LeveL

I can't actually help you with this but whilst I am here, can anyone shed any light on whether doing this to peoples computers is legal or not? I am not talking about patching TCPIP.SYS - I am talking about what Microsoft are doing. Your machine is capable of having more than 65,000 open connections at one time, in other words, your machine, or any machine used in any company, in general, is capable of connecting to 65,000+ other machines. What Microsoft do is limit this from 65,000+ down to just TEN. Is that legal? Since it is your hardware they are messing with, do they even have a legal right to do this to people's machines? What does a company do when they need to connect to an 11th computer? Look at the productivity losses that this causes. Do Microsoft have a warning on their so-called "hotfix" telling people it will limit their connection from 65,000 down to just 10? Even if they did have a warning, which I highly doubt they do, it would still not make it legal if it is in fact not legal. They need to be sued, by every individual.

Sorry I couldn't help lolling at that... its like a tourist going to Paris and saying "Can you show me the way to the Eiffel Tower" and the French guy says "why would you want to go there". Sorry Andromeda43, maybe I have a warped sense of humour.

I'm not configuring them, I am removing them, entirely - from the ISO. I can use my Dial-Up connection if "Remote Access Auto Connection Manager" is disabled. Yeah this is what I am thinking. The best description of the Remote Access Auto Connection Manager I have seen yet said it is only used for third party applications to connect WHEN there is no connection present, that sounds like a pretty useless service to me, if you have an always-on connection, I know its not even needd for Dial-Up so I will just remove it and hope it doesn't affect the main Remote Access service, the one without "Auto" in the name, to save me typing it out again, lol.

I want to install Opera silently and set the homepage to www.google.co.uk I know how to do the silent install already (setup.msi /quiet) and all I want to know is how to set the homepage so it will visit the homepage I set... on the first run of Opera. I searched the forum but theres no answer. Heres what I tried: 1 - Searched the entire registry for google.co.uk and it doesn't appear anywhere! 2 -So I thought it must be set in the Opera program folder. I searched inside every single text based file (INI files, CSS files etc) and google.co.uk does not appear there either! So I am completely stuck with this. Its no wonder people say Opera is secure, thats the problem - where/how do you set the homepage?! Opera would open google.co.uk if it was opened and closed with that page open but if thats the case then where is it saving THAT information? Hmmmmmmm, I suppose theres only one other place - buried away in Application Data

Na my ISP is OK, its only since I am testing this version of XP with these services removed... DNS Client - Is this an old service, seldom used? Why should it affect torrents? Internet Authentication (IAS) - Dial-Up and VPN? I am on Dial-Up but my HTTP downloads are not affected so I can't see why torrents would be affected. Network Location Awareness (NLA) - ??? Network Provisioning - To do with Wireless?

No need, here's the Windows Services I am removing and you're not removing: COM+ DNS Client Internet Authentication (IAS) Network Location Awareness (NLA) Network Provisioning Protected Storage Shell Services System Event Notification (SENS) Uninterruptible Power Supply Universal Plug and Play Device Host Windows Management Instrumentation Windows Time Its got to be something to do with one of those in red? I wonder if I could try a full install of XP (in VMware) and try disabling those ones in red, see if it affects the speeds? BTW how are you guys saving an image like that with a list of removed stuff? nLite has some option somewhere to do that?!

I stripped most stuff out with nLite, my HTTP downloads are OK, they can go full speed, but when it comes to torrents, forget it, I am lucky if I can get 1Kb/s. Yes the port is OK. Yes I have tried Azureus and uTorrent. Yes its on torrents with plenty of active seeds. Yes, I have still got my "Network Connections" service started. Is it because of some service missing like... "Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)" or something? Loads of pages I am finding say to disable the Windows Firewall service and I am pretty sure in the past I have had that disabled too. Just asking in case anyone knows off the top of their head what service it is you should not remove?

People keep IE because of Windows Update, but you could just visit Windiz updates with Firefox or Opera... http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/

Has it gone past the 30 day activation period?

Its called "Windows XP" My answer would be to re-install the wretched thing, but I guess thats too radical. What you could do thats not mentioned here is get HijackThis... http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip Then scan, save a log file and paste that log file here: http://www.hijackthis.de/ After pasting your log just click "Analyze" At least you'll know if its running slow because of "Nasties".

