I had this problem for a long time occasionaly, but always when I used hfcleanup. Now I have found out that these occasions are when I use Oleg's 2000-only removal files.

Since I choose to delete catalog files, and FDVs fileset provides the modified SFC.DLL and such, I don't see why does this happen. If I don't Use HFCLEANUP or (now I know) if I just don't use Olegs files, these popups won't appear.

These are the entries which are removed from syssetup.inf
NT5.CAT
NT5PRTX.CAT
CJIME.CAT
MQEXCHNG.CAT
PHIME.CAT
PYIME.CAT
SCRDBCAT.CAT
HPCRDP.CAT
MW770.CAT
IASNT4.CAT
SP4.CAT

Any ideas/suggestions?

NOTE 0: I use W2K (as always)
NOTE 1: I use FDV fileset (as always)
NOTE 2: I use DX9 (as always)
NOTE 3: I use basic hotfixes, nothing more (as always)

whitehorses
I use the same removers as you (maybe just 3-5 more files deleted since then) and don't have this issue

I'm writing from the computer where the system was installed from HFSLIPed source + my reducers There was no complain about missing files during installation and later.

The only reason I can think about is: you add FDV's set after including my files - I canged a few things in there and it's better to add my files after FDV's fileset in order not to replaced changed files.

I must make another test... maybe I made something wrong, sorry

It also may have some influence from hardware but I tried it on 5 complitelly different computers and it worked smoothly.

Only one note - I include video adapter driver in my installation - if it is not in the distribution the setup proccess asks about a couple of files to add. I don't remember if I excluded these files from reducers in the package.

Try arrange all folders and put all needed files in them including FDV's fileset. And only after that, just before running HFSLIP.CMD, put the reducers and included files in (there should be some files in separate folders in package). If it asks about replacing files just agree and replace them.

Hey Oleg using all the reducers what is the iso size? What is the comitt?
Joe

dirtwarrior
I add a lot of other stuff in i386 folder too so it's difficult to say how big it is "clean". Let me guess: mine is about 104MB with USP5.02, DirectX9C and all that stuff (Chinese language support in LANG folder takes 14MB so I think it would be about 80MB of Windows files only.

As for commit it's about 30MB without drivers and RAM disk. But when I add drivers and RAM disk it's about 65MB. And of course when I run programs it increases too.

Oleg2
Hmm... are you saying there are new filesets?

Where can they be obtained, the ones on hfslip.org are the same as I use.

I got mine to around 85 mb iso. Comitt was also around 30 mb.
I havnt been modding fo a while, started a new job.

Know that one.

I only have experience with XP but afaik this is not specific to it. If I delete some of these files, setup complains right after the first GUI boot. But I found a workaround. Of course, there are some differences since I use nlite for component removal and XP but here is a part of my post-nlite batch script:



At first I thought setup would never use these files but it does. And since I use fdv's sfc[files].dll I thought that the files were maybe loaded but anyway, windows would never go through them.
And it works.
Btw, don't try to compress the files. They are empty so compressing them would only make them bigger.

And also, cat files removal normally only applies to cat files inside SVCPACK. ; )

whitehorses

If you are using removers from there it's probably not my set I didn't know it is on HFSLIP.ORG I thought there are general removers on the site only. Could you give me the link where you downloaded the set?

dirtwarrior
So we have the same results

Camarade_Tux
Interesting method we have here

@Oleg
here's the link: http://www.hfslip.org/advanced.html

@Tux
But why others never experiance this, just you and me? What are those cat files by the way exactly.
I don't know... I'd like to finaly understand why this hfcleanup never works for me.

I probally used your file set too. No issues with missing files here. Do you have a reducer a little more agressive?
DW

Don't know, computer mystery. Maybe an OEM CD ?
And also, nlite only removes NTPRINT.CAT when print support is being removed (this one contains driver signatures). CAT files that are direclty in i386 are generally left untouched.

@Oleg

Can you explain the differences between your fileset and tommyp's? Is that the mini2.zip? or there is a newer "version".

