MicroXP 0.82 readme

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 MicroXP v0.82

 by eXPerience

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 Thank you for trying this special MicroXP edition of Windows XP.

 With a WINDOWS folder that is only 199Mb and a CD size of just 99.9Mb,
 this has to be one of the smallest Windows XP installations out there.

 Whats more - you can use 99% of the programs you always use and up to
 now there is not one single report of any game not working in MicroXP.

 This installation takes only 5 Minutes 30 seconds.

 This install includes default XP drivers for Ethernet/Sound/SCSI/RAID

 It has all languages kept, except Chinese/Japanese/Korean.

 It has all keyboard layout choices kept.

 It also has Service Pack 3 final slipstreamed into it.

 LAN Networking is now possible - Use 'Map Network Drive' and just put
 the computer name of the computer you want to network with.

 Digital Cameras and Scanners can also now be used.

 The ISO file size is the same as in the previous release - 99.9Mb

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 [Statistics]

 Installation time, in VMware, from
 ISO file, from end of formatting .......... 5 Mins 30 Secs

 RAM Usage On First Installation ........... 39 Mb
 Handles ................................... 2229
 Threads ................................... 157
 Processes ................................. 15

 Entire Install Size ....................... 205Mb

 Documents and settings folder size ........ 3.19 Mb
 Program Files folder size ................. 2.79 Mb
 WINDOWS folder size ....................... 199 Mb

 Files In System32 ......................... 815

 ISO File Size ............................. 99.9 Mb

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 [Services Remaining In Windows]

 Cryptographic Services
 DCOM Server Process Launcher
 DHCP Client
 Event Log
 Logical Disk Manager
 Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service
 Network Connections
 Plug and Play
 Print Spooler
 Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
 Remote Access Connection Manager
 Remote Procedure Call
 Server
 TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
 Telephony
 Windows Audio
 Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
 Windows Installer
 Wireless Zero Configuration
 Workstation

 All these services are enabled on installation,
 so you can start using Windows straight away.

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 [eXPerience Desktop Folder Contents]

 Desktop Icon Layout (Lets you save your desktop icon layout)
 Driver Install Tool (Easily install all your drivers, see ReadMe)
 Keyboard Settings (Quick access to Regional and Language options)
 Networking Guide (Shows how to get connected to your networked PC's)
 Registry Backup (Make a complete backup of the registry in one click)
 Services Config (Files to enable and disable functionality)
 ShrinkXP Scripts (to remove any items you do not want or need)
 Web Browser (Browzar, to download a full browser of YOUR choice)
 Windows Media Player 11 (This is just a readme file about WMP11)

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 [WHAT YOU CANNOT DO]

 This is a greatly reduced installation of Windows XP Professional SP3

 Please read these notes BEFORE using this edition of Windows:

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- SINGLE USER ONLY

 You cannot add any additional users. Do not try to add more users,
 otherwise your main account that is used by default (Administrator)
 will become the new account and after logging in, you will not have
 any desktop theme (not even Classic) and the whole account will be
 ruined. You'll probably have to install Windows again because if
 you make a new account it replaces Administrator and tries to
 log you in with Default User - the problem with this is - there
 is no Default User anymore.

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- NO NATIVE SUPPORT FOR FTP SITES

 There is no built in support for downloading from FTP sites,
 try using Filezilla or WS_FTP if you need to do that. Even just
 Opera or Firefox can probably do it. This functionality is gone
 because the Application Layer Gateway service is gone, along
 with ALG.EXE that normally runs in Task Manager, taking up about
 6Mb RAM for what amounts to no reason.

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- NO VISITING WINDOWS UPDATE

 You cannot visit Windows Update with this version of Windows
 because Internet Explorer is removed. You can manually download
 updates from Microsoft and you can also use the alternative
 Windiz Update website through Opera or Firefox. Because so
 much has been removed from this edition of Windows, you are not
 likely to be any more safe installing updates for Windows.
 NOTE: Because this edition of Windows uses a patched
 winlogon.exe in order to remove the oembios.bin file,
 you really should not update Windows anyway, in case
 winlogon.exe gets replaced by an update. There are more
 details about this in the eXPerience folder on the desktop
 once MicroXP is installed.

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- NO FAST USER SWITCHING

 Apart from you only being able to have the one account anyway
 (Administrator) the ability to do Fast User Switching is also
 removed.

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- NO PASSWORD STORAGE/AUTOCOMPLETE

 Windows will not save stored passwords, however, this only really
 applied to Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, which are removed.
 You will be fine using Firefox or Opera web browsers and Thunderbird
 email client for emails. Those are self contained programs and take
 care of storing your passwords by themselves.

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- NO CD-ROM AUTOPLAY

 When you insert a CD that would bring up a screen to install the
 program contained on the CD, this does not happen in this version
 of Windows, you will have to explore the CD manually and run
 whatever file it is that runs the program's setup, usually
 setup.exe on the root of the CD. If the CD has a file called
 AUTORUN.INF then open that file and look at which .exe file
 is listed in AUTORUN.INF

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- NO SMART CARD DETECTION

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- NO SCHEDULED TASKS

 You cannot set programs, like AntiVirus or Hard Disk Defrag programs
 to run in the future IF they need the Scheduled Tasks service in
 Windows. If you are going to run those types of programs you will
 have to manually scan or defrag whenever it is convenient. Despite
 this, one program that will schedule its operations is Perfectdisk
 defrag, you do not need Task Scheduler for this program to run a
 scheduled defrag.

