lager_brains

Hi, I have a network of 3 pcs all using W2K and they each share various partitions. I don't always have all three pcs on all of the time, most often I'll have just one on, so when I start that pc up when it is going through the start up and getting through to W2K it of course complains that it cannot connect to the shared partitions on the other machines (because they are switched off). It then asks me if I'd like to "restore network connections" or not. This is one seriously annoying message because as far as I'm concerned, it should connect to these drives if it can and not connect to them if it can't, there isn't another choice as far as I'm concerned. It shouldn't wait for me to tell it to 'ignore' or to try again. This is irritating because I'd like to switch on my machine and let the machine get to the desktop whilst I'm not present, I don't want to return to the machine after 30minutes from switching it on to find that it hasn't even logged in and is waiting for a reponse from me to proceed. Any ideas ?? Oh, and I don't want to disconnect the network drive and map it every time I need access.

Wouldn't Parition Magic sort this out ?

Quote: Turn on all PCs. Disconnect every network drive from Windows Explorer. Put a batch file on startup folder of every PC using NET USE command (use this command to create network drives for you). Do NET USE /HELP to understand how it will work. Example: NET USE Z: \\COMPNAME\SHARENAME You can use /NO or /YES switches too (and others). Hi Etrigan, When you say put a batch file in startup folder, is that the same place where the autoexec.bat (in my case c ?? BTW, I tried this and nothing happened, what are the switches for ?? Thanks.

Here is a link I've been pointed to. I've been told it's the official W2k Sp3 (due out next week). http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000platform/SP/SP3/NT5/EN-US/w2ksp3.exe At last !!!!!!!

Quote: Great! (Did you install it/try it already? If so, how's it working out for you thusfar??) * APK Installed it on three machines, all three work a lot better as a result, IE6 is noticably faster (screen loading). The ONLY issue I had was that McAfee VirusScan V5 wouldn't work afterwards :x . Upgraded to V6 and it works, sweet as a nut

.....no one knows when SP3 is going to be out. I initially heard it would be February, then March, then April, then May, then June, then end of June and now July !! I say, who cares !! P.S. my prediction is 'end of the year'

I think the England goalkeeper, David Seaman has made such a big meal (than anybody else) of letting in that freak free kick. He really shouldn't be that hard on himself. Who thought the Korean match was a 'bit fixed' ?? I *did* want them to win but they did seem to have gotten a fair bit of 'assistance' from the officials. The spanish players went bananas......

Oh dear, the polls doesn't seem very accurate ! I'd like either Korea or Turkey to win, I reckon it'll be Germany vs Turkey in the final (I think the Turkish will have learnt how to play against Brazil from their first match with them). But if I'm being sensible, and honest, I guess it'll be Germany who'll most likely win.

Quote: I just couldn't resist. It would appear that Microsoft are not a Monopoly at all. Microsoft actually "flunk" some of the basic tests that make a monopoly, there are strict legal definitions of the word. Here is why MS are not a monopoly. 1. Their product prices actually go down, to be a monopoly prices have to continue to increase. That is just junk. Do you understand the term 'reconstituted' ? Just being able to ensure that NO OTHER COMPETITOR CAN COMPETE WOULD BE ENOUGH. Quote: 2. Microsoft do not restrict supply of their products, again to be in a monopoly position a company needs to be actively restrict supply. Are you doing this deliberately ?? Quote: These two points alone mean that Microsoft cannot be legally classed as a monopoly. A quote from PC Week about a year ago: "A lot of companies are making a lot of money on the ubiquity of Windows, providing users with a lot of choice where they want it--on their desktops. That isn't the expected result of a monopoly." Ah, quoting from a magazine. Therefore it must be true....... To Three, don't bother, they earn their crust via M$, therefore 'they are alright Jack'. ;( P.S. BladeRunner, how's that reply regarding Sun being bigger crooks coming along ?? You've had plenty of time to think up an answer !

Quote: That is why I get so angry - HOW do you know that Netscape couldn't have gotten better and better if they hadn't been killed off via M$'s hard hand, anticompetitive tactics ?? And this sort of behaviour has been repeated by M$ time after time after time.

