Building an eeePC 900 to my specifications...
The nephew is heading off to the wide wild blue yonder - if you call England as wild, or even blue, but it is over yonder. So here we are building a computer specifically for his time in exile in the home country.
The specs:
- Asus eeePC 900 with 30Gb hard disk
Western Digital 160Gb external hard disk
Various tools, applications and know-how - as described below
One obliging Uncle doing the hard yards
Another obliging Uncle providing localised support (although he doesn't know it yet!)
Programs required:
Office suite software to allow editing documents, speadsheets and presentation files, etc.
Instant messaging
Internet telephony to allow calls be made over the internet
Photo album
Web browser
Step 1 - Initial XP installation
Install Windows XP from the provided Asus support DVD.
A couple of cups of coffee later we have a licensed version of Windows XP Home installed on the ePC. Now to make it better.
Some little things.:
Do not allow automated updates from Microsoft at this stage.
Don't bother regeristing with Microsoft - there is no reason to and you get nothing for giving up all your personal details
Right click on the Taskbar.
Deselect Hide inactive icons
Start menu tab
Choose Start Menu
Customise
Small icons
Choose Advanced tab
Delselect Highlight newly installed programs
In the Start menu items sub-window
Control Panel - Display as a menu
Deselect Set Program Access and Defaults
OK - OK
Right click on the Desktop.
Choose Desktop tab
Click Customize Desktop (sic) button
In the Desktop icons sub-window, select My Documents, My Computer
In the Desktop cleanup sub-window, deselect Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard
OK - OK
Control Panel - System - Advanced tab - Performance
Visual Effects tab - Adjust for best performance
He knows who he is — and so does the Windows XP system on the eeePC. But as the nephew will be the only person using the computer, it's easy to remove his name from the Start menu.
Caution: Editing the registry the wrong way can cause serious consequences. Make sure you back up the registry before editing. Click somewhere to learn to Backup the Windows registry.
Below are the steps to remove the name from the start menu.
1. Click Start >> Run
2. Type Regedit and press Enter to open the Registry editor.
3. Now, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
4. On the right pane of the Registry editor, right-click a blank space and select New >> Dword Value. Set the name to NoUserNameInStartMenu
Click Ok.
5. Right-click the newly created Dword and select Modify. Change the value from 0 to 1 and click Ok.
From now, the name will not be displayed in the Windows XP start menu.
To revert the changes, you can always delete the key mentioned in the steps above or change the value to zero.
Another more wimpy method is to change the Windows XP Start menu to classic style.
Step 2 - Remove extra & uneccessary programs and programs installed in wacky places
Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs
Remove:
- Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system
Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition
Microsoft Works
Adobe Reader
InterVideo DVD player
Sun StarOffice
Skype
Run the Adobe Flash remover program
Delete the StarOffice 8 folder from the Desktop
Drive C: Total size 19.9Gb Free Space 17.9Gb
Drive D: Total size 7 Free Space 7
My Computer - Manage
Storage - Disk Management
Right click on D: drive; delete partition.
Because we now use disks of gigabyte sizes, there is no need to compress old files.
so let's remove this option from Disk CleanUP
Remove Compress Old Files setting
Start - Run - regedt32
Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches
Highlight the Compress old files key
Right Click - Delete - confirm Yes
Disk Cleanup
More Options tab - System Restore section
Click Clean up button - confirm Yes
Click OK
Update to the latest version of Microsoft Update
Start - Windows Update
Install ActiveX Control from Microsoft
Agree to install Microsoft Windows Component Publisher
Update Windows to work with "this webiste" - click Update Windows button
When you get to the Welcome to Microsoft Update webpage, exit Internet Explorer
Install Microsoft updates:
Check what we need. Goto http://www.secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online
Click Start Scanner button
Deselect Always trust content from this publisher - Run
Check Status then click Start button
Oh, by the way, you are connected to the internet through a firewall aren't you??
Don't subscribe to newsletter
And while we are fooling around with Internet Explorer
Right click on the Toolbar.
Deselect Links
Deselect Windows Live Toolbar
On the toolbar, click on the pull-down for Skype and choose remove. Agree to remove.
