arablizzard2413

Well I know for us, if a user reports a problem with some program on their pc (Excel, Outlook, Firefox, etc.) we can only see the error if we're on their screen looking at their desktop. Really irritating to come to a computer only to find it locked and we have to wait for them to come back. We have hundreds of other admin passwords to remember. Trust me, when IT has Active Directory access anyway, we don't care or remember what your password is. (unless you're a very vocal CEO who complains that we don't know it)

You have UnsecureJoin set to true, you don't need credentials. Besides that, you can always delete unattend.xml in the panther directories in SetupComplete.cmd to remove the user information. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc765972%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

Ok, so I used a key for Windows 7 Professional on my MSDN-AA (or is it called Elms?) account to upgrade my Toshiba netbook to Professional from Starter, I login today and I'm greeted with a message saying I might have a counterfeit copy of Windows. Unless my school is doing some shady business, that can't be the case. What gives? EDIT: System properties has the blue Genuine logo and it says activated, maybe it was just a fluke then.

Too bad the Windows 2000 start menu isn't an option... I liked having the classic menu with a my computer shortcut

Why would you want to dual boot with dos? It would seem like running DosBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net) inside of Vista would be a much better solution.

The "Business", "Ultimate" etc checks are only used for naming the log files, so it's not something vital. I just wanted to make it easier to understand which version the log file belonged to. All the image.wim files I've seen use the same numbers for the images, so I didn't think it would be a problem.

If you don't mind I've created my own version that's cleaned up and a little more automated. I've only tested it on Windows XP. The process is the same as above with the following exceptions: 1) Folder paths with spaces don't cause errors (can be used from folder on Desktop) 2) Paranoid file finding measures to prevent any missing file errors later on 3) Automatically integrates each image, if an error occurs the process stops asking if you want to continue 4) No need to change the tokens value (it was removed) 5) for x86 only, but can be easily modified for x64 set_dirs.cmd @IF "%1"=="" GOTO INFO :: Set the variables used in run.cmd, names with spaces supported :: Set working dirs SET vpath=%CD% SET vmount=%vpath%\Mount SET vsbox=%vpath%\Sandbox SET vupdates=%vpath%\Updates SET vtemp=%vupdates%\Temp :: Set paths to tools :: Distrust %PATH%; errors with %PATH%s which are too long SET expand=%ProgramFiles%\Windows AIK\Tools\Servicing\Expand.exe SET pkgmgr=%ProgramFiles%\Windows AIK\Tools\Servicing\pkgmgr.exe SET imagex=%ProgramFiles%\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe SET peimg=%ProgramFiles%\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe GOTO EOF :INFO @ECHO Edit the file paths using notepad @ECHO Then start Hotfix.cmd. @PAUSE :EOF Hotfix.cmd @ECHO OFF TITLE Vista Hotfix Integration ECHO. :: Hotfix.cmd & set_dirs.cmd must be together, you'll get an "Files missing." otherwise. :: Dirs with spaces are supported ;-) set them in set_dirs.cmd CD /d %~dp0 SET KILL= ECHO Windows Vista x86 Hotfix Integration tool ^| 5-22-2007 ECHO ---- by AraBlizzard2413 ECHO Original versions by FireGeier and