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Could someone post a batch file or reg file to associate all audio and video files that are viewable with Windows Media Player 10 to it automatically?

I've successfully installed, and tried out with a variety of different skins, the current build of WindowBlinds Enhanced, as as well Icon Packager and a few other programs, like Bootskin and LogonStudio by StarDock. However, after installing ThemeManager2004 I keep running into a few things that make no sense. #1 Several "themes/suites" that are in the list by default, like the Terminator3 suite, claim to download and be installing files when click apply, and yet nothing happens or changes, it all stays the same and no new suite/theme gets applied. #2 When trying to apply any suite downloaded from Wincustomize.com it crashes, 100% of the time, it always crashes, and gives some error "winstyles 1.02 has encountered and error and must close" and it never lets me install any new suites. I'm using XP SP2 and have all the updates from windowsupdate installed. I've tried turning off my antispyware, antivirus, and even my firewall and yet the problem remains. Any help here? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Here is a copy of the exact text of the error that happens every single time I try to download/install a new suite. WinStyles 1.20 has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost. For more information about this error, click here. Error Signature AppName: winstyles.exe AppVer: 1.2.0.1 ModName: unknown ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 0103f4a5

Here is what i'm attempting to do. I think it is possible with what i've seen in this post so far, but i'm not 100% on how to go about it. Perhaps a tutorial or something could be put together for custom Firefox installers? 1. Install the latest Firefox 1.0.4 as of this writing. 2. Install custom selected set of extensions. Perhaps with a prompt or dialog box with checkboxes to select/remove the extensions installed per user choice? 3. Install a collection of additional themes that are tested to work with latest Firefox build. 4. Install Quicktime Alternative, Real Alternative, Windows Media, Flash, Shockwave, Adobe Reader plug-ins. 5. Install a preconfigured set of bookmarks. 6. Give the choice of a Firefox desktop icon or start menu icon(pinned to top of start menu if chosen) with both icons having a similar right click options as the IE icon has. This last one here is one I am having the most trouble with. I am not sure if this is possible or not, but it is something that I and many of my friends are interested in if possible. 6. Configure the automarks/urlfiller/thecleaner extensions or similar so that every time Firefox is started/restarted the url history in the address bar is cleaned and filled with only the urls of bookmarks and set the history function so typed urls don't ever get saved for url address autofill and only bookmark urls autofill/autocomplete in the address bar. It would be nice to put this all together as a silent installer for clean installs of Windows, but i'd be more than happy to just get some sort of graphical/semi graphical installation like this put together that could be done from within an already installed Windows. Any assistance with putting this together would be greatly appreciated. I'd be glad to document the files and steps necessary with screenshots to some sort of .pdf guide to post online and also be more than happy to seed such a guide/installer via bittorent when completed. Anyone willing to assist with this, please feel free to eMail me, pm me or IM me via any of the clients I use - AIM/Yahoo/MSN.

Anyone have a working way to add either of these to an XP install/install them untattended with XP? I have both disks via the Superpack, but i'd like to try to find a way to add them to my all-in-one XP install disk if possible. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

I am curious if anyone can offer some good tips/pointers or links to good guides online for the best settings for saving complete websites for offline browsing? For example, saving the website, pictures on the site, and text, but not the ads or background sounds/music or videos... Any advice on good settings for doing this with IE or Firefox? Thanks in advance.