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- NO REMOTE DESKTOP

 There is no Remote Desktop in this version of Windows
 because the Terminal Services service is removed.

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- NO THEMES

 You cannot have the Luna (Blue/Olive/Silver) desktop theme in this
 version of Windows, the only theme you can choose is Windows
 Classic which it is already set to by default. You can however
 install Windowblinds if you want to and it will work fine,
 Windowblinds does not rely on the Themes service. You could even
 make MicroXP look like Vista with the Ironjer AeroGlass The
 Remix V4. Use v4 not v5 of that if you use it.

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- NO UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLY SERVICE

 I always thought UPS Service delivered parcels but apparently not,
 if you have this type of device then it will not work on this version
 of Windows. A UPS is only used for emergencies like if you have
 a power cut - thats if you even have such a device.

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 [WHAT YOU CAN DO]

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- PROGRAMS -

 You can still install and run just about all the programs and games
 that you can run on a normal installation of XP. There is a text file
 in the eXPerience folder on the desktop that has a list of programs
 that work and includes some that don't work (not many). Even Office
 2007 installs on this version of Windows

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- GAMES -

 Up to now, there has not been one single report of any game not
 working on MicroXP. Gaming is what this edition of Windows is all
 about, it gives better benchmarks than any other version of
 Windows I have ever tested.

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- LAN NETWORKING -

 At last - MicroXP now has the ability to browse your local network.
 All you need to know is the computer name of the computer you want
 to connect to and thats about it, just right click My Computer and
 choose Map Network Drive. All computers can see each other even
 if every computer in the network is running this MicroXP.

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- CAMERAS AND SCANNERS

 Now in MicroXP it is possible to use a digital camera (USB only,
 no Firewire) or a scanner. Tested and working with a Fuji FinePix
 6MP camera. The Photo Printing Wizard is not included, neither
 is the wizard to download photos from the internet, but the rest
 of the functionality for cameras and scanners is as complete as
 in full Windows. My favourite saying: whats missing, you're not
 gonna miss! Print photos with Photoshop or maybe even Irfanview.
 Ctrl+P to print works in every single program that supports it,
 so its not like we ever needed the photo printing wizard, which
 only ever made all images I fed through it A4, even small images,
 so it actually did not even work, unless I skipped a button but
 there really are no buttons to skip in that wizard, its useless.

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- DIAL-UP CONNECTION -

 You can still use a Dial-Up connection (Broadband or old 56k modem).
 This is the one major flaw in other stripped out operating systems,
 a lot of UK users still use a modem with broadband... in this
 edition, RAS Dial-Up/PPPoE/DSL/ADSL connectivity is OK as well
 as old 56k modems. Yes, try this install on a Pentium II or even
 an old 486 might run it! They had 75Mhz processors and 8Mb RAM
 with 4Mb graphics cards.

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- WEB BROWSER -

 This installation already includes a basic web browser called
 Browzar that uses a few core files left from Internet
 Explorer. No, Internet Explorer is not included, but select
 files included in this installation that come from Internet
 Explorer are vital to running Windows. Its also Internet Explorer
 related files that allow you to open CHM files, which you can do
 in this edition of Windows. This Browzar web browser is only here
 so you can at least get online and download Firefox, Opera, Netscape
 or whatever browser you want. This not only saves space on this CD,
 but you get to choose what web browser you want to use and you get
 the latest version not an old and possibly insecure version. Flash
 v9.0.124.0 for Firefox and Opera is included, so Google Video and
 YouTube work straight away in whichever browser you install.

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- PASSES WGA CHECKS

 If you go to download for example, Windows Media Player 11 from
 Microsoft's downloads section, you will need to validate windows
 by running the GenuineCheck.exe file that Microsoft asks you to
 download as part of the Windows Genuine Advantage checks. Its
 fine to do this, don't be scared of your key being blacklisted.

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- WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 11

 You can install Windows Media Player 11 in this edition of Windows.
 NOTE: Because the file WMPLOC.DLL is not in system32, Windows Media
 Player 11 will say that it could not complete setup or words to
 that effect. IGNORE THIS ERROR! Windows Media Player 11 is fully
 working after you install it and get that error, Windows Media
 Video type formats stream in Opera and Firefox still - so you can
 ignore that installation error. Just make sure if you install
 Windows Media Player 11 to have the Cryptographic Services
 service enabled. Windows Media Player 11 needs that service started
 to install. After installing Windows Media Player 11 you can then
 disable Cryptographic Services if you wish, like a lot of stuff
 in Windows, it doesn't really do anything important.

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- WMV STREAMS -

 Once you have installed Opera, Firefox, Netscape or the browser
 of your choice, as long as you install Windows Media Player 11,
 you can stream Windows Media Videos from websites like the BBC's
 News website, or anywhere that has WMV streams. This is possible
 because there are three DLL files added to the Windows Media
 Player folder in Program Files. Don't worry, theres no Windows
 Media Player there, it only contains the vital DLL files for
 streaming compatibility in Firefox and Opera if you install
 Windows Media Player 11. Note that you do need to install Windows
 Media Player 11 to view .WMV movies in web pages.

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- FLASH -

 If you install Opera or Firefox web browser(s) in this special
 MicroXP edition of Windows, you can go visit YouTube or Google
 Video without even having to install Flash Player. You can just
 watch the videos right away.

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 Don't forget to join SnipeR's Redemption Network:

 http://www.retestrak.nl/Board/ [DEAD]

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 Enjoy this fine release from eXPerience

 Release Date: June 22nd 2008

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