Thomas

It's not a problem if SP1 is already on the CD.

I am going to politely suggest that everyone be chill. Radigital, Jasper isn't the one who told you to read the manual, he was simply pointing out why someone might say that. On the other hand I have seen some truely bad manuals and man pages. Guys cut some slack before going to the RTFM.

Are the existing partitions formated? Has one been set as primary?

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1703 It's how to do an unattended install. This is how the network admins do it without buying four hundred copies of ghost. And it's how Dell puts together thier recovery CDs. There is a text file that generates where the drivers are, what time zone, what optional windows addons are installed (want IIS but not Solitare? Very doable.), what programs are installed after Windows is installed, optional Registry tweaks, etc. All of what takes Rory six hours can be done in an hour from the CD. There is more upfront time needed then ghost but you get a cleaner, more stable result.

Sorry, they don't ID the board but they do ID the chipset. Intel E7520 http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/embedded/e7520.htm [/url]

To make it prompt for a key, just leave that value blank in the .ini file.

What Windows is getting this from is the HAL (Hardware abstraction Layer). The HAL takes care of handling the differances between hardware types. (Or why Windows Apps on both X86 and Itanium machines without a recompile. In theory it lets you port Windows to various processors. In reality....not so much.) The HAL can be reset but it falls under the "bloody PITA" type of work. This is why I think doing a slipstreamed install is going to be less painful in the long run. You can put service packs and patches that have an .EXE on them. But I would just skip patches and do the service packs. Then download the patches. The slipstreamed CD's will be faster then a full Windows install by about twenty mins or so. The plus side is you can do a slipstreamed CD for each machine so the drivers are done at the time of Windows install. For those that want to know what makes up the hardware hash: The following 10 hardware characteristics are used to determine the hardware hash: • Display adapter • SCSI adapter • IDE adapter • Network adapter media access control address • RAM amount range (for example, 0-64MB or 64-128MB) • Processor type • Processor serial number • Hard disk device • Hard disk volume serial number • CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=302878#5e

There are some Via based chipsets for Intel based boards but they are pretty rare. And Dell doesn't make it easy to find that info but it is there. http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/1800_specs.pdf Generally they are on the Spec sheets.

The OEM copies (From major OEMs, not the OEM copies you can by from Newegg) and Corp copies do not require activation. Normally it's just a matter of clicking on activate. If the Key has been used in the past you usually have to call. It's a bloody pain in the rear for test machines. You get 30 days to activate it. Kind of a fun story. So the day the Slammer worm hit my net connection went down. (SBC's network was hammered) so I decide to finish building the machine I had been working on. I get to the activate Windows step and I give them a call to activate it. They couldn't do it for me. Apparently MS was hit with the slammer worm internally in the activation centers. From talking to some friends in Redmond it took down the majority of all of thier network.

Dell and HP usually post what the motherboard is if you dig through the specs. Dell tends to be Intel boards.

It's actully more complicated then just the MAC address (which is pretty easy to spoof.) you're also looking at the CPU ID which is harder to spoof.

I would still go with a slipstreamed copy of Windows. It will be a little more upfront headache but less headache on the backend. Plus you can have it prompt you for the activation code and then you don't have to worry about trying to get it or messing with Windows Support to get a key.

You ask a dangerous question: As a beginer, how would you rate your computer knowage? Are you comfortable with both hardware and software? Do you intend to learn Linux? Do you have lots of free time? Knopix if you aren't comfortable or really don't have time. Gentroo if you want to poke under the hood. Slackware is for special kinds of maschoists. Mandrake is good for beginers who have some time but want handholding.

Um, are you sure that is the right KB article?

Yep, one the CERN super computers is cooled with fuel grade Diessel.

It depends on resolution. At low res (320 x 240) there is enough bandwith.

The major issues with Cold and PC's is potential fatuige on some parts and frost. Keep it in a zero moisture area if possible.

Probley not. One of the guys I work with do did POS for a long time and the Royal stuff doesn't have any kind of accessable output.

It does but it's just a program to automate slipstreaming a XP install disk. It's not super hard to make one yourself for free.

Does it have a printer port?

It's a prettier verison of XP. The MS OSX comment is that they take a few more cues from Apple about the UI. The WinFS system isn't ready and will be an "add-on" after Vista is released. As far as Apples go, my wife has a Powerbook and it's pretty nice. The UI is snappy and responsive. It's pretty easy to learn and it has some Unix stuff under the hood for power users.

MS OSX 10.3

And I read your why. Honestly I think a decent firewall solves all of what you are looking for without all of this headache.

Is the TV port expecting a modulated signal? (i.e. Cable channels) or unmodulated (i.e. video out on a camcorder/vcr)?

We are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Perhaps lets go back to square one. What are you trying to acomplish/prevent from happening and why?