mikesw

Ok, One can do this "KB933360.exe /X" and specify where to output the hotfix into a directory you specify. Next look at the sp2qfe.inf file using notepad and you'll see all the registry entries that they do to XP. It may be useful to compare the registry settings in the SP2QFE.inf file to those in the KB article for Win 2K to see if they are the same. Perhaps the SP2QFE.inf file can be modified to make it Windows 2k like. Then use the tzchange.exe that MSoft supplies too along with some of the other files to rebundle them to create a WIn2K fix. Any other thoughts on this? Some of the other stuff in the inf file isn't clear yet as to what it does.

I see that MSoft put out an updated KB fix for the 2007 Daylight Savings Time for Windows XP. See KB933360 around the begining of August. I don't know whats changed about this one compared to the old one vs the home built version that was done for Windows 2k. Is it possible to update the Unofficial Win 2K 2007 Daylight saving time patch? I would think that the Win xp registry and Win 2K registry should be the same in structure, but differ perhaps only in content.

I've installed UPHCLEAN v1.6d from MSOFT. I noticed that when I show the hidden devices under device manager, that the following file can't be found and that when I search the local disk, it isn't found either. The file "uphcleanhlp.sys' doesn't exist anywhere on the HDD drive for Win XPsp2 and Win 2Ksp4. Was this file present with an older version of UPHclean? Is there a log file somewhere that says what it has started/finished so that I can review the file to see what it fixed? Update: The log file is not stored on the disk as ?????.log (some log file). One must go to the Administrator Event Viewer for Applications and review the info logged there.

Be aware there is MDAC 2.81 plus service packs. Not sure if it works on VISTA but does install on XP. If you wanted to determine which MDAC version best matches your version, plus shows which files are missing or the wrong version, then get "component checker" from MSoft.

@mmx This might be ok for the typical gov computer user. However, this won't be ok for the gov. computer contractor who develops software for Windows OS' or other OS'. The reason being is that during the course of software development, they are constantly upgrading commericial software versions or versions of the software they write. They are always trying out new products (trialware, free, licensed) to see what the software can do or if it can be used with or integrated into their software. Thus for speed/contract deadlines reasons, they don't have the luxury to seek permission or wait for an admin to allow them to install or install it for them so they can do their job. Thus, there will always be exceptions (waivers) to this law. In the scientific research community whereby they are changing and experimenting with software, hardware and other stuff, the same thing applies where the law will be (waived) for them to get their job done.

@theflash Yes, If you reconfigure your PC to a workgroup, then you will have to ask the domain admin to put you back on the domain. They'll get mad if you ask to many times. As for preventing the network from working offsite, they don't do this because a). gov. employees can work from home tele-commute in some cases. B). One still has modem access, and one can also access the net via the USB port if software is installed so that it acts like a network (think ppp/slip encoding via the USB vs. modem). If you are allowed to bring your personal laptop into a gov. site, it must be registered, and borg'd even if you access the gov dialup network to work from home. Any access to a gov. network requires that the laptop be registered and approved, it must be only MSoft Win OS and the one that this gov. agency uses (i.e if they use XP it can't be Win95). It must have all the latest patches and the gov. approved anitvir/spyware software installed. It must be open to scanning and configuring remotely. So essentially your PC becomes their PC until you remove your personal laptop from their list by asking them too. Once you do this, your access is blocked.

It gets worse when you install a Sandisk with U3 support! The reason is because not only are drivers having to be loaded, but U3 "launch" is considered an application. Most admins prevent one from running apps right off a flash disk (in the old days it was floppies). The reason to restrict apps running is software not being under control of the admin, or windows. Hence one could run virus , malware and other stuff without control. A public library I went to not only wouldn't recognize the Sandisk, but wouldn't install U3 software for the few PC's that for some reason would recognize the disk (admin screwup I guess).

I booted into safe mode with networking support to my user account. It worked correctly when I tried to access the C: drive in Windows Explorer and when I up arrowed from a subdirectory. I then rebooted into my regular account. Now it works correctly for all cases mentioned above. I wonder what safe mode did to correct the problem? In older WIn OS' (ie win 3.1) one could associate an "open" command with a mouse click and other various commands to do the functionality of accessing files on a disk. Anyways, thanks since I didn't think safe mode would correct my problem.

