This guide provides an easy and relatively quick way to PXE boot windows which means you can install Windows over the network with PXE without the need for a CD drive. While the previous guide allows you to slip stream updates and add extra programs it took a LONG LONG time to do, especially with all the downloads it needed to do, this one just installs a vanilla XP, nice and simple, and a lot quicker
Step 1: Getting started.
What you’ll need:

Once you’ve collected all of the above, lets begin;

You may have read in a previous post how i installed Ubuntu on my sisters laptop with PXE, well this worked great, but i couldnt for the life of me get WPA to work on the wireless card, so after about a week of trying i decided to try and PXE boot windows as the laptop had no floppy drive, no CD drive and couldnt boot from USB, what follows is the result of the trials and tribulations of that experience…. enjoy. If you want a quicker, simpler installation with a vanilla XP check this Easy way to PXE Boot Windows guide.

Downloads

Step 1: Getting started.
What you’ll need:

Once you’ve collected all of the above, do the below:

Downloading necessary sources using the DVD Generator.

The purpose of this article is to explain, step by step, how to install Ubuntu (Ubuntu is my distro of choice, but the steps should work equally well for other distros) using a Windows 2000/XP client.
Introduction
PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) is not something new, but not often used by home users, as installing an operating system by CD/DVD or USB storage is generally easier, if however you have none of those, your only real option is to network boot (Assuming you have a network port and access to the internet).
The Problem
I bought my sister a cheap laptop from ebay for her birthday, shes not a power user so i picked up a Dell L400 for £100, its only got a 700MHz processor in it and 256MB of RAM, but for general web browsing it will suit her, however, its a sub notebook, and so doesnt come with a cd drive, nor can it boot from a usb cd drive (took me about half an hour to find that out), so in the end my only real option was to netboot it.
Step 1: Prerequisites

That’s all we need to boot our Ubuntu installer over the network. Let’s setup the TFTP server.
Step 2: Setting up a TFTP Server.

Now we need to copy the Ubuntu netboot installer over to our tftp root directory:

Step 3: Booting Ubuntu
To boot from tftp you may need to activate booting from the network interface in the BIOS. This may be done in the boot sequence settings or directly in the onboard ethernet device settings. After that, restart, lean back and watch the activities in the log viewer tab of the tftpd.
Note: Ubuntu will let you choose a mirror and download all the files you need. The whole procedure will work with any other debian flavour almost identically. There is a nice how to on doing a PXE install via Linux instead of windows at the CCC Wiki.

Note: this is a slightly modified version of the post from Retro at http://hugi.to/blog/archive/2006/12/23/ubuntu-pxe-install-via-windows

If you run a high-traffic Web site or any other service with high demands on Windows servers, the Network Load Balancing support may be just what the doctor ordered for you. Under Windows Server 2003, you can bind up to 32 servers together in a cluster to even the load on the boxes and keep your service running at a reasonable speed. First off I’ll assume you have more than one server to bind to the NLB cluster, each with their own static IP address, and administrative access to the servers.

The following situations will make the job much easier for you:

* You have physical access to the servers. If you mess up the network connection may cease to function.

* The servers are behind a NAT. You’ll have better control over the actual network configuration in case you need to change it.

Before you start working on the servers:
It’s best to go ahead and set aside a unique, unused IP address for the new cluster and even map a DNS name to that IP. Your job will go a lot smoother.

On Server #1:
Open the properties sheet of the network connection you wish to bind to the cluster. On this sheet you’ll find the services and protocols enabled on this connection, such as TCP/IP. In this list you should find Network Load Balancing unchecked. To set up the cluster you must check the box beside Network Load Balancing and click the Properties button.

On this dialog you will enter the IP address, subnet mask and DNS name of the cluster. (This IP will be added to all the servers later in addition to their own unique IP addresses.) Be sure to click the “Multicast” radio button in “Cluster operation mode”. This saves bandwidth and provides for better expandability. You need not enable remote control; you can use the NLB Manager from the Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack.

Click the “Host Parameters” tab. Since this is the first server, leave its unique host identifier as 1. For any additional servers you configure for the cluster, you will need to increment this. In the dedicated IP configuration, enter the server’s existing static IP address and subnet mask. You can leave everything else in this tab alone.

Next you need to define the port rules. This is important; if you just want to balance load among webservers you should only configure it to do just that. For example: you wouldn’t want to open a Remote Deskop session to one server only to find the connection was rerouted to another. (Assuming you would connect to the cluster IP for Remote Desktop and not use the servers’ unique IP addresses.) If you want to balance everything you can leave the default rule. If not, remove the default rule and add a new one. In this dialog you can select which protocols/ports you want to balance. The configuration in the rest of this tab will work out-of-the-box; if you need a more advanced configuration I suggest you not read a “quickstart” article such as this. After you’re finished with the port rules you can click OK on the NLB property sheet. This should return you to the network connection’s property box.

Your final step on the server is to add the cluster’s IP address to the TCP/IP configuration. Click the TCP/IP protocol and click Properties. From there, click “Advanced” and you’ll get another dialog. On top of this tab you will see the IP addresses assigned to the server. In most cases there will only be one, the server’s existing static IP. Under this list there’s a button to add a new address. Click it and add the cluster’s IP address and subnet mask. Click OK until you have exited all dialog boxes, and you’re finished with the first server! The network connection may die for a moment but it will come back up assuming you did everything right.

Repeat these steps for any additional servers you may want to add to your cluster. You can add up to 32 servers. Just remember to increment the unique host identifier on each server you add. Also keep in mind that all servers must have identical port rules or they will not be accepted into the cluster.

*Please Note, i am currently in the process of changing the website, so some things might not work properly, please contact me if you find anything*

DRM is used in a number of media, but is most commonly found in video and music files. There are many who argue that DRM is a misnomer, since it deals with use issues rather than the rights of the consumer. They therefore reinterpret DRM to stand for Digital Restrictions Management. – wisegeek.

The problem with DRM is it doesnt allow for Fair Use, if you buy something, you should be allowed to use it as your needs require, so here is a guide on how to remove DRM from .wmv files, in order that you can use it in accordance with Fair Use policies. For this to work you MUST have already aquired the licence for the media, this isnt a guide on how to crack DRM, only on how to remove it from files you have licences for.

1) An up to date version of Windows Media Player will NOT work for this, my suggestion is to use VMWare, create a new XP Pro SP2 Virtual Machine with the default WMP9, otherwise you will need to rollback to at the latest 10.00.00.3646, however 9 is probably easier.

2) You need 2 files drmdbg.exe (or drm2wmv_e.exe which can be found here, save them both to the desktop (this is the easiest way to do this).

3) Run drmdbg.exe, when WMP opens drag the DRMed file into it (or click File/Open and browse for the file). After a few seconds a popup box will appear with some information about the file, click Ok. (This will create a folder drm2 on the desktop, dont worry about this)

4) Drag the DRMed file onto drm2wmv_e.exe, when this has finished you will have a new file, same name as the original but with a prefix… thats it, your done

*Troubleshooting*
Ok, things dont always run smooth, i’ve come across some weird problems while trying this out on other systems, so heres something to try if all else fails, go to c:\documents and settings\all users\drm <– delete it, run the protected file, this should recreate the drm folder when the license is downloaded, then go to http://services.wmdrm.windowsmedia.com/indivSite and click upgrade, this fixed my problems on a couple of things, see how you get on
Thanks to all the guys at Doom9, i wrote this guide based on my own results after reading through a forum thread there.

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