Am I right in saying theres three services needed for Dial-Up connectivity: Remote Access Connection Manager Remote Access Auto Connection Manager Telephony ? The "Remote Access Auto Connection Manager" only comes into play if there is not already any connection present and a third party program tries to connect, apparently, so then in reality are these two the only services needed: Remote Access Connection Manager Telephony ? Its really confusing since there is no such service as "Dial-Up Networking" No - because that would be too simple and make too much sense!

Whats the deal with this ASMS folder? Comrade_Tux - you said you'll delete the ASMS folder and see how it goes, how did it go?! You'd get GDIPLUS errors surely? I don't want anything on my ISO that does not need to be there, for example this folder: I386\ASMS\6000\MSFT\VCRTL\ Has 2 DLL files that are almost 1Mb each, its a real messy folder this ASMS

A lot of things are not legal but it doesn't stop big companies doing it, for example when Microsoft had to pay Sun Microsystems more than $1.9 Billion or when Microsoft stole code from Caldera DOS to then make it "MS-DOS"..... there is no such thing as MS-DOS, it ain't even legal, so then why all the fuss over individuals who are not trying to profit from doing this sort of "illegal" thing? Its no wonder we are all as thick as t1ts on a boar and never even really progress. We're running on the spot whilst thinking we are progressing - big companies like Microsoft and their minions are LTFAO at us.

Something no one has mentioned is, if you use minlogon and also use that CAD_Trap to give you Ctrl+Alt+Delete functionality back, that CAD_Trap has to install a service - and it uses more than 3Mb RAM! So then you have people saying minlogon "saves" 500Kb RAM, which is true, but then you might have to add CAD_Trap and in effect be 2.5Mb RAM worse off. The main reason I won't use it though, is because if you use Registry Mechanic on your system, after this it just completely breaks, you cannot expand "All Programs" on the start menu! So you cannot get at any of your programs, minlogon is more trouble than its worth. The be all and end all to me is you're just not supposed to use the "Default User" profile to actually run a real user on it, which will be why reg cleaners and tune up programs set it all back (C:\Documents and settings\Default User\*) the way it should be.

Aaah but (and i'm not trying to be a condescending b**tard here) what if he wants to tweak it with reg tweaks, disable themes and the fade effect, disable useless services, stop programs starting and then wants to save more RAM? He is still left with the option of somehow replacing explorer.exe with something lighter or perhaps the Windows 2000 explorer.exe. One thing is, the Explorer on XP is about 1Mb in size whereas the one on Windows 2000 is only 237Kb - that is a massive difference really. I reckon there has to be a way to make the Windows 2000 one work on XP

Something about DCOM... I had this enabled and the system used 35.0Mb RAM but when I enabled DCOM it went up to 35.7Mb RAM but dropped slowly down to 35.2Mb. Yes, I rebooted and left it ten minutes each time, I even have Task Manager in the Startup folder, I am just trying to work it out. DHCP is another one - it uses no resources (I mean not even 0.1Mb RAM) and can cause a broken internet connection if it is disabled... so then it is pointless disabling DHCP Client, but this DCOM seems to use 0.2Mb to 0.7Mb RAM if its disabled! Enable DCOM and you save +/- 0.35Mb RAM... don't believe me? Test it for yourself and see!

Thanks, I think I might have worked out a fix. Just put "control" in a BAT file, make it a hidden command window, link to that and do the same with your command for My Computer. Hmmmm, the one for "control" works but not this: ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} Its a shame they never made an "explore" option so you could just have: explore ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} Eeeeeeeek! This DOES WORK.... start ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

"Control Panel" and "My Computer" are items that do not have any location. Does anyone know the command I could add to a shortcut so it would open these items? I am using bblean (Black Box) and have a few icons set up on the desktop, two I need there are "Control Panel" and "My Computer" but these items are in 'no mans land' in between the Start Menu and the "Programs" folder of the Start Menu! God halp anyone that accidentally removes these from the Start Menu, where are you meant to look to find these things? Example: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cpanel Or something but this isn't it - what makes this really annoying is if you look on the shortcut properties for "Control Panel" and "My Computer" the target field is blank! Why Microsoft, why do you do this?