I've discovered what the problem is to the problem discussed in this thread earlier this week. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=101646 I have a compaq nc8430 (dual intel proc 1.8ghz) with 1 gig memory running WInXP pro Sp2 with all the latest fixes. I also have dotNet 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 with all the service packs installed although Nlite1.4beta requires dotNet 2.0 only. I have the following Anti-virus and Anit-spyware software installed Symantec Antivir 9.05 SuperAntiSpyware v3.9.1008 which is the unregistered copy Spware Doctor v5.0.1.200 which is the googlepack unregistered copy. The latest paid version is v5.0.1.205 The SuperAntiSpyware doesn't have real-time capabilities (thats the registered version). The Spyware Doctor does have real-time capabilities but is limited in other areas. I wonder if the real-time scans of files being integrated by NLITE could be the cause of the software conflict. Based on the thread mentioned within, Java JRE 1.3 to 1.6 or no JRE isn't the cause of my problems. Moreover, all the other ANTI virus, spyware mentioned above have been proven not to cause problems although if I had SuperAntiSpyware with real-time activated, it may cause a similar problem stated below. Hmm.... maybe build into NLITE a menu option to disable and then renable ANTI SPYWARE, ANTIVIR ANTI anything as an added feature when one is doing OS integration! HA! HA! just kidding.......

Presently I'm having problems when I select the C: drive in Windows Explorer. It crashes Windows Explorer. It crashes when I right-click on the C: drive and select "open" , "Explore" and "Expand" although "Expand" will display all the subdirectories briefly before explorer crashes. I can do a properties on the C drive and if I enter a subdirectory path on the C Drive I can see the files within that directory i.e. C:\TEMP. If I hit the up-arrow toolbar icon, I can move up the directory tree until I get to C: drive at which time it crashes Windows Explorer. I can select MyDesktop, MyComputer, Recycle bin ..... without problem. Is there some registry setting, or Windows Explorer command association that I must do to correct this problem? What are the steps to do it? This started occuring after removing NERO software on the computer since it was all screwed up and needed to be reinstalled from scratch. The NERO software hasn't been reinstalled yet til I get Windows Explorer working again.

@marty Is it your own personal laptop or government owned (GFE)? If it's gov. owned, you are taking chances by modifying things that they setup. That would be grounds to fire you! Second, anytime you reconnect the laptop to the gov. network, the servers will scan your laptop for any changes to anything (OS updates, applications and config settings, registry settings etc) If the software sees any changes, they'll automatically uninstall programs, reinstall programs and redo all the registry and application settings you've changed - all automatically by software control. So it may take you hours to undo it, but for the software minutes to redo it! Moreover, all the changes create audit logs which they will have based on date and time and what they do everytime they have to correct things, giving them information to use if necessary as proof to fire you. The logs aren't stored locally so you can delete them. All the log data is collected on the fly and stored beyond your access. Get used to it guy! If its company/government furnished then it's not yours. Have fun....

I'm a little confused with what you said above. I started with Win2K SP1 and when I used Nlite I selected "Integrate servicepack". It then asked for the file by browsing to the location where the SP4 file was. I selected the file, and Nlite integrated it into SP1 which was already copied to c:\ZRMPOEM_EN. After the integration of SP4 the end-result was in C:\ZRMPOEM_EN. I then copied it to c:\ZRMPOEM_EN_SP4 for later use. That is after Nlite complained about file already exists, I deleted the contents of c:\ZRMPOEM_EN and copied the c:\ZRMPOEM_EN_SP4 to this directory and started the hotfix integration again since SP4 was already integrated. As far as Nliting multiple times on SP4. Well, all I'm doing is giving a few files at a time (year 2003) and then another set (year 2004) etc until I'm at Year 2007. If I give it all the files from 2003-2007 at once, it means I spent alot of time integrating the files only to abort somewhere in the middle whereas with a few at a time, I would spend very little time integrating and yet be able to quickly isolate the year that a hotfix is giving me problems. This also builds my confidence that Nlite is working properly. Had Nlite integrated ok from 2003 to 2007 in one year increments, I could start again (on a fresh copy) and do everything at once from 2003-2007 knowing it would work without problem. So it's not like I'm trying to use Nlite to integrate hofixes on a corrupt or partially completed integration due to past aborts. I always start fresh from the beginning using the integrated SP4 copy that I made before starting the hotfix updates again from 2003 onwards.

