Hey Chris and OS, here's more xp services that you can disable:
These are all examples of leaky security, defective operation, or both.
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
SSDP Discovery Service
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Telnet (if you have no need of telnet on your XP)
Uninterruptable Power Supply (if applicable)
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (it doesn't work xp)
On my own computers, I also chose to disable secondary logon (may botch .net) because I already have a sufficient amount of usage with one logon at a time, and I also disabled security center because I can muddle through those issues without Microsoft's security expertise.
These are all examples of leaky security, defective operation, or both.
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
SSDP Discovery Service
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Telnet (if you have no need of telnet on your XP)
Uninterruptable Power Supply (if applicable)
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (it doesn't work xp)
On my own computers, I also chose to disable secondary logon (may botch .net) because I already have a sufficient amount of usage with one logon at a time, and I also disabled security center because I can muddle through those issues without Microsoft's security expertise.
What software do you guys recommend to back up the entire hard drive onto optical disc? Previously, I've used an old Norton Ghost; but, due to modernizing the hardware, it no longer serves. I'm trying to guess what to replace it with, but only come up with: "maybe this? maybe that?"
So, what software do you like (to create hard drive images)?
So, what software do you like (to create hard drive images)?
Hi ostripper,
Your time and interest are more valuable than you realize. Often, we don't hear the "thank you's" that really are deserved. Every member who takes the time to share there work or experience materially helps everyone else.
I just had an opportunity to thank you, so I did. Most of us don't like the attention and are more comfortable just helping out and doing their thing.
I could sure use a complete 'puter or two. Possibly I can work something out with you later, maybe in the summer. Any LCD monitors? I plan to put Linux up on the next machine. no more fooling around.
Hi homemodder, All,
The second change works exactly as advertised. This is the area that controls the state of the machine before any user is logged in. Therefore, I am one heck of a happy guy now. You have no idea how much that bugged me. Homemodder, thank you for putting me on the right track.
-Chris
No! Thank you!
Your time and interest are more valuable than you realize. Often, we don't hear the "thank you's" that really are deserved. Every member who takes the time to share there work or experience materially helps everyone else.
I just had an opportunity to thank you, so I did.
Most of us don't like the attention and are more comfortable just helping out and doing their thing.I could sure use a complete 'puter or two. Possibly I can work something out with you later, maybe in the summer. Any LCD monitors? I plan to put Linux up on the next machine. no more fooling around.
Hi homemodder, All,
The second change works exactly as advertised. This is the area that controls the state of the machine before any user is logged in. Therefore, I am one heck of a happy guy now. You have no idea how much that bugged me. Homemodder, thank you for putting me on the right track.
-Chris
Hi Daniel,
I don't normally want an image. Typically I back the data up, and it's also on a separate partition with no system files on it. I like to do a clean install after trouble, including a format of the affected partition. When doing a mass backup, I will do one of two things. Install another hard drive and simply copy everything over (at night). Otherwise I just copy the directories I want over the network to another machine, again at night. This can take an hour or so at times.
-Chris
Thank you, yes. Most of that is disabled (I don't trust Microsoft very much). I do use telnet though, so that stayed.
What's that? Never used it.
Why? I am curious and I don't know.
What's that? A network discovery app?
Didn't Ghost require that your image was another hard drive of the same size?
I don't normally want an image. Typically I back the data up, and it's also on a separate partition with no system files on it. I like to do a clean install after trouble, including a format of the affected partition. When doing a mass backup, I will do one of two things. Install another hard drive and simply copy everything over (at night). Otherwise I just copy the directories I want over the network to another machine, again at night. This can take an hour or so at times.
-Chris
Old ghost would not make the image on the same HDD
, but ghost 2003 doesn't care and will happily create the image
on a second partition of the same drive.
The ghost file is just like a huge winzip file and
gets decompressed (bootsector and all) to the chosen partition.
This is cool ,because if someone (a customer) wants a extended,
fancy setup (2 gigs +) , it is much better to load the restore
from a partition as opposed to making a huge ,slow, bootable
DVD rom. When you use max compression on Ghost 2003
the XXX.gho image file for a typical basic XP3 install can
be 650-680megs (compressed 1.25 gig)and fit on a CD.
