gosh

A good option would be to schedule the task using the system account. When you schedule a task using system, there is no interface, although the process is still visiable to task manager, so the user would not see anything. When you run as the system service there is no user interface because it cannot interact with the desktop. You can schedule a task with scheduled tasks, and in xp pro (not home) with schtasks.exe -gosh

What you should do is rename system.ini to system.old, then rename system.cb to system.ini. In msconfig when you uncheck the box for system.ini, what msconfig does is rename system.cb to system.ini and moves the old system.ini. System.cb is the bare minimum you need to boot your win9x computer, so if you have the same problem with that it's not a system.ini issue. As far as defrag, i've seen it not work, even in safe mode. Usually the problem is with the cache file. There are articles on microsoft's website that show what file to delete to clear that. But i wouldn't use microsoft's defrag, it isn't reliable. -gosh

a stop 50 is usually bad ram. You say you've tried different sticks of ram and another motherboard, but i wonder if that was done correctly. -gosh

Does the blue screen reference a file name? Is this on a clean install or upgrade? -gosh

By default when you install from within windows or use the unattend switch UnattendSwitch=yes. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=294801 You could enable oobe to modifying the registry key for HKLM\System\OOBEinProgress -gosh

When bourne went on that highway, i thought to myself, "great not matrix reloaded again" -gosh

Try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813442 Second, go into the admin tool for com, and click on the computer icon on the top right. This will bring up the global settings for com. Go through this and make sure everything is default, such as the permissions.

If the folder for the hotfix exists in windows, just run the uninstall. For example on my computer for KB824141 i have folder: C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB824141$ in the folder Spuninst just run spuninst.exe -gosh

when you say normal theme do you mean win2k classic? It's possible the theme service isn't start because the computer is lagging on startup or some kind of software conflict. make sure the service is set to automotic so it starts when windows does. -gosh

Just saw the bourne ult last night, very good movie. It's so nice to see something that doesn't have cheap cgi or gimmicks. Although i thought it was very ironic. In Robert Ludlum's bourne series, Jason Bourne is a former vietnam assassin, in the movies he's from some unknown conflict, probably iraq. Before the movie, there was 2 or 3 previews for future movies about cia torture and renditions. In the movie you see bourne being water boarded (which the cia has been accused of doing). It's very ironic, the original book focused on a nixon-era secret agency operating out of vietnam using torture and black opps, and in the movie bourne is a cia assassin from iraq doing black opps for the cia during the bush administration. Sometimes history repeats... -gosh

Things such as the user account are stored in the sam. You could play around with it, make part of the sam read only so it can't be modified. -gosh

If i understand you, what you would do is go to HKCR\.mp3, and look for what it references. You might see something like MP3File. Then you would go to HKCR\mp3file, and under Shellex it'll list the options for the right click context menu. Simply change the default value for Shellex and it'll set the default value. An example: HKCR\.txt maps to txtfile HKCR\txtfile under shellex has open, print, etc. In shellex for default is open, i believe. -gosh

The logon wallpaper comes from the default user profile. When you install win2k, it is running as the system account using the default profile. When you first logon, the default profile it copied and becomes your profile. The easist way to change this would be in hivedef.inf, look for the setting for the wallpaper. Text mode setup uses the 5 or so hives to make the default registry (on a clean install, on an upgrade different portions of the hives are used, look at txtsetup.sif). So by changing the hive you change the default user. i dont know if that answers your question... -gosh

SFC logs to setupapi.log, and i suspect you have corrupt inf's. This is what happens in SFC: 1 - SFC is loaded by winlogon at startup 2 - SFC monitors files from the catalog (.cat) files 3 - When SFC sees a file is missing, it prompts for the file name, and uses layout.inf in the windows\inf directory to see where to extract to. it logs what it does to setupapi.log therefore, i would be looking at the inf folder, the catalogs, layout.inf. Delete setupapi.log, add the usb device, and post your setupapi.log located in the windows dir. -gosh

dl the full 200~ meg file and install it locally -gosh

I believe mmsystem32.dll is the 16 bit sound subsystem in win9x. If you can boot into safe mode, you can try system restore, or disable the sound card in device manager. -gosh

regedt32.exe is just for permissions, i don't believe it would affect your issue. I dont know about your dns issue, never played with that. Sorry wish i could be more help. -gosh

that usually a scripting error. There's a microsoft article that tells you to change a registry key. Otherwise reinstall scripting by downloading scrun.exe i believe is the file name. You can get it off microsoft's website. -gosh

you could possibly make an .ins file that has the settings. you could possibly use ieak to install it. -gosh

**content**

The 39 min mark is at the start of setup, setup does the following in order: 1 - registers catalogs so it can check digital signature of files 2 - Installs core hardware such as cpu, hard disk, drivers 3 - starts step 1 of 3 So what you're looking at is either 1) corrupt core files, 2) digital signing broken, 3) hardware issues Upload your setuplog.txt (which shows what setup did), and setupapi.log (which logs hardware detection), and setuperr.log (if you have it). I'll look at the files if you want and tell you what is wrong. -gosh

you need to install a modified uxtheme.dll to enable unsigned theme support. -gosh

you can use a $$rename.txt file -gosh

ive never heard of folderc.inf, are you doing a custom install? obviously check to see that the file exists, check txtsetup.sif and dosnet.inf -gosh

you can upgrade from xp home to pro, although the oem software might conflict which might in the end result in a clean install. if you are booting from cd you aren't upgrading; you need to run that from within windows. You should go out and buy xp rather than pirating it. -gosh