playsafe

I knew abt WSUS. but did not heard about MU. It looks a good thing. Currently I am installing it. Will come back witht he feedback afterwards.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ At this location there is a key "ProgramFilesDir", which is set to "c:\Program Files". IMO u only need to change this registry key for changing the installation Directory. U can confirm it by changing this registry key and then trying to install some program. Also I have a point in my mind, How the c:\Program Files folder could be moved which is created while OS installation to install default Programs like Accessories etc.. Also how will you move "Documetns and Settings" folder. EDIT: Also have look at these HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal = %USERPROFILE%\My Documents HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\StartMenu = %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Personal = c:\Documents and Settings\Yasir\My Documents

Yup, a link on this page url=http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/56/ is broken. And i think the guide link on this page is url=http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=25128 working fine now.

Yes, u r right. A Start Menu will be a combination of All Users's "Start Menu\Programs" and your own "Start Menu\Programs" folders. "Start Menu->Programs" is the place where shortcuts are. Whereas @GLO is pointing towards the "c:\Program Files" Folder which contains the exe and all helping files such as dlls, so it shows all the installed files in that folder. Cant clarify more than that

In my Office, One of the Printer HP LaserJet 4050TN was not picking up the papers, that was not big deal. Just for ease(so i can check it when time permits) i moved the printer to my room. I put a power cable straight from wall to the printer. Turned it on and off some 5 times while checking. On sixth attempt some smoke came out and i remembered it takes 110VA input, whereas i was giving it 220. I forgot to take the adapter with the printer to my room .

What i can see is... Your Start -> Program Files points to the c:\Program Files\ or D:\Program Files where u have installed ur Programs. What should it be? whereas it should point to C:\Documents and Settings\Yasir\Start Menu\Programs ---- First check by exploring through to this folder and see if it exist there. and change the registry key as suggested earlier.

In Start->Programs-->Firefox What is Firefox up there, an application or a folder? I am getting a little confused now. Here is my start menu and by looking at the properties of Mozilla Firefox (Not the application but the containing folder at start menu)

hah , it seems to be quite costly.

I formatted it with NTFS, not a quick but FULL FORMAT . This evening I have tried Hiren's Data Recovery CD. I tried the partition recovery option, Well it has shown me the exact partition and Data in it. Then I went for recovery in it. When I rebooted to see the contents, there was partition there with same name and size but no data in it. I think now as i have recovered partition next step would be data recovery in it. I will check it tommorow morning.

As files are copied over, so I think now any Data recovery software will be unable to recover it for u? Well I have tried Hiren's Data Recovery CD. It showed me the exact data i lost, also I re-partitioned it whenwent through that horrible mistake. It had recovered the partition this evening with no data in it. Tommorow i will try to recover the data in the recovered partition. I hope it works this way, I am not sure, wether recovering partition should recover data as well or it has to be the next step. Come on, u should share it with us. I made this huge mistake with moving data to second disk and then to repartition both drives after I read an article on Ten Most Common Mistakes at TechRepublic a week ago. I would like to hear a worst one from you.

Well, I usually prefered to re-install. But now, I use VMWare and after all basic installations that are required, I make copy of the whole machine. I dont use Imaging softwares because, I dont know about any free one. I used Norton ghost sometimes for my friend though. Can anybody suggesta good freeware Imaging software? I read a poll on msfn about good imaging softwares but they were not freeware.

This is now set back to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs That is incorrect. HKCU is your own profile so you shouldn't point it to All Users's Start Menu. It should ONLY point to your own Start menu. Yeah you are right, HKCU points to the current user profile. @GLO just made a mistake of setting ALL USERS part rather than his own folder in Documents and Settings. @GLO- which extra files are still there?

At least you did get married. . I am still single . But i was talking of computers though.

un-intentionally i made a mistake. Here it is.. In the following senario I talk about two systems. 1. Original system with actual data. 2. Second system whose hard disk was used for copying data onto it. In a system already working, i put second disk and CUT-PASTE data onto the second disk from system's original disk. On original system disk i removed all the partitions and tried to format during installation of XP, but every time at the completion of format, it gave disk error. So, all data was on second disk. At that time i had to prepare a system for one user. I put the same disk containing data into another system and repartitioned and formatted the drive to make a clean installation. Now all my data is lost. Is there anyway that i can recover that data. Personally I have left hope of getting it back.

Well, I have done a very serious mistake couple of days ago. In a system already working, i put second disk and cut paste data onto the second disk from system's original disk. On original system disk i removed all the partitions and tried to format during installation of XP, but every time at the completion of format, it gave disk error. So, all data was on second disk. At that time i had to prepare a system for one user. I put the same disk containing data into another system and repartiotioned and formatted the drive to make a clean installation. Now all my data is lost. This is something I wanted to share, but also to seek if somebody can help.

This is currently set to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and did not fix teh problem This is now set back to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs But which registry hack is it so that all new programs are installed into D:\Program Files What else could there be? As HKEY_CURRENT_USER Key was changed because the tweak did changed only one user and default program files folder location was not changed for any other user niether for users which will be created afterwards. To change it for all users as default, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE will be used. As to your second question about default installation directory, @Takeshi is right. And maybe u were trying to change default Installation Folder but changed the Start Menu --> Programs location. Anyway this should be solved now.

I do set my homepage to Google Customized HomePage and added a lot of stuff in there.

He doesn't. For one he is too busy. And for more.. if he was using MSFN, he would not go for VISTA, my word it is well over 3GB and it is still in beta with more than 5 months to go. All the people here are talking abt Slimmed Windows and NLite. But he is going his way.

I go for ME. Never used one though. Just saw it once, and due to short life it had, tells the story itself.

The files instsrv.exe and srvany.exe has solved my problem. I am now able to start Apache as a service when system starts. @Camarade_Tux: I have downloaded the Launcher 0.2 version. I will try it after uninstalling my current service and re-installing it with your method. It looks quite easy from the readme notes. Thanks.

I agree, but what if a user simply download files from different sites. Blocking bit torrent or specific ports will not do it. And by adding web pages to block list it will be a continous procedure (although i do it, ans it is very helpfull but you do it when u now about that website). What if for some reason system goes out of network and a student has worked on some document. In that case, user will not be able to save it on his network share, and if he saves the file locally it will be removed at log off. That will not be a good senario. IMO, system should have two partitions. C should have readonly and List Folder for Users. Same for D drive, but then a local user folder in D drive should have full rights for users (by not inheriting parent properties down to this folder only). And then simply apply qouta. what is your opinion, I may be wrong..

Thanks, I'll give it a try. EDIT: I have searched for the files you named, and found this topic. Create User-Defined Service Currently i m going through it and come back with the results when i apply it.

IMO, no u would not have to move any files, as u just changed the Program Folders pointer to d:\Program, and now u are re-pointing it back. so no problem should occur. Just the key value should be right. As @T D said, these are only pointers, they are already there pointing to ur installations no matter where they are installed.

I will go for One primary and remaining One Extended. Then use that extended partition to create logical in it. As u require 5 partitions in total, that makes it four logical in the Extended partition. I will always make atleast one primary as it could be used for OS installation if required. And I dont think that 3 primary partitions are required anyway.

The value in this key should do it for the user HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellFolders\Programs For Computer Level u should change HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellFolders\Common Programs