How to add raid drivers in windows xp to Install windows xp f6 without floppy

I have been struggling to install a windows xp on a raid array.
In most cases windows does not have included drivers for ahci/raid controller will not detect no storage device and you will get a blue screen with stop code : 0x0000007B 

To solve this problem you can press F6 when the install starts but xp only accepts floppy disks that are absolute. You could buy one if you want, and better get some new floppy disks as well, as I once tried for one hour to write some drivers on some old floppy disks I had lying around.

The other way to do it is like this :
1. Extract an xp home or professional 32 or 64 whatever you need to install to a folder.
2. Download nLite and install it

    - open nLite and select the folder where you extracted the windows image and press next
    - on the next screen with preset just press next without doing nothing
    - on the next screen select/activate Drivers and Bootable ISO and press next

    - on next screen press the Insert button and select multiple driver folder - and when you are provided with a list of drivers select them all - if you have more folders or you are not sure witch are the good ones just select again Insert - multiple driver and add more

- press next to start the process and then Make ISO button

Write the image to a cd and you not get the blue screen and be provided with the install menu.

Install windows 8, 8.1 and related windows server 2012, 2012 R2 without a product key

You have to edit/create the file disk:/sources/ei.cfg

[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

[Channel] can be set to OEM / Retail
[VL] means Volume Licensing for volume media for companies that use same key
[EditionID] to Core / Professional etc or leave black and it will ask during setup

To activate windows after install use the wizard or cmd : slui 3

To add the file to the windows iso file you can use PowerIso - note you need regiestered version. 

How to delete a service manually

You can see all services in the snap-in control Services : services.msc

To delete a service copy the service name from the snap-in control then type :

sc delete "service name"

How to see what process keeps a file / folder open

Download from Microsoft Sysinternals Process Explorer

Then select from the menu Find  - Find Handle or DLL... or CTRL+F   type the name of the file/folder.
Then you can either close the process or just select the file/folder handle and right click - Close Handle.

Error loading dll file

Error loading midas.dll

regsvr32 midas.dll for registering a file
regsvr32 /u midas.dll for unregistering a file

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regsvr32

Hiren's Boot USB Stick

Hirens Boot CD 15.2 USB

1. You need a USB stick of at least 1GB
2. Download Hiren's Boot CD 15.2 from here
3. Download Universal USB Installer from here

Install drivers in windows

Link for big manufacturers support pages with drivers:

Fujitsu Siemens : http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/download/Index.asp

Acer : http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers 

Dell : http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Products/?app=drivers

HP : http://www8.hp.com/us/en/drivers.html

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IF you have a PCI and Parallel port yellow in device manager and you de not have an uninstalled card, you have to install :
Intel Active Management Technology - PCI port (LMS-SQL),  Paralele port (HECI)
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USB 2.0-CRW   = (Card Reader)
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Install drivers in windows 7 and 8 that are not available through windows update ( not recommended bad system stability - but last resort if you want newer operating system for old hardware) 

First open in Internet Explorer : http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/  and install the asked add-on.

Search the driver, for example "mobility radeon x1600" driver that is not available through windows update in windows 8.1 . You will experience boot start-up problems with x1600 on windows 8 if you do this but it's the only way to get max resolution.
Download the x86 or x64 driver accordingly to your system. It will be a .cab file.
Extract it and install it manually by opening Device manager and right click and Update driver software, Browse my computer for driver software, and select the folder where you extract it.

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Windows XP SP2 - Could not install audio driver

"Driver Installation Failed: Could not find the MEDIA device for this driver"

You need to get the UAA hotfix from Microsoft. (This is for SP2 -- it is included in SP3.)