There are dozens of different companies, makes and models of PC webcams to be bought today. They all boast impressive claims of being better than webcams have ever been in the past...i.e. no grainy pictures, quality sound, fast video, etc. However, I have to admit that i'm both suprised and aggrivated over a few issues. I'm curious if anyone has any advice for a webcam that might fit my needs. I realize that no webcam, at least at the moment, will be able to record video with the quality of a camcorder or take photos with the quality of a digital camera...but there has to be one that comes at least somewhat close. I've been a user of the Logitech Pro 4000 webcamera for some time now. I have to admit that I am extremely dissapointed. Not only does Logitech offer godawful customer service, but their camera is false advertised. Right on the box it is listed as being a USB 2.0 camera. This is great and something that I know many people have looked for. Since USB 2.0 offers a huge improvement over 1.1 in speeds and transfer rates. However, you find, only after you've opened the box and read the included manual(which voids your ability to return the camera to the store)that the camera is only USB 2.0 compatible, not USB 2.0 complient. What does this mean? It means that the camera will still work on a USB 2.0 connection, but it does NOT use USB 2.0 capabilities, it still functions as a USB 1.1 camera, even connected to a 2.0 port. This is a blatant misrepresentation of their product, and this has caused me to be unwilling to trust Logitech with another purchase ever again, especially since this camera cost me $100.00 new. I advise people to STAY AWAY from it. It's also advertised as being able to take megapixil still shots. It does not do this, all it does is take 640x480 still shots and use software to "fake" a picture that emulates megapixil. The camera does horrible in low light, it has no autofocus feature and no optical zoom. Worse still, Microsoft Netmeeting, as outdated as that software is, is the only live camera software I can find that will actually share live video without it lagging the camera all to hell. What I am looking for is a webcam that actually does use USB 2.0 or better still, uses firewire and is FULLY 100% complient with that connection, so it is rated to use that connection to its fullest capability, not just be able to connect to it like this horribly advertised Logitech i'm using. I'm also trying to find a webcamera that can compensate for low levels of light and artificial light sources, and if at all possible a camera that has an autofocus. I mean really..... I know that no webcam will ever replace a digital camera/camcorder, but good grief.......auto-focus, optical zoom(where the lense itself zooms), and low light/artificial light compensation are features that standard cameras have had for YEARS now. USB 2.0 and Firewire have always been out for YEARS, so it boggles my mind why there seem to be no webcameras that take advantage of this. The closest i've found was a webcam called the iBot by Orange Micro, which was produced in both firewire and USB 2.0 versions, but for some reason it seems to no longer be in production. There is also the Apple iSight, but it is not designed to run on Windows, and the best i've found is a generic Firewire camera driver that is "supposed" to work. However, this does not let the iSight work with webcam aware applications like AIM or YahooIM. It's also a costly $150.00 just for the iSight, and an additional $25-30 for the light add-on to enhance its picture quality. So any thoughts? Advice?

I was wondering, I remember from certain older versions of Windows, you used to be able to right click any file inside a folder, or just the folder itself and the option "select all" was there. That made it very easy to highlight a large number of files or subfolders quickly. Now, the only place I can find the "select all" command is up in the edit menu. This is with XP Pro SP2. Anyone know of a good way to add the "select all" command to the right-click context menu? To clarify: The select all command does exist if you right click inside of text box, like in an eMail or a forum post, but it doesn't exist if you right click anywhere in a folder or when you right click a folder. I'd like to add this feature. Any assistance with this would be appreciated.

There really are an almost sickening number of media players on the net you can try nowadays. Some are highly wortwhile, others are just garbage....it can be hard to choose between them. Technicly the Real/Quicktime alternatives aren't exactly 100% legal becaues they both make use of propriatary code used by the official Quicktime and Real players...proof enough of this is when you install Quicktime Alternative, the "official" Quicktime icon and control panel settings show up in your control panel. However, from personal experience, I would highly recommend using them. The Realplayer fills your system with so much advertising garbage its nearly insane. The offical Quicktime player doesn't do this, but if you install it with iTunes, then you can have a real mess on your system. If you really want iTunes "look/feel", save yourself the grief and just download one of the excellent skins for WMP, WinAmp, or QCD. I do a lot with audio/video creation and editing on PC. As such, i've tried most all of the popular media players. From personal experience, here is what I most recommend. 1. Quicktime/Real Alternatives and Media Player Classic for viewing downloaded Real and Quicktime files. Just make sure with the Quicktime alternative, you check the Quicktime settings under control panel and make sure that music is set to "general midi" since it doesn't include the Quicktime synthesizer. Also, check the Quicktime MIME(browser plugin) settings. For some reason all versions like to default as your player for flash files, and Quicktime does a horrible job playing them. Your far better off unchecking that option and using the Macromedia Flash Player for those. 2. QCD(Quintessential Media Player) Use this for playing all other forms of media. Why? It's 100% freeware. It never "calls home" to any server on the net every time that you use it, which WMP and many other players do. It has a very nice set of some truly awesome looking skins. It can use any WinAmp DSP plug-in, so you can use your DFX or your iZotope Ozone with it. It all supports, with the right plug-in downloaded and installed, using any WinAmp or Sonique visualization. There is excellent user support via their very friendly forums as well. The one key reason I don't support using Media Player Classic for EVERYTHING, is due to the fact it does not support skins, and has limited at best playlist support. If your your interested in checking out either player, the current locations are here: Media Player Classic - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm Real Alternative - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm Quicktime Alternative - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm QCD Player - http://www.quinnware.com/

