Widow

Simple Tweak for showing the Administrative Tools only on the Places menu. Here,s I quick tip for the XP start menu that I found while rummaging around in the registry. Did you notice how under the Customize Start Menu->Advanced->System Administrative Tools you can set it for one of three ways: Display On all Programs Menu (Don't Like it there) Display On All Prorgams Menu And Start Menu (Better but now its in two Places) Don't Display this Item All three choices are unacceptable, I want the Administrative Tools On the start Menu only. Here's how... Under Customize Start Menu->Advanced->System Administrative Tools Now choose - Don't Display this Item. Now use regedit and go here... [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] "Start_AdminToolsRoot"=dword:00000001 Change Start_AdminToolsRoot from 0 to 1, reboot the system and your set....now the Administrative Tools only displays on the Start Menu and not on the All Programs Menu.....

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Hi all, just wanted to share this. I found a site on the net that has an excellent collection of older games. These are games that have either been released as freeware or are now released to the public as free domain games. There are some games on the site(newer ones) that can be purchased, so I believe the site is legit.(At least there was no mention of W***Z or anything of that sort, Anyway I have found a lot of great older games(now freeware) like Betrayal at Krondor, Eye of the Beholder and such; older games for sure but even though the graphics suffered back then the story lines seemed more indepth. One thing about the site is that they do not allow more than one download at a time, if you try to you will be banned for and hour or so. Check it out and let me know what you think......Old gamers Rule!!!..hehe.. http://www.theunderdogs.org

Those are all good sites but the one I posted is the granddaddy of them all, it has 10 times what any of the others have.... I am in full retro mode playing some of the best rpgs ever made.....

Just wanted to share my experience with setting up a dual booting system. Windows 2000/Windows 98. I have been running windows 2000 for well over a year and really like it; but I do miss being able to play some older games now and then. I tried setting up a dual boot system a while back using a guide I found on one of the major tweak sites and it was nothing short of a disaster. Well since then I have found an easier way for those of us who want the best of both worlds but don't want to be spending an eternity trying to make it work. 1. First off make sure that if your hard drives are partitioned they are partitioned so that the space you plan on using for windows 98 is a primary partition and not an extended partition. This can be easily found out through the windows 2000 computer management console. Once your partition is ready just format it to fat32. (Actually with windows 2000 its a good idea to make all partitions primary and get away from using extended partitions all together) 2. You will need to have a windows 98 boot disk handy with system files and the sys.com file on it. If you don't have one any longer go here to get one: http://www.bootdisk.com/ 3. You will need to download some time of boot manager; there are many, I personnaly use Bootstar Bootmanager(its a great little $20 program, takes almost no thought to use...which is good for me.) http://www.star-tools.com/ There are many others including some freeware ones, just remember you always get what you pay for! 4. After you have make you 98 boot disk and installed your boot manager you can reboot your system to the 98 boot disk. The boot disk will only recognize the fat32 partition you created so all you need to do is to transfer the system to C: 5. After the system is transferred just set up 98 as usual. Note: At least when using Bootstar the inital boot screen did not come up after I installed 98 and I had to use the rescue disk one time to fix it. After that upon every boot up it pops up a boot menu for you to choose from. 6. All in all it was very simple to do. A couple of quick notes for anyone wanting to try this. 1. Remember windows 98 cannot see NTFS partitions so if you need some files that are on your win2k partitions you will need to copy them to the win98 partition while in windows 2k. 2. If you install norton utilites for windows 98 DO NOT under any circumstances use disk doctor to repair partitions(disk doctor likes to pop up a windows and ask you if you are having trouble accessing other partitions) as long as you always answer no to this you should be fine, speedisk and all other norton utilities work as normal. Now all those old games I have lying around are getting played again, it has really worked out well and now I have the best of both worlds. Btw: Total time to set up and install windows 98 with a dual boot was just under an hour.