The best way to do it is to make one XXX.gho file on the second
partition and another on the bootable restore disk ,then
make a batchfile which allows you to restore either from
the HDD or the CD. This gives optical backup (CD) or the
choice of speed (35 seconds on mine) to fully restore the
system..
OS
anatech said:
UPNP is reliant on SSDP, and both can be disabled.
Universal Plug N Play, UPNP, is a mild security risk and its also extremely slow. This (these) makes the names of your Ethernet ready devices (printer, router) show up in "My Network Places" and then it slows them down.
It does most of what it was supposed to do, and some of what you don't want it to do. So, I propose to stick a handy label on all stand-alone Ethernet devices with their IP address on them. Then you can disable UPNP, and its host service SSDP. If you need access to the Ethernet devices, just dial their ip addresses into the web browser.
Routers and print share boxes may also have their own internal menu option that can disable UPNP broadcasts.
The lag of using UPNP (if active) may or may not be severe enough to glitch music playback and may or may not be severe enough to temporarily slow a hard drive.
The practically unnecessary SSDP+UPNP system does consume memory. I have several XP computers, 2 print serv boxes and 2 linux routers. All of these have UPNP shut off. There were no ill effects to shut it off, but doing without UPNP seriously sped up 1 router and 1 printer. Instead of 4 pages per minute, my main laser printer can now do 37 pages per minute.
Hi Daniel,
I am using a print spooler on my NT4 box and a small Dlink print server, plus another printer with a NIC built in. The NT4 spooler tends to report "no paper" on everything, but I cn print using an OS/2 machine with no trouble. My XP machine is connected directly with a USB cable, and it's print server / spooler does the same thing, but not as bad. Network printing on Windows machines seems pretty grim to me.
As I often work on othe machines for friends, or on voice mail servers on the network, will I need to leave UPNP and SSDP enabled? Same thing for test instruments (LXI) sometimes. Some phone systems are programmable from the network too these days. Love those! Programming a voice mail over the network with a nice GUI is heaven compared to the old days.
Thanks! -Chris
I am using a print spooler on my NT4 box and a small Dlink print server, plus another printer with a NIC built in. The NT4 spooler tends to report "no paper" on everything, but I cn print using an OS/2 machine with no trouble. My XP machine is connected directly with a USB cable, and it's print server / spooler does the same thing, but not as bad. Network printing on Windows machines seems pretty grim to me.
As I often work on othe machines for friends, or on voice mail servers on the network, will I need to leave UPNP and SSDP enabled? Same thing for test instruments (LXI) sometimes. Some phone systems are programmable from the network too these days. Love those! Programming a voice mail over the network with a nice GUI is heaven compared to the old days.
I used to do that. Many older things do have an IP address on them. I hate DHCP with a passion! I do have 5 DHCP addresses available for friends with laptops. Everything else is nailed down.
Not mine, unless the term you are using is confusing me.
I have been seeing that, and it's getting worse with time. Could an NT4 server machine with memory leaks do that? It is the Domain controller as well.
Thanks! -Chris
Is there something newer than P31 chipsets with core 2's
and 640gig SATA HDD's straight from newegg. You must be doing something wrong , I even have a WIN 7 ghost image for
a quad core computer that works perfect.
I have also used it with the newest AMD/NVIDIA chipsets as well,
ABSOLUTELY no problems..
BTW , I don't use the childish win GUI for ghost.. DOS only,
custom bootable CD/DVD w/ batchfile..
OS
anatech said:
The case is, if you don't need a pretty icon for a given device to show up in "Network Neighborhood" or "My Network Places" then you don't need UPNP. Also, another way to say the same thing is. . . If you access devices via typing their ip address into a browser, then you don't need UPNP.
As for printing difficulty, it may help to set client computers to "Print directly to. . ." or "Print after last page is spooled."
Out of paper = bidirectional printing is disabled, so only one error message can be delivered, and that's the one (no matter the nature of the error, you receive an "out of paper" message).
ostripper said:Is there something newer than P31 chipsets with core 2's
and 640gig SATA HDD's straight from newegg. You must be doing something wrong , I even have a WIN 7 ghost image for
a quad core computer that works perfect.
I have also used it with the newest AMD/NVIDIA chipsets as well,
ABSOLUTELY no problems..
BTW , I don't use the childish win GUI for ghost.. DOS only,
custom bootable CD/DVD w/ batchfile..