I've been watching the progression of computer technology for some time now. The recent addition of using an integrated computer to control and server your digital media through devices in the home via Media Center edition of XP, is quite interesting to me. However, despite all the security fixes, bug patches, enhanced graphics and menus.....I always see one thing left out of the conversation... What about the friggin mouse? Or the keyboard for that matter... Sure you can use a remote control to choose between movies or mp3s stored on your computer and listen to them in the awesome 5.1/6.1/7.1 surround sound of your home theatre........but What if you want to surf the internet? What if you want to chat with some friends over AIM? What if you need to make a Powerpoint presentation, or burn a CD or print a Word document? I've looked around, and i've yet to find any wireless keyboards for sale anywhere that have any sort of mouse built into them. Despite the fact this would seem logical, NO company WHATSOEVER seems to have tried the idea of a wireless keyboard with a built in mousepad like you find on laptop keyboards. I've found a few "new age" style computer mice that move around based on how you hold the mouse itself, but most are far from ergonomic and difficult at best to learn to use. So what does this mean? Is Microsoft's new solution that everyone needs TWO computers in their home now? One for running all your media with your TV and home theatre and a second PC for doing everything else? Isn't that a bit rediculous and wasteful? So what then, if anything, is a solution? Most video card svideo outs are poorly functional at best. Almost no sound cards include any sort of optical or coaxle digital out for sound, and VGA to TV converters cost enough to make a downpayment on a new car. So then, it seems the possible idea is keep your computer desk, monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc and then spend a near fortune on a wireless home setup or cabling long enough to run from your PC to your TV and reciever to make it all work together....Doesn't sound like much of a solution to me. The last time I checked, people used their computers for more than just watching movies. What about playing games? Creating music? Designing web pages? Doing desktop publishing? None of these things are even close to possible if all you have is a small, and I might add cheaply made, remote control to use. Also, the issue of the poor resolution of most home TV sets has yet to be addressed. Even families who invest in getting a Media Center PC setup often won't be able to afford spending $3,000 on a new HDTV. So that leaves the only option of making the fonts ENORMOUS in size. This adds to their on TV readability, but much like was found out by users of WebTV, creates a whole new problem. It then takes 10 times as long to scroll up or down any given page your reading, and becomes extremely easy to get lost going from one page to the next. So what then is the solution? Is there one? Does anyone know a good workaround to actually use a PC for home theatre media and still be able to use its extra functions, i.e. games, web surfing, chatting, spreadsheets, etc WITHOUT having to spend a fortune or buy a 2nd PC to do it? I for one, don't have any answers....and believe me, I looked. I read through dozens of forums, checked help guides at Cnet, even attempted to contact Microsoft directly, and so far....no dice......no response and no solution...

I have pretty well got the process of creating a custom installation CD for WindowsXP SP2 via using nLite. I've even got the process of creating and setting up custom screens, text, etc during the install. However, I am stuck on one thing that I can't quite figure out. Are there any significant changes between the XP Pro and/or XP Pro SP1 install files and the install files via SP2? I'm also curious if an updated guide exists anywhere to look at that takes into account having an SP2 slipstreamed source? There are a few reason i'm trying to track this down, but one of the more important issues is that I seem to have a problem using the syssetup.dl_ When I try to unpack it to a .dll so I can modify it, no matter what I try, I get the error "cannot expand a file onto itself". I never got that error on the original XP source or the SP1 source either. However, there must be some change in how windows sees or uses that file between SP1 and SP2. If I use the sysetup.dl_ from the original XP source, or the SP1 source(both of them unpack fine for modding), the install freezes and gives an error about the file being incompatible with SP2. Anyone know of a good workaround for this? and Yes, I have tried recreating the image, and tried burn speed settings from 1x all the way up to 52x. I'm also tried using a different brand of CD-R, and none of those seem to work.

