sleepydvdr

I think we have gotten way off topic. So I will rant a little now: I must say that the max profit is not made in ANY media format. Max profit is made in the most recent offerings: digital downloads. Near zero manufacturing/delivery costs yet almost the same amount of $ is charged. No brainer - max profit and no one can reasonably argue with that. And there are only two kinds of people out there: those smart enough to break digital copy protection and those who can't (unlike the people on this forum, I bet the general public cannot break digital encryption). However, I remember back in the 80s there were these things called "high speed dubbing cassette decks". Load the original tape in deck #1 and the blank in deck #2 and press down on a button called "High speed dub". Not too technical. Bootlegging has been around for many decades. Why do record companies complain so much now? Oh, that's right. They hit their peak and they are now experiencing their inevitable decline. So they cry like children do when we grab a toy from them. They think a good thing will last forever. Hint: I think music has hit its peak and is on its decline. So has the economy. Adapt like everyone and every other company in the world has done and quit whining. OK, enough off-topic stuff. Back on track now... One little comment about an earlier post: I have used my 850MB CDs in a very old CD player (made many years before 850MB came around) and they worked fine. They were DIVX and MP3 discs and did not contain redundant files in separate folders. They may not work on all older CD players, but they at least do on mine. I burnt the majority of them with a Plextor CD burner. I must admit I haven't burned one in over two years (I only use DVDs now), but the scheme worked. Response to another comment... I can see a use for using CDs over DVDs. CDs are more universally compatible and there are many games that use the >700MB capacity as a cheap form of copy protection. And finally, yes, the greater storage space is possible because of narrowing the space between tracks and by taking up some of the reserved space (I think it is the same space used for TOCs and artist/track naming that is rarely taken advantage of on retail CDs). On a way off topic subject, I once read that about half of a CD's capacity is used up by checksums. I know checksums are very important for recovering data from scratched discs, but if we eliminated that, couldn't we pretty much double the capacity to about 2GB? Just a thought. That would be an amazing feat for a format originally designed for a 650MB capacity.

I have a stack of 850 MB blank CDs right in front of me. You do need to configure Nero to overburn and need a burner capable of doing so. So, I know for a fact that 850 MB is possible (I have done it). I have also read in the past that 1 GB CDs were actually made and worked (although I never got any). The max I ever heard of is 1.2 GB, but I never followed up to see if they ever made it to the market. My guess is that the data was compressed and you uncompressed it right off the CD. How did you get these files to your HD, exactly? Was it just copy & paste or did it run through some kind of extracting program? Another possibility is the chunk size your hard drive is formatted with. Smaller chunk sizes make files take up more disk space. But I don't know if it could double the size, though. It might be possible, but I'm not sure. To test this, try extracting the contents of this CD on a few other computers and see if you get dramatically different results or roughly the same. Final thought: since this is Win XP and Office, are you talking about after installing XP and Office, your used hard drive space taking up 1 to 1.5 GB? If that's what you are talking about, it's because of the installation files being compressed and system restore being bloated. I got to admit I'm interested to see what's going on with this disc. Always hoping to run into some sort of "magic". I doubt it, though. Can open the disc and take a screenshot and post it?

Thanks for the advice. Good info to know. I'll check out your program and see if I can figure it out.

Just wondering if Windows looks in any particular places first or does deeper scans in particular folders. If not, is there any way to tell Windows to look in more places? Thanks!

I may be wrong, but couldn't something from this page be of some help: [url="http://www.win-rar.com/rarextras.html"]http://www.win-rar.com/rarextras.html[/url] It has an unrar.dll, unrar.exe and source code. I don't know how to make those things work, but maybe someone else can!

This is awesome. I think my computer is running alot faster now that my capacitors are realigned!