OS
Well, either I missed the very last update of Norton Ghost, or. . .
Hi ostripper,
Buy going to a command line, you are positive you know what actions the program will take. I learned this the hard way after going from OS/2 to Windows. You tell windows to do something through an icon, and you're never sure just what exactly happened. Command line is like saying "I want you do do precisely this, and nothing else ...... right now". With OS/2, clicking the icon tended to execute an action in an intelligent way.
When setting up application servers running on a windows platform, I learned to be very distrustful and careful. Probably a good idea anyway. The activation feature does eliminate the window operating system for consideration in critical systems though. It's bad enough that systems have to be rebuilt, but the added time overhead involved with authorizing the installation several times in order to allow patches and updates is in direct conflict with the need to get stuff back up and running again.
-Chris
Exactly!
Buy going to a command line, you are positive you know what actions the program will take. I learned this the hard way after going from OS/2 to Windows. You tell windows to do something through an icon, and you're never sure just what exactly happened. Command line is like saying "I want you do do precisely this, and nothing else ...... right now". With OS/2, clicking the icon tended to execute an action in an intelligent way.
When setting up application servers running on a windows platform, I learned to be very distrustful and careful. Probably a good idea anyway. The activation feature does eliminate the window operating system for consideration in critical systems though. It's bad enough that systems have to be rebuilt, but the added time overhead involved with authorizing the installation several times in order to allow patches and updates is in direct conflict with the need to get stuff back up and running again.
-Chris
You should look at nLite if you feel the need to reinstall frequently. Specifically, it has the means to slipstream service packs *AND* hotfixes into the install.
If you dont like Windows Update, MS are not forcing you to use it. Every "critical fix" issue has an issue number, and a "hotfix" executable that can be applied as and when you wish to to patch the problem. Windows Update is simply the convinient, non techy way to do this.
Compare with Apple's OS X - there's nothing but Software Updates, and *all* major OS updates are cumulative. The last time OS X itself was updated here, the update was about 200MB in size.
As for Linux, it has it's uses but it is still not ready for the desktop, and incidentally update management on it is often way more messy than Windows is. About the best distro I've found so far is Ubuntu, it does polish a lot of rough edges out of Linux, but it still requires a tech hand to keep it going.
My server, incidentally, is FreeBSD 7 and serves as a NAT router, firewall, file storage, and did serve as a wifi AP until I decided I didn't need wifi any more. I've had it doing print server in the past too.
If you dont like Windows Update, MS are not forcing you to use it. Every "critical fix" issue has an issue number, and a "hotfix" executable that can be applied as and when you wish to to patch the problem. Windows Update is simply the convinient, non techy way to do this.
Compare with Apple's OS X - there's nothing but Software Updates, and *all* major OS updates are cumulative. The last time OS X itself was updated here, the update was about 200MB in size.
As for Linux, it has it's uses but it is still not ready for the desktop, and incidentally update management on it is often way more messy than Windows is. About the best distro I've found so far is Ubuntu, it does polish a lot of rough edges out of Linux, but it still requires a tech hand to keep it going.
My server, incidentally, is FreeBSD 7
and serves as a NAT router, firewall, file storage, and did serve as a wifi AP until I decided I didn't need wifi any more. I've had it doing print server in the past too.
Hi jaycee,
The main problem with Windows are the built in reasons for the patches. If they didn't want to be able to snoop, we wouldn't have near the problems. That and media control issues they are sticking their hands into. It's so bad, they normally are unable to fix what they broke, so there is effectively no warranty.
So ... what's nLite?
-Chris
The main problem with Windows are the built in reasons for the patches. If they didn't want to be able to snoop, we wouldn't have near the problems. That and media control issues they are sticking their hands into. It's so bad, they normally are unable to fix what they broke, so there is effectively no warranty.
True, but the penalty for not using that service is no software problem support at all, even if you install the fixes. The very first question you get at the helpline is "Is your computer software up to date?" If not, Windows update. So you see, Microsoft is forcing you to use that service one way or another.
I wish I had that option when reloading Windows. The pain of doing incremental updates is intense and needless work.
It's not that bad, but then it does assume you have some computer knowledge. Not a bad thing.
Thank you. This is a good hint as I need to replace NT4. Still looking for a solid package.
I don't feel the need to do that. I am forced to do that. Windows tech support, huh! Useless as a rule.
