Windows XP

Like many others, I've become somewhat dependent on virtualization to reduce the number of computers and windows installs I have in my home. I recently took another stab at using open source virtualization, and I've had some success with WebVirtMgr, a libvirt-based VM management solution for Linux. This made me want to migrate some XP guests from vmware player to KVM, and I'm happy to say that this is relatively simple today once you figure out the precise sequence of events.

Well, I made a nice fresh install of Windows XP with SP3 slipstreamed and got 0x8024402F running Windows Update. Long story short, the Automatic Updates service was not running. WTF? Run "services.msc" (or use computer management, etc etc) and check to see if this service is operative before running through your other options.

I was reading through a story on Slashdot that made reference to an old system.ini entry for Windows 9x that tells Windows to do its level best not to use the paging file, AKA swap space. This has no relevance to Windows NT; however, there are some similar registry settings that do work in NT.

One reference I located doing subsequent searches is Martin Krohn's Windows XP Tweaking Guide. This has numerous handy tweaks; I will boil the ones I intend to actually use down here, as this (or a subsequent blog post) will be a kind of worksheet explaining what I did and what did and didn't work.

I'm sure that the majority of us have read reviews of how the "protection" features in Windows Vista are, at least in beta, more arduous than actually being infected by malicious software, asking you for confirmation for practically everything, to the point where it brings to mind the old joke "Windows has detected a mouse movement, and must reboot." Well, I'm here to tell you that Vista isn't the only operating system trying to protect me from myself, nor is it the most overzealous protector in general - that award goes to Windows XP.