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IEPatcher.exe & Agent String


Crash&Burn

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When removing IE w/ HFSLIP, Using IEPatcher.exe to fool programs into thinking IE is installed is mentioned in the 2ksp5.html walkthrough. Has anyone actually tried this w/ Norton's? Back when I was running 98, last year, was able to trim SystemWorks down (postInstall) to just speeddisk (3.1megs), by doing some testing w/ "FileMon".

Suppose everyone has moved on to OTHER defraggers, but speeddisk has always been my favorite :-)

And sites that don't load in Opera I just don't go to, so probably time to ditch IE.

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okay this piqued my interest. this is my favorite defragger too.

i have not tried the IE patcher with Norton's software. i would expect you might have problems since it won't install without IE.*

(i have a BartPE cd with Paragon Hard Disk Manager installed on it. when i want to really defrag a system, i boot up with it, and run its defragger. since the program acts on the boot drive and nothing on the drive is running, everything gets 100% defragged). but this is tremendously time consuming, and i miss SpeedDisk a LOT. i would love info on how to make this a standalone application. if you have info in the way of needed files and reg edits, please post them!

i have systemworks from 2004 i think -- i stopped using it because all i wanted was their defragger (and they know it's the most desired program in the package, that's why they don't permit installing it by itself of course...

anyway, post what you've got!

*about a year ago or maybe more, there was an MSFN user who created an IEXPLORE.EXE that is about 160Kb and upon first launch, it asks you the path to your preferred browser (Firefox, Opera, Mozilla). after that first launch, this little gem of a program just opens your browser. so, whenever some program thinks its launching IE, the program is happy because it finds IEXPLORE.EXE, and you're happy because it launches what you want. i can post it no problem, but i would love to find the link in the threads. anyone remember this? i'll go hunting. for now, grab it here.

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Well I don't still have those zip files, I had so many versions and backups, and had no intentions of going back to 98 - so unlike usual - I hoard and keep stuff like crazy, I deleted them.

I also ran InCtrl5, when installing it, to see where it tossed files, and what it bloated the Registry with.

Two files were in the Windows/System dir, a SYM.... and something with an "8" in its name, or perhaps SYM...had 8 in its name, I don't recall exactly. There may of been more files placed into system but only 2 were necessary for SpeedDisk, and they could be localized to its own directory.

The only non-confined aspect was it appeared to need 2 files in the Program files/Common/Symantec Shared/ dir of which one of them was a duplicate (in name only) of the files dumped into the Windows/System's dir -- it was a different size :P.

Basically I just ran FileMon, and watched the calls, and kept changing things til the program stopped accumulating failures and not starting.

I wasn't able to track down what registry key was really important, as most of them mainly dealt w/ telling System works where dependancy files were. And except for the 2 in "Symantec Shared", everything was local to the dir where SpeedDIsk ran in.

So I would just install SystemWorks/Utilities, then just delete nearly all of it. and replace w/ my "hack" - when I only had an 8 gig drive, dropping a program install from 30-50megs to 3 was significant *grin*

It also needed the Norton.exe or something along that lines, which was generally located a directory above the /NU/ Directory.

But everything else went, after I let the tools update themselves, incl. LiveReg and all that jazz.

Dunno if this is any help, now I wish I hadn't deleted those zips, not like they were taking up space...but trying to keep things organized on these multi-multi-gig drives is a pain in the azz.

[Edit] Of course I'll prolly try and slim it for 2k too, when I get a finalized install, I've been bouncing back and forth between installs for the last month. Just learned about testing on VirtualDisks hehe. [/Edit]

Edited by Crash&Burn
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Norton SpeedDisk v5.01 can be taken from Systemworks disk if I'm not mistaken. All needed files are less than 6MB. The trick was with replacing some file with the old version that was shipped as stand alone installer (sorry, do't remember the version number it was quite ago I also used it).

It installs and starts without errors. But when I pushed on Optimize Disk there is an error message: something like "Norton Speed fails because it doesn't recognize this version of Windows". It doesn't recognise fdv's operating system :P

Just in case - I ran the utility fdv mentioned before installing.

PS I like it because it could place paging file at the begining of the disk :yes:

Edited by Oleg_II
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about a year ago or maybe more, there was an MSFN user who created an IEXPLORE.EXE that is about 160Kb and upon first launch, it asks you the path to your preferred browser (Firefox, Opera, Mozilla). after that first launch, this little gem of a program just opens your browser. so, whenever some program thinks its launching IE, the program is happy because it finds IEXPLORE.EXE, and you're happy because it launches what you want. i can post it no problem, but i would love to find the link in the threads. anyone remember this? i'll go hunting. for now, grab it here.

@FDV, what exactly does this program do? Fool programs into thinking that the IE alternative browser of choice is IE?

After running this program once, is it safe to delete?

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@Oleg_II:

It could be really nice if someone can make a standalone Speedisk... :)

@saugatak:

Internet explorer is named IEXPLORE.exe. When a program is trying to access internet explorer it will in fact run the changed IEXPLORE.exe, which will forward it to mozilla or whatever.

Regarding the other question, no, you can't delete it. the changed IEXPLORE.exe should stay there for every time that a program is trying to run Internet Explorer.

Hope it helped.

Pene

Edited by pene
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pene

I know for sure that Speed Disk for Windows 98 can be standalone (does not need installation). But it is quite difficult to do the version that doesn't need installation for NT. I meant that the program itself can be taken from the whole Suit and be one installer. No hacking involved.

If I'm not mistaken it was very simple. Something with changing its directive to install as it was in earlier versions in ISS file maybe. Sorry I don't remember. Maybe have a look later.

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@saugatak:

Internet explorer is named IEXPLORE.exe. When a program is trying to access internet explorer it will in fact run the changed IEXPLORE.exe, which will forward it to mozilla or whatever.

Regarding the other question, no, you can't delete it. the changed IEXPLORE.exe should stay there for every time that a program is trying to run Internet Explorer.

Hope it helped.

Pene

@Pene

Thanks for clarifying. Should this IEXPLORE.exe go into the WINNT directory or SYSTEM32 directory? I just have to run it once and forget?

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@saugatak:

I have not tried this, but my guess is that it should go just where explorer used to be, that is C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\ (@fdv - correct me if i'm wrong). If that doesn't work, try the WINNT folder.

After it, just run it once and forget (or wait for a program to launch it instead)...

Regards,

Pene

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Pene, you are right :thumbup . . . and you are wrong :P

IEXPLORE.exe is normally in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer but not if you use FDV's fileset.

I guess I can just put it anywhere.

Not sure if I can put it in WINNT or SYSTEM32 folder through HFEXPERT because it might screw up FDV's fileset.

FDV, any suggestions?

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What i do* is make a folder in Program Files called Internet Explorer and put it there. I do this because that's where programs that look for IE expect to discover it.

*The reason I do not make this automatic and include the new IEXPLORE in my fileset is because I do not have permission to redistribute it. Johnathan Howell's IEXPLORE.EXE dummy file is here. I need to talk to that MSFN member to get his permission to redistribute this binary. I think it's a program he just made with no licensing terms, IIRC. I emailed him October 16th 2005.

Edited by fdv
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