Hello everyone. I just thought I'd share my fix for the TCPIP connection limit. I know there have been other discussions of this, but the other discussions seem to have too many broken links and people complicate the thread with crazy talk. So, I made my own instructions that are very simple to understand (or at least I think they are). Note this is for fixing the Windows XP installation CD, not for fixing a computer that already has XP installed. Also note that this fix is only necessary for versions of XP that have SP2 integrated. The limit was introduced with SP2, so regular XP and SP1 XP do not have this limit. Hope everyone enjoys! Two download locations: MegaUpload or SendMeFile Oh, and to check if it worked after installing, google this file: EvID4226Patch.exe and it will tell you what your limit is. That file, by the way, can patch the TCPIP file on an existing installation of XP.

mmarable: you are a genius. your suggestion worked for me. Delprat: sorry, but your suggestion didn't work for me. B)

I'm posting the Last Session.ini file below. It looks pretty standard to me, though. I'm going to try the other suggestion today (fixing the logon/logoff music). Oh, I'm giving myself a pat on the back. I figured out yet another problem myself. I posted the solution in the Customizing Windows section. [Main] Env = 1.0.1 - 2.0.50727.42.Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Target = Windows XP Professional Sp2 - build 2180 - English (United States) [Tasks] Remove Components Create a Bootable ISO [Components] ;# Operating System Options # Manual Install and Upgrade ;# Compatibility # [KeepFiles] msconfig.exe [RemoveFiles] clock.avi [Options] GuestName = "" AdminName = "" ProfilesDir = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings" TargetPath = "WINDOWS" temp_dir = %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp AdvTweaks isovol = WinLite isoatt = -allow-multidot -no-iso-translate -relaxed-filenames -allow-leading-dots -N -l -d -D -joliet-long -duplicates-once -no-emul-boot -b boot.bin -hide boot.bin -hide boot.catalog [Patches] TcpIp = 16777214 UsbPoll = 125 [Services] Themes,2 StiSvc,3 EventSystem,3 COMSysApp,3 MSDTC,3 FastUserSwitchingCompatibility,3 winmgmt,2 WmiApSrv,3 AppMgmt,3 AudioSrv,2 ClipSrv,4 CryptSvc,2 EventLog,2 HidServ,4 HTTP,3 HTTPFilter,3 IpNat,3 NDProxy,3 NetDDE,4 NetDDEdsdm,4 Netman,3 PlugPlay,2 ProtectedStorage,2 SamSs,2 SCardSvr,3 seclogon,2 SENS,2 SharedAccess,2 SysmonLog,3 TapiSrv,3 TrkWks,2 UPS,3 VSS,3 W32Time,2 Wmi,3 xmlprov,3 LanmanWorkstation,2 RasAuto,3 RasMan,3 RemoteAccess,4 IpFilterDriver,3 IpInIp,3 NwlnkFlt,3 NwlnkFwd,3 Ip6Fw,3 ALG,3 DHCP,2 DNSCACHE,2 PolicyAgent,2 NLA,3

I just thought I'd mention this for others who may have been having the same problem I have been trying to figure out for weeks now. My first couple hundred attempts at making a fully unattended install of XP with a different theme went great. The theme loaded perfect every time. But for the past few weeks, it started not loading the theme properly once in a while. It was getting worse and worse and for the past 2 weeks, it wouldn't load the theme at all! I tried all kinds of stuff to try to force the theme to work (I was getting very creative ). Then I took a step back and pondered what have I been doing differently now than when it worked. Guirunonce. I have been adding more and more to my guirunonce lately and thought maybe this may be the problem. I rebuilt my last version without the guirunonce. The theme installed perfectly again. So, what I did was put a batch in the Windows directory and a shortcut to it in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder. In the batch file, I got it to delete the shortcut to itself in the startup folder, applied a runonce registry file to run another batch file that installed the last bit of software that needed to run at guirunonce, and told it to reboot the computer in 20 seconds (I feel better having Windows fully booted before shutting down). It worked perfectly. So, the lesson learned is that too many things in the guirunonce can prevent your theme from installing correctly. Just thought I should mention this since it has been making me pull my hair out and I finally figured out the solution. I figured that if I had this problem, others probably have been, too. I think people are sometimes too scared to ask a question because the canned answer from so many people is to use the search button. I don't recall anyone ever talking about this particular subject. Peace, everyone!

jmjm003: wow. that may be the problem, after all. I have always selected that option. Now reading the hover-over description more closely, I can't believe I missed it. I guess just the name of that tweak alone sounds self-explanatory. I should have read the explanation more carefully. I'll test this as soon as possible. Thank you for pointing this out! I hope this fixes it. Now as for the other problem, the exception happens with many apps. I just posted the error message of Nero, the one that had just gave me the error at that time. It has happened with these apps for sure: Nero, Firefox, PhotoFiltre (maybe more, I can't say for sure). Now that I think about it, it doesn't seem to happen with very small apps. Maybe it just seems to happen alot because the two apps I use the most are Nero and Firefox. Another little thing that may not be significant... it seems to happen when apps are run for at least a few minutes. If I just open an app and then close it, it doesn't seem to happen at all. Probably nothing, just trying to be as specific as possible.