Interesting. I have tried this on 2 seperate systems and it does seem to make the system snappier. The intersting thing is when I did a search of microsofts technet for infor about it I got nothing but a cryptic message at best; somthing to the effect of these options are not listed as they should not be changed by the user. Makes me wonder what other unknown settings aren't listed in Microsofts tech papers....anyway great tip...thanks...

There were the beginnings of a decent discussion about this last week but it became a kind of personal vendetta between some folks. It got me to thinking though and as I just redid my system I thought I would share my results. Before Turning Off Some Services Mem Usage Handles Threads Processes 209608 3121 216 23 Services Turned Off Computer Browser Diskeeper Messenger Print Spooler Remote Registry Service RunAs Service Server After Turning Off the Above Services Mem Usage Handles Threads Processes 207052 2897 198 20 While the memory savings were not huge(a little over 2%) the reduction of system handles becomes more prevelant(almost 8%) and the reduction of system threads beomes almost 9%. Now while on a system with adequate memory(256mg or more) this will probably not be noticed but on lower end systems this savings could become much more important expecially when trying to run some memory/thread hog applications...ie Word 2000 and the like. There are a few other services that I could have turned off but with 1 gig of system ram, I frankly don't see the point. This is not an endorsement of any point of view save my own; just something I wanted to know for myself......

Thanks for the info Dr Pizza. Most of the services I knew about although I am by no means an expert. (more like a tinkerer with a penchant for tinkering too much and crashing things once in a while) Though I didn't realize that Distributed Link Tracking Client client only functions within a domain. I have learned not to be overly aggressive when turning things off, even though you should be able too. I tend to install and remove lots of apps(part of that tinkering thing again) to see what they do and if they are worth using. It seems that if you using adequate memory(256meg or more) you can probably leave most things as Win2k sets them without much worry.(though I would still turn off Messenger, RunAs Service, and Remote Registry Service for security reasons and that I would never use them) The most benifit of really shutting things down that I can see is if you are running 128meg or less and trying to run win2k; then shutting down every possible service would make sense as you would save a bit of memory and save on some system threads being used. Anyway I appreciate everyones input it was informative and interesting.

I tend to keep runing the following services: a few I could probably live without, but then I have memory to spare. COM+ Event System (Pretty much essential) Distributed Link Tracking Client(Can be turned off but the way I move stuff around on my drives its safer for me to leave this on) DNS Client (Pretty much essential) Event Log (Not essential but great for troubleshooting) Logical Disk Manager (Not essential, but I have many partitions and turning this off seems the precipitate the system wanted to rearrange drive letters for me...) NAV Alert (Norton, gotta have it) NAV Auto-Protect (Norton, gotta have it) Network Connections (Pretty much essential) Plug and Play (Not essential but I tend to feel safer leaving this on) Protected Storage (Another non essential but I leave it on just the same) Remote Procedure Call (RPC) (Pretty much essential) Removable Storage (Pretty much essential) Security Accounts Manager (Not essential but logons seem to take longer with it off so I leave it on) SSC Monitor (Third party cache manager, essential for me) System Event Notification (Pretty much essential) TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service (Pretty much essential) Windows Management Instrumentation (Pretty much essential) Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions (Seems to come on whether manual or automatic.) Workstation (Pretty much essential) Of all the services I have on I set them all to automatic, some were set to manual but would come on anyway. In order to speed up the windows logon its just easier to set them to automatic. BTW. I tried SHS's tweak and so far it seems to work as advertised. I'll keep you posted if anything untold happens with it.

I have the greatest respect for the members here and this board. Arstechnica is also a good site. Gentlemen please leave this alone. Alec I have no problem with your work(in fact I'd like to have some of your programming talents). Dr Pizza I don't know any work that you have done other than stuff from ARS; but the point is this has become personal and not objective BY EITHER PARTY. Just agree to disagree and leave it at that...isn't that what makes America great anyway?