spacesurfer ECHO. :: Begin paranoid file check IF EXIST set_dirs.cmd (CALL set_dirs.cmd 1) ELSE (GOTO ERR) FOR %%E IN ("%pkgmgr%" "%imagex%" "%peimg%") DO IF NOT EXIST %%E SET KILL=1 IF NOT EXIST "%expand%" SET expand=%WINDIR%\System32\Expand.exe IF NOT EXIST "%vupdates%\*" MKDIR "%vupdates%" IF NOT EXIST "%vpath%\install.wim" SET KILL=1 IF "%KILL%"=="1" GOTO ERR ECHO Your working path is: ECHO %vpath% ECHO. ECHO If this is correct, press any key to continue. PAUSE>NUL :: Cleaning & safeguard IF NOT EXIST "%vtemp%\*" MKDIR "%vtemp%" DEL "%vtemp%\*.*" /q :: Check for bad mount or files IF EXIST "%vmount%\Windows\*" "%imagex%" /unmount "%vmount%" IF EXIST "%vmount%\*.*" RD "%vmount%" /s /q IF NOT EXIST "%vmount%\*" MKDIR "%vmount%" IF NOT EXIST "%vsbox%\*" MKDIR "%vsbox%" IF NOT EXIST "%vupdates%\*.msu" GOTO ERR :: Start the process! :: Extraction PUSHD "%vupdates%" FOR %%M IN (*.msu) DO CALL :EXTRACT %%M :: Don't bother deleteing, overwrite Integrate.xml ECHO. ECHO Creating Integrate.xml... ( ECHO ^<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?^> ECHO ^<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"^> ECHO ^<servicing^> ) >"%vtemp%\Integrate.xml" :: Sort cab files by date and add lines to Integrate.xml PUSHD "%vtemp%" FOR /F %%I IN ('DIR /B /OD *.cab') DO CALL :ENTRYXML %%I :: Finish Integrate.xml ( ECHO ^</servicing^> ECHO ^</unattend^> ECHO. ) >>"%vtemp%\Integrate.xml" ECHO File Created. ECHO. ECHO Check Integrate.xml for errors. PAUSE :: There are 7 versions of Vista in install.wim, 8 is not used SET counter=1 SET max=8 ECHO Now Integrating... :INT SET type= IF %counter%==%max% GOTO EXIT IF %counter%==1 SET type=BUSINESS IF %counter%==2 SET type=HOMEBASIC IF %counter%==3 SET type=HOMEPREMIUM IF %counter%==4 SET type=ULTIMATE IF %counter%==5 SET type=HOMEBASICN IF %counter%==6 SET type=BUSINESSN IF %counter%==7 SET type=STARTER "%imagex%" /mountrw "%vpath%\install.wim" %counter% "%vmount%" ECHO Starting integration for %type%, do not close this window!... START "Starting Package Manager" /WAIT "%pkgmgr%" /o:"%vmount%;%vmount%\Windows" /n:"%vtemp%\Integrate.xml" /s:"%vsbox%" /l:"%vpath%\integrate_%counter%_%type%" :: If ErrorLevel = 0 build & repeat for next image, if not ask. IF %ERRORLEVEL%==0 ECHO No errors found IF NOT %ERRORLEVEL%==0 GOTO RESUME :BUILD "%peimg%" /list /image="%vmount%\Windows" >> "%vpath%\updates_installed_%counter%_%type%.txt" RD "%vsbox%" /s /q MKDIR "%vsbox%" "%imagex%" /unmount /commit "%vmount%" SET /A counter=%counter%+1 GOTO INT :: Subprocesses :EXTRACT ECHO. ECHO %1 extraction in progress... START "Expand" /WAIT "%expand%" %1 -f:*-x86.* "%vtemp%" ECHO File finished. GOTO EOF :ENTRYXML IF "%1"=="" GOTO EOF SET KB_=%1 SET KB_=%KB_:~0,-4% ECHO ^<package action="install"^> >>"%vtemp%\Integrate.xml" FOR /F "Tokens=*" %%L IN ('FINDSTR "assemblyIdentity" "%vtemp%\%KB_%.xml"') DO (ECHO %%L >>"%vtemp%\Integrate.xml") ( ECHO ^<source location="%vtemp%\%KB_%.cab" /^> ECHO ^</package^> ) >>"%vtemp%\Integrate.xml" GOTO EOF :RESUME ECHO Error Level: %ERRORLEVEL% SET choice= SET /p choice=If you still want to continue, choose Y. To abort choose N: IF NOT '%choice%'=='' SET choice=%choice:~0,1% IF '%choice%'=='Y' goto BUILD IF '%choice%'=='y' goto BUILD IF '%choice%'=='N' goto UNMOUNT IF '%choice%'=='n' goto UNMOUNT ECHO. ECHO "%choice%" invalid! ECHO. GOTO RESUME :ERR ECHO. ECHO Files missing. @ECHO ON @GOTO EOF :UNMOUNT "%imagex%" /unmount "%vmount%" :EXIT ECHO. ECHO Process Finished. PAUSE @ECHO ON :EOF Hotfix.cmd set_dirs.cmd