Yes ,I used Nlite to integrate Win2K SP1 source disk with SP4. All Nlite defaults were used. I then kept this in c:\ZRMPOEM_EN_SP4 so that when I run into problems integrating the hotfixes with a copy in directory c:\ZRMPOEM_EN , I can then delete it and start again by copying the SP4 directory copy over to the c:\ZRMPOEM_EN one. This helps me to speed things up so I don't have to keep re-integrating SP4. All hotfix and security updates are integrated and performed on the C:\ZRMPOEM_EN directory only. The same was done for WInXP SP2 but in c:\WINXP_EN and C:\WINXP_EN_SP2 After the copy of the integrated ..EN_SP4 to the integration directory ...EN, I then select a different directory for the 2003 fixes and sort them in numeric order and integrate them. After that, I exit and then re-enter NLITE. I then select another directory for the 2004 fixes and sort them too in numeric order and integrate them. At this point the cab files are again expanded and then the random file "already exists" error occurs. See session files that show the hotfix directory and filename numeric order that was done in this post. PS: I've replaced my JAVA JRE 6 update 2 with JRE 5 update 11 and am now at JRE 5 update 6. Nothing made a difference for the Nlite integration problem. I guess this isn't the issue.

@raghul I've tried nlite 1.3.5 too, and it does the same thing. Note: the files that it says it already has happen at random. So lets say the first time through it errors out on a file. If a restart from scratch, it may error out on another file within the same KB file or some other KB file later on based on the order of the filenames in the list. So it's hard to narrow down what may be causing it since the problem moves around. @kelsenel Thanks for the info. However I'll do this as my last resort for now. I'm trying to use Nlite to do it, and if I can't get it to do what I want, then I report bugs to be fixed. Otherwise, how will Nlite be fixed if no one reports bugs/problems. So, nuhi, if you are reading along, please suggest some possible ways to isolate the problem. So, I'll keep plugin away for a little bit. Note: To all, this randomness of "file already exists" for various KB's also occurs when I try to integrate hotfixes into WINXP SP2 too. So it isn't isolated to Win2K SP4 only..... Note2: when it does error out with the message above, it then finalizes the integration, but it leaves the problem file that "already exists" in the root directory of the WIN OS files being integrated. In this case c:\ZRMPOEM_EN.

@agi, used Nlite to integrate Win2K SP4. This is used as my reference copy to start the hotfix integration. Hence, I have a copy of Win2kSP4 integrated in another directory. If the Nlite bombs out, I delete the directory contents in c:\ZRMPOEM_EN and copy all the files for Win2KSP4 integrated to this directory and start again with the year 2003, followed by 2004. I didn't do anything with SFC on the WinXP SP2 system I'm running Nlite on as I try to integrate the hotfixes into Win2K sp4. I haven't been able to get to the iso part of the Win2KSp4 +hotfixes yet.