Just thought I'd share a couple of quick win2k tweaks that i have been using. They have really made a noticible differnce in the speed of my machine. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem] "NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:00000001 "NtfsEncryptionService"="Efs" "Win31FileSystem"=dword:00000000 "Win95TruncatedExtensions"=dword:00000001 "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001 "NtfsAllowExtendedCharacterIn8dot3Name"=dword:00000000 "ReadAheadThreshold"=hex:00,00,20,00 "DriveWriteBehind"=hex:ff,ff,ff,ff "NameCache"=hex:ff,ff,00,00 "PathCache"=hex:ff,00,00,00 "ContigFileAllocSize"=dword:00000400 "AsyncFileCommit"=dword:00000001 The path and name cache are holdovers from win95 days but still seem to work well. Unfortunatle I don't know who to thank for the read ahead and write behind entries. The rest i gather from reading microsofts site. Anyway I hope this helps someone......later....

No problem, glad I could help.....

The easiest way I have found to disable the annoying recycle bin beep is to do a quick registry edit here: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound] "Beep"="No" "ExtendedSounds"="No" Just Set Beep and Extended sounds to no, reboot and you're set....

While its not possible to use the NT shell for windows 2000, you can make it look like the NT shell by using the following registry tweak. Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Name: ClassicShell Data Type: REG_DWORD Value: 1 A value of 1 makes it look like the NT4 interface and a value of 0 will be the normal 2000 interface.

This is not a tweak per say just some info that I didn't know and figured others didn't know as well. Windows 2000 defaults to a maximum of 256meg of paged pool memory and defaults to a maximum of 340meg of nonpagedpool memory The only way around this limitation is to boot with the /3GB switch enabled. So those of us running 512meg of memory or more and have a large 500meg+ swapfile seem to be wasting disk space and not getting the full use of our ram. The keys can be found in the registry at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] PagedPoolSize : Dword NonPagedPoolSize : Dword Here are a couple of links to micrsofts site for more info... http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q126/4/02.asp http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q126/7/67.asp http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q108/4/49.asp Clutch, Phillip; Am I reading this right, can either of you confirm this?

Reducing your pagefile to that small is a really bad idea. A quirk that has been with us since the introduction of the pagefile in win95 makes windows start to swap to the page file sooner when its smaller. ie, in a system with 512 ram(like mine) and yours in your system you set your pagefile to 12 megs and I set mine to 300 megs; guess which pagefile gets accessed first; yours. Doesn't seem like it would but it does, just keep your pagefile at around 200 or so and you'll be fine. The ram disk is not a bad idea though; I am currently playing around with using a ram disk to hold my internet files(temp pages, cookies and such) and it seems to work well. My next test will be to set my swap file as a 256 meg ram disk, this should prove interesting if nothing else. I'll let you know the results.

The barricade gives you the option to set yourself with a static ip on one computer while the others use DHCP. Set up the system you wish to play games on with a static ip, then you can host games. You should be able to join from any system even with DHCP. There are a few programs that you will have to get parameters from to route a hole thru the router by opening the ports they require. I have mine set this way and just turn these on these openings thru the router as I need them, then I close them when not in use. If you need more specific instructions let me know and I'll help you as best as I can....

dodgeviperrt10: I have the same scanner and it works just fine in win2k. I am at work right now but will be home in a few hours. I can upload the drivers that you need then. If you already have the drivers make sure you load the drivers BEFORE you plug in the scanner; this is essential, it will not work otherwise and you will have to delete the software unplug the scanner and start again if you didn't do it that way.

