History, Credits, and Retirement

Project background: Removing Internet Explorer
In 1997, I modified some INF files in Windows NT and got it to install without Internet Explorer (it was IE version 2 at the time). In December 2001, I wondered what would happen if I modified Windows 2000 INF installation files to prevent Internet Explorer from being installed, added the modified INF files to a service pack, and then slipstreamed the result (at the time, it had to be done in that order to avoid digital signature errors). The process such as it was then was hosted by a guy named Shawn (anon) in November, 2001. This is dedicated to everyone who ever posted to Usenet that none of this is possible. I last heard from Shawn in January 2003. You out there, man?

On June 1, 2004, I opened up shop at Earthlink in their free member web space. In 80 days, one single how-to page got 12,489 hits and before I knew it, my fileset downloads had exceeded their bandwidth limits. I moved to my own domain on August 20, 2004.

Project background: HFSLIP
On November 16, 2004 TommyP asked a question about DLLs and I visited his thread the next day on MSFN. At that time, the project was slipstreaming (only) Internet Explorer 6 into Windows 2000, which defaults to IE 5.x. On December 25, 2004, Tom sent me an e-mail about some little project he'd been fooling around with:

..."I posted a message the other day (with little fanfare), but I think it's right up your alley. Basically, it's a batch program that slipstreams all the hotfix binaries, so you don't need to do anything manually."

Trivia that always makes me laugh when I think about it: on October 16, 2005, I proposed that HFSLIP should do DRIVER.CAB and SP4.CAB integration, and sent instructions on how to do it manually. TommyP had it implemented two days later, and after we did some debugging with Oleg_II's help, it went public on October 19th. We were literally testing almost around the clock using virtual PCs.

Thanks go out to (in no particular order)...

TommyP, Oleg_II, Tomcat76, Nuhi
Tain, for consistent feedback and an unending willingness to beta test
Shawn, for hosting SP2 and SP3 instructions starting back in 2001
axcel216 for spreading the word about the new site
Eric Anderson, who introduced IE free computing to his university
David Durkee for introducing my process to several prominent CEOs and their tech shops (some of whom knew already)
Landon O'Brien for compatability testing (in a university computer lab setting!)
Marco Terno for translating into Italian
Paul Stephenson for correcting loads of dead links
Jacopo Lazzari, who gave me critical insights at just the right times
zGod and Mike Swanson for input on WinNT's Explorer running on Win2k
A friend who wishes to go uncredited for making major contribution and several little programs
TommyP and Tomcat especially for HFSLIP and his efforts to keep it compatable with my files
Nuhi, creator of nLite, for introducing himself, and for the back-and-forth ideas that helped both our projects
Timo, for details describing the SETUPDLL hack that I used in the SETUPAPI hack I implement
Damian Bakowski for the initial idea of an empty SFCFILES.DLL (Damian's site - turn your volume down before clicking!)
Gustavo Leidhold for some SP4 version file bugfixes
Jerry Carter for beta testing my IE remover for existing installations
Philip Nienhuis for about half a dozen bugfixes (Win2000 on his Libretto!)
Pene for bugfixes and link updates

...and of course, my thanks to Microsoft. By refusing to de-integrate Windows components, you've given me a LOT of consulting business from people with exploited PC's infected with bloat, spyware, trojans, worms, logic bombs, viruses...

To one very bold fellow, I have nothing good to say about you. Before you changed your focus to documenting XP's DLLs, you were a fucking plagiarist who tried to make a name for yourself off of other people's work while at the same time slamming them. You have zero respect for the people you stole from and on whose work you initially based your own, and when we tried to treat you politely and with some class, you blasted us for it. Did you really think you could make the claims you make and not have the community laugh their collective ass off at you? Do you really think that none of us talk? Have a look in the nLite credits some time and get a clue, pal.

Why I'm Done

No more formal Service Packs for the best version of Windows that ever was? Well, then that's pretty much a wrap for me.

I had stopped active work on the processes on Wednesday November 15, 2006, at 23:18 but I made significant changes to the process on January 23, 2008 at 03:00 because of things I'd learned in 2007.

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to do a fileset for Windows XP, but I never put my heart and soul into it; after all, that was what nLite was for.

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."
Bill Gates, admitting he never fucking listens to his customers

Windows has now turned into a bloated, cumbersome piece of