Curley_Boy

I thought of trying a registry cleaner type program the problem is that it isn't only invalid file entries that are left in the registry, but references to unistalled programs ie Outlook Express, and loads of unused file type associations and CLSIDs etc... That's why I needed to know precisely *what* entries are made to the NT registry when IE4 is installed.

Does anyone know how to change the default system font on NT4? You know the one shown as 'Window Text' in the preview on the display settings appearence tab.

I've come across a really annoying power strip 'bug' or feature... whatever! When the program dectects a change in my gfx hardware set up it will reconfigure itself for the new hardware... but in doing so erase all my previous custom colour/display/performance profiles. I cannot express how F*@%ing angry I am at this!! There really should be a prompt at least before it erases settings... or faling that some documentation on how to back up customised settings, as this has happened several times now (I'm in the process of tweaking my gfx hardware). Currently I am using 3.02 final of Power Strip. Does anyone know if this is a bug that has been fixed in the later beta releases, or if they is a way I can get round this problem or save my customised profiles. This excruciating problem tars an otherwise excellent program!

**I posted this on the mozillazine forums but didn't get any helpful responses, here's hoping you guys can help. This seems to be a problem with all variants of the Netscape browser from version 6 onwards, including Mozilla & Firebird. After I have been using the browser for several hours or so and then I leave my PC and come back to it after a time (either leave it running normally or use the hibinate function) the browser performance slows to a crawl and the disk activity shoots through the roof. I am assuming that FB (and the rest of it's extented family) load themselves into virtual memory after a preset period of time to save physical ram space and then load themeselves back from the pagefile into memory once the user resumes their session. Is there anyway to tweak or disable this as it is one of the few 'features' that really spoil my FB browsing experience. Phoenix 0.5 Gecko/20021207 (rv:1.3a) Windows XP Pro SP1

Well if you've already disabled error reporting in the system tab and services console and it didn't work, you could always try disabling the windows debugger in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version delete the 'AeDebug' subkey (after backing it up of course).

First create a system restore point (just in case), and then make sure you close all running instances of Outlook Express and Windows Messenger. open regedit.exe and find the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Outlook Express Create a new DWORD entry called: Hide Messenger Enter a hexadecimal value of 2 for this new entry. To disable this tweak simply delete the 'Hide Messenger' entry. Both these tweaks take effect instantly, you do not have to log off or restart your computer for them to work.

Two quick questions: 1. How do I change the boot screen background colour on NT4 (the one which shows the OS ver, Processor type and amount of RAM) from the painfully bright blue to black? Is a registry hack involved or would I have to use resource hacker? 2. How do I change the Windows NT flag logo wallpaper on the initial login screen (the one with the desktop green background) to a picture of my choosing? I know the file used is C:\WINNT\winnt256.bmp and the registry value is HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\ContolPanel\Desktop\[Wallpaper: REG_STRING] but when I save a file in .bmp format in the Windows dir ie 'Wallpaper1.bmp' and edit the registry value accordingly to 'C:\WINNT\Wallpaper1.bmp' it still doesn't show. Aside saving the picture in Windows .bmp format with runlength encoding, are there any other limitations ie size or colour depth that need to be set?

If you are not using your PC for anything demanding then you can probably turn off the pagefile... I play games semi regularly and find a perminant size (minimum and maximum) of 300Mb (with 512 of physical RAM) is sufficiant.

I've ditched explorer.exe as the shell on my XP Pro PC and replaced it with program manager (which is over 10x more efficant resources wise). However certain programs (Kazaalite and MSN Messenger) require explorer.exe to be loaded for them to function correctly. Every time I want to load them I have to start explorer 1st which is really annoying. Is there anyway I can start explorer so it only opens a single window or something and not the whole shell (start menu, bloat and all). Would the RunAs service help at all here? Or even better does anyone know I way of just loading the shell componants these programs need without loading everything else? Any help appriciated

Just downloaded AlecStaar's lastest tool pack for Windows XP. I'm having problems with the ramcharge program though (and since I deleted the old archive I can't restore the version from the previous release). Anyhow whenever I run the program I get '14/6/2004 is not a valid date' over and over until I kill the process through taskman. How to I get rid of this and what is causing it? I've checked the registry and the .ini files in the APK folder but nothing obvious springs to mind.

