PCA Forums

Well, I had the other thread about USB speeds and 2 of my systems where running USB 1.1 I think and 1 systyem is fast with USB2.

Well now I broke a system
Looks like both my W2K systems are SP3 and I can't find my SP4 files. When I went to install a new VIA USB driver I got a message not usable for W2K.
Later I saw on the website due to some bull crap agreement with MS they can't put out a downloadable USB driver!!!

So I tried re-installing another driver. What I ended up doing was messing up so that I have no USB ports now at all, not even USB1.1

VIA drivers mor MS drivers will install. W2K finds a driver it says but then install fails due to no function specified?

My Slipstreamed W2K SP4 disk says installer can't install SP4 I think because of SP3?
I can't find just the SP4 install pack or files.

How can I get USB2 onto my system again, without downloading SP4 since on slow dialup IO can't do 120+MB download!

I am sure I had USB2 before, don't know why not now. The disk for that system is lost, but I did find my XP Pro disk again finally!

Abit Kv8Pro is the system without USB right now, and the drivers from their site did not work either.

I am temped to install XP, but I hate XP so far on my other system and don't really want to use it.

Honestly, I don't know why you're hesitating to install XP. I'm a big Win2K fan myself, but Win2K is dead. Support is minimal, and SP4 actually made it buggier in my opinion.

You can make XP look and feel just like 2K, and still get all the benefits of XP (such as System Restore and Driver Roll-Back which would have fixed your existing problem). If you continue to use 2K you'd better get in the habit of imaging your boot partition once a month. Honestly though, you're better off with XP.

If you install XP LMK and I'll post a list of things to do to make XP look and feel like 2K.

Thanks Fp,
That list would be handy. I am running XP on the kids system now and also on the newest Gigabyte system I just built.

I might go ahead and run XP on the other 2 also soon I guess.

As for my USB problem, I got that Abit system fixed now I think. I found a CD with SP4 on it. Was that one MS mailed out for service patches and critical updates and stuff about Feb 2004 so now I have USB2 on the Abit system again.

Also, I found my XP Pro disk that I had lost. When swapping parts around building the last 2 systems and using parts from the other systems an older DVD burner got put to the side and forgotten about. Burried in a pile of stuff today I happened to find the drive, so I wondered if anything could be in it, sure enough when I opened it there was my XP Pro

WINXP TWEAKS TO CONVERT TO CLASSIC WIN2K GUI:

- DISABLE INDEXING SERVICE

In Windows XP Computer Management window expand the following:
Services and Applications > Indexing Service > System > Directories

and make sure all directories listed show No for the Include in Catalog. If not, double-click on the directory or directories and select No to Include in Index.

Double-click on My Computer, right-click on the C: drive and click Properties, unselect Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching. Click Apply.

In the Confirm Attribute Changes window select Apply changes to C:\, subfolders and files and click OK to continue.

When complete, close the C: Properties window.

Repeat for any other drives other than C:



- NUKE MSN MESSENGER

Click Start - Run
Type the following line (just copy and paste):
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
Will remove the msn messenger from XP. Outlook Express should open much faster.



- CLASSIC WINDOWS START MENU

Right-click Taskbar->Properties->Start Menu tab->Classic Start menu



- CLASSIC WINDOWS DESKTOP

Control Panel->Display Properties->Appearance tab->Change "Windows and Buttons" to "Windows Classic style"



- HOW TO FORCE WINXP TO REMEMBER EXPLORER WINDOWS SIZES

This won't matter to you if you have Windows setup to use the same Explorer window for new explorer views, but freaks like me like to open a new window each tiem we open a folder. XP has a VERY annoying habit of not remembering the sizes of Explorer windows even if you have it configured to do so (which it's supposed to be by default in Folder Options, View, and then checking "Remember each folder's view settings".

This may not annoy you if you use the icon view in explorer but I use detailed view and I resize each explorer window a certain size to suit me.

This will fix it:

Go to My Computer, bring down the Tools menu, click Folder Options then View.

Check "Launch folder windows in a seperate process". Reboot is required to make it take effect.



- DISABLE TASKBAR GROUPING

Rightclick taskbar, select properties, uncheck "Group similar taskbar buttons"



- WIN2K-STYLE FILE SEARCH

Run Regedit. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState and add a new string (REG_SZ) called "Use Search Asst" - set the value to "no" and you will have the classic win2000 search and none of that XP categorized nonsense, you dont even have to reboot!



- CLASSIC WIN2K LOGIN PROMPT (INSTEAD OF THE WELCOME SCREEN)

Go to control panel -> user accounts -> "Change the way users log on or off" -> uncheck the first box "Use the Welcome Screen". This gives you a regular Win2k/NT logon screen. This also allows you to easily logon as Administrator (the normal XP logon prevents you from logging on as Administrator).



- RESTORE THE CLASSIC WIN98/2K DETAILS VIEW IN MY COMPUTER

I don't like the way that XP groups items together in My Computer. I'm used to and prefer to see them listed alphabetically by drive letter.

