Martin Crockett

Previously written about on March 25, 2005.

Prepping the install. Backing up.

Files to be backed up:

• My Documents ~ 18Gb (lot of Torrents living in there!)
• Other folder(s) ~ 5.2Gb (movies, et al.)

Must not forget about the cryptic place where Outlook hides the .pst files: C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst

Taking a pragmatic and highly organised (at least that’s the theory) about performing a reinstall - and being influenced by Lifehacker’s post .

Using nLite 1.0RC5 [Requires .NET Framework 2.0 to run], I create an ISO from my original Windows XP Pro SP1a CD-ROM (build 1106). This creates a 541.58Mb archive. I then “Integrate a Service Pack” and slipstream SP2 into that area.
This brings it up to 624.35Mb.

Next, Hotfixes and Update Packs. All 38(!) of ‘em. Luckily, the geniuses at MSFN have the lot HOTFIXES: Win2000 SP4 – WinXP SP1 – WinXP SP2 posted on their message board.
nLite gets a little upset with gdidettool.exe and (I think) WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe but behaves well after that.
Final archive has shrunk to 601Mb.

In Patches, apply the Unsigned Themes Support (Uxtheme Patch)
Apply nLite Unattended Setup.

Tested in VMWare Workstation 5.5 - works okay, except stalls on the Product Key. Turns out it needs a unique key. Oh well. :-O

Copy “My Documents” to 40Gb iRiver (temporarily enlisted as back HD for the evening).

Copy Outlook files.

Make a note of email and broadband router settings.

Copy C:/PHP-5.1.1 folder

Copy Apache httpd.conf settings file.

[I'll add some more when I write up my notes.]

Here’s a few useful resources for creating rounded corner elements using CSS.

Mountaintop Corners
Dan Cederholm (SimpleBits)
www.alistapart.com

Doug’s 4 Rounded Corners

• Uses background images, one for each corner

www.redmelon.net

Nifty Corners: rounded corners without images
Alessandro Fulciniti
pro.html.it

This is just one of those handy “notes to self” about what I was using at a certain stage in time.
• Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional
• Adobe Illustrator CS2
• Adobe Photoshop CS2 [not sure if the full Creative Suite package gets loaded]
• Apache 2.0.55?
• FileZilla [latest and greatest]
• Interent Business Promoter 8.1
• Macromedia Dreamweaver 8
• Macromedia Fireworks 8
• Macromedia Flash 8
• Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 & 2.0
• Microsoft Office 2003
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2005
• Mozilla Firefox 1.5
• MSN Messenger 7.x
• MWSnap
• MySQL Server 4.1.x
• Notepad2
• PHP 5.1.x
• PuTTY
• [Some kind of] SQL Server
• Trillian standalone [See elsewhere for details]
• TopStyle Pro
• Windows XP Service Pack 2 slipstream [telephone activated by a 12.40am call to Microsoft!]

The definitive guide: O’Reilly: What Is Web 2.0

Having test driven the Knoppix Linux LiveCD last week, I just spotted the SLAX based on the Slackware Linux which also boots from a USB memory key.

Looks best suited to older PC builds. I’ll still keep the Knoppix disk around for emergency situations. One to check back on.