I think I can answer this one. While Oleg2 was away (remember he hasn't been to the board in about 10 months), I grabbed the reigns and added some reducers. I kind of thought Oleg lost interest in this stuff, and there was some reduction needed. I compliled the cleaners and have them on the hfslip site. I'm working on some more, but I'm not having much luck with getting them XP friendly. Maybe I have a weird hotfix or something....

Hi TP!

Would you check this thing for me:
- OSOptions_MSTask deletes lines in fdvs ie.inf, but makes reverse effect than what it should, because those entries are in the del.reg section. same is the problem with ZZ_IE1 and 2, and two others, but MSTask makes a very strange effect: in control panel a "ghost" folder of the task scheduler appears. It looks like a normal folder, only the popup description says it's task scheduler. Doubleclicking does nothing of course.

Am I correct?

I know exactly what you are talking about with the "dummy" icon in control panel when removing mstask. Tinkering with that INF was pretty tricky (I don't use the existing 2k ie.inf). Which string of characters shouldn't be removed?

If it means anything, the following strings are only in the IE.INF file (reg add sections)
CLSID_MSTASK
CC2A9BA0-3BDD-11D0-821E-444553540000

The SchedulingAgent string is in IE.INF (reg add section) and wkstamig.inf. The latter file really doesn't matter, it looks like it is for an upgrade or something non important.

In either case, only the original ie.inf has these reg add sections. FDV's ie.inf just moves it to the delete section so it can't get installed anyway. He could have just deleted those lines instead.

If it means anything & if I remember correctly, if you run that mstask inf, and reboot, the dead control panel icon will be fixed. That was tricky to find/fix at one time.

been eagerly waiting for this ...

What I'm thinking of is the additional inf file. I think that's the only thing there which could cause a behavior like this. Maybe not. I need a bit more time to see trough that.

@whitehorses - All seems to work well with ie6/dx9/hfcleanup. I haven't thorougly tested with FDV's fileset. Pls report any findings.

@kiki - I think nlite is easier to use instead of hfcleanup. I don't have time to tame the XP beast tame.

Nlite is easier to use. But on windows 2000 I get a cleaner iso using HFSLIP. I use both to get the best iso. I also slipstream dx9 with HFSLIP much smaller slipstream and uses much less ram

dirtwarrior - I meant to say that NLITE is easier with XP. I love 2k with hfcleanup. It works like a champ.

whitehorses - I just tested an FDV version of 2k with dx9/hfcleanup. I can't repeat your empty task manager icon in control panel, all seems ok on this side.

@TP

Which version of HFSLIP are you using? I don't know if it has changed in the latest test release, but I doubt anyone had run hfcleanup with really "good" results till this day

Refer to "Test Releases" section for details.

I tested with hfslip-1.2.2. There are some others that use HFCLEANUP that don't have the same mstask issue as you. Are you changing the hfcleanup files at all? Are you using all 3 mstask files?

no rush here TP!

I don't know if it's needed when using fdv at all. Fdv's fileset removes Task Scheduler by default doesn't it? Removing entries from fdv IE.INF with hfcleanup is risky, and the only benefit is when it removes iexplorer.exe, but that can be done manually. One uses FDV IE.INF because wants it to apply it's changes right? If does not want those changes, but wants to remove strings arbitarily from IE.INF then I suggest not using fdv, because using both might give unwanted results.

EDIT:
What I said above was not concerning this MSTaskScheduler issue, but more general.

On an unadulterated system (haha), the task scheduler registry info is installed with ie.inf. FDV"s fileset places the task scheduler stuff in the del add section so it won't get installed. When hfcleanup is run, the registry entities are removed totally. But, IIRC, the mstask INF file in hfcleanup corrects things for the false icon (I could be wrong, that was a year ago when that icon was fixed). Are you using a virgin source? Are you using some other reducer?

edit - you editted your above reply when I typed the above out. Let me try this. There is an option when running hfcleanup with fdv's fileset. You have the option to leave fdv's files alone or to hfcleanup them too. True, editing of the IE.INF is risky, but I tried to mimic FDV's work when not using his fileset. In other words, I typically slipstream ie6, but I remove iexplore with hfcleanup, leaving the ie6 core behind. There are many ways to skin a cat with reducing the source... this was my spin on it. I could be wrong with the way I clean things up, but it works for my needs. I encourage people to generate reducers and test them out before submitting.

