Tripredacus

In these situations, what does the Universal Serial Bus Controllers tree look like in the Device Manager?

Set special permissions to deny for Delete and Delete Subfolders and Files.

So far the only reason why I would consider an x64 is if I wanted to use more than 3.2GB RAM...

I don't care if they put WMP11 in SP3 as long as they fix Sysprep so it doesn't kill the OS.

Someone on another forum I post on felt that also, but also seemed to be the only guy on there to.

I just got to read the worst computer manual ever. I won't tell you the make and model for it, but its like a notebook but its really small. It's supposed to have a 8GB hard drive in it, but it's only seeing 3.5GB. It comes with Linux but our customer wants Windows XP Pro put on it instead. My first problem is that it doesn't have a CD drive. So we had to hackjob an internal CD drive to connect to the USB port. The manual says it is a USB 2.0 port but I doubt it. The manual had some weird things in it, and I figured I would share them with you. Safety Precautions 1. Do not leave the PC on your lap or any other part of the body to prevent discomfort or injury from heat exposure. 2. Do not place or drop objects on top and do not shove any foreign objects into the PC. Now for #2, it shows a picture of a vase on top of the PC... It also says things like how you're not supposed to take apart the battery... As far as the Linux that comes with it goes, aside from a game about Crack and the ability to learn english, the only downside is that it won't let you uninstall the programs it comes with. That sounds friendly enough. Now, how they recommend we install XP. 1. Install Windows (duh) but here it gets weird 2. Set Virtual Memory to 200MB.... WHAT? 3. Turn off System Restore... 4. COMPRESS THE C DRIVE? WTF?! 5. Move the My Documents and Temporary Internet Files folders... 6. It then goes through this thing where it shows you how to make a "Recovery CD" but really you just copy files to a CD before deleting them off the hard drive. The worst part is that it says if Windows malfunctions when you delete system files, just insert the CD and all will be well... OK now the most screwed up part of the instructions is that it tells you to delete the following: -Screensavers -Sample Files (well this isn't so bad I guess) -Wallpapers -ALL OF THE WINDOWS HELP FILES -ALL OF THE FILES IN DLLCACHE -UNINSTALL SERVICE PACK 2 AND ALL HOTFIXES? -DELETE ALL FOREIGN LANGUAGE PACKS Of course those last bits had instructions where you just delete the files for them, not by uninstalling them. In the beginning they tell you how you need to use a XP SP2 CD because older versions do not support USB CD Drives, but then they tell you to remove the service pack (probably because it only has a 3.5GB Hard disk) to save space. It would have been better if they could have provided an nLite version of XP without all that stuff, but I wonder how well Windows will work after deleting all that stuff. It is also funny because it says that some files won't delete unless you are in safe mode. Sometimes these manuals are really screwed up. This one seems to have good English in it (unlike the other funny ones) but the steps are ridiculous. There are also sections that say you need a UFD bigger than 1GB but smaller than 2GB... Oh and it says not to throw the PC in the garbage or throw the battery in a fire. One of these days I'll have to post the AOpen Map of the World... that thing is funny.

I've never used the boot switch before. What does that do specifically? What is the command you are using to deploy the image? I have encountered problems using imagex if using multi-partition/spanned wims from a DVD, but not from the network, so I'm not quite sure there.

I believe that option is only available if Fast User Account Switching is enabled. I know that you can't enable it if you are set up to log into a domain however.

Also remember, that if the motherboard has ACPI enabled or supported, you don't need to change between a uniprocessor and multiprocessor HAL. Windows XP will automatically detect the processor and use the appropriate HAL. I can't remember where that exact quote comes from, but I know I had printed it from somewhere, cut it out and taped it above my desk. ^_^

In my efforts to keep it simple I ended up with an idea with too many parts. I think I'm going to have to ditch this flash/hta/app method and see how just writing an app will turn out. My reason for picking flash was because my app method had a complicated way of handling XML, and we will be using XML because we will do a data exchange with an Oracle server as well.

Is the shell that runs the HTA have the same security limitations of Internet Explorer? The reason being is that IE sometimes doesn't allow you to do certain things concerning system files or it pops up messages wanting to get permission to accomplish certain tasks. The method I choose can't do things like that, but needs to run executables and also copy files to the hard drive after imaging.

