SFCFiles.dll Alternative.

[SKiTLz]

Ridiculously simple trick that I can't believe I never thought of.

I like a clean Program Files dir like most. I use to edit sfcfiles.dll to zero out the dirs so I could remove them.

Much easier way is to just use attrib +S +H and hide them. I always have hidden files viewed but not system files. So for anyone like me you can just mark it as a system file.

So simple I cant believe I never thought of it. Can do it on things that make the dir structure messy that the OS actually needs too.

Sure most of you already thought of it, but for anyone slow like me I thought Id share.

[RyanVM]

Except that I purposely want to see system files

I haven't yet seen a successful modification of sfcfiles.dll which didn't also break Windows File Protection. Every time I've tried including a hacked version of that DLL on my CD, I end up with an empty dllcache directory (with the exception of a few CAT files). So, has anybody managed to hack it without losing that functionality?

[SKiTLz]

thats because sfcfiles.dll is built on the fly during the install. So including a pre-hacked one wont work. At least not anyway I know.

It has always worked fine for me hacking after. Defeats the hole automation idea but it does work.

Only thing I can think of is let the default be and build at runtime then have your hacked one copy over with a script on first boot.

[SiMoNsAyS]

this seems interesting, i've been pursuing this goal since a time, i'll test a few thoughts tonight and post feedback...

[SiMoNsAyS]

ok i've been "experimenting" a little.

for people that don't know what this file does, it contains the names of the files that need to be protected by WFP.

i just thought on replacing the %programfiles% strings so i could get rid of those annoying "xerox" folders.

this is just a test but it APPEARS to work. plz, download my hacked sfcfiles and post feedback

ps: it will be online just some hours to see if it works.

sfcfiles.dl_

[RyanVM]

And again, there's two things to check: 1.) can you delete the folders? (duh ) and 2.) are there more than just cat files in dllcache?

[SiMoNsAyS]

1) yes, xerox folder deleted

2) yes, files on other folders than %PROGRAMFILES% (and subdirs) are still protected

what i want to know if it works for some1 on an unattended installation, b/c i replaced the file after windows had been installed.

edit: if you are wondering what i did, i just hex-replaced %PROGRAMFILES% with %RANDOMSTRING% so the last value is not defined and %PROGRAMFILES% folders are not listed as WFP and they can be modified/deleted.

i'm just guessing that if you assing "C:\PFiles" to %RANDOMSTRING%, windows will create the system files and folders there, i'm not sure. i just want that people with different localized sp2 versions of windows test their unattended installations with this file.

Edited February 8, 2005 by SiMoNsAyS

[RyanVM]

oh, I thought you were trying it with an unattended install

I'll give it a shot on my next test run and let you know.

[seskanda]

The link to that SFCFILES.DL_ file is broken. Could someone point to me the one that works? Please PM/e-mail me or attach it in this thread. I need a SFCFILES.DLL that ONLY contains the necessary files Windows needs to run correctly. Unless, of course, someone knows how to edit the SFCFILES.DLL file. I'd be willing to know how to do that too.

Thanks in advance.