jdulmage: I have been with this board for quite a while and while I don't post much unless I think I can help someone, it seems like most of your posts are nothing but Whistler rantings. You need to take a look ar yourself instead of jumping on people when they ask questions. Quote from jdulmage when someone posted about being NT certified: "hah, if you like, run a server or something, most won't move to it (nice life)" Yes very helpful...jdulmage you twit...the man just passed a tough cert and you are just ranting your usual whistler banter...what certs do you have...hmmmmm? Quote from jdulmage about upgrading to whistler: "yeah, you realize that the explorer shell is NT 6.0 in Windows XP now eh? so it's no longer this minor upgrade. If you actually ran XP 2419 Advanced Server (impossible to find, but it's out there). You'll see that it blows away 2000 Advanced Server, with it's new server features, etc. Minor upgrade my *** . It's the OS that it should have been and the OS that i've always wanted, win2k just didn't cut it" More from someone who obviously doesn't know how a business works. More rantings from Jdulmage about software prices: "wow? so you've seen the prices of XP eh? wow, I didn't know you knew how to travel into the future. How do you know that it's not going to be like $59 upgrade, $109 full or some crap like that? You don't, so shut up already". Actually JDulmage its fairly easy to predict what the price of XP will be based on microsoft's past upgrade models have been. You do know that thats how most of the economy works..ie like wall street..based on statistical models from past prices and performance. Jdulmage I understand that you love XP, thats great but its not the end all be all nirvana of OS's, windows 2000 works just fine for most people...if you like xp great use it and be quiet about it, stop pimping yourself as some microsoft OS evangelist who thinks everyone will go to hell if they don't use the product that you like....!!! Enough Already............... BTW...nice job qwerty01 on passing your NT cert.......

This guide is similar, it was provided by DosFreak....its very good and works(I know I created one myself...) Make a Bootable Win2k SP1 CD: 1. Make a folder on your C: drive. Name it the same as that of your CDROM. Ex: W2PSEL_EN 2. Copy the Windows 2000 CD to the folder. 3. Download Service Pack 1 from here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000platform/SP/SP1/NT5/EN-US/sp1network.exe 3. When download is done copy sp1network.exe to your C: drive. 4.Do a Start/run/C:\sp1network.exe -X:C:\SP1 Click OK at the screen where it displays "C:\SP1" When it's done extracting click OK. Do a Start/Run/C:\SP1\i386\update\update.exe -s:C:\W2PSEL_EN When it's done it will say "Integrated install has completed successfully". Click OK. If it does not say this then you have done something wrong. 5. Download CDRWIN from www.goldenhawk.com. Install CDRWIN. 6. Get the CD-ROM boot sector and CD Marker files from here: http://www.angelfire.com/de2/w2kcd/neededfiles.zip 7. Place the appropriate files from neededfiles.zip into the root directory of W2PSEL_EN. Place CDROM_NT.5 into the root of the CD. Place: CDROM_IP.5 - If you are doing 2000 PRO then place this into the root. CDROM_IS.5 - If you are doing 2000 SERVER then place this into the root. CDROM_IA.5 - If you are doing 2000 ADVANCED SERVER then place this into the root. 8. The root of the directory should now contain only these files: Autorun.inf cdrom_iX.5 cdrom_nt.5 cdrom_sp.tst read1st.txt readme.doc setup.exe 9. Open CDRWIN and choose the File Backup and Tools option 10. In the BACKUP/TOOL Operation Choose the Build an ISO9660 Image File 11. in FILE BACKUP List click the DIRECTORY button and choose the directory where you copied the Windows 2000 CD. Click OK. Then click the ADD button. You should see the directory in the big box now. 12. Check the INCLUDE HIDDEN FILES,LONG FILENAMES(JOLIET),INCLUDE SYSTEM FILES,RECURSE SUBDIRECTORIES. Uncheck PRESERVE FULL FILE NAMES. boxes. 13. For IMAGE FILENAME click the three dots at the right and choose a directory and a filename. Then click Save. You should see the pathname and the filename of your .ISO in the box. 14. Check the DISABLE VERSION NUMBERS box. 15. Click the ADVANCED OPTIONS button. 16. For Volume Label use the name of the original Windows 2000 CD. Ex: W2PSEL_EN For Volume Set Name use the bame of the original Windows 2000 CD Publisher Name: MICROSOFT CORPORATION PREPARER NAME: MICROSOFT CORPORATION, ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND WA 98052, (206) 882-8080 17. Choose the BOOTABLE DISC tab. 18. Check the MAKE BOOTABLE DISC box. 19. For MEDIA EMULATION CHOOSE Custom 20. For Image File name use the boot.bin from the neededfiles.zip. 21. For DEVELOPER NAME use MICROSOFT CORPORATION 22. For Load Sector Count use the number 4. 23. Click OK and then START. 24. When it's done open up any CDR burning program that supports .ISO's to burn your IMAGE to CD.