I also remove the tour, oobe, and messenger. The only one that could possibly mess with it could be the oobe. But I still don't see how that could affect Windows playing sounds, especially if all other sounds work perfectly. And Nero just game me the error message again. Here is exactly what it says: Click OK and it gives me this for the second box: Click OK again to finally exit.

I think this article is pretty much what you are looking for: Click here

Absolutely! I just praised Nuhi in a post where I was asking a question. Basically, I thanked him because his program got me started learning a whole world of stuff related to how XP works, how to make switchless installers, how to decompile and recompile .exes, write batch scripts, do registry tweaks, etc. His nLite program really got me thinking outside the box! I only discovered nLite back last Christmas. I can't believe how much I have learned and can do now because that one program. Not to mention how much faster my computer runs now! Thanks, Nuhi... You are the man!

I love nLite because it has opened a whole new world for me. However, there are two things that puzzle me. First, when booting up and shutting down, I never get the welcome music or the shutdown music. All other sounds work. And this is for every version I have made, not just a couple. The other problem is a software exception error when exiting apps. You click OK and a second popup tells you a bit more about it (some sort of a hex value is part of it). I thought maybe I have removed too much or something important, so I built a version with really safe things to remove (music samples, dr watson, games, etc - nothing critcal or even related to software running) and it still does it. On many different computers. It never affects how the software runs. It only does it after the software has exited. Has anyone else run into this problem? Any ideas if I'm doing something wrong with nLite? Thanks Nuhi, nLite has given me something to play with for a long time now. It has sparked my learning of how to do so many things on the computer I would have never explored otherwise.

First, you won't find a svcpack.ini file because it is compressed to look like svcpack.in_. Download cabtool to decompress the svcpack.in_ file to become a svcpack.ini file. The fact that the system locks up at the T-13 time tells us that the problem is one of the 4 addons you have in the svcpack folder. The easiest way to find out which one is the problem is to take two of them out the the svcpack folder (don't change anything else) and rebuild the disc. If it still locks up, then those two files probably weren't the problem. Try removing another one and test again. However, if the first test went ok without locking up, then one of the first two files were the problem. Try putting one of them back in and test again. Basically, you an addon that doesn't work well with your system. You need to find out which one it is. The only way to find out is to experiment. Read all the instructions given by the the person who made the addon. For instance, you can install Dotnet 1.0 at the T-13, but not Dotnet 2.0 (it must be done on a guirunonce). I have found many addons from other people that don't work well at all. The more complicated the install, the more likely something will go wrong.

Ok, everybody. I did it! I'm ashamed it took me so long to figure it out... First, if you want to install PowerDVD, and don't have DirectX, PowerDVD 5.0 is the last version that doesn't require DirectX. The problem I had with installing 5.0 was the silent installation kept getting halted on one screen that just tells you about a new feature in the program. The problem was skipping that screen. First, to make this work, you need to know how to make SFX archives. I use WinRAR. Here's how to do make it a silent install (also works for most InstallShield installer programs, too). Run the Setup.exe in "record" mode. That will record all your selection of options. You will actually install it like normal, including entering your serial number and everything. When finished, it will generate a file called setup.iss in your Windows directory. I made a .bat file with this inside: setup.exe -r Now to make the silent installer. Find the setup.iss file. What I did was make a SFX archive to put the file in the Windows directory. I named it issfile.exe. This is my SFX code: Path=%windir%\ SavePath Silent=1 Overwrite=1 Then I wrote a .bat file with this code: start issfile.exe start setup.exe /s /f1"%windir%\setup.iss" exit The setup.exe is the setup file for PowerDVD. You can rename the .iss file, but the setup.exe must be named setup.exe! Finally, I made an SFX for the whole thing. It includes all setup files, the .bat file, and the SFX that copies the .iss to Windows. Here is the SFX code for the final installer: Setup=setuppowerdvd.bat Silent=1 Overwrite=1 It worked perfectly! It may sound complicated on first reading, but it really isn't. Just do these things one step at a time and you will get it!

