Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WinXP

Is there a way to display USEFUL info instead of "Running Shutdown Scripts"?

John Kenneth Fisher — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:29:31 -0800

Is there a way to display USEFUL info instead of "Running Shutdown Scripts" on Windows XP? I have a number of Group Policy'd shutdown scripts that run on Windows XP (and some Win7, but mainly XP) and I was wondering if there is something I can put in the batch file that will replace the text that currently says "Running Shutdown Scripts."

So, in pseudocode:

Display "Copying File such and such"
Copy File:/Such/and/such
Display "Copying File this and that"
Copy File:/This/and/That

Why is Windows XP freezing and refusing to shut down?

ZsigE — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:20:52 -0800

Windows XP freezes, audio has disappeared and returned, system hangs on shutdown...my PC has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and nothing I've tried seems to be helping. So...help? I'm running XP Home on a self-built PC (Asus M2A-VM HDMI motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 dual core processor, ATI Radeon HD 3600 graphics), which has been running happily for just over a year. Today it started behaving oddly - Firefox hung while I was opening a new tab, followed by the entire PC freezing so completely that I had to hold down the power button to switch it off. On reboot, my sound had disappeared - subsequent reboots showed that all my audio devices had vanished.

Shutdowns no longer work (I get to the "Windows is shutting down" screen and then it sits there apparently indefinitely). The PC dual-boots Ubuntu, so I tried that - the sound was fine, so it's not a hardware problem, and I can shut down from there with no problems. When I went back into Windows, my audio devices had mysteriously returned, but shutdowns were still broken, and it still hung intermittently.

I dug out the motherboard install CD and reinstalled the chipset, audio and LAN drivers. I then went to Asus's website to look for updated versions - found reasonably new audio drivers, which then crashed halfway through installation. So none of that seems to be helping.

Subsequent hangs seem to have come on gradually - Firefox stops responding, followed by whatever I click on. In one case, I saw Firefox die, then the Start menu, then the whole taskbar, then Google Desktop, then Launchy, then the keyboard (Num Lock stopped switching its LED on and off). Ctrl-Alt-Del added the usual icon to the system tray, but the window didn't appear.

Basically, I'm stumped. I've seen fewer crashes in Firefox since disabling all its extensions, but I doubt that was the initial cause. Any ideas as to which avenues I could try next?

ThinkPad T42 wireless connection problem

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:40:00 -0800

Windows XP Home network connection issues. My son's girlfriend has an IBM ThinkPad T42. In the last couple of days its network connectivity has gone haywire. It has an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG adapter and an Intel Pro/1000MT wired connection, and the laptop is running XP Home, Service Pack 3. Here's what it does:

As soon as I enable the wireless adapter and connect to a network (either secured or unsecured) the connection bounces from disconnected to connected and back again, over and over ad infinitum.

I can't enable the wired adapter at all (it just stays disabled while the "Local Area Connection - Enabling" message shows, after which it disappears with the connection still disabled), which is what makes me think this is a software problem rather than a hardware problem. I have tried all of the following (not necessarily in this order):

1) reset the TCP/IP stack ("netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt")

2) Uninstalled and reinstalled TCP/IP

3) removed and reinstalled the network adapter drivers

4) system restore to earlier restore point

5) installed a PCMCIA wireless card (same result - connected/disconnected over and over)

6) run Malwarebytes (no malware detected)

At this point I am ready to throw in the towel and reinstall Windows unless someone has any better ideas. I don't really mind doing this, but it always irritates me to resort to a reinstall when it seems like there really should be a simpler fix.

Any ideas?

Where's the XP Installer's Undo?

kristi — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:17:38 -0800

A Windows 2000 hard disk got clobbered by the XP installer and is "unallocated". What are my next steps? I have an old PC running Windows 2000 (SP 4). There are 3 internal drives:

D: 40 GB (Win2K system disk)
C: 200 GB
F: 500 GB

Recently, I tried to install WinXP on the C drive so I could dual-boot Win2K and XP. I ran the XP installer (new install, not upgrade); it successfully completed but I could never boot from C; it was giving me various errors about missing hal.dll and stuff. I've basically given up on the dual boot on this machine; I don't need it badly enough to spend more time on it.

