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jmbattle

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Everything posted by jmbattle

  1. First off, wow, great to see nuhi back! I haven't visited this forum in years, but had to log-in just to offer my warm greetings. Second, my current 'main' XP installation is still going strong five years or so after being prepared by nLite - I believe this is testament to the quality of nuhi's superb programme. Anyway, I recently upgraded my internet connection, with the new provided utilising PPPoE. Unfortunately, my current XP setup had stripped the components required for this functionality away. So I spent a little while working with VirtualBox and nLite, creating a new XP installation that was as light as possible but retained PPPoE support. I re-nLited the same distribution over and over, gradually removing components until I was left with just 'Dial Up Networking' and 'Kerberos Authentication'. While repetitive, the trial-and-error detective work felt rather nostalgic, and reminded me of similar processes I had been through five or so years ago in preparing my - then - 'ultimate' lightweight XP setup. In the end, rather than reinstall XP keeping the required components, I decided to just pick-up an inexpensive router and use this for handling PPPoE connectivity. However, following nuhi's return, I'm planning to prepare a 'new' up-to-date XP installation in the new future (just need to find an up-to-date alternative to RyanVM's post SP3 update pack), and will of course update my signature accordingly! I'm of course also looking forward to nuhi's future projects - especially if they allow Windows 7/8 to be stripped-down in a similarly intuitive manner as nLite. So, once again welcome back nuhi, however I'm sure I'm not the only person who is rather curious as to where you've been for the past few years! Cheers, James x
  2. It should be possible to reactivate/repair the Themes service by extracting shsvcs.dll from your original XP CD, to the \system32\ folder, then registering it (regsvr32.exe [filename]). Upon restarting windows, the Themes service should be running. Cheers, James x
  3. Well, I ran nLite on a WinXP SP3 distribution, with the following configuration: - All components removed. - All components removed, prefetch compatibility selected. After installation on two separate VirtualBox virtual machines, I installed the guest additions, disabled the pagefile, and turned off the additional services (cryptographic services etc.). On the prefetch compatible setup I ran bootvis and selected the optimise system option. Then shutdown both installations. Finally, I measured the time taken from clicking VirtualBox's 'Start' gadget (includes BIOS POST etc.) until the desktop appeared. Both systems booted in 9 seconds, however the resource usage was slightly higher in the prefect compatible system, due to the EventLog service. It would therefore appear that there is little to be gained by retaining prefetch compatibility when preparing an ultra-lite XP installation. Cheers, James x
  4. Indeed, it nLite is an excellent piece of software - and freeware too! Incredible! Fingers crossed that nuhi will eventually return to his project, and possibly even create a 7lite? Take care, James x
  5. Thank you for the prompt response newsposter. In previous years I have always removed all of the services that I do not require - including EventLog (I recall that nuhi eventually found a way to prevent the long boot delay that would occur if this was removed). However, I intend to prepare an XP installation for a Dell Mini 9 netbook (dual booting with Leopard) which uses an SSD. I know that prefetch can improve the boot performance of traditional HD systems, and was therefore wondering if the same would also be true for SSD drives. I think I may prepare a test using VirtualBox to compare the boot performance. I know that this is not a 'real world' test, however it should provide a close-enough environment. It's interesting that you note the importance of a BIOS that supports fast EFI booting. Unfortunately the Dell bios displays a logo for a few seconds at power-on, compared to other netbooks (Asus for example) that start booting almost instantly. Thanks again! Cheers, James x
  6. Good morning folks, I am preparing a new nLite'd XP installation, and was wondering which configuration would produce the fastest boot-up: - Keep Scheduled Tasks + Event Log to allow Prefectch ---> Bootvis or - Remove Scheduled Tasks + Event Log (removing Prefectch/Bootvis functionality) With all other things being equal, has anyone benchmarked the two configurations side-by-side? Cheers, James x
  7. XP's Wireless networking client requires a number of additional dependencies, such as Event Log. In addition, I recall that SP3 utilises a rewritten wifi stack which also requires Extensible Authentication Protocol Service and Network Access Protection Agent (according to user Bledd). Short of rebuilding your installation CD, you will probably have to install a third-party wifi client. This is no bad thing, however. I am a big fan of Wifi Hopper, which will happily work on a lightweight XP installation with the usual WSZ dependencies removed. Cheers, James x
  8. There is anti-piracy checking built into nLite to prevent it from working with pre-nLite'd Warez distributions, such as MicroXP. Start with a clean source and prepare the Windows CD yourself. Cheers, James x
  9. No, I believe this was well before Bold Fortune ever got involved. Cheers, James x
  10. Before nLite existed, I believe the more knowledgeable folks used to use Joe someone-or-other's batch files to slip-down Windows 2k/XP. I could be wrong, however I gather that nuhi took the basis of these scripts and transformed them into a user-friendly tool, and of course, extended the functionality and safety aspect greatly beyond anything that could be achieved using batch files. On a separate note, is it not possible to use nLite on a Linux system using WINE and .NET/MONO? Cheers, James x
  11. I believe the reason for this confusion is because SP3 can only be slipstreamed - into any XP distribution, regardless of whether it is XP 'Gold', SP1, or SP2 - when running an XP OS with SP2 installed. However, please don't quote me on that! Regardless, why not just give it a try on your system and see what happens - you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain! Cheers, James x
  12. First, I would recommend using CDRWs as opposed to wasting CDRs - you don't end up with a pile of coasters on your desk, and it's actually better for the environment too! As for your connectivity problems, please inform us of exactly how you are accessing the internet (e.g. modem dial-up, broadband, cable etc.), and whether you usually install or configure any software. Cheers, James x
  13. Text Framework Services is required for the IME to function, however it appears that you did not remove this component, so I'm afraid I have nothing else to suggest. Cheers, James x
  14. Azelza, may I ask which folders (regardless of whether or not they are empty...) are required by Windows? I was under the impression that if a folder is required but does not exist, it will automatically be created by the OS/programme. I can think of only one exception that I encountered, and this was Adobe CS2 not installing until C:\Program Files\ existed. Cheers, James x
  15. jmbattle