Thank you, sIn_maxo! I am exactly what you mentioned in the previous posts - a future nLiter who needs an answer. This issue just came up for me and six months after your great solution. I appreciate your help on this! Some people don't have foresight. I have found solutions to problems in posts as old as 10 year on various forums. Can't wait to get my repair option back...

I had a problem integrating the Lsass worm hotfix. nLite gave me the same error message everytime that it failed to integrate. So, using WinRAR, I created an SFX archive and used this switch on the parameter line: WindowsXP-KB835732-x86-ENU.EXE -u -n -o -z -q (use: filename -u -n -o -z -q) It worked perfectly!!! Note that you must make a .cab file with the SVCPACK folder and the corresponding .ini file for it. And, I don't know if anyone really cares about this or not, but doing it this way makes the hotfix show up in the Add/Remove programs list. I haven't tried it, but I bet you can remove it, too. Just thought I'd share this. Might be a better option for some people.

I have used Resource Hacker in the past to change Windows' icons in the Shell32.dll and was successful in doing that part. I used it in an unattended install. But some programs like Office XP and Nero would not run and/or install. It would give me some error that Shell32.dll is not valid or corrupt or something. The question: is there some icon(s) that I should not modify? Some icons I replaced had different sub-icons (some had more / less of them like some did not have 16x16 or some had 128x128 and the original didn't). Could these things be the problem? The weird thing is I installed a Vista transformation pack. Everything worked great. No problems at all. I grabbed the Shell32.dll from the system32 folder. I used it in an unattended (but not the transformation pack). Same problem. Icons changed, but the same errors mentioned above. I don't understand why it would work if the transformation pack is installed but the modified Shell32.dll didn't work by itself. Any thoughts or suggestions?

There's actually an easier way to do this. The Royale theme does not need to be extracted. It is available as download. Click here for just one website that offers it. There are tons of sites you can download it. No need to use WinRAR. Just add it to your unattended .cab file with the /s switch applied to the ENTRIES_ROYALE.INI file. Mine looks like this: [general] builddate= description=Royale Theme for XP language=English title=Royale version=1 website= [EditFile] I386\SVCPACK.INF,SetupHotfixesToRun,AddProgram [AddProgram] royale.exe /s To to make it the default theme when Windows is finished installing, open the winnt.sif and add these two lines to the very end of it: [Shell] CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\Royale.theme" This method worked for me. But nice work you did yourself. It will also work, of course.

I have now tried your suggested Custom.ini. It didn't help. I even merged it with the original one posted near the beginning of this thread. Still keep getting the pop box. And I downloaded PowerDVD 5 from other sources, hoping to get a different build in which the pop box doesn't exist. No such luck. I don't think there is any way to get rid of it. It isn't a box asking a question. It is just box letting you know about a copule new features. I screen captured the box, in case anyone is interested: Thanks, teapleasebob, for your suggestions. It gave me a something to do, trying to figure it out for a little while. I guess I can live with PowerDVD 4.0. It's not bad at all, anyways. Heck, I've been known to watch DVDs through DVD Shrink (right click preview screen and go to full screen). Thanks again for the suggestions...

Yes, silent=1 is the first thing under [PowerDVD].

I have an older computer and DirectX 9.0 won't install on it. I used this method on PowerDVD 4.0 and it also worked fine. PowerDVD 5.0 seems to be the last version that doesn't require DirectX 9.0. But on PowerDVD 5.0, during the installation, it has a pop box that just says something about a couple new features. One is about viewing itin a zoom type fashion to fill the screen and the other is something about stretching the picture a certain way. Anyways, I was wondering if anyone knows how to skip past this? I would assume it would be a line that goes in the custom.ini file. I compared the custom.ini file posted earlier in this topic to my registry entries. They matched up perfectly. Any ideas or can I not stop the pop box.

No no no. That's too much trouble. Someone else already did all the work for you. Go to this page. Scroll down the list of apps and find Vista Inspirat Shell Pack. Add it to your unattended CD as a hotfix. It's just that simple. I have used it and it works perfectly.