After my first attempt to install XP, I discovered Win2K no longer mounts the F drive. It still shows up in the BIOS, but not in Windows Explorer; only the C and D drives show up in the Explorer address bar now.

When I go into Computer Management, I can see the missing drive in the Disk List and Graphical View, but not in the Volume List. In the Graphical View, it shows up as

(left side)
Disc 0
Basic
465 GB
Online

(right side)
[no letter drive here]
465 GB
Unallocated

As far as I can tell from Googling around, the F drive apparently had EZ-Drive on it (I tried Partition Magic 6, and it gave me an error saying "EZ-Drive has been detected on drive 0, but EZ-Drive is corrupt. Run the EZ-Drive setup diskette to correct this problem."), and apparently XP hates EZ-Drive.

I've tried running

fixmbr \Device\Harddisk0\Partition0

(that's the device that shows up using Recovery Console's map command) from the Recovery Console, but it didn't change anything.

The Add/Remove Hardware Wizard can see the drive, too (it says the device is working properly).

I ran Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on the drive - did the Quick Test - and got

Test completed successfully

The drive shows up in the Physical Drive list in WD Diagnostics, but not the Logical Drive list.

I'd like to just undo whatever the XP installer did to the drive and get it back to where I can read and use it again. If I have to partition it, I can do that, but I'm wondering whether EZ-Drive will remain on the disk (it sounded like that would happen, based on some of the reading I've done) and what effect that would have on anything else I need to do in the future.

I only use this machine for a couple of pieces of software and I'd like to spend as little time as I can getting it working again. If at all possible, I'd love to avoid reformatting/repartitioning the drive. It just seems like there should be SOME way to undo whatever the XP installer did.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Wide Screen, Narrow Resolution

Xoder — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:20:37 -0800

I have a computer running Windows XP and I just connected it to my TV via VGA cables. The TV reports its maximum resolution as 1024x768, which Windows will happily provide, however my TV is 16:9. This results in an over-wide picture. I would like to have Windows use this 1024x768 resolution, but tell it to use non-square pixels, or something similar to bring everything back to the correct shapes.

Where to find updated info on (graphic design) hardware?

filthy light thief — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:57:10 -0800

How should I keep up-to-date on hardware for graphic design? I'm not a graphic designer by trade, but I would like my personal (WinXP) computer to be suitable for hobby-work graphics. More details and criteria inside. I have a WinXP system I cobbled together a few years back. My flat-screen monitor is a bit odd (pink dots are noticeable from time to time), and my printer/scanner combo is pretty much a POS for both functions. I make do with all of it, but I keep thinking I should start looking into upgrading elements. Primarily I'd like a new monitor and scanner, but a good printer would be nice, and I keep lusting after tablets, even though I don't do that much drawing by hand any more.

I've found what I think are good reviews, but I feel that if they're over 6 months old, I'm missing out on something. I don't need cutting edge, and it seems like there are probably some reliable resources for computer-based artists that I haven't found. So, hive-mind, what should I look for? Do you known handy sites? Thanks!

Computer Virus

Student of Man — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:27:48 -0800

My girlfriend's Thinkpad T23 is infected with a virus. When I boot up, there is no icons or start button or taskbar- only wallpaper. She downloaded the virus from Limerwire.

As soon as I log on, I get an error message. "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" It also says "for more information about this error click here" which then brings up another window stating:

AppName:explorer.exe
Appver:6.0.2900.3156
ModName:unknown
ModVer:0.0.0.0
offset:000443ec

It then offers an option to view technical information. Which is mind boggling. It has two buttons, Debug (which does nothing) and
close (which does nothing). I can press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the task manager. It shows no applications are running. Processes runinig include:

SVCHOST.EXE
IBMPMSVC.EXE
SPOOLSVC.EXE
LSASS.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE
CSRSS.EXE
AppleMobileDeviceSevice.exe
I tried to run Iexplorer or explorer.exe. but it does not work. or brings up the same error messages.