UAA Download Link : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/835221

Windows Experience Index scores in Windows 8.1

Step1 :
Open a cmd and type "winsat prepop"
This will run the benchmark and store the results on your PC as XML files.
Step2 :
 Open the Windows Powershell and type "Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_WinSAT"

WinSPRLevel : is the base score and is  the lowest of the scores and represents the Rating in windows 7

The maximum score is 7.9

Automate windows customisation

Scriptable windows commands :

http://www.autohotkey.com
http://www.macrocreator.com

Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs.
General useful silent install switches :
http://unattended.sourceforge.net/InnoSetup_Switches_ExitCodes.html  

Control Panel Command Line Commands in Windows :
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/a/control-panel-command-line.htm

CONTROL [cpl],,[page]
CONTROL [/name] [/page]
CONTROL [-name] [-page]

ex :
control /name Microsoft.ActionCenter
control /name Microsoft.DateAndTime
control /name Microsoft.ActionCenter /page pageSettings

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee330741%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#canonical_names

Windows does not boot in normal or safe mode, stuck at some driver - run chkdsk

Most of the time is file system integrity problem (system file/driver) caused by a forced shutdown either by losing power or forceful shut down by the power button.
You get more chances to get this if you close it while it was doing updates.
It can also be cause by a bad sector on one of the mentions files, or virus alteration of files.


To fix-it you have to run a chkdisk.
Boot from a hiren's boot cd and select chkdisk, after restart and it will boot to windows normally.

If that did't work you can try to check if you find a 0 bytes file in C:\Windows\System32\drivers, usually is random letters, numers file.

Stop CHKDSK every time at start-up dirty partition

If a partition is marked as dirty it will not be cleared.

Type :
fsutil dirty query d:
 Volume - d: is Dirty
You can also set the dirty bit if you want by : fsutil dirty set d:


CHKNTFS /X d:
 /x = not to check the volume at start-up

chkdsk /f /r d: 

You can manually remove the dirty bit :

Download a hdd hex editor : DMDE GUI for Windows

Select Logic/disks volumes, select the volume and press Open volume.

ALT+C = volume cluster selection + ENTER
CTRL+S = Search string --- and paste in the hex part:

03 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 18  - no dirty bit
03 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 18  - win xp, win 7
03 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 18  - win 8

CTRL+E = edit 

Windows 7 auto login and prevent user password from expiring

User profile service failed the logon User profile cannot be loaded
How to disable user password from expiring.

Windows 7 auto login :
To activate windows autologin directly from windows type in run : control userpasswords2
You will get this window :

Then select the user you want to autologin and deselect : Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. , press Apply and you will be ask for the password. Type the password ( it can also be blank ) and OK.

Windows 7 user polices :
In windows home and home premium you do not have the Local Users and Groups (Local) available.
You can try to open it by typing : lusrmgr.msc

To disable the password expiration type at a command promt (cmd) :
wmic useraccount set passwordexpires=false

will set the passwordexpire attribute to all accounts to false.

If you also have autologin activated you will not be able to log in with no user.
To prevent this loop keep pressed the SHIFT key while booting windows or change bios time or reset bios by removing battery so the user password is not expired anymore.

Install PHP in windows to run from cmd

Download the latest version of PHP for windows from here : http://windows.php.net/download/

Unzip and move folder to C: or where you want and then add the path to the system path.
Copy the php.ini-production into php.ini in the same folder.

Add php location to system path so you can run it from CMD.
Right click on My Computer and select Properties then follow instruction in the image below.

how to add php exe to system path

You need to install if you don't already have it  Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 otherwise you will receive the error :
The Program can't start because MSVCR110.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679

Run php to see that it works.

Windows diagnostics and utils

Total system uptime, windows instalation date :

WinAudit - http://winaudit.zymichost.com/index.html
or write in cmd systeminfo|find /i "install"
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Windows activation :  slui.exe
IF windows fail to activate check the system date to be current date, as the server verification will fail with an older date.
If all else fail you can use automated phone sistem : 0800 822 222 (Romania)
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Useful programs :

Nirsoft - password recovery - http://www.nirsoft.net/
Sysinternals - various windows diagnostics - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/sysinternals


Get Data Back FAT32 NTFS  4.32 - Recover deleted files  (you need paid version to recover)


Java download - http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp


CD Burner XP - https://cdburnerxp.se/
Magic iso maker - http://www.magiciso.com/download.htm

Daemon tools lite - http://www.disk-tools.com/download/daemon


Unlocker - ( Cannot delete file: Access is denied ) - http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/
Easeus Partition Master free ( partition manager ) - http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
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HDD diagnostics :

HDD - Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - WinDlg