THERE ISN'T NOW BECAUSE BY GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE THEY KILLED THE COMPETITION. BLOODY HELL, IS THAT TOO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND ?? That is why I get so angry - HOW do you know that Netscape couldn't have gotten better and better if they hadn't been killed off via M$'s hard hand, anticompetitive tactics ?? You see, by doing that, they have denied you something possibly better than what they 'forced' upon you. True, you don't have to use it, but of course NOW, there isn't a decent choice, so you have NO choice but to use it. All I'm asking for is a level playing field, healthy competition and therefore decent choice for the consumer. Is that being unreasonable ?

Quote: Exactly.Thankyou for your politeness, having checked again I see that you are indeed correct. As to MS & the monopoly issue - well I was going to state my opinion, but then I stopped & asked myself "what's the point?" Thanks, because if you didn't know about not being able to remove IE, then we don't want to hear your 'opinion' of M$ and monopoly issues.

Firstly, I've noticed that BladeRunner STILL hasn't explained his comment about SUN being even bigger crooks than M$ (after asking now the 4th time) - so I can only assume he doesn't know what he is talking about and that he made that bit up. Maybe he hasn't shaken off his traits of his past life as a Salesman and with embellishing the truth....... Anyway, to serket, erm, you haven't noted my comments, you just claim that I am a moody young girl (both of which are incorrect) - so to you too, you know nothing. I agree again, with Three (sorry Three !) - but I also am neither Pro Linux - it isn't ready to take on Windoze yet. And I also agree to a large extent with Bursar. So I'm not completely unreasonable ! My take on things are that the OS should be free, open source (as Linux), note I don't mean LINUX as it currently stands, I mean as the current BUSINESS MODEL with companies like M$ ONLY making applications software. Then we'll see how successful M$ would be on an EVEN playing field. M$ are like the owners of most roads, most petrol stations and they make cars. Guess whose cars perform best ?? THAT IS MY GRIPE ! P.S. In the UK, the M$ technical support STINKS (2 incidents per PRODUCT)

Quote: SUN are a bigger bunch of crooks than Microsoft, yet everybody loves them because "they are anti-Microsoft". I wonder where we truely would be right now with respect to OS's in general if Microsoft hadn't done what they have done. Okay BladeRunner, thanks for the last word. Can you explain (this is the THIRD time I've asked you this) when and how SUN have been the bigger bunch of crooks ?? ;(