The inernet has pretty much privatized all information regarding infestations or Technical help of any sort. This is apparantely a common virus symptom but it feels like all solutions are purposely guarded. I CAN get into safe mode but I have no clue what to do.

We can bring it in But we can't afford the $100 bucks right now. Since I'm somewhat capable, I want to try to help her. This is a Windows XP, IBM Thinkpad Model T23, with no Anti-Virus. Thanks in advance guys.

[WinXP] How can I create a separate user account that is completely separate from the main admin account?

Jimmeh — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:54:38 -0800

[WinXP] How can I create a separate user account that is completely separate from the main admin account? I.e. doesnt share the same programs, settings, etc I've tried this the normal way, but some programs that are installed show up in both accounts.

What I'm trying to achieve is to create an account that is completely free of distractions and only has the software I need for study. I'd also like to block certain websites etc.
I'd use the main admin account for leisure purposes.

Is this possible?

Reinstalling WinXP hosed my drive letters...

jluce50 — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:50:14 -0800

WTF? I thought I knew what I was doing! I reinstalled WinXP on C:\ and it screwed up all my drive letters and made a secondary partition into a system partition. Help me get it back to normal! Here's how things were before I screwed it up:

HDD0 - WD 160GB
C:\ - WinXP OS (30GB)
D:\ - Data (My Docs, music, etc) (120GB)

HDD1 - Seagate 160GB
E:\ - Backup

I made sure I had all my ducks in a row and the reformatted C:\ and reinstalled Windows. When I got into Windows I noticed that the 'D' and 'E' drive letters had been switched. All the data is still present and accounted for. I went to rename 'E' back to 'D' and noticed that 'C' is designated as a Boot partition and 'E' (which should be 'D') is designated as a System partition, so I can't change the drive letter.

I'd love to know how this happened but I'm much more interested in how to fix it. How do I make 'E' back into a non-System partition without putting the data in jeopardy?

SP3 networking woes!

jluce50 — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:40:47 -0800

So I went against my better judgment and installed SP3 on one of my XP Pro machines. I figured it was safe by now but, as luck would have it, I am now unable to see that computer on the network. Help! After installing SP3 everything seemed fine while using that pc. I was able to immediately connect to the internet and I saw no problems. It wasn't until I tried to access that pc from my laptop (XP SP2) that I saw any problems.

First I tried to access some shared folders. Turns out that SP3 disabled sharing so I re-enabled it. No dice. Then I tried to RDP in and nothing doing there either. So then I tried to ping the IP of the SP3 maching and... nothing. I was able to get in through LogMeIn so at least that's still working somehow.

I had to reconfigure it's TCP/IP settings after the install so I know they're correct. Windows Firewall is disabled. I'm plum out of ideas so I welcome any and all suggestions.

Oh, and I tried to uninstall SP3 but it kept giving me an error saying, "Cannot find the file specified..." and then, "SP was not uninstalled". ARRRGHH!!

Need to compare registry before and after an install and end up with a merge-able regfile

John Kenneth Fisher — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:41:42 -0800

I need to scan an XP registry BEFORE an installation, then rescan the registry AFTER the installation, and end up with a merge-able reg file that I can then apply to multiple computers via AD or startup script. Finding a program that simply compares before or after (like regshot), or exporting a text file before and after and comparing then via, say, Windiff, is easy. But with the results being in the many thousands, I need a way to end up not with a text list but an actual regfile that contains said changes.

If I may call upon a rather out-of-favor Mefi-ism, Administrators! Hope me!

Who is 14F1? What is device 2720?

carsonb — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:26:51 -0800

My PCI Simple Communications Controller has bitten the dust. When I start up my crusty eMachines T2682 classic desktop computer these days I get the good ol' WinXP Found New Hardware Wizard prompting me to install drivers for my "PCI Simple Communications Controller". Sadly it cannot locate said drivers, and it turns out that "PCI Simple Communications Controller" is Device Manager-speak for "WTF is this?"