Using Windows Update, sadly we had to allow the following to be downloaded and installed
Update for Windows XP (KB898461)
( Later on I found that I could download Update for Windows XP (KB898461) and install just it! Fwue! )
( Now I've got that crappy, intrusive, unecessary Tool of a Microsoft Tool installed - NEVER AGAIN! )
OK so now Secunia PSI online works and tells us that we are missing
And what's missing is....
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
KB923789 MS06-069: Vulnerabilities in Macromedia Flash Player from Adobe could allow remote code execution
KB950762 MS08-036: Vulnerabilities in Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) could allow denial of service
KB951376 MS08-030: Vulnerability in Bluetooth stack could allow remote code execution
KB952954 MS08-046: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows Image Color Management could allow remote code execution
KB950974 MS08-049: Vulnerability in Event System could allow remote code execution
KB938464 MS08-052: Security update for GDI+
KB954211 MS08-061: Vulnerabilities in Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege
KB956803 MS08-066: Vulnerability in the Microsoft Ancillary Function driver could allow elevation of privilege
KB956841 MS08-064: Vulnerability in Virtual Address Descriptor manipulation could allow elevation of privilege
KB957095 MS08-063: Vulnerability in SMB could allow remote code execution
KB958644 MS08-067: Vulnerability in Server service could allow remote code execution
KB957097 MS08-068: Vulnerability in SMB could allow remote code execution
KB955069 MS08-069: Description of the security update for XML Core Services 3.0
KB954459 MS08-069: Description of the security update for XML Core Services 6.0
KB956802 MS08-071: Vulnerabilities in GDI could allow remote code execution
For each of the above we use:
Ignoring KB923789
And I didn't do the following...
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x
KB951066 MS08-048: Security update for Outlook Express and Windows Mail
(KB938464 MS08-052: Description of the security update for GDI+ - done in XP updates above)
KB958215 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 7
...because the XP patches seemed to cover the IE ones when I rescanned using Secunia PSI
Update programs
Start - Control Panel - Java
Select Update tab
Click on Update Now
When the Java Update window pops up, click on Install button
Follow the prompts, indicate your acceptance of the terms (not that you get much choice to object to them other than cutting your nose off to spite your face!)
Remove the old Java installation
Start - Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs
Find the latest version of Java. Remove all other versions.
Remove Macromedia Flash 6.0.88.0
Install programs:
From the Asus eeePC 900 DVD install
StarOffice 8
WinDVD
ASUS utilities
Firefox 3.0.5
Tools - Add-ons
In the Search All Add-ons text box type Compact
Select & install iFox Smooth
and there are other extensions that I have not installed for fear of confusing the boy
Remove that pesky IE icon from the Desktop
All is needed is to change (or add) the following registry value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer] "NoInternetIcon"=dword:00000001
Thunderbird 2.0.0.18
Download and install Australian dictionary
Tools - Add-ons - Install
Skype 3.8
Remove the Skype add-on
Start Firefox
Tools - Add-ons - Extensions
Highlight the Skype extension and click Disable then Uninstall
VLC 0.9.8a
Full installation, delselect Desktop Shortcut
Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX
Adobe Flash Player 10 Plugin
Adobe Reader 8.1.3
Delete icon from Desktop
Picasa 3
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
Maybe this should have been first, but you know how it goes...
Install, activate
And now for the fluff
Trim the Bloat from iTunes 8 on WindowsBy Adam Pash, 9:00 AM on Fri Oct 3 2008, 23,873 views
Tech site ZDNet walks through how to trim the bloat from a fresh install of iTunes on a Windows PC.
The Windows version of iTunes 8 is a 64MB download. (For the sake of comparison, Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP is just over 24 MB.) The full iTunes 8 installation takes up nearly 200MB of space on a Windows PC. As it turns out, the iTunes installer has been bulking up for the past year or two. Don’t be fooled by the filename: iTunes8Setup.exe includes much more than the iTunes client.
The author explains that the iTunes 8 setup installs several drivers, system services, and at least one add-on that are completely unnecessary to the operation of iTunes on your computer. As a workaround, the article details how to extract individual installers from the iTunes setup client so you can install only what you need and want on your computer. iTunes may still take up more than its share of system resources compared to other popular media player alternatives, but at least you'll have more control over what programs it installs to your hard drive.