So basically what you are trying to say summed up in a neat sentence is that the application won't work on my PC because it's not set to a US time zone?! **sigh** I can understand why as a developer you would want to ensure that those who use your programs pay for them. But you are losing money and potencial users by restricting your software in this way. There are I'm sure plenty of users (living outside the USA) who would pay for the software (provided it was a resonable price). One final point I think it is only fair (if you haven't done so already) that you state that the product won't work outside of the US on the downloads webpage (granted I got mine from a mirror site, but it was one of your links). As there are likely to be alot of people, me included, that are more than a bit miffed at wasted download (and troubleshooting) time. 17mb may not seem alot but I am on a very slow unreliable dial-up! ;(

Is is possible to move an existing XP installation to a new PC? I have heard it is possible to do this by installing a fresh copy of XP on the new machine and then using the ntbackup program to restore the 'old' xp installation onto the new PC. Here is the url of the site I found the info on (I can't detail it all here because I don't understand alot of it myself): http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/49584.html My current disk setup is this: Disk1: Primary Master (Dynamic NTFS file system) Windows Dir: C:\WINXP (the other system dirs are at default locations and use default names) Disk2: Primary Slave (Dynamic NTFS file system) User Profiles dir: D:\User Profiles\... Shared Temp dir (for SYSTEM and all user profiles) D:\TEMP Pagefile.sys is located in the root of this drive Windows XP setup files folder and ServicePackFiles folder is located on this drive also. OS: Windows XP Pro SP1 I need to understand how to successfully restore my XP installation without the new hardware causing plug & play (the hal and everything else) to throw fits. I need to know whether using a dynamic file system will cause problems. Will registry and file security be restored? How does the altered names/locations of the system componants listed above affect the restore process? If anyone could clears things up for me I would be greatful (provided it's not and outright 'Nooo it's not possible! 8)' ) I like a good challenge.

As far as I am aware the make emergency repair disk option was only avaliable in the 2000 version of ntbackup. So any ideas on how to make one for XP? Using the method on the MS knowledge base it should be possible.... and with a complete system backup, boot disk and the repair option in NT setup I see no reason why it shouldn't work... Although I have said that on more than one disaterous occasion. I want to try this because I have Windows set up the way I want it now, and I don't see why I should have to re-install the OS everytime I do a major upgrade. If I could transfer a DOS/Win3.x/9x setup to new hardware then it should also be possible to do so with an NT based OS. It just requires more careful planning. By attempting something challenging (however frustrating the outcome) I learn. Simply saying it isn't possible at the first hurdle acheives nothing.

Can anyone tell me what the NDIS Proxy driver (ndproxy.sys) does please? I checked the MS knowledge site and didn't understand a word of it. Whilst tweaking my system I disabled this driver... however when i replaced the registry entries for this service from an XP Home machine to reacrivate it... it starts (according to msinfo32) but device mananger shows it with a yellow exclaimation mark and the follow error: This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Code 24) It is currently set to start on demand. Can anyone tell me if there will be any ill effect of uninstalling this driver? Or if so then how can i re-install it? Thanks OS: Windows XP PRO SP1

to move quicklaunch to another folder or hard disk: Copy C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR USER PROFILE NAME>\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch to your new location. Then edit the following registry entry to point to the new location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GrpConv\MapGroups Quick Launch is a reg_sz value.

Start > Control Panel > User Accounts Then select your user name, and then Manage my network passwords from the Related Tasks pane on the left hand side. Delete the passwords you want from the dialog that appears.

I'm sure it should be possible provided I duplicate the file system, drive lettering and system directory structure. In addition to the originally referenced article note the following from the MS knowledge base: How to Move a Windows 2000 Installation to Different Hardware: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;249694 Recovering from Failed System Drive with Non-Default %SystemRoot% Folder: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;235478 How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341 Problems with different hardware configurations are taken care of by the ntbackup.exe program, plug and play should deal with the rest. Startup environment config and HAL mismatches could be solved by using a customised boot floppy. The only thing that concerns me is the %systemroot%\repair folder. According to the knowledge base the only way to update the contents of this folder (and thus make use of it with the repair option in nt setup) is to perform an in-place upgrade over the top of my existing XP installation. This would of course mean I would have to reinstall (ie spend hours re-downloading) all my service packs and hotfixes again... part of reason why I want to move my XP install to a new PC in the first place. Under Windows 2000 the ntbackup.exe program had a feature that would update this without needing to re-install the OS 'Emergency Repair Disk' was it?? Is there any way to update the contents of this folder without the need to re-install?