As this computer has failed bit by bit I've become more adept at reading tech forums, and as usual they've dealt me a cryptic clue to this puzzle. I learned that Device Manager deals out very little info about "PCI Simple Communications Controller", but what little it gives can be used to find drivers to reactivate the ? device. The Device Instance Id is
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2720&SUBSYS_200014F1&REV_00\4&29817089&0&10F0
which, I believe, details the device vendor as "14F1" and the device itself as "2720".

Vendor 14F1 is listed as Conexant Systems Inc., a modem chipset manufacturer. However, for the life of me I cannot find their device 2720. None of the pci id lists that I've read match that device with vendor 14F1.

What am I missing? What is this mysterious device?

Maybe relevant: During video playback the audio snaps in and out, at random. I have not reinstalled Windows lately. I upgraded to SP3 a few weeks ago, then immediately reverted to a restore point. One of my RAM sockets has gone bad, the computer freezes occasionally, and I think the whole mobo might be dying. Is this some extension of that growing problem, or is there a local solution?

I ask this last because, while I know I need a new computer and will be purchasing one when the wallet is ripe, I'd like to use this opportunity to learn some about how computer guts work and what to do get them to work when they don't. Percussive maintenance only goes so far.

How to fix Windows iTunes HD video?

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:30:21 -0800

How do I make iTunes on Windows XP stop stuttering? HD video stutters, as if iTunes either can't feed video fast enough from the hard drive, or can't uncompress it fast enough to display on-screen. It gets worse as the program progresses.

Per Apple's help document, I have enabled DMA on the hard drive and tried toggling DirectX preferences in QuickTime.

I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 600X that I updated the drivers for. It is plugged into an PCI Express 16x slot.

The box is running a Pentium M 2.1 GHz with 2 GB of RAM.

As much as I hate this awful operating system, I'd like to use this Windows XP box to feed HD video. What settings do I enable or hardware do I need to add to reliably play HD video through this box? Thanks for your advice.

How many hard drives does it take, before WinXP can see them?

jadepearl — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:42:29 -0800

External hard showing "weird". Better known as, sharing an external/portable hard drive between osx and winxp. I have tried out no less than 3 of these Lacie external hard drives.

They are formatted FAT32 and register perfect on my macs at home. However on 2 WinXP machines they register as a regular drive, are listed as "full" and nothing can be loaded or read from them. This all started because they initially could not be found on the winxp though device manager "saw" them just fine and disk managment found it "healthy". I got it enabled and allocated a drive. Now it does not show in disk management. This is what I have done so far:

1) Reformatted one on a mac for pc -- still not "mounted" though seen by device manager. Forced allocation using disk management. Unable to format on the PC to NTFS after it mounted. Unable to read or write because "full" or not recognized;

2) Plugged in a "virgin" FAT32 drive after forced allocation and it can be seen but now only registering as a drive with no further info and again, "full" cannot read nor write nor found by disk management;

3) MacDrive 7 unable to find or read the drives initially until I forced allocation and again, no read nor write nor formatting. App keeps asking where the mac drive is;

WinXP service pack 2 on my machine; hard drives connected via USB 2.0; Novell Zenworks and network drives are a part of my environment.

The drives are new and Lacie is generally a reputable firm. FAT32 should be able to be read by a WinXP machine. This is a consistent problem after trying 3 drives. Any advice would be nice.

One version of Windows isn't enough, I need three!

Snyder — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 02:27:12 -0800

Will Windows 98 and XP run and dual boot (or, treble boot, I suppose,) with my new Vista running computer? I'm being given a slightly used computer that is currently is running Vista, but I'd like to bring over my hard drives from my current computer. Right now, I have two hard disks, one with Windows 98 and one with XP, and I have a dual boot setup. The computer I want to move them two is a Dell Inspiron 531S, an ACPIx86-based machine, with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ 2009 Mhz, 958 Megs RAM, and the BIOS is Dell Inc, 1.0.3 6/15/2007. This is all I can easily find out at the moment, since I didn't buy the computer originally and I'm not used to Vista.

