and burn it a CD and it's just that easy. As long as the hard drive is plugged into the computer, you should be able to mount it and view the files, as well as copy them to an alternate location.

Well, what you'll have is a backup copy on a second drive (you could actually use a network drive as well). Once the drive in question (the bad one), has been rebuilt, the files will have to be transfered back, manually. Perhaps with a few modifications the script could run in reverse? Stand by...

As far as I know it is not possible, as the vista image overwrites the existing OS files. Microsoft has warned that the once the Vista beta is installed, you will not be able to revert to an older operating system without a reinstall and that the public beta expires in 1 year (June 2007). Once the public version is released, Microsoft has said, you may or MAY NOT be able to apply the upgraded version over the beta, meaning that a complete re-install may also be required at that time. The beta is meant for testing purposes only and should not be used on a computer that you don't mind having to reformat. *This is just a personal summarization of what I have read on the vista beta release, and because I'm not actually supplying any links to official documentation, it should only be considered hearsay--but I stand by these recommendations.

nice package--thanks for sharing.

I've also booted using a BartPE or Knoppix (Linux Live Cd) disc to remove pesky files.

I've used Tools4ever's AdminMagic before. It will cost you, but it works really well. Basically opens a "remote control" session on the remote desktop, so both the local and remote user can be logged in at the same time--a great feature if trying to troubleshoot problems for users in a different physical location. It's been a while since I've used it, but I believe you can login and logoff remotely transparently to the local user. AdminMagic

I apologize if I implied that anyone suggested otherwise...I simply provided a script that I use to accomplish a task similar to what swancd had asked for, hoping it may be of some assistance to his quest to accomplish his goal.

Well, I won't charge--since chances are you would need to make modifications to this to work for you and also because I'm always willing to try to give back to the MSFN community for all the great stuff I've learned on this board. This is a VBS script I use to do something similar to what your asking (I did make a few 'minor' changes based on your criteria). What it does: asks for a drive letter (I assume you were refering to the drive letter of the files TO BE copied, since you already specify the destination drive letter as 'D:'). asks for Customer name, will create folder, "D:\[customer name]\" asks for profile: specifically the profile from the disk you want to back up (i.e. username). This script will backup one profile at a time and when finished ask if additional profiles need to be backed up. Backups up the following folders to "D:\[customer name]\": (assume 'C' is assigned drive letter). -C:\documents and settings\[profile]\My Documents -C:\documents and settings\[profile]\Favorites -C:\documents and settings\[profile]\Desktop -C:\documents and settings\[profile]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Again, these are folders I commonly back up, with a few modifications you can edit/add the target destination folders, I may even be willing to help. Copy and save as *.vbs Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") strDriveLetter = InputBox("Please enter the desired drive letter","Drive Letter"," ") strCustname = InputBox("Please enter the Customer name","Customer"," ") strFolder1 = "D:\" & strCustname Set objFolder1 = objFSO.CreateFolder(strFolder1) CopyProfile() i = 0 Do strMbox = MsgBox("Would you like to copy another profile?",3,"Hostname") If strMbox = 6 Then CopyProfile() i = 0 Else i = 1 End If Loop Until i = 1 WScript.Quit 'subroutine to perform the file backups Sub CopyProfile() strUsername = InputBox("Please enter the profile to copy","Username"," ") strFolder2 = strFolder1 & "\" & strUsername strFolder3 = strFolder1 & "\" & strUsername & "\My Documents" strFolder4 = strFolder1 & "\" & strUsername & "\Favorites" strFolder5 = strFolder1 & "\" & strUsername & "\Desktop" strFolder6 = strFolder1 & "\" & strUsername & "\Outlook Data" Set objFolder2 = objFSO.CreateFolder(strFolder2) Set objFolder3 = objFSO.CreateFolder(strFolder3) Set objFolder4 = objFSO.CreateFolder(strFolder4) Set objFolder5 = objFSO.CreateFolder(strFolder5) Set objFolder6 = objFSO.CreateFolder(strFolder6) strTarget3 = strDriveLetter & ":\Documents and Settings\" & strUsername & "\My Documents\" strTarget4 = strDriveLetter & ":\Documents and Settings\" & strUsername & "\Favorites\" strTarget5 = strDriveLetter & ":\Documents and Settings\" & strUsername & "\Desktop\" strTarget6 = strDriveLetter & ":\Documents and Settings\" & strUsername & "\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\" On error resume next Set newFolder3 = objFSO.GetFolder(strTarget3) Set newFolder4 = objFSO.GetFolder(strTarget4) Set newFolder5 = objFSO.GetFolder(strTarget5) Set newFolder6 = objFSO.GetFolder(strTarget6) On error resume next newFolder3.Copy(strFolder3) newFolder4.Copy(strFolder4) newFolder5.Copy(strFolder5) newFolder6.Copy(strFolder6) End Sub WScript.Quit PS. My scripting knowlege is limited and self-taught--I'm sure there's a simpler way to script this, but I assure you this does work.

not sure what you mean by "home machine", but when you log into a remote computer you have to use a user account with a password, either a local account or a domain account (if applicable). When you initiate the remote connection (to an XP computer), it will only log-off the current user if you are logging in with different credentials than the currently logged in user. If you log in with the same username/password that is currently logged in, you simply transfer the session to the remote terminal. When you are finished with the remote session, you can either log off or disconnect. If you disconnect, the current user (the one you've been using for the remote session) will stay logged on locally to the computer--but the screen will be locked, requiring a username/password to unlock the system and resume the session locally. If you are refering to a way to not have the system locked after terminating the remote session, then I'm affraid I don't have a solution for that.

Some may not like this feature, as it could be viewed as an invasion of privacy, but Google's use of personallized search and maintenance of your search history I think makes it one of the best. Of course, you can turn off search history and personalized search, I find it assists more each time I use it, plus I like the personallized homepage.

I agree, I would do a chkdsk first--I have used it many times before, and while it doesn't always solve my problem, it has never made things worse.

Are you refering to the administrative (C$) share? This is shared for Domain administrative purposes, and if you're not an Admin, those who are may frown on disabling this share--but I'll let you worry about wether or not your reasons for disabling the share are legitimate. The problem with turning off the C$ share is that everytime your system is rebooted, it re-appears. There are several ways to remove it permanently, but the one I like the best is by adding this vb script: strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colShares = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ ("Select * from Win32_Share Where Name = 'C$'") On error resume next For Each objShare in colShares objShare.Delete Next WScript.quit EDIT: Just read your last post, and realized that what you are trying to do is much different from what I described above--so you can just disregard it.

Sounds a firewall issue... The RDP port may be open, but computers broadcast their names using the NETBIOS protocol, which is what makes computers available in network neighborhood. Your firewall is probably blocking NETBIOS broadcasts. You can still access it by computer name for a while after the firewall is turned back on most likely because the NETBIOS entry has been cached on the local machine, making it still available until it times out.

Could be a group policy or security setting. Are you an administrator of the computer?

Well, if it says nothing more than "Windows IP Configuration", and does not list any devices or thier respective IP configurations, than it looks like your notebook doesn't even acknowlege your NIC card as being present--so my best guess would be that the problem does lie at the hardware level. Your suggested solution may be the best, but prepare for headaches (if you don't already have them!).