I'm curious if anyone has figured out a way to remove or at least disable the annoying new "information bar" that pops up whenever your browse a website that tries to show something that IE by default just decides on its own that you shouldn't view or see or have access to without clicking on it to tell it that you really do every single time? Granted, I use Firefox, but there are some sites where you still do need to use IE to get them to work properly, but this new SP2 information bar is about to drive me nuts. Any workarounds or solutions to getting rid of it? or at least totally disabling it?

For some reason, when attempting to expand the syssetup.dl_ from my updated XP SP2 source(and i've checked, its not set as read-only or hidden), I keep getting the error message "warning cannot expand a fille onto itself" ? I've never seen that error message before. Normally I just browse with command prompt to the folder i make a copy of syssetup.dl_ in and type expand -r syssetup.dl_ and it expands and gives me syssetup.dll to edit, but for some reason it won't expand to a .dll i can edit now? Also, I went to look for Astalavista post that was formerly a sticky on this forum(it had syssetup and WINNTBBU.DLL as a rar file to download. Now its not sticky? The files aren't there to download anymore either.

How would I go about having my XP installation CD not install the default wallpapers or screen savers that normally come with Windows, but replace them with a set of mine own to be installed in their place? 2nd, is there any decently effective(and hopefully not too complicated)way of setting XP to use a visual style of your own creation(including custom icons, wallpaper, screen saver, etc.) and to make the installation disk install your custom visual style as the default? Thanks for any input.

What myself and a variety of less "programming guru" users are looking for is something simple and EASY. i.e. you tell the program what you want added to the source media for the XP install CD, and it adds it, simple as that. If it is something that can directly integrate with the source files, then it does that. If not, then it automaticly sets up what you want to add to run post install for you, with no need for user interaction, or configuring codes and switches or any sort of knowledge of java or xml to make work properly. Something simple, so easy a total newb could use it. Below are 3 examples of this. If anything program exists, that by itself or working with another program or two, could do this and do it compltely EASY with no code or switches or anything needed by the user input whatsoever, myself and a lot of other users would love to find it to use. Example: User#1 wants to have Nero Ultra Edition install with his XP. He downloads the installer files for Nero Ultra to his PC. He tells this "easy" program that he wants to have Nero install with his XP. It automaticly knows where to put it on the source media, knows what is needed to make it install silently, and the only thing it asks for is his serial number. User #1 types in his serial number. The "easy" program automaticly adds Nero to his source for installing XP. If that is the only program user#1 wants to add, he then clicks finish, and burns his CD. The CD installs XP and also Installs Nero and his serial number so that when he first goes to use XP, Nero is there in the program start menu folder, it is fully functional with the serial already added and he can use it as he likes. Example: User#2 wants to use his/her own firewall and anti-virus application. User#2 also does not want to be harrased by annoying Securty Center warnings or have his/her web surfing constantly bothered or prevented due to the annoying IE "information bar" that does more harrassing of users than actual helping. User#2 tells the "easy program" to install his/her chosen anti-virus and firewall app with XP. He/she puts in the needed serial number(if any are required) and the "easy" program adds them both to the source installer to be installed with XP on a clean install. Additionally the "easy" program, per User#2's request, automaticly disables the XP security center entirely, including the information bar in Internet Explorer. So when user#2 wants to download something or surf to a certain page on the internet, no annoying bar pops up blocking it with messages like "do you really want to download that? click here if so" or "your settings block this contect, blah blah page won't function properly". This leaves user#2 completely free to determine his/her own preferred settings for using the Internet. Example: User#3 doesn't like the idea of any part of his computer sending his information to anyone over the internet, especially whilte having no idea exactly how "anonymous" this information really is. User#3 tells the "easy" program this, and it automaticly disables every single part of XP that by default sends user data to Microsoft, including error reports, and the "easy" program sets up his XP so that the only time its allowed to even talk to Microsoft is with his direct implied consent from it asking him for permission, and him clicking yes. This choice also disabling the remote desktop/remote registry features in XP as well.

Thanks for the good feedback, i'll keep looking into this to see what I can come up with.