Preserved Topic: Can you believe this? Man I am switching to Linux!

Check this out,
(Although I don't know if I'd try it out the board on my box blew soon after someone tried this on my box, and renamed the file that does this. I'm told it's fixed with service pack 1, but I think Micro$oft fixed it that way) http://www.matthoppes.org/detect/winxp.html

windows XP is unbelieveable!

Boy does this piss me off!





Maskkkk

- Face the Present

you can get a fix for that from http://grc.com

It seems like this file "uplddrvinfo.html" has something to do with the "online support/help" functionality in xp, I did try the test at matthopes and it kicked open the help- and supportcenter function on my box (which I have disabled) It told me that "The programs needed for the new hardware cannot be found" and suggested that I should register my hw-profile at microsoft (yeah, sure and fries with that please...). I've searched my machine for the file and it doesn't exist.
/Dan

{cell 260}
-{ a vibration is a movement that doesn't know which way to go }-

Ok... now I'm pissed too... the info on matthopes is not compleate, so I thought I made it through the test... No such luck!
More detailed info can be found here: http://24.78.2.184/helpcenter.htm
And from MS itself: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/Technet/security/topics/HCP1.asp

More, the file that does this is called "uplddrvinfo.htm" not ".html" that's why I didn't find it...

I'm running the update patches regularly and havn't seen anything about this... Just saw the one of the latest patch though... It seems like a website or html-email can remove certificates from your computer... Nice...
(Downloading SP1 now...)
/Dan

{cell 260}
-{ a vibration is a movement that doesn't know which way to go }-

I was talking to a friend recently, who works on an ISP's tech helpdesk.
He recieved a call from a confused customer, hoping they could help...

Synopsis:
In their infinite wisdom, M$ have decided to add a special treat to the latest 'Critical Update'.
It checks your serial number against their database, and if you have a serial which is already 'registered' (i.e. has been recorded by the site) then it dissables your copy of XP.

Not a great problem, except the customer in question had JUST bought XP, installed his ISP software, gone online to update from the M$ site, and found his OS crippled.

M$ have refused to release his system, so he's left holding a 4 day old box, with a valid certificate, but no OS!!!

They SUCK!



Reality is that which refuses to go away when I stop believing in it.
Cell number: 698

Further:

To circumvent the issue at hand, do the following:

Go to: -> Control panel -> Administative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local User & Groups -> Users
Dissable the following accounts: HelpAssistant & SUPPORT_xxxxxxxx (where x=seemingly random numbers)

Then:
Go to: -> Control panel -> Administative Tools -> Services
Dissable Help and Support

Also, if you're running iis, dissable the Guest account, to prevent back-dooring.

Out of the probably 30 times I have installed XP I have come across 2 keys that were already in use. Both times Microsoft was very willing to work with me and I had a new working key just a couple of minutes after getting through to a service rep. If your friend has a legit copy of XP he should have no problem doing the same. Buy he may also want to try this, boot up the computer and tap f8 to bring up the boot menu and select last known good configuration then download and run deactivate.reg ( http://data.gc.peachnet.edu/stu_home/RBAL9802/deactivate.reg ) and have him type in the key from his sticker and reboot.

Well MS has always been notorious for pumping out their OS's and then having you install 20 different "service packs" to fix the problems.
Oh, well.

If you *are* going to check out Linux Maskkkk then may I suggest Mandrake. It is really nice and 9.0 is I beleive still in beta but will be out soon.

I was running it on a seperate HD until that Hard Drive decided to take a shit on itself the other day. Now I just have XP.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

Thanks dmstiner - I'll ask him to pass it onto the customer.

I love this place

<edit>
As for M$ being helpful - they won't budge on this one, at least, they wouldn't last I heard.
</edit>

[This message has been edited by Dufty (edited 09-19-2002).]

I'm gonna put FreeBSD on this box and I dunno what desktop enviroment to go with.

...any suggestions?



Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
ICQ: 67751342

I haven't tried it yet, but Gnome 2 should be really great. But the difference between Gnome and KDE isn't much in my opinion.

Mask: RedHat is another 'easy' to start with Linux distro...

_________________________
Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.
- copied from the wall of cell 408 -

Have you tried Enlightenment .17?

Instead of FreeBSD I would suggest Gentoo. It's Linux not BSD but it's kind of fun. And LFS is kind of fun to play with.

-Jestah
Cell 277

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

Yup. Yellow Dog is based off Red Hat and then there's Darwin I suggest these two.

-Jestah
Cell 277

Sorry to get back on topic, but i'm guessing this only works if you click that link with M$ IE ??

Cause ain't nothin happening in Mozilla.
Also I've disabled full raw sockets if that has anything to do with it.

But anyway... YET another reason not to use IE as a primary browser.
Thank you and good night.

Dufty I left out a couple of steps in my haste this morning, after running the reg file he should do the following

1. Choose run from start menu and type in this command: %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a to get the activation screen and go to the second option which is activate by phone.

2. In the new screen choose the option to change product key, and type in the new product key



[This message has been edited by dmstiner (edited 09-20-2002).]

damn... this a hell of a read, but really good...
http://grc.com/dos/winxp.htm


Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
ICQ: 67751342