To be brief, can I run a triple boot system with Vista, Win98 and XP with this hardware? My idea is to have the backwards compatibility of 98 with the robustness of XP, while Vista gets itself sorted out. Any adivce in that direction too would be appreciated. Thanks for the help.

Rude taskbar

jak68 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:15:39 -0800

winXP filter: Taskbar takes focus away from applications; Setting 'dont steal focus' in powertoys has not helped; What tools can I use to help me find out why/what is doing this? I'll be working on an application (browser or Word or whatever) and occasionally the focus goes away (ie, my typing stops registering because the window has lost focus).

I believe the focus was taken by the taskbar or system tray. The reason I believe that is because, for instance, if I'm using a "full screen" application, the taskbar pops to the front.

I've tried using powertoys with the setting for 'dont steal focus away', it has not helped one iota. I've tried a few other fixes for 'not taking focus' (including a system tray application that runs in the background thats supposed to prevent that, and a startup batch script), neither is helping.

I'd like to find out once and for all what is going on at the moment that the taskbar/tray takes focus.

How can I diagnose this - with what tools? I've gone into Event Viewer right after it happens to see if anything is listed there, but no events are listed for the moment that it happened.

How can I find out why thats happening? Any ideas? thanks!

Help me clear up some conflicting info.

Ceci n'est pas une marionnette de chaussette — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:46:27 -0800

Two quick computer hardware questions before I try setting up a new drive. Ok, so I'm going to be buying some new hardware soon and I just want to clear up any confusion before I buy something I don't really want.

I'll looking to buy a PCI-X RAID controller card but I only have open basic PCI slots on my motherboard. Are PCI-X cards backwards compatible by default? My local computer store rep says no, but a geeky friend claimed yes, and the rep must have been thinking of PCI-E.

Also, I'll be putting together a 3.75TB array, but it won't be my boot disk. Will I have any problems with that under windows XP SP2? Again some folks have told me XP can't handle anything above 2TB at all, when others have said it'll be fine as long as it's not the boot disk.

So I guess both of these questions come down to the fact that I trust you, dear hive mind, more then random sales reps or computer dudes I know.

Thanks!

Why is the Archive command missing from Outlook's File menu?

VeniceGlass — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:50:38 -0800

Why is the Archive command missing from Outlook's File menu? It used to be there - I've used it! There are no group policies at my company affecting it (I've verified with IT).

How do I change the location of my WinXP application data?

underwater — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:08:58 -0800

How can I move application data to another drive? I'm using WinXP. I followed advice to use 2 partitions to make backups easier. I have Windows and my applications on a smaller C: partition and my data on a larger D: partition. The problem is that my application data is on my C: drive and it is filling up. So I need to move the application data to my D: drive.

I have recreated the folder structure on the D: drive and copied all of the application data there (I'm talking about the data in C:\documents and settings\username\Application data\, where username changes for each of the login profiles).

The webpages I've found say that at this point I should go to regedit and change 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\Microsoft\windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folder\AppData' from value 'C:\documents and settings\username\application data' to 'D:\documents and settings\username\aplication data'.

However, at that regedit value on my computer, it doesn't say 'C:\documents and settings\username\application data'. It says '&USERPROFILE%\Application Data'. So I'm not sure what to change the value to. There is only one value here, so what do I do with the multiple user accounts? I obviously don't want to mess up the registry.

Advice, please? Do I indeed just change this value to something? Will I have problems with specific applications finding the original data? Is there another, better strategy? Thanks for the help.

How to hide mouse cursor.

Infernarl — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:03:31 -0800

Is there a free program that would allow me to have my cursor (mouse) disappear on system start up and/or after remaining motionless for a few seconds? I found one program, "cursor hider", but it is not free. Too bad, because it is exactly what I want. This is for a winxp system. I'm building a system into another application and I don't want the cursor to be there, since the computer will be functioning autonomously and won't have a keyboard/mouse hooked to it.