Well about the source I'm using... it is english W2K SP-not-4, and I patched it to SP4 with the conventional manual method. It was on a cd which contained both Professional, Server, and Advanced Server. Is this abnormal?

Yea, that is a bit abnormal. This question is dumb because I'm not familar with that type. Is your i386 folder like this?
driveletter:\hfslipdir\source\i386

BTW, would you be interested in a new hfcleanup method? I have some ideas that may work. But it's a large undertaking.

Oh my god, wait!!! ... yes of course



Well, maybe. Are you thinking of regex searches with .rin files?

Sorry, I'm not familar with regex. I was thinking of parsing infs for filenames and deleting the filenames and somehow doing some sort of filtering. It's easier maintaining a list of INF files instead of a few thousand individual files inside the rem/rdv/rin files.

Are the files in your source folder read only? Can you attach your hfslipwu.inf file from a fdv/hfcleanup?

hmm.. interesting, but sounds effective. What infs are these? does every component has an inf? I know that dfrg.inf is the defragger, but many other component's installer code is obfuscated by MS.

I think that such parsing is not possible without accidentaly deleting other unwanted things, or not perfectly removing those which wanted.

There is the problem with the current method, that it does not manage dependencies, but that could be solved by not fregmenting, but merging removal files, ie. merging dependig packages, and making a more complete removal on that area.

I don't know.

Thanks for the file. It could be a dependancy thing as you suggest.

I totally agree with the dependancy thing. Nlite has some dependency issues too. Files/programs get installed a few different ways. These include combo installation INFs with separate sections, individual setup INFs, syssetup.inf and the HIVExxx.INF files. Some are spread out across multiple INFs and some are one INF for one particular program and some INFs install a torrent of programs. [By programs I mean EXEs, DLLs, etc.] Services are probably the toughest to remove because there are tons of dependencies. Windows is pretty complex (and sloppy) and because it's proprietary, there isn't information out there that tells about dependencies. Linux lists dependencies. Everybody has unique needs, and a default windows pretty installs everything. With reducing windows, it's a learning process of what to remove to suit your needs. I could have generated a 3 or 4 reducer files that could do everything in one shot, but some things just wouldn't work because of the dependency thing. I took a stab at reducing, as you point out it's 100% perfect, but it's a shot. NLITE on the other hand has many great things as far as reduction, but sometimes doesn't reduce enough IMHO. Maybe there is some obscure dependancy he is taking account.

I don't know. This is a hard question.

I think I take a nap.

@whitehorses - on the test release thread, you said that your hfslipwu.inf isn't getting run. There should be this entry in your sysoc.inf file. That INF is key to make hfslip and hfcleanup to run properly. I just tested hfcleanup with the current test release and all is fine on my side.

[Components]
WinUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,HFSLIPWU.INF,HIDE,7

Also, a few days ago you had posted a zip file with some txt files in it. The readme of the zipfile says you are making custom strings, which is evident because some of those strings are not part of the listed hfcleanup fileset. I'm not sure if you are copying and pasting things to create those filter.txt and other txt files or not, but.... There are some blank lines in those txt files. Blank lines are NG with hfcleanup. If any of those reducers have blank lines, setup will fail because it will be reducing more than you bargained for. Sometimes it could erase the entire contents of an INF!

EDIT - I have to double check the WINLite70203b version out, I saw some errors during installation. Version hfslip-1.2.2 works fine.

I'm making some test too. I will report back later. the custom strings are at the very begining of filter.txt

By the way task scheduler issue is solved. The task scheduler registry key is created by a dll (shell32), not just by ie.inf by default.
FDV's IE.INF is registered as RunOnce by hfslipwu.inf, to run its [FDVPATCH] section. Now that will occur AFTER shel32.dll gets registered, so the task scheduler entry in the delreg section re-removes the entry from the registry. If hfcleanup filters fdv-s ie.inf this issue occurs.