Beginners Guides: 104 Great Tech Tips for Windows XP - PCStats.com Feedback? Articles & Reviews 'STATS Forums Press Releases Tech Glossary Folding Team 3DMark Team PCstats Forums Beginners Guides Jan. ShoppingList Career Center Poll: Downloading Movies For Free How many movies have you downloaded in the last month from the internet, rather than buying? None 1-10 10-20 50 or more? 20-30 40-50 Total Votes: 1405 Beginners Guides: 104 Great Tech Tips for Windows XP Search for $Price Overall Rating: 100% Abstract: From quick tips to WindowsXP, right through to cool tweak, toys and experiments, PCstats has go you covered with over a hundred new Tech Tips! mfg'r link category date published author PCstats.com Beginners Dec.31.04 Mike Dowler Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 70-71 70. Perform a 'Hands Off' Windows XP Installation. Windows XP includes the option to create an 'unattend' text file which will automatically answer all the questions you would normally field while installing Windows. This allows the installation to proceed without user input right from booting the computer. This method is often used by IT Professionals who can't afford the time to babysit a single system through the answer process. While the 'unattend.txt' file itself is packed with options, Windows XP includes a simple to use utility which can build one of these files for you without much effort. To get at this utility, setup manager, you need to insert your Windows XP CD and go to the 'support\tools' directory. Use your favourite zip/unzip software like Winzip or WinRAR to extract the 'deploy' .cab file to a directory on your hard drive. Once the deploy.cab file is unzipped, navigate to the new directory and double click 'setupmgr' to start the setup manager wizard. This program will ask you a series of questions and use the answers to create a text file that can automate your Windows XP installation. Most of the answers will be obvious, but here's a few you need to know near the start: Create a new answer file; Windows unattended installation; Fully automated (but read the descriptions for the other modes); No, this answer file will be used to install from CD; Once the wizard has completed, you will be left with an 'unattend.txt' file in the same directory. Rename this file to 'winnt.sif'. Now copy the winnt.sif file to a formatted floppy disk. When you start your Windows XP installation, insert the floppy disk. The install process will automatically search for winnt.sif on the floppy and use the answers to automate the installation process. 71. Experiment With 'Virtual' Computing You may have heard about 'virtual server' technology in the past. Companies like VMWare created software that allow multiple virtual computers to run sharing the memory, processor(s) and hardware of a single physical computer. A single server can run many virtual 'client' systems inside itself, using multiple operating systems. This technology is primarily used for testing network and patch settings in business environments where running the tests on the actual live network would be too risky and time-consuming. Microsoft has decided to get into the virtual computing market, and you can try their 'virtual server' product evaluation for yourself here. Be aware that you'll need a fast PC to get much out of this, but if you are at all interested in networking and Windows networks, you owe it to yourself to play with this. «Previous Page © 2005 PCstats.comNext Page» Page Index: Page 1: Beginners Guides: 104 Great Tech Tips for Windows XP Page 2: WindowsXP Interface Tips 1-2 Page 3: WindowsXP Interface Tips 3-6 Page 4: WindowsXP Interface Tips 7-9 Page 5: WindowsXP Interface Tips 10-11 Page 6: WindowsXP Interface Tips 12-14 Page 7: WindowsXP Interface Tips 15-17 Page 8: WindowsXP Interface Tips 18-20 Page 9: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 21-23 Page 10: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 24-25 Page 11: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 26-30 Page 12: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 31 Page 13: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 32-33 Page 14: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 34-36 Page 15: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 37-39 Page 16: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 40-41 Page 17: Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips 42-46 Page 18: Computer Security Tips 47 Page 19: Computer Security Tips 47 con't Page 20: Computer Security Tips 48-49 Page 21: Computer Security Tips 50-51 Page 22: Computer Security Tips 52 Page 23: Computer Security Tips 53-54 Page 24: WindowsXP Shortcut Tips 55-57 Page 25: WindowsXP Shortcut Tips 58-63 Page 26: Disk and Storage Management Tips 64 Page 27: Disk and Storage Management Tips 65-67 Page 28: Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 68-69 Page 29: — Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 70-71 Page 30: Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 72-75 Page 31: Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 76-78 Page 32: Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 78 con't Page 33: Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 79-81 Page 34: Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 82-85 Page 35: Cool Tweaks, Toys and Experiments 86-90 Page 36: Networking and Internet Tips 91-93 Page 37: Networking and Internet Tips 94-97 Page 38: Networking and Internet Tips 98-101 Page 39: Networking and Internet Tips 102-104 17.01.05 | 12:23P Hardware Sections · Beginners Guides · Cases and Access. · CD-ROMs · Cooling - Heatsinks · CPU / Processors · Digital Cameras · DVD-ROMs · Hard Drives · Home Theatre · Memory · MP3 Players · Monitors · Motherboards · Mouse Pads · Networking · Notebooks · Peripherals · Powersupply · Printers · Servers · Videocards - - - · Editorials Industry PR » Gigabyte Radeon X800 GV-RX80256D » IMPROVED GN-BTD02 BLUETOOTH USB ADAPTER » World's First Dual PCI-Express Motherboard Hardware Prices Motherboards Abit, ASUS, Gigabyte, Albatron, MSI, Shuttle, Aopen, Soyo, Tyan, More... 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