I’ve attached my session.ini files in the order shown below. Each one is for a different year. I don’t have any problems for the Win2K hotfixes for FY’2003, but I have issues with FY’2004. (note: I integrated the 2003 list first followed by the 2004 fix) The problems seem to occur after Nlite says it needs to expand the cab files and direct integration is performed. I’m using Nlite 1.4beta. The first error is in Kb835732 “H-The file ‘C:\ZRMPEOM_EN\ntkrpamp.exe already exists’” “Please report this error if its unexpected”. …… The version on the ntkrpamp.exe in the hotemp directory is v5.0.2195.6902 Whereas the one in sp4temp is v5.0.2195.6717. After redoing with a new Win2kSp4 install, I get a little further until KB841356 Where it states. “H-The file ‘C:\ZRMPOEM_EN\shlwapi.dll already exists”’ “Please report this error if its unexpected. NUHI, please add an audit log trace file to NLITE1.4beta so that one can Send the steps NLite is doing when it errors out. Ie. A ) open KB…….file B ) extracting cab files filenamecab C ) filename ‘filea’ version ‘a.aa’ is older than “fileb’ version ‘b.bb’ , or, D ) filename ‘filea’ version ‘a.aa’ is newer than ‘fileb’ version ‘b.bb’ E ) disgarding filea F ) updating and overwriting ‘fileb’ G) closing KB….file H ) compressing cab files and completion message I) etc. 2003 INI FILES 2004 INI FILES Presently, I'm pretty frustrated since I'm not making very much progress integrating hotfixes/updates into Windows 2K Professional using NLITE.

I realize NLITE uses dotNet for the latest version. Does NLITE depend on the JAVA runtime on the PC? If so, which version 1.5.x or 1.6.x? I'm having issues with Java 1.6u1 or u2 on a PC since the commercial s/w company says file upload/download doesn't work properly for their software if Java 1.6+ is used. I'm experiencing a similar problem with Nero 7.0 whereby when one selects the directory to read the list of files to be burned, and when I select the C: drive, it crashes the whole program. I orginally come up in a subdirectory and when I arrow-up to the C: drive it sits there for a few seconds and then crashes NERO. I'm not sure if NERO requires the Java runtime for it to run and if it is version specific. If NLITE *does* require a JAVA runtime, which version ? This may be the cause of some of my intermittant problems.

I was able to get nlite to crash. I'm still trying to figure it out. However, I have Nlite 1.4beta but the crash dump says nLite Assembly Version: 1.3.9.0 Win32 Version: 1.3.9.0 CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/nLite/nLite.exe Shouldn't the version number be 1.4.0.0 or close to it? Does this mismatch in version numbers cause any weird Nlite problems?

I've had a chance to play with the machine by removing the HDD that contained the OS and which isn't connected to the RAID card but is connected to the motherboard IDE channels. Upon bootup, I was able to get the message to stay on the screen a few more seconds longer instead of flashing quickly on the display before it started to try and automatically boot the OS. Here's what the message said which isn't printed in the hardcopy install manual of the TX4000 raid controller. Later on I found out that the message is shown in the softcopy PDF user manual on the CD. The "No array is defined" is flashing at the user and since it is a new 500gig Maxtor HDD (only one), this is expected since I haven't gotten into the RAID array setup utility yet. Here's the reason I couldn't see the message fast enough! The motherboard BIOS is setup to display three things When the system boots up it will stay at this screen which also displays the vendors logo (i.e. IBM). I then hit 'ESC' to go into POST and continue booting. After POST, the FastTrack TX4000 BIOS loads and starts scanning for IDE drives (this is slow enough to be seen). After scanning it displays the rest of the messages as mentioned above. HOWEVER, SINCE I HIT 'ESC' to do the POST, the FASTRACK BIOS reads this keystroke to mean "...continue booting." Which it does! Thus it displays the message so fast and continues to boot the OS before one gets a chance to read it. It does this regardless of the fact that I only hit 'ESC' once. I then configured the motherboard BIOS not to display the "ESC POST" text although the functionality of 'ESC' is still there should I want to go into POST. When the computer is booted, the vendor logo along with F1 and F12 are displayed, but not "ESC POST". At this point, I hit "carriage return" which then starts the FASTRACK BIOS, scans the drives and displays the text above. Since I haven't hit 'ESC', I get a chance to read the text and a chance to hit <CTRL-F> to go into the utility. If I wait to long (5 secs) it starts booting into the OS. The FASTRACK TX4000 as advertised provides RAID 0,1, 0+1, and not JBOD. However, the download web page for this cards BIOS states that in the latest BIOS revision that a bug in the BIOS for JBOD was fixed. Some of the pdf specs also state it can do JBOD along with alot of websites that sell this board. (search google for TX4000 JBOD). When I go into the BIOS to configure the array (one disk), there is no selection for JBOD. However, the disk was configured as RAID 0, (stripe) although all the striping will be on one disk only regardless of the FASTRACK BIOS saying that the minimum disk count should be two. It works with one. I also formated the disk using the Windows disk manager tool under device manager and was able to create logical partitions on the drive.(split the drive although Windows 2K selected dynamic disks??). So one could stretch definitions here and say I have a JBOD of one disk where the striping is really just formatting one disk - which to the user (me) appears like any other disk. Now in the process of playing around with the utility and windows disk configurations such as dynamic, spanning, etc.