Just 2 little wishes to make my Windows set up perfect: 1. A Quake style console that you could access via the standard ` key and enter commands (just like run or cmd.exe). But with added support for key bindings for scripts and other nifty shortcut features. The number of times I have sat down at this PC and pressed the ` key and waited for the console to drop down onto my desktop! ;( 2. Since becoming used to mouse gestures in firebird and opera I miss them in Windows Explorer. Is there a utility (preferably non commercial) that adds this feature to Windows? I would not be suprised if the console feature has cropped up in a custom shell somewhere, but I've never seen mouse gestures (on Win32) outside of a web browser.

Does anyone else have this annoying problem? At first I thought it was just a quirk on my machine but it keeps happening, and I've heard other friends report this too. About once a week (or sometimes more often), Windows messenger refuses to sign on and gives a pop-up message something along the lines of 'sign-in name does not exist or password is incorrect' or 'the service is unavaliable' (even when other friends can sign in ok). Whenever this occurs I have to go to the .net passport site and reset my password. This is really annoying! Why does it keep forgetting my password?! The reason I posted this on the security forum is that I read somewhere that hackers had found a way to break into .net accounts and MS was in the process of looking into the issue, aplogising profusely... the usual. Is this problem a security breach or just a 'known issue' with .net accounts that I haven't heard about? Any clues greatfully appriciated! Windows XP Pro SP1 Windows Messenger 4.7.2009

The problem was the same with MSN 5 as it was with Windows Messenger, why should version 6 of the above be any different?

I have 3 PCs on a lan using IPX 1. XP Home SP1 2. NT4 SP6a 3. XP Pro SP1 Now when I load the clipboard viewer on the NT PC I can see both the local and standard clipboard pages. However on both XP PCs only the standard clipboard page shows and all the menu options are greyed out. Are there any extra services, security polices, windows components, or network protocols that need to be installed for this feature to work? All user accounts have admin rights and have accounts with the same name and access rights set up on all the other machines. I haven't touched the security polices or service settings on either the NT4 or XP Home PC. But on my own XP Pro PC I have uninstalled some Windows compoments, disabled some services (but non relating to DDE or Clipboard) and changed some settings in the local security policy (only relating to blank password logon and recovery console though). Can anyone tell me how to set up this feature properly please? Also features such as remote shutdown and remote registry fail to work as well.

I did have the network install version (I downloaded it on a 56k connection). Read my above post, the version of the file on my system and the one included in my service pack are the same. But these not the same as the one referenced by Microsoft on their site.

The article says it was included in Service Pack 1 for Windows XP (which is what I am running). But the filesize and version of the one listed on the site does not match the one on my PC. MS KB: Netbios.sys, 5.1.2600.28 (version) 135,296 (size). On my PC in <system32\drivers\>: Netbios.sys, 5.1.2600.1106, 33,152. I checked the version in the servicepackfiles folder against the one in system32\drivers and they are both identical.

Well it seems I need an updated netbios.sys file for my XP PCs Since my version does not match the one on the MS Website. Odd I have SP1. And even if I do manage to get hold of it... how do I overwrite the one in the system32\drivers dir without WFP kicking in? On this PC I can use the recovery console for such functions.. on my parents PC thats not an option. Any ideas?

I've been having trouble getting my wingman formular force wheel to work. I've downloaded the 4.20 drivers from thier website, plugged in all the cables, checked that thier firm etc, then ran the setup utility. It installs fine, but when I plug the wheel into the usb port and ask the program to detect it, it doesn't find anything. **Note: only one of the two green lights becomes active when I plug it into the mains. (So a faulty adapter?) I tried installing the wheel again from a cold boot but the same problem happened, both with the built in Windows plug n play system and the software I got from the logitech website; no wheel detected. (The devices show up under the HID section in Device Manager, but thier faded out or have yellow warning symbols next to them). Any ideas on how I can test whether this is a hardware or software fault? It worked fine a few months ago, but then again, so much can happen to a PC in a few months, no new hardware added though. OS: Windows XP PRO SP1 Wingman Formular Force Wheel (USB connection) Logitech 4.20 utlities