BYTE-ME

Yes, I just found that out by looking at this threat http://www.wincert.n...-to-a-reg-file/ but applying tweaks to the current OS doesn't help resolve my deployment issue to other PCs. Thanks. Also, for anyone interested in Windows 7 tweaks, I found a pretty good annotate one here.

Are the tweaks in the Toolkit available seperately as a downloadable registry or text file somewhere? Since I use several PCs I'd like to apply them manually after the install to account for variations of users.

Thanks

If this is the wrong forum, please let me know. When Solor updates are added via clean install or existing installation are they recognized as installed by MS update? in other words, even though I don't see Solor updates in the update log. Will MS updates know they are there and won't re-download and install them?

When choosing the All-in-one tool to update the Windows 7 install DVD, does the software only update the 64-bit versions of these OSs when you only have 64-bit drivers, updates and software or do I need to have both x86 drivers, updates and software to update all OS versions?

This may seem like a dumb question. But given the size of the WAIK downloads, other needed software, as well as the amount of time invested to make and configure a image, how how is this method any better than using Image for Windows, or any similar disk imaging utility and deploying that for a clean install?

Developers can do this why can't end users. There are endless queries on the Internet about how to set the default email client to something other than Outlook or Windows Live. Got me to thinking there must be some app or instruction on how to manually place an entry in the Windows 7 Set Default Programs utility, since software developers can do it for apps like Skype, WinRar, PotPlayer, etc. If anybody has run across such a tool, let the community here know. Tried this http://defaultprogramseditor.com/ one; it doesn't make brand new entries to the default programs list; so the search continues....

I tried all the tweaks and couldn't detect any significant performance improvements, I just tried to free up capacity on the SSD, like the article suggested. Fiddling with the page file (either making it a fixed size or moving it to another partition off the SSD) sometimes creates performance issues for some reason, at least on my PC. The only other speed tip I routinely use is that I setup a RAM drive to put temp files and internet cache files on, but again, some programs expecting to see a temp folder on the C:\Windows drive choke. But I've found if a developer isn't flexible enough to use a user-selectable temp file then the program usually has other issues concerning customize-ability or performance. Hope that helps.

Is there anyway to automatically populate and/or remove icons from the windows 7 task bar during or after a clean install? Also, what's the best way to add/save hotfixes for a subsequent install after installing SP1?

See here

I have been meaning to report that it turns out my problem was a bad SATA cable, not Windows itself or some virus. But in trying out a bunch of partition and hard drive wiping tools, I have found Easus Partitioner to be among the best partition managers for regular hard drives. As for SSDs, I find these instructions wonderful for renewing solid state drives: SSD Secure Erase

Thanks for the suggestions. Killdisk works for sure but it takes a whole day to wipe a 300GB hard drive. As I said before, any quick wiping resource, software that simply deletes a partition table and/or boot record, doesn't seem to do an adequate job against Windows 7. Evidently others aren't having the same issue I'm having. I'll consider this thread closed.

Thanks. Most of those seem to be Windows tools. I need something that works in a DOS or Linux environment, MBRwork, from terrabyte unlimited, also seems to work on clearing drives after reformatting, it's just a pain to have to use that in addition to a partition utility.

In the good old days of Windows up to XP, you could delete the windows partition and reformat and be back in business with no adverse affect on your hard drive or the performance of your OS. But I've gone through more than a half dozen partition programs and disk wiping programs in an effort to cleanly upgrade from the evaluation version of Windows 7 to an OEM version, and each time, Windows 7 resists being fully erased from the drive. Microsoft seems to be implementing some boot encryption or or hardware bios routine that leaves traces of the OS even after Windows 7 files and partition are gone. Since I can't find much about this issue on the Net it may be that my particular software configuration, particularly the firewall that I use, Agnitum Outpost. But I had this issue with a variety of hard drive and motherboards. The only common factor I see is Windows 7 and the firewall, Outpost professional and/or Comodo and that the Win7 is installed in a dual boot config with WinXP in a separate partition. I've tried wiping both the partitions and the entire hard drive and get the results described above. I noticed the effects when I install Windows 7 on a clean hard drive compared to one one that had Windows 7 previously installed but erased. In the latter case, I'll sometimes see a message "checking registry" during the initial re-install of Windows 7 after the previous version was erased and/or get error messages after the OS has supposedly been cleanly install. This is not a boot virus issue. My PCs are clean. This problem is cropping up on at least a dozen computers I manage at home and at work. Like I said, with Windows 7, you seem to get one opportunity to get an install right on a virgin hard drive, and then the OS seems to try to preserve some remnants of itself no matter what you do to reformat or wipe the disk. The only tool I've found that actually gives me a clean hard drive for a re-install is the HDDerase.exe, driving wiping utility. But it doesn't work consistently. I was wondering if any other members had any ideas or recommendations or had experienced this problem at all.