I also tried hitting the <ESC> a few times while it was scanning with the HDD connected, but nothing happened other than booting up Windows 2K. I guess one way that I just thought about now so that I can see the message is to disconnect the Seagate ATA-5 drive so the Windows 2K OS doesn't boot, and the computer BIOS will say no OS found - this will pause the display while I read the messages. I'll try this tonight. The specs for TX4000 RAID says it can do JBOD. I take this to mean that I wouldn't have to build a RAID 0, 1, 0+1 which require multiple drives (at least two). My interpretation of JBOD on a RAID controller board means that I could have only one or more plugged in. (in my case one til I can buy another). When the RAID BIOS boots asking me to configure it, it should at that point in time not know what kind of configuration you want for the various capabilities of the card. Thus, at this time it would display a menu whereby one would select JBOD and it would be smart enough to scan to find out that you have one or more (up to four) connected to the card. If one selects on the menu option to do RAID 0,1, 0+1, then at this point, it would display to the user a message that it only detects one drive and states that two are required etc (depending on the configuration). Moreover, one would think the interpretation by the RAID BIOS software would be that if a drive failed, then it would see only one drive and [maybe] state that the 2nd drive is missing, defective etc ; and, since the IDE controller on the disk drive may be damaged whereby the RAID BIOS can't determine via a scan how many drives really are connected I would think it would believe that there is only one drive. In this scenario the RAID BIOS shouldn't become dumb and the PAM software/ WIN2K software would tell the admin by email that there is a HDD failure and to fix it. The OS shouldn't crash until the admin takes it down to fix it (assuming no hot swap capability). The documentation on this card for setup doesn't tell me a whole lot other than shows a picture of a menu. Until I can get the RAID BIOS to recognize this one disk, I can't determine what it does really under various scenarios. That's why I'm posting here. Perhaps someone can take their working system down, such that only one disk is plugged into the TX4000 and post here whether they are experiencing the same problem as me. This will tell me if I've done something wrong and to look at what to do next.