Open My Computer -> View -> Arrange Icons By -> uncheck "Show in groups"

This also works in the Network Connections BTW.



- GET THE CLASSIC MEDIA PLAYER BACK
(Note: WMP 6.4 can't play WMP 9 codecs - bastards at MS want to force us to use WMP 8 or higher, so you may want to leave WMV files associated with WMP 8 or 9)

I DETEST Windows Media Player 7. Laggy code-bloated POS that it is. I much prefer Media Player 6.4 that came with Windows 2K. Windows XP still has Media Player 6.4 installed:

1. Click on the Start button and select Run.
2. Type "mplayer2" and click OK. Now you have the original Media Player loaded.

To make this the default media player follow the directions below:

1. When the classic Windows Media Player is running, click on the view menubar and select options.
2. Then click on the format tab and choose which formats you would like it to open by checking the box.
3. Click OK, now all of the formats you selected will open with the classic Windows Media Player.

If you need to make a shortcut for it do a file search for MPLAYER2.EXE and create a shortcut.



- WIN2K-STYLE SECURITY PERMISSION FOR SHARED RESOURCES (disabling "Simple Networking"):

(Note: Unless you're an IT geek or have a need to assign different permissions to different users on a network, you're better off using the default "Simple Networking")

Fire up Windows Explorer.
Go to Tools>Folder Options.
Hit the View tab. Scroll to the bottom.
Un-check "Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)"



- REMOVE SHARED DOCUMENTS FROM MY COMPUTER

Removing the Shared Documents folders from My Computer can be done without editing the registry.

1. Go the the Start menu, and click on Run.
2. Type gpedit.msc
3. Now go to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and click on Windows Explorer.
4. In here, you'll see the option Remove Shared Documents from My Computer. Double click on that, tick Enabled, and click OK. And that's all.



- HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM OF WINDOWS XP LOSING WINDOW POSITIONS AND VIEW SETTINGS

By default XP only stores Window positions and views for the last 400 folders (or
windows) which means that once this is exceeded, new folders will not store their
last positions or correct settings. To get round this, run Regedit and delete these
two keys :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags

Then add the following lines which will make the 400 limit
increase to 1000 - should be enough for normal use.

Run Regedit, find these two keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam

Add this new DWORD value under BOTH above keys:BagMRUSize (with size 1000 decimal)

Then reboot.



- FIX FOR SLOW PERFORMANCE WHEN RIGHT CLICKING ON A FILE OR FOLDER

Turn off the transition effects for menus and ToolTips. To do this, follow these steps:

- Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
- In Control Panel, double-click Display, and then click the Appearance tab.
- On the Appearance tab, click Effects.
- In the Effects dialog box, click to clear the Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips check box, and then click OK two times.



- FIX FOR VERY SLOW BROWSING OF SHARED NETWORK RESOURCES
There's a bug in WinXP that causes a long delay when you browse a shared network resource on another Win2K or XP computer. This is because XP is try to search the "Scheduled Tasks" folder on the other computer.

Disable searching for scheduled tasks by deleting this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

Thanks FP,
That will sure help allot.

Another thing about XP I don't like is networking. My Win98SE laptop and 2 W2k systems all see each other. About half the time they see the XP system and half the time they don't. Even when I can use W2K systems to transfer files to and from XP system the XP system does not see any other systems.
I had XP all working right and seeing everything, then I guess I rebooted and now it does not see any other computers.

Also I noticed and hate that when sharing the root of a drive XP takes forever to change permisions, it seems like it tries to set every file on the drive or at least all the folders. W2K never did this, I just share a drive and it's done, no waiting forever for permisions to be set.

I have XP firewall turned off and want to turn off any XP anti virus also. I figure 75% of the security holes was caused by MS buggy software (IE, etc..) so why should I trust their security stuff????
I'll stay with Grisoft AVG and 3rd party stuff.
I think I have Firewall shut down now. I'll run Tiny.
I also found that when I am on my other systems (W2K) and try to use the program files or XP folders XP refuses to let me use them. I still save files and need files from many folders in ProgramFiles sub folders.

If you're behind a router why bother with a firewall at all? AVG does the job just fine, yeah.

You should have trouble networking between 2K and XP machines, but it's not surprising you have issues between XP and 98 machines. Why are you even running any 98 PCs anyway?

Make sure you've upgraded all the XP systems to SP2 and have all the latest patches. There's been a lot of networking issues fixed over the years. Make sure everyone is on the same Workgroup.

Thanks again.

I just got a new drive today, already pulled the cables off the new systems drives and stuck in the bare drive, XP formatting it now.

Hmm, why firewall behind a router? Force of habit I guess?

98 is on an OLD laptop, I think that's the best it will run perhaps. Not allot of ram (I forgot how much), only a 3gig drive. Actaully the wireless networking from the laptop is the most reliable for seeing all the other systems and accessing them. Unfortunately the laptop itself is not all that reliable, it's been rebooting at times. Probably power related since the internal battery doesn't work anymore. It will reboot or just shutdown at times.

I might buy me a sparkly new lappy before long