Actually Alec I'm an old clipper programmer...does anyone remember clipper?...lol probably not...anyway after working with visual basic scripting for a few hours it seems very similar to clipper, at least to me. Its giving me some ideas on stuff that I'd like to write and rewrite, the only problem I see is that vbs has gotten a bad name from a few idiots out there who have nothing better to do than write malicious programs. In any case I will publish the source of anything that I write, I never expected to get rich from writing code, its just a hobby(doing it for a living is way to dam hard)....btw I like your apk nt tools, very handy.....if you would like some 2k tips to add let me know and I'll send you my text file that I have been collection for the last year or so.... take care....

AlecStaar, thanks, that pretty nice. Ge0ph - go crawl back under your rock. Alec I have been playing around with scripts for startup of programs, still learning it but seems to work well so far.... have a look.. I found a nice program that controls your internet cache better than ie plus its freeware...here's the link http://www.mindspring.com/~dpoch/enigmatic/index.html the problem is it needs to be started with explorer(being the lazy person that I am I only want to click 1 program instead of two) anyway here's how create a script file with a vbs extension net.vbs contents as follows: set shell = createobject("wscript.shell") shell.mun "cmd.exe /c start /BelowNormal C:\cachesentry\CacheSentry.exe" shell.mun "IEXPLORE.EXE" now create a batch file to run it net.bat contents as follows: wscript net.vbs drop them both in your root directory and you can replace your ie icon with the batch file; now when you start explorer the cachesentry program starts first.... Then I just drop a new button on my taskbar and give it an icon. I'm just now learning vbscripting so I'm sure there is much more you could do, any pointers in that direction are appreciated...... Glad your here at the boards...... [This message has been edited by Widow (edited 11 February 2001).]

Tim, email me at Mr_WidowMaker@yahoo.com, I have some aureal drivers that will work for you...

There may be another way to do it; at least if your not running too many apps. Win2k starts services in the following order: Boot System Automatic So if you only needed a couple of services to start in order you could edit the registry and have one start at the boot level the next at system level and leave the last on automatic...here is a clip from microsofts tech pages to help you out... Service start type: 0. Boot (SERVICE_BOOT_START) Specifies a device driver started by the system loader. This value is valid only for driver services. 1. System (SERVICE_SYSTEM_START) Specifies a device driver started by the IoInitSystem function. This value is valid only for driver services. 2. Automatic (SERVICE_AUTO_START) Specifies a service to be started automatically by the service control manager during system startup. 3. Manual (SERVICE_DEMAND_START) Specifies a service to be started by the service control manager when a process calls the StartService function. 4. Disabled (SERVICE_DISABLED) Specifies a service that can no longer be started. If you look under HKLM\System\Current Control Set\Services all services are listed and have a start value from 0-4. Its not the most elegant solution but it might work in a pinch.....best of luck... [This message has been edited by Widow (edited 24 January 2001).]

Also mainly because I didn't see this mentioned; your primary NT boot partition(if its the first partition of the HD) needs to be fat16 not NTFS or win98 will not read the boot sector. Win98 cannot read NTFS partitions natively........sorry if I am stating the obvious......but some may not know.....