I bought my old Netvista 6794-21U with the latest upgraded BIOS for 137Gig drives from work. The mini-tower has 2 cd/dvd IDE drives, zip250 IDE, floppy, and a Seagate ATA-5 drive (40gig). It also has Win2k Pro and a 1.8Ghz Pentium 4 with 1.5Gigs of PC133 memory (max). I'm trying to upgrade to a larger HDD. So I bought a Maxtor Diamond 21 PATA/IDE 500Gig drive STM3500630A with firmware 3.AAE (supposedly they have a 3.AAK out but they haven't sent it to me yet). NOTE: Maxtor/Seagate don't mention this particular model on their website????! I also bought a TX4000 Promise IDE RAID PCI board that has the latest BIOS 1.0.37 and s/w drivers for XP and 2000. The reason I bought this vs. a better TX4xxx series that does Raid 5 and/or 10 is because the later is limited to 1Terabyte max per the specs for each drive (so that if four drives are put together in JBOD format it gives 4 terabytes max) whereas the TX4000 specs say the limit is in Exabytes. Thus, for future growth I'm not restricted since HDD's are at 1Terabyte now! and next year the better raid cards would be obsolete. Yes, I know they have a SATA Raid card, but I didn't want to start putting other non-IDE drives in the system since if one fails (i.e. the Seagate ATA-5) I can swap it out since the motherboard is IDE and not SATA. Here's my problem: a). Without any drives connected to the TX4000 Raid card, the NetVista boots up, the RAID Bios scans for drives and not finding any boots into Win2K Pro. Moreover, the OS under device Manager recognizes the PCI Raid card, and PAM local reads the Computer name but is grayed out. This is to be expected. Just testing to see if the system recognize the new hardware. b ). Now that the PCI card is recognized, I shut down and connect the Maxtor 500Gig drive to IDE #1 of of the Raid card and bootup. c). The RAID BIOS scans and displays two lines with <ESC> strings in them, but before I can read what it says, it clears the screen and starts booting in WIN2K PRO. The documentation says a RAID setup window should be displayed (not the computer BIOS), but doesn't mention anything about these other two lines that I can't read. What do this lines say? d). After booting into Win2K and logging in, I go to Windows Explorer hoping to see a drive letter assigned to the new drive although when selecting it it should complain. However, I don't see the drive letter. e). I go to device manager under Devices to see if the drive shows up there as Maxtor. Nothing is shown! f). I go to device manager under "Storage ->Disk Management" to see if I can see the drive so that I can select it to format it to NTFS. It just sits there saying it is trying to connect to the ....manager. g). I enter PowerMax v5.0 from Maxtor or PAM Local and can't do anything there either. h). The new HDD is spinning and getting hot, so I know power is reaching the HDD. So what can I do next to make the promise RAID card work with the MAXTOR, NETVISTA and Win2K? See Items (c,d,e,f,g) above and what can be done to get them to work. PS: The documentation says to connect the frontpanel wire with the power and disk access LED from the motherboard to the PROMISE RAID Card connector. However, won't this disable the capability of seeing if the Seagate ATA-5 drive is being accessed since it is still connected to the motherboard and not the RAID card? If the LED only works for the motherboard with local drive access blinking vs. only Raid drive blinking, can one buy an after market LED with wire to be connected to the RAID card and I just drill a hole in the mini-tower for this other blinking LED? Due to the size limitation of this tower, is there any after market disk drive extenders that allow me to connect the drives in another tower to the RAID card in the first computer tower?

Here's some information from MSoft about the difference between the two types. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=197147 and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262841/ and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824687/ In addition here is some more info http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828930/ and for VISTA http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934307/ So I wonder if it's possible from the info above to somehow get the Win32 cabinet extractor to integrate into the Win OS CD using Nlite.

@agi,nuhi, Ok, so I guess Winnt.sif overrides the unattend.txt file that I copied. What about the TXTSETUP.SIF in \I386 that is still there? I see the info in the winnt and txtsetup sif files are different. If a winnt.sif file is present, is the txtsetup.sif ignored?

Well the Computer name is stored in the registry. So after windows is installed, just run a program you wrote that does random number generation and append to the company prefix name and then use the command at the comand line to write your computer name back into the registry of that computer. Another way is to have your program create names in advance and store it to a file. Then you would stick your floppy/flash into the computer, it would read a pointer that is stored along with the already generated names which is used to determine which random compute name is available next in the file and write it to the registry, then update the pointer and you would go to the next computer and it would be ready to update using the new pointer value. Another way is to write a program to read the MAC address of the network card in the computer and append it to the end of the company computer name. You could also resolve the MAC address agains't a DNS and append a english name associated with the MAC/network address and since the MAC addresses are unique, your computer names will always be unique. You don't want to use IP numbers, since if your network is DHCP'd, then your computer may have an IP address that's different than the one appended to your compute name causing alot of confusion on tracing down the computer with a name vs. the actual IP address of the computer causing the problem.

Here's a MSoft KB article on old Windows OS' i.e. Win2KSP2 vs. SP4 that one must do to overcome the 137gig limit so that disk corruption doesn't occur. So if one is slipping to SP2 and not SP4 or as an added safeguard it would be helpful that Nlite make a modification to the registry so that when the OS on the CD is installed, that LBA issues aren't blamed on NLITE or that one hasn't forgotten about doing this etc. I'm currently planning on upgrading to a Maxtor 500Gig drive and they mention that one needs to install a patch (I assume the registry fix) if this HDD is being installed to prevent data loss. I don't know if MSoft came out with a hotfix for this and what the KB# is. As for XP or Vista, I assume this isn't an issue regardless of the service pack installed. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098