That wouldn't be because he totally agrees with you would it? He shares your outlook on things so he must be correct and the people who think you are talking rubbish are wrong? Sounds very closed minded to me. Rubbish, try again. However, and if you want to go into facts, do you know what Netscape did when they realised MS were releasing a rival product? Nothing! They didn't attempt to make their product any better, they sat back and decided to rely on their market share to win the battle. Erm, "sat back" ?? Of course they did (silly me). Then IE4 was released, it blew Netscape out of the water and Netscape has been playing catch up ever since. It's called M$ having limitless funds - or.......Monopoly (that's it !) Ah, we see what level we are on now, you use "M$" instead of "MS", that is just soo funny, I still laugh when I see that now. Why ?? Is that the limit of your sense of humour ? Anyway, any company at the top of their field will attempt to stay there, it's the rules of business. It's called anti-competitive actually MS cannot "make somebody bankrupt" only the buying public can do that. Naive. It's called Marketing. Purchasing other companies is a very sound business plan, as long as you have the capitol to do so. It's also VERY poor for innovation. Why spend years developing a product and always having to play catch-up when you can simply purchase a competing product as a base to start on and get yourself onto a level playing field almost immediately? Erm, because it is Monopoly/anti-competitive/starves innovation......you're not getting the hang of this are you ? and of course the world would be so much better if company's didn't partner with one another wouldn't it? I think you'll find AMD processors are blowing Intel out of the water. Does that prove that Intel have always been giving you the best possible all along ? I don't think so ! Have you ever heard of the saying "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours"? What this means is that Intel & Microsoft (Hay, you must have heard of Wintel right?) work together. One produces the hardware to run the OS (CPU) the other produces the OS to run on the hardware (Windows). Once again a pretty simple business model. Of course Windows wont run on AMD processors will it so.....wait a minute, that isn't true at all, kind of blows that conspiracy out of the water doesn't it? Last time I checked I could buy an Intel CPU WITHOUT the need to purchase Windows. Also, last MS product I purchased I wasn't forced to buy an Intel CPU at the same time. This proves that you haven't read ANYTHING (or much) about the lawsuits have you.... And OE, what a piece of crap ! Xnews, written by ONE person and is infinitely better AND FREE (try installing Xnews or uninstalling it and you'd wonder what the fcuk add/remove programs is all about). Please define "crap". OE is a package designed to send/recieve e-mail and to allow access to and reading of Usenet. How old is OE and in all that time, how much has it changed. Look at my point re: XNews. One person/Free. Why can't M$ do that ? Because it knows it can get away with it. The point I'm making is M$ just offer reconstituted garbage with different coloured buttons and some bug fixes and people go "wow!". The ill-informed maybe, but most people take the time to do the research and this really isn't true. Windows 2000 was a new OS from the ground up, however it shared the same front end that WinNT & Win98 had been using for years. People did still go "Wow" after the Win2k release because they were amazed at how good the new OS was. What did it do that NT + USB couldn't ?? Oh but I forgot, W2K is like, how much bigger than NT (on the HD) ?? So, sure, it must do soooooo much more ! WinXP as anybody in the industry will tell you is more or less a service release for Win2k, however nobody is being forced to upgrade to it. It is an important release as at last the two historically different product lines (NT for work, 9x/DOS for home) have been combined into one, with all the advantages that offers. You really seem to have a low opinion on general computer users, Don't make stupid comments like that please, you don't know me at all. which is a little bit sad. You seem to think they purchase by name or label and not by what the product can do. WHERE IS THE FRIGGING CHOICE ?? YOU TELL ME ???? As somebody who started off his computing career as a salesperson you'd be suprised at how much research "Mr. Average" does before purchase. Ah Salesman. Read expert at lying / low-life. I personally will never buy a single piece of M$ software ever again. They've ripped off the world basically (but the world is wising up). No, what I'm saying is, there is NO piece of M$ software that I'll be duped into buying again. W2K is the last OS I'll ever buy. Same for Office 2000. My work is based on 3DS Max and that of course is Windoze based. Were it also to be available on Mac and Linux then that'd at least give me one very big compelling reason not to pump anymore of my hard earned cash into applications on Windoze. If you feel that MS products do not deliver what you need. That they cannot offer you the reliability that you demand then do NOT use MS products. This isn't a difficult concept to udnerstand. Format your PC, install whichever flavour of Linux you fancy, grab yourself Star Office and away you go. Erm, I don't ONLY use Office. I have around $24000 of software (for ONE person). Oh yes, and I have a dual boot machine with Linux on it (with Star Office <- free software) If however you are saying in this statement "I'll never buy a single MS product again, instead I'll steal them" then that is a totally different matter. No that is not (see above) - but I don't care anymore if someone else does steal M$ software (I used to care but not now) It basically makes all your arguments useless, you slag off the product, tell us how crap they are, yet you add to the statistics as a "Windows user" rather ironic really. As I said, you do not really indicate which of the two you are from your statement, I'm hoping you are one that sticks by your guns and uses Linux and otehr free software. If you are a thieving freeloader then any respect I once had for you is out of the window. It's okay Bladerunner, you can carry on respecting me, I NEVER use ***** software. All I use I own/have paid for. API, buggy software, viruses, nothing new (Office 95/97/2000/XP), IE bundling, Java, Realplayer the list goes ON and ON. You really haven't gone into much detail here, you've really just thrown some "buzz-words" around and assumed that is all that needs to be said on the subject, however you really need to go deeper. When you make such a bold statement along the lines of "All these things are what is wrong with MS products" then you really need to elaborate. Erm, haven't gone into too much detail because it is ALL documented on the net and I don't want to explain any further, geeeeesssh IE bundling - How does this not benefit the end user? Yawn... this is SO OLD, where is your head ?? The end user is arguably getting the best Windows based browser available, for free Oh, for 'free' is it. I think I'll end my contributions here, you guys are brainwashed. This is boring, you guys are only singing the gospel for M$ because your jobs depend on it and basically you guys are lazy. What a selfish attitude. BTW, Bladerunner, how about answering the point about Sun (saying I think that they were just as bad) ??

