Hey Sysprep.exe, Factory Reseal This!

I use Samba running on Debian for my Domain Controller at work with Windows 2000 & XP Professional desktop clients. I find it's helpful to buy identical desktop workstations in batches from my local vendor PC Club, 5 or more at a time, and automate their configuration.

If you've ever tried to update a master image(Ghost, Acronis Trueimage, etc.) in order to deploy multiple Windows XP Pro systems, you may have run into this special error message:

"Your grace period limit has been reached and will not be reset"

[quote source="www.mcse.ms thread"]
In Windows XP Professional, Sysprep can reset Windows Product Activation a maximum of three times.

This causes a problem when deploying the image on other pc's as the image is redundant after 30 days of it being created.

e.g. create image on 1st sept - can deploy on other pc's in sept but when deploy the image on a pc in Oct it has expired and wont let me log on.
[/quote]

There is a solution buried in Microsoft KB308554:

(all actions tested on Windows XP Pro SP2 with an OEM Product Key - a big thanks to Amit in MS Tech Support!)
1. Update your master system with applications and patches.
2. Run 'sysprep -factory' & reboot.
3. Activate windows.
4. Run 'sysprep -reseal -activated'. No error message about the grace period appears this time!
5. Use the prepped system's drive as your fresh master image for deployment.

Sharing HD Videos with Non-Geeks

As many geeks have discovered, commercial-free television via bittorrent downloads lets you watch only what you want to watch, when you want to watch it. An hour long TV program is usually only 40-42 minutes in length without those pesky commercials. PVR software such as MythTV combined with an HDTV tuner & capture card allows better than DVD (MPEG 2) quality playback, if you have a computer set up for playback, or burn to media for playback on an MPEG-4 compatible DVD player such as the Philips DVP642. Now there's another option I like even better.

Vantec just introduced a new product that will facilitate sharing your archive of video files with non-geeks, the Avox Jukebox. It comes with a remote control and all the cables you'll need to lend it to a non-geek friend for playback on their low-end TV or plush home theater HDTV setup.

You'll need a spare 2.5" laptop hard drive and $100 to spend.

Supported Formats:
Movie: MPEG 1, 2, 4 (MPG, MPEG, AVI, M2V, DAT, VOB, IFO etc.) DivX, XviD (except GMC, Qpel option applied)
Music: MP3, OGG Vorbis, WAV, WMA (except WMA9 pro.lossless)
Photo: JPG(JPEG)
Available OS: Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS 9 or Higher, Linux 2.4 or Higher

Output:
Video: COMPOSITE _or_ COMPONENT Y, Pb, Pr (480p, 720p, 1080i Progressive Scan)
Audio: STEREO L-R _or_ DIGITAL COAXIAL (DTS Pass-Through Only)

36 Cisco 79xx Ringtones

Dump all the files from cisco-ringtones.tgz into your tftproot, reboot your Cisco 79xx phone & you should be good to go.

Note: The cisco-ringtones.tgz archive creates a cisco-rings folder for convenience only - the files should be copied into your the root dir of your tftp server without the containing folder. I tested on a Cisco 7940.

34 of these ringtones were already available, I just added the 2 CTU ringtones from the TV show "24" and created a RingList.xml file.