legionaire

I just don't get it. XP is a perfectly usable OS that runs most software reasonably well on most hardware - given a knowledgable user. Vista is a huge step backwards with regards to everyday usability - but the oh-so-colorful interface made a lot of people actually buy the marketing hype. Vista introduced a lot of new problems that have never been heard of in the days of XP. Even today its real-world performance is nowhere near that of XP. And yet, with so many questions unanswered by Vista there are fanboys crowding to carry yet another hype? Why is it that people are so eager to burn good money on a mere operating system? Ask people why they bought Vista - you get "Directx 10!" as a reply. Wow, so all Microsoft will have to do is make Directx 11 yet another proprietary technolgy to boost their sales of Windows 7.

Seems like the right place to ask if anyone knows about the *real-world* differences between the Barracuda ES.2 and 7200.11? I know the former is the 24/7 server version whereas the latter is destined for the desktop market. Marketing claims set aside, any tangible benefits to be gained from either one? At the moment I'm looking into buying a 250GB ES.2 as the 7200.11 series start with 500GB capacity - which I don't need.

Very nice, thanks a lot! I'd greatly appreciate wallpapers like that from ZA if you happen to have them...

You should be using Windows PE to pre-install the SATA drivers. As a next step you can configure your drive letters as you want them using diskpart (command-line utility under WinPE). Edit: There is actually no need to pre-install the SATA drivers. Just make your IDE drive "D:\" using diskpart. Normally, the SATA disk should then default to C:\.

It's illegal as it's breaching copyright laws. By downloading from a source that is not licensed to offer copyrighted material you are yourself creating an illegal copy. A license key is just a measure to discourage illegal copying - it's not the license to obtain the software associated with it. Microsoft does offer to 'legalize' pirated copies through the purchase of a license key. However, that's within the realm of civil law entirely. The act of creating an illegal copy is a criminal act nevertheless and there is no way a company like Microsoft can exert any influence whatsoever on what is considered a crime. Now I just hope I cleared your question in time before jcarle has a chance to unload his wrath onto you.

Bear in mind though that by 'drives' Zxian means 10,000rpm raptors. Anything below that just doesn't deserve being called a 'drive' by Zxian's standards. It's up to you to decide, however, if a second drive justifies the extra cost - just like with SLI.

Ok, here's what I meant: 1) Instead of using "%%?:\Install.cmd" use pushd %%: call Install.cmd 2) Using cd you can only navigate to subpaths. E.g. if you'r in C:\Windows, cd D:\Something won't work. However, pushd D:\Something will work. That's what I meant by "non-subpath".

Simply use cd to change into the dir of install.cmd before you call it. Edit: pushd is even better as you can specify a non-subpath as well.

By not including IE7 and WMP11 in SP3 Microsoft is actually admitting to the fact that these are *not* all-out improvements. Back with IE 6 vs 5 or MP 10 vs 9 this was a no-brainer though. Even Server 2003 SP1 shipped with MP10 as opposed to MP9 in the Gold edition. It went without saying that MP10 introduced little in the way of new functionality yet was superior towards MP9 because of revised code. The same held true for IE 6 - the transition from IE 5.5 wasn't perceived as a milestone but rather a minor yet important update. Now, both MP11 and IE7 come with lots of new functionality which inevitably leads to totally new problems. At the same time IE7 is not 100% backwards compatible with IE6. I noticed that myself when I couldn't view the web interface of my Thomson router using IE7 instead of IE6. Other such issues exist and not all of them have been patched. So personally I find it very comforting that SP3 won't include either MP11 or IE7. Let's not forget that these were in fact programmed for Vista - and as we all know, Vista is not neccessarily better than XP.

Just use a .cmd file with these commands: for %%i in (*.exe) do ( start /wait %%i /q /n /z erase %%i) Place it in your updates folder and execute at will. It'll delete any update once it has been applied.

I just 'read' that single-post thread in question and couldn't help laughing out loud . Not only is it utterly confusing because of poor English, multiple unrelated questions raised simultaneously and a blatant lack of logical reasoning. But also must it have been sheer unreadable before Yzowl's radical pruning measures took place. Therefore it is the worst possible starting point for a discussion about intellectual property or moderators' rights - let alone international law. You, PsiMoon314, chose to defend a perceived victim of copyright infringment - but at the same time you couldn't bring yourself to posting a reply to the single-post thread you took as the foundation of your argument. For that reason I, too, question your motivation behind opening this thread. You have no intention of making msfn a more informative or law-abiding place. You simply want to pass time arguing with the higher-ups because you secretly envy them for the privileges they enjoy.

I disagree. Windows ME boots like twice as fast as Vista Oh and btw, just keep in mind that for every month SP3 gets delayed so much more hotfixes will be included.

Look into AutoIt. You can write a script that will wait for the Hardware Wizard window to appear and click the cancel button right away.

Best advice I can give you is to use Pyron's method (Drivers from CD) outlined in the msfn unattended guide. Any driver that can be sucessfully installed via this method will never cause a 'Found New Hardware' popup. What you'll have to do is extract your driver installation files to find the base .inf. Then feed that base .inf via Pyron's method and Windows' Hardware Wizard won't bother you. However, this will in no way prevent you from installing the original driver installation file like you're used to. PS: Oh yeah, you'll also need to provide any file (.dll, .sys) that is referenced in the base .inf. If you're not sure which files make up the actual driver just provide the entire dir.

Thank you for this truly outstanding guide, DarkShadows! I never figured all these ActiveX controls could be installed without the excessive clickwork that is normally required. Just a little info on the side: People who'd rather use command lines for their unattended setup process might find the following command to be of interest: rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction DefaultInstall 128 .\???.inf