Quote: Of course it doesnt . But you can use whatever ****ing app you want in its place. No one makes you Use IE, or Windows Media. Why the swearing ?? Anyway, I have to say, I really am surprised at your lack of intelligence. "You can USE whatever app you want in it's place". That's the whole frigging point you moron (you started it). They give you crap for 'free' (with NO way of uninstalling it), that in turn kills the better software (which was only a few bucks anyway but ANYONE would rather have something for nothing, right ?), EVERYONE UNDER THE PLANET then ends up using the free/crappy software, and WE PAY FOR IT IN THE END ( a: because it is built into the price of the OS and b: because WE AS THE CONSUMER GET DENIED THE BEST SOFTWARE/TALENT OUT THERE BECAUSE M$ KILLED IT TO GIVE US IT'S SH*T INSTEAD). If that doesn't make any sense to you, sorry but I can't be bothered any further.

Quote: I was the 1 who stated that IE is listed in the add/remove programs applet, & I'd like an explanation for your insult, as I feel it was undeserved. IE is listed under the add/remove Windows Components section. Erm, aren't the WHOLE frigging court cases and issues regarding IE being bundled with Windoze, intertwinded with the OS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO BE UNINSTALLED the reason WHY it is NOT where you SAY it is for removal ?? Because, YOU CAN'T DO IT !!!!!! That's what the whole court case who-hars are about ! Where have you been all this time ?? Mars ? Doh ? ;(

Quote: It's so funny to see all the hate you put in your post guys but tell me what would you do if you actually were Microsoft CEO ? It's safe to say that you'd make money the same way they do now... I'd personally enjoy working in Microsoft, because they pay good and have outstanding environment for productive work ;p Hate them now, hate them later but they still have the best OS around So basically, you are unable to see further than the end of your nose ? Selfish, right ? They don't have the BEST OS around you clot, they have the most popular. Sheeeeesh

Hi there Three, you seem to have a more balanced/mature attitude than some of the others here (especially that Sapiens74). I like your analogy with fast food, and your point that initially, when Internet browsers were new, Netscape WAS the better browser (people are forgetting these small facts). M$ are bullies, they pulverise ANY competition (making it either bankrupt OR they buy inferior competing technology and offer that M$ customers as 'the future' ! There is OBVIOUS colluding between Intel, M$ and that is forced on OEMs. And OE, what a piece of crap ! Xnews, written by ONE person and is infinitely better AND FREE (try installing Xnews or uninstalling it and you'd wonder what the fcuk add/remove programs is all about). The point I'm making is M$ just offer reconstituted garbage with different coloured buttons and some bug fixes and people go "wow!". I personally will never buy a single piece of M$ software ever again. They've ripped off the world basically (but the world is wising up). API, buggy software, viruses, nothing new (Office 95/97/2000/XP), IE bundling, Java, Realplayer the list goes ON and ON. Yes, Linux isn't there yet, but boy doesn't it show how an OS should be designed ?? UNIX Kernel and apps separate, true multi-user, true multi-tasking. Where are the viruses ? Kernel safe (not like Windoze and Outlook). And what about FORCING people to UPGRADE (and if you don't understand that Sapiens74, say nothing). No backwards compatibility with M$. Finally, the cost of M$ products are unreal. And as for the idiot who suggests goto add/remove programs to remove IE, ROFLOL !!!!!!

Yes, ALLOW US to UNINSTALL what we DON'T WANT (IE, OE, WMP etc etc). Does Window's allow you to do that ?? If so, show me where ??

Erm, Let me see...... I've been using Windows Media player (the free one) for a while watching music videos, system stutters. I download the latest free RealOne (formerly Realplayer) and my music videos don't stutter and play much better. No problem. So can I uninstall Windows media Player ? Nope. I want choice. The choice of what to have and what not to have on my computer. I think W2K is way too bloated and sorry, but can someone show me the differences between , say Office 95, 97, 2000 and XP ?? Apart from a silly paperclip assistants. What I'm trying to say here is we're being ripped off. If NT had USB that would have been fine, but W2K gives me a ton of stuff I don't need and eats up a ton of HD space also. And how have SUN been a big bunch of crooks, Bladerunner ?? I use Windoze because it's the standard. But we all deserve better.

Quote: It will be released this month(may). And it has over 800(!) fixes since SP2. Freddo, How do you know it'll be out this month (May) ??

NTGAMEMAN, In your last but one post you said you had ***** version, now you are saying what exactly - that you have a modem and it's tough downloading stuff ? You want us to applaud you for your patience ?

I'm getting mighty impatient !!!!!!!!!!