So ... what's nLite?
-Chris
yes, child like simplicity is the best.. a simple batch....
here is the autoexec.bat (just a modified 98 bootdisk)
any special intel controller drivers are loaded config.sys...
(@echo off
MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /D:MSCD001 /D:MSCD002
FINDRAMD.EXE
ANSI.com
change.exe backround 7 (in red: warning)
@echo You are about to erase-restore your primary windows drive -
@echo At the "C" prompt, type the word "RESTORE" , hit the
@echo "ENTER" key twice and the original windows installation
@echo will be restored.
change.exe backround 1 (in white: type your stuff)
C:/)
Then you Type "restore" , (restore.bat)
(c:\GHOST.EXE -clone,MODE=pload,SRC=C:\TS1_XP3.GHO:1,DST=1:1)
(where C: is the bootable CD/DVD)
Bang, it loads off CD or DVD. I have used this on over 1100
PC's ranging from P2's to intel quad cores, fat 32 to ntfs 5.2
Via's , nvidias, all intel chipsets (some need special ide controller
drivers) but all work perfect. I usually will restore the unit
right in front of the owner while cash gets put in hand.
Nlite is the program allowing you to produce a lean XP install
disk (iso) before installation. The link to that ISO I gave you before is legal (especially in canada ) as long as you apply
one of your licence key(s), it was made with Nlite and has JUST
the critical (security updates) up till 09.
OS
anatech said:
Its unnecessary to install that feature. See Nlite, livecd, windows-on-a-stick, and other documentations. Activation system live monitoring isn't required whenever there is no display (as in an embedded device) when the site is unmanned (as in a radio relay station), or when the activation screen may cause loss of life (as in a military or hospital site). Your telephone appliances may qualify as either an unmanned or an embedded device.
For updating Windows, I've been using a freeware utility called autopatcher. It's available here. To use it, you first run the "autopatcher updater" (apup.exe). It first downloads some scripts from the autopatcher web site, then downloads a whole bunch of stuff from MS. When apup.exe is finished, you'll end up with the MS updates, plus an autopatcher.exe file in the same folder as apup.exe. Then you run the autopatcher.exe and choose which updates you want. The update process is entirely from the hard drive at this point. It will update MS Office as well if you specified this when you ran apup.exe.
The nice thing about this is that once you download all the updates, you can save them to a CD for use on another computer. This means you won't have to download the updates from MS a second time (except the very new stuff they will have added since the CD was created). When I put together my music player computer, I created an XP CD with SP3 slipstreamed onto it. I installed XP on the new machine from that CD, then I copied all the autopatcher stuff I already had from my music server computer to the new computer and did the autopatcher procedure. So it was pretty simple getting that machine updated. And it doesn't use or require WGA if you know what I'm saying.
The nice thing about this is that once you download all the updates, you can save them to a CD for use on another computer. This means you won't have to download the updates from MS a second time (except the very new stuff they will have added since the CD was created). When I put together my music player computer, I created an XP CD with SP3 slipstreamed onto it. I installed XP on the new machine from that CD, then I copied all the autopatcher stuff I already had from my music server computer to the new computer and did the autopatcher procedure. So it was pretty simple getting that machine updated. And it doesn't use or require WGA if you know what I'm saying
.
anatech said:
Having scanned several windows boxes in this house back and forth with nmap (*nix tool for checking what ports are open etc) I can honestly say that this is *not* the case. There is no MS backdoor.
However, it is rather too easy to set something up to do just that. This is exactly why all my machines are behind the FreeBSD based firewall. I've seen plenty of idiots who have somehow installed and activated IIS or suchlike, for example.
anatech said:
If you were to tell them "I've applied all the latest hotfixes" they would take that as "Yes, my machine is up to date".
anatech said:
Personally I find the FreeBSD system a lot cleaner than Linux. I also find the "ipfw" based firewall a lot more intelligable than the ipchains system Linux often uses.
anatech said:
I honestly swear, that while I had 32 bit XP, it went through about 3 hardware upgrades, and was only re-installed when faulty ram damaged the registry. So far, my XP64 install has been here since I first installed it, and no damage.
Granted, sometimes the damage from malware etc is too bad to be fixed by anything other than a reinstall... but even in those cases, I am quite adept at repairing the damage - by hand if neccesary.
I guess I'm just good
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