Is there a way to specify to Sysprep to NOT clear the event log when you do an Audit Sysprep? We are getting an error on the screen at a point after the Event Log is cleared and before the computer reboots. The error is on the screen for less than a second so we can't pause it or read it real quick. Basically, Windows Defender crashes during the sysprep process. Is there another viable method, such as disabling Windows Defender before doing the sysprep? Also it would be required that Windows Defender is to be enabled after the user sets up the machine. We are not using an answer file.

Yea dude, if the drive is screwing with your computer booting up, you can forget about doing stuff in Vista to make it work. Sorry I haven't encountered this behaviour myself. It is possible that the connection to the CD Drive is loose inside the computer. That's the only thing I can think of or the drive might be bad. Is this the kind of drive that you can take it out by pressing a button or is it built in? Check your warranty or call tech support and ask if its okay to open it up and make sure its connected ok. If you should still have a support contract with it then calling tech support is way better when you can do it for free.

Do you have XP Pro on these machines?

Oh I want to say DOS because I installed it today and I forgot how much I like it.

I don't have it at home because my computer isn't good enough for it, well it probably is but I don't need it right now. I chose that I use it at work, but I don't use it on my work computer. My work computer is Server 2003 Standard and it does have Vista Business on VPC 07 but I don't use it like that. I install it alot on computers that we sell to businesses but that's about it.

I haven't but I think they fell out by now.

Closest in that list is Toronto but doesn't it say where you are in your vCard?

At work we'll see them maybe once or twice a month. At home I have not seen one on my current computer yet, and I've had the same install of XP on it since 2001. I love those things. I hate how they changed it for Vista.

Where I work now they don't use that kind of thing but at previous companies we didn't use just one image. There was a base image that everyone had (XP) but all the apps that user was supposed to use differed based on the department they worked in or their specific needs. Of course they used Altiris for pushing those special apps out that everyone didn't get. On the base image I think there was only shortcuts for My Computer and My Documents and the Recycle Bin. They also had roaming profiles set up so if one guy used another computer that day and it didn't have his apps, he would either have to use another computer or use Citrix to view a virtual desktop.

I am trying to figure out a method to get Flash to update an XML file while running from the PE. I have built my flash test app and it can do everything I need it to except the following. My workflow is as such (at the moment): 1. Flash App prompts for serial number. Type in serial number, click Submit and it sends that information to a program that writes it to XML. Right now I am looking at using Flash's POST to URL method, and a target HTML file that writes the serial number to an XML file. Without a server architecture on the PE I can't use the standard ASP or PHP methods of writing to an XML file, which would leave me with the HTA and Javascript. But the other issue is that you can't send a POST method to input.hta? 2. The HTA writes to an XML file. 3. Another App reads the serial number from the XML file and finds an XML file with that name on the server and copies it to the Ramdrive. 4. Flash would then use the new XML file to determine how to image the computer. The thing that is stopping me from using the App in step 3 is because its really hard/confusing to write an XML file with it. I can do it easily with PHP or ASP but you can't run those in the PE. My biggest thing right now is to figure out how to pass the info out of Flash to an HTA or another program. Sending to XML sounds like the best choice for me, since Flash is really limited and I don't know how to get other programs to read the Flash Share Object, or where in the PE Flash even puts that file. Any ideas on how to continue?

I have to also say my old favorite used to be half.com back when it first came out.

Dell uses Volume Licensing version of Windows and not regular OEM versions. The serial numbers between the two are not compatible.

By default that button is set to sleep and not shutdown. Here's how you can change that Control Panel, Power Options. Select the Plan you're using and click on Change Plan Settings. Select Change Advanced power settings. Scroll down the list to "Power Buttons and Lid" and click the + sign. Click the + next to Start Menu Power Button and set the option you want. Naw man, I know the Standby button in the start menu. On the right of it there is a little triangle and if you click that it brings up a menu. You get options like Restart, Shutdown, Standby etc. In this case I clicked Shutdown but the PC went to sleep instead. And when I push the power button (on the case) it would wake up instead of turning on because I guess it never really went off. After swapping the hard drive to the blank one, it attempted to reload Windows from standby but it never actually got into the Desktop. It would show the Secret Boot Screen and then give an error. Its because it kept the Standby state in memory, and gave the appearance that it turned off but really didn't.

For computer items I use newegg or if I don't like the deal I go through pricewatch.com. For the other stuff I buy online its primarily eBay, 20west and BBTS.