No Title

Brandon1600 — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:12:26 -0800

I am a computer illiterate person trying to understand the information from Wireshark. Help! I have recently decided to beef up the security on my laptop. I have learned quite a few things so I am not completely clueless... until it comes to Wireshark. I have it installed on a Win XP HE running on a wireless LAN. I bridged my Firewire and and wireless NIC together and am using the bridge as the Capture Interface. It's running in promiscuous mode reading packets like crazy, but I have no idea what the actual readouts mean or how to relate that to security. I understand wireshark is for traffic analysis and by no means a security device. If it helps I installed it as a recommendation to see what "funny business"my Firefox extensions might be causing. The color coding of the program is marginally helpful. I see a few red readouts. Examples:

TCP http > nsjtp-data [RST, ACK] Seq=262 Ack=345 Win=0 Len=0

TCP http > saiseh [RST, ACK] Seq=734626 Ack=31207 Win=0 Len=0

TCP http > isis-ambc [RST, ACK] Seq=711639 Ack=31206 Win=0 Len=0

The source is some strange IP address and the destinations are my computer. They are lit in red and they are not the only ones. What does this info mean? What should I do? Any reference with a translation for us lay people would be greatly appreciated.

Copy/Paste with File Time Intact

muckster — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:21:32 -0800

How do I copy a large number of files in Windows XP without changing the date created/modified? I'm embarrassed to ask this because I'm sure the answer is something as simple as "hold down F3" or xcopy /m but I can't seem to figure this out or find an answer online that's not selling something.

I'm trying to make a backup of my mp3 archives, and I'd like to keep all file data intact on the new hard drive so my Winamp media library won't get confused. I've used the clone function in Acronis TrueImage for this before , but I get freakishly anxious about accidentally reversing the drive letters and would rather do it in explorer or a command line. Can't be so difficult, can it?

Thank you.

Lost user settings on a win XP machine

lobstah — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:59:05 -0800

Please help me restore my user settings (Win XP Pro). All of my wife's personal settings (also folders and files) have beem sent to the recycle bin upon restart. I tried to use the recycle bin restore feature, but to no avail. There is only one user account, and that seems to be set to new machine status. She wants her desktop back ! Last time, you guys saved my butt...can you do it again? Thanks.

Automatic reboot from Leopard to XP?

zardoz — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:20:21 -0800

I have an Intel iMac with Leopard, and via Boot Camp, a partition with Windows XP. The normal way to boot into XP is--after restarting Leopard or turning on the computer--to hold down the Option (Alt) key and then choose the OS. Is there a way around this? Is there some setting or third-party app that will reboot my computer from Leopard and automatically start Windows so I don't have to wait around holding down that key? Going the other way is no problem as the default (if you don't touch any keys) will boot up Leopard.

I like my iMac and Leopard a lot, more than XP, but Apple's insistence on using the keyboard is a bit annoying. The delete key being another example. End mini-rant.

How do I get my Kinesis Ergo PS2 keyboard to work with a KVM switch?

KirkJobSluder — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:54:22 -0800

How do I get my Kinesis Ergo PS2 keyboard to work with a KVM switch and USB adapter? I have 1) A kinesis ergo keyboard, 2) a G4 mac mini and 3) an aging winXP system. Ideally, I'd like to connect the three of them together, and I had a great setup with a PS2 KVM prior to getting the mini.

However, slipping a ps2->usb adapter into the chain seems to cause problems. For that matter, the keyboard only functions properly for the mini when plugged directly into the mini's own USB port. keyboard->adapter->powered hub->mini does not work. It must be keyboard->adapter->mini. Otherwise the keyboard input consists of an endless stream of space characters.

What I'm hoping for is 1) a recommendation of a good ps2->usb adapter 2) a recommendation of a good KVM 3) Advice that I should just find a cheap old-fashioned VGA switch and swap the keyboard when I need to play.

Remote desktop is not really an option for what I want to do. And eventually this problem will go away when I finally make the Intel upgrade so I'm not interested in spending a large quantity of money.