expand.cmd Dir /OD > Sort.txt For /F "Tokens=5" %%i IN ('FINDSTR ".cab" Sort.txt') DO Call :WriteXML %%i Wouldn't this work? For /F %%i IN ('Dir /B /OD *.cab') DO Call :WriteXML %%i Then there'd be no need for Sort.txt

I don't see any reason to install it, I'm using a Toshiba laptop so it's just royalty oem activation so why would they need any information about my pc? Unless I need it to install anything, it will just be wasting resources in the background.

I hovers around 5 percent with Windows Media player, a little lower for foobar. The driver version is 3.11.0.0 and it says it's from Conexant, if someone sees newer drivers, let me know because I spent a few hours trying to find it.

Windows Media Player 10 later upgraded to 11, but it skipped before I installed 11. Foobar2000 does it too, it's any program that I use to play my music. Oh, no, they don't have anything either. It's probably because it just came out not that long ago. Still, this is really annoying, I'm tempted to just pull out my old HP laptop and use that for music... which would be lame since this thing is a Dual Core 2 2.0GHz with 2 gigs of ram and that punny HP is only 800MHZ with 256megs of ram and plays the music fine.

Because their site doesn't have any, they only have drivers for the modems they make. I think the sound chip is only available to oems. It's a laptop integrated sound, I don't have any external speakers connected. The windows volume control says the sound is turned up, it's not a problem of hearing the sound... it skips sometimes, but plays fine other times. No, but the hard drive is a 4200rpm SATA. It doesn't explain why the cd-rom skips when playing audio too. It's a wav file, why should I need a codec, that would only be used if the audio was compressed right? (ex. mp3)

I just got a new Toshiba laptop (a Satellite P105-S9722) and sometimes it skips when playing music, at first I thought it was the CD drive, but then I ripped the music and it would still skip at different parts of the song (I know the cd isn't scratched, because the wav files play just fine most of the time). The Device Manager says the audio device is Conexant High Definition Audio, are there new drivers that can fix this or something?

I know about the drivers, I was just wondering because there seem to be a lot of update packs and a few unofficial fixes.

Ok, so I've decided to setup my old Toshiba Satellite Pro 480CDT for some old games and maybe internet. So my question is this: What all do I need in terms of updates to Windows 98 SE? (What's the best way to do things)

But that's exactly what I want, it's only for that program.

ARG! This is so frustrating! At first with just the %UserProfile% the game would save into the All Users Sharded Documents, so I added the %AllUsersProfile% to change that, but now it just saves on the root of that drive (F:\; a folder named 'EA Games' is created, just as if it were saved in the original My Documents) instead of inside the "mydoc" folder... The game is The Sims 2. Run.bat: ---------- SET USERPROFILE=f:\mydoc SET ALLUSERSPROFILE=f:\mydoc Sims2SP1.exe

That flattens everything onto a white background (detail is lost), but thanks, I think I have it now.

ok, so how would I get an average of the 4 images? (in Photoshop using all of them)

No that's not what I mean, if you desaturate them they are different; they were all made using the original source but if you desaturate them you get a greyscale version of that particular shade (the darkest will still be darkest, the lightest will still be lightest, etc). I'm trying to rebuild the original image that those files were made from (hard to explain I guess, but if you look at those 4 pictures, they look like they've been colorized, but they are the same picture).

I have several images that are different shades but they were all created from the same grayscale "original", now my question is this: how can I use these images to get that original grayscale image and save the hue/colorize settings for later use (I have a huge set of these and I want to be able to run through them quickly). Here is an example of the pictures I'll be using (all put on the same image), I'd prefer to use Photoshop CS 2.

That can be done using a variety of methods... and it's pretty easy. 1) Masking the image; an alpha channel is used to make the image transparent and show the white background layer under it. 2) Using the brush tool with a semi-transparent setting and painting white on the image 3) A filter someone made, or one that came with the graphics program I doubt you'd be able to do something like this if all you have is Microsoft Paint though, Adobe Photoshop or some other fairly decent program will be able to do this. Oh and if you were wondering about the colors towards the edge of the white border, it looks to me like they just reduced the color pallet (ex: 32 bit true color to 256 colors)

Sad, no one is voting for Windows XP Media Center Edition... It's just as good as Professional, if fact it IS Professional! The only feature you loose in Media Center is the ability to join a domain, which makes it cheaper than Professional and you get more cool stuff. But there is a way to get it to join (no, it doesn't involve warez or cracks"), but you can't use the Media Center shell if you do.

This isn't just about boot time, overall system performance can be increased by simply moving the virtual memory paging file to something like this. It can also provide a temporary storage space for when you're editing a video or sound. True RAM is faster than the iRAM device (which uses a SATA connection), but the iRAM would be faster than the IDE hard drives most people are using (for example: my computer has the SATA connection, but I didn't splurge to get new hard drives to use it; the motherboad was an upgrade). So it WOULD increase performance because the paging file would be on it's own dedicated "partition" that has a faster connection (SATA instead of IDE). Booting from a USB device has it's own advantages, but for some people, they really don't need them. Originaly this device was designed to provide a temporary space for video editing and such, in that case it makes sense. I wasn't saying that I would trust using this as a boot drive, like I said in my first post. It's called hibernate, and yes I use that on occasionally. But faster performance overall (not just during boot time) can be expected. In the case of moving the virtual memory paging file over, you move to a higher speed media which can dramatically increase system performance for memory intensive programs (Photoshop when using large images). You also neglect to realize that not all motherboards support 4 gigs of memory (My current computer can only use 3 gigs, and my old one could only handle 512megs) so they rely on the virtual memory a lot. Having a faster space for the paging file will make those systems run faster. All systems have a paging file, even if they have 4 gigs of RAM unless you have turned it off manually, and I doubt everyone has a separate hard drive completly dedicated to a paging file. Other thoughts?

Giga-byte's iRam sounds like a good idea, but there is just one thing bothering me... the data is lost after the 12 hour backup battery runs out if the computer is unplugged. Doesn't sound all that safe to me, but if they had a boot loader type thing that can backup/restore the os from the hard drive automatically via an option or something, it might be good. A more practical use for this would be for storing the virtual memory file, that way you would have more speed than having it on the hard drive, and have 4 more gigs to play with (assuming you buy that much). The article is here, but it's also on the msfn front page: http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/01/HNxpwindows_1.html Anyone got any thoughts on this? (besides the release date, it's sometime in July)