On Eldergeek, with regards to Windows Management Instrumentation it says in a joking manner "Disable this if you don't want your computer to work" Well, that sounds like one hell of an important service! So then how come I can disable Windows Management Instrumentation and IE6/IE7 still works, Windows Media Player works and Outlook Express works? Thats all Windows Management Instrumentation is for huh, Windows programs? But they WORK with Windows Management Instrumentation disabled! I know this might be related somehow to the Windows Firewall - but is it, because under the Windows Management Instrumentation service, it has no dependencies. The Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service also has no dependencies. So then why does eldergeek say "Disable this if you don't want your computer to work" when this isn't true? I know eldergeek services guide is not the be-all-and-end-all but still, the guy behind that site isn't stupid.

Sorry boooggy I thought you did Now i'm wondering where I got it from. Regardless of who made it, its because I was trying to stuff an IE7 only hotfix into a source that does not yet have IE7, hmmm, I will work this out somehow... I hope.

LOL, Boooggy and Nuhi reading the topic! Yes the IE7 addon is by Boooggy. The problem seems to be that it is adding IE7 files that arn't needed. That KB928090 has an IE6 version and an IE7 version... Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (KB928090) Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (KB928090) See how the two versions ARE the same hotfix, its just that one is for IE6 and one is for IE7. By the way I have integrated the IE6 version of this hotfix in nLite just now and it is fine. I will just have to be careful depending on whether I am integrating the IE7 addon (the browser itself) or not - but remember though, even if you are integrating this IE7 addon (the browser itself) and the IE7 hotfix - then you will get the error... lsass.exe A write operation was attempted to a volume after it was dismounted Shizen... I will have to add it as a manual (but silent) install, its just that it adds more than 7Mb to the ISO because its a big one (Cumulative hotfix)

It happened because of: IE7-KB928090-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe Its a big Hotfix - 7.48 MB Doesn't matter if you have IE7 integrated or not, it still happens. I will try integrating IE7, then let nLite complete the integration of IE7, then run it through nLite again - adding that one Hotfix. Although I did have the IE7 addon listed to be integrated before the IE7 Hotfix in nLite and still got that error. Can I just ask - if you have IE completely removed, you don't need any IE7 Hotfixes?

I just integrated the latest batch of hotfixes with nLite. I started off with a full Windows XP SP2 and integrated all hotfixes that nLite could integrate. Then after installing I went to Windows update and needed these... IE7-KB928090-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe WindowsXP-KB918118-x86-ENU.exe WindowsXP-KB924667-x86-ENU.exe WindowsXP-KB926436-x86-ENU.exe WindowsXP-KB927779-x86-ENU.exe WindowsXP-KB927802-x86-ENU.exe WindowsXP-KB928255-x86-ENU.exe WindowsXP-KB928843-x86-ENU.exe WindowsXP-KB931836-x86-ENU.exe These only came out yesterday (13th February 2007) So again I took my SP2 from scratch and integrated all hotfixes with the addition of the new hotfixes listed above. I didn't do it in two stages, I integrated all of them in one go. Now when I install XP (in VMware) it copies all the files to the hard disk, then reboots and as soon as it has rebooted I get this message: lsass.exe A write operation was attempted to a volume after it was dismounted Then setup reboots in an endless loop, the above error only pops up for a split second, I had to pause VMware at the right time to read it. After Googling this and finding out it could be a power supply or RAM problem, I deleted my VMware virtual disk entirely and recreated it. I still got that same error on a newly created VMware disk. I then tried another XP ISO I had made a while ago and it worked fine. I have tried about three different ISO's of various XP installs and they all work fine, so it is certainly the very latest batch of hotfixes that are causing this. All the other installs I tried were stripped out edition, all of them had hotfixes slipstreamed too, just not these very latest ones. I am integrating an IE7 hotfix although IE7 is not slipstreamed or added - could this cause it? Although now altogether there are two IE7 hotfixes, I already WAS integrating one of them without problems. The only other thing I can think of is the disk size - I only use a 3Gb VMware disk but I do not see why any hotfixes should require you to have a larger disk than 3Gb. I will try with another freshly made VMware hard disk @ 5Gb and post back the results. Has anyone else integrated these latest hotfixes? Can anyone confirm this is the case on their system or it is just my crappy power supply? It has been on the blink for two weeks, I need a new one. But then, like I said this is only happening if I integrate/slipstream the above list of latest hotfixes.

That 1% of people must constitute all the people who only use a PC for wordprocessing? Because lets face it, if this is the only thing you use a computer for (like millions of students around the world for example) then you're never going to have to come away from Windows 98.

OMFG! Its still happening! "Windows could not properly load the English (United Kingdom) Keyboard Layout" Heres my Last Session.ini ..........