    to Nuhi

    Wow, three years - man, I'm getting old! Cheers, James x
  16. A while ago I posted a little cmd tool that deleted empty folders recursively. I forget the name of the programme, however I'm sure you will be able to find it online, or possibly even by searching these forums (less likely...lol!) Cheers, James x
  17. Press Windows key + R to bring up a run box, then type: control userpasswords2 Check the 'Users must enter a username and password to use this computer' box, then click 'Okay'. Cheers, James x
  18. It could be related to the amount of memory you allocate (assuming you are using a virtual machine to test the ISO). Take a look at this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/SOLVED-BSOD-duri...amp;hl=japanese Cheers, James x
  19. nuhi, always a pleasure to be of assistance. By the way, is there any particular reason why the Japanese XP would require additional memory in order to install successfully (BSOD at GUI setup) compared with the English version? Cheers, James x
  20. Doesn't VirtualBox 2.0 supper x64 now? Cheers, James x
  21. Well after countless installations, I finally isolated the required component, and can confirm that the 'Text Services Framework' service is necessary in order for Japanese versions of Windows XP to load successfully. To confirm, all other components can be removed (including 'Input Method Editor'), however 'Text Sevices Framework' must be kept, otherwise the system will BSOD just after the 'Welcome' screen. While the nLite component description does warn the user "Don't remove for East Asian Languages", there is no information stating "Japanese versions of Windows will fail to boot if this component is removed." Given the important of the 'Text Service Framework' service therefore, I would suggest that future versions of nLite hide this component from removal when a Japanese Windows XP source is selected. お疲れ様でした! Kind regards, James x
  22. Well, I tested the ISO in VMware (what is with the 300mb+ download, by the way?!) and the BSOD that appears during the GUI stage of setup does not occur, so the problem would appear to be VirtualBox after all. However, when the GUI setup stage is complete, and Windows starts for the first time, the installation still BSOD with the error code shown in the screenshot above. To confirm, this occurs in VMware, VirtualBox, and on a 'real' PC. To my knowledge, this does not happen when using an English language source. In an attempt to get to the root of the issue, I shall attempt the same nLite process (simply removing all components, then building an ISO) on both English and Japanese versions of XP-SP3 VLK. - WinXP-SP3 EN (85.3mb ISO): Install in VirtualBox 2.0 - Text Setup: PASS GUI Setup: PASS, First Run: PASS - WinXP-SP3 JA (116mb ISO): Install in VirtualBox 2.0 - Text Setup: PASS GUI Setup: BSOD, First Run: n/a - WinXP-SP3 JA (116mb ISO): Install in VMware Player 2.0.5 - Text Setup: PASS GUI Setup: BSOD, First Run: n/a Hmm... and now the same BSOD in VMware Player. After further investigation, it would appear that the Japanese version of Windows XP SP3 requires at least 384mb of memory allocated in order to complete the installation process. The default setting when selecting a Windows XP installation from VirtualBox's 'New Virtual Machine Wizard', 192mb, causes a BSOD, as does 256mb, the next increment on the slider. However, with 384mb allocated (a further increment on the memory slider), the GUI Setup stage will complete successfully. This makes me curious about the differences between English and Japanese versions of Windows - why does the later require additional memory in order to complete the installation process? Well, despite overcoming the installation problem, Windows unfortunately still BSOD on First Run (just as the 'Welcome' screen appears): This leads me to believe that a component removal is to blame. I shall have to start with a clean WinXP SP3 source, removing something relatively unimportant (such as wordpad), to ensure nLite processes the setup files, then test again to see if this BSOD still occurs. I am once again curious about the internal differences between English and Japanese versions of Windows. With all components removed from each installation, there is a considerable difference in the filesize of the built ISO. Moreover, why would a Japanese version of XP fail to load correctly with all components removed when the English version loads without any problems? Well, does anyone have any suggestions as to which components may be essential for the Japanese version of Windows? I'm thinking about the IME and Text Framework Service, however I was under the impression that the Japanese installation has a different version of the IME pre-installed, as even when removed by nLite, the IME still appears during the GUI Setup part, and I am able to switch between Japanese/English input. Cheers, James x WINXP_SP3_EN___LAST_SESSION.INI WINXP_SP3_JP___LAST_SESSION.INI
  23. John, thank you for your suggestions. I believe that the code given on the BSOD is something of a generic error. I have tested installing the the unmodified image, with SP3 integrated (skipping all but the ISO build page), and it installs with problems. This morning I also tested an installation without any components removed, but with unattend, patches, and some other options. This also cause a BSOD during installation. However, now I am beginning to think there may be a problem with VirtualBox, as the test on 'real' hardware did not BSOD at the same part of the installation process. I shall keep persevering with this - there does not appear to be a great deal of familiarity with nLite among the Japanese computer scene, which makes ruling out such issues rather more challenging. The search function of this forum isn't terribly helpful either, as the most important keyword, 'Japanese', is found in any posts where individuals have pasted their last session.ini. Cheers, James x
  24. Initially, I thought that the problem was due to using an OEM version of XP, as opposed to Corp/VLK, and that the WPA was causing the BSOD. However, I am now using a VLK version, yet the BSOD still appear. I am curious why this should be - what is so different about the Japanese version of XP (other than the pre-installed IME) the causes these BSOD in VirtualBox? Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Kind regards, James x
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