prathapml

WinPE is the perfect candidate for you - a bonus being its graphical. But its commercial, so check out the free variant - BartPE. Do post back on what you finally decided to use.

That last one about hiding all tray icons is interesting. It'd be useful for me if there was some way to forcibly do an "Always Hide" on all tray icons (so that its not seen, but if you click the arrow in tray ("Show hidden icons") you will be able to see the icons.

That VFD (linked in your post) is what I'm using since more than a year, and never found it lacking in anyway. It works perfectly and stably. If command-line manipulation is what you're looking for, then try running the command vfd.exe /?in the extracted ZIP file's directory - its quite powerful. I've begun liking my VIRTUAL floppy-drive more than my real one - disabled the real drive since it does nothing but waste floppy disks (FDs don't seem to live for more than a week).

Well, it runs the office setup, and sees which files are needed to be copied to install it. And keeps those alone and dumps the files that you don't need (because many of the files are older versions than comes with XP, and files for older versions of windows) If you were to have already had office installed, an example is unicows.dll which you'd already have installed (when you re-install office, the residue files won't be copied over again). So then office-shrink will not notice that file is needed to be copied during a fresh re-install - and when you install a "shrunk" office source on a fresh windows install, you will see that complaint of a DLL missing.

hmm how? Do a "/A" (admin install) of the package - it can be found on CD1 or downloaded. Then use the resource kit to make an MST for itself. That should do it.

Yes you can slip-stream into AIP, but its a different AIP! Also, to confirm that your code works for every CD, try running it with the office resource kit installer.

Thanks, its interesting - will try it today after getting home! One thing I'd like to know though, is does this "shrinker" support all cds ? I mean, the one by buckeyeXP works only for CD1 of office 2003. If you try to reduce source of frontpage, onenote (cd2, cd5) you find that you can't. Also, what is this tool based on? not Auto-It it seems?

I'm deeply sunk into *nix and I would still take it.

ASO is quite good, check them out - A Small Orange If your paid hosts seem to be jinxed, check out this topic for free hosts. Atleast you don't lose anything if they go down, unless you are paranoid about XPlode code.

Unless you are hosting your site on your OWN machine. As for free hosts, look in the Hosting section of MSFN forum - you'll find many good ones (and some posted by me too recently).

Post your favourite publicly usable proxy server which you use to surf. Hopefully it will support all normal site features. What's the advantage of surfing by proxy? You become anonymous. And you can fool sites that go by your IP address. And it lends you a sense of security. And why is this topic existing when google exists? Because google can't be asked about the preferences of msfn visitors. Also, google would just return lots of results, whereas YOU would post tried and tested and trusted addresses. Example: Where to get source code of anonymizer (cgi proxy) http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/

Remember UseNet and the news-groups? Well, it has gone down in activity a lot. But many people still use it and not too many good free news servers exist. The main problem with the free ones being that not *ALL* of usenet is accessible (many block the "alt.binaries.---" groups). You could as well use google groups 2 instead of using your news reader app, but google blocks out some things. Get yourself started with UseNet Googling for NNTP servers is easy enough, but that does not assure you tried and tested results - whereas you would certainly be using a server you already trust. Post YOUR favourite news server (and group).

Thought you'd be interested to see this. Please post in this thread if you find it useful. I take no responsibility for this one. Note the quote - so its just a copy and credits go to cameron122000 for compiling this list. Here you go: www.000k.com/hostsetup1.phpBur.st: www.bur.stThat's all for now.

Lemme jump into the party.... UT2k4 DM - tokara forest - anyone? PS: first post edited because image was too large and was mis-aligning page.

The KDE shell in linux has a game called potato guy.... Where you can mix and match face parts. Enjoy! (and maybe there's a win32 port of it, not sure...)

Why not use bartPE. It is based on windows xp, so it will boot up from cd within a minute, and give you a graphical interface and USB support. It has a plugin to include Nero Burning ROM. So you can do what you asked very easily. bart's PE builder

funnies WILL go to funny farm. * topic moved

And that "ultimate" guide is coming soon. Also, the comment about "shrinking source" is right. Too many people use nLite too soon and have no end of problems (atleast earlier people'd try to fix their errors themselves and report solutions).

That folder is a virtual folder - none of the (non-existent) folder hiding will work. Its just a cascaded display of what you see from the Control Panel. Look into the registry tweaks thread here for the tweak to set/remove it. Or configure it to how you want, and export these keys: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Start_AdminToolsRoot: 0x00000000 HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced StartMenuAdminTools: 0x00000001 And using regshot is what showed up the above. It can save you a lot of head-ache and forum posts.

It won't be individually in every user profile. Shared.

Longhorn recent builds have the nVidia graphics drivers integrated (40.xx series). nForce drivers though, you'd rather not use. Don't use longhorn for your main OS - expect another year of changes yet.

Set all the unnecessary services to load manually, or disable them. That will cut startup time by almost half.

You might think it confusing at first. Just don't bother - DO IT and you'll eventually understand. Carry out your tests in a virtual machine so that your real PC is safe. And finally, the official guide (linked above) is being revised and will be up soon. So if you wait some more days and then see the same site, you might find answers to what you're looking for.

True. Run the server as a server. Tweak XP properly and it will run steaming fast! I think the main problem is when people refer to "win2k3" or Windows 2003. That name loses sight of the truth - that it is Windows Server 2003. If you have been following MS products for a while, you'd know how the product line is differentiated and designated. The code branches out to cover variants across the spectrum - normally. Until now, you had a Windows NT (v4) - workstation and server editions. Windows 2000 (v5) - professional and server. Note the important sequence of the name - its windows nt (base) first, and THEN its wkstn or Svr. Its win2k (base) first, and the fact of being pro or svr comes later. Whereas recently, they changed the entire positioning. Windows XP is the consumer and workstation edition. And Windows Server 2003 is the server edition (note that its a windows SERVER first, and 2003 is a fact that comes later). Lose sight of this and you won't have optimal performance.

Yes, this is possible. Please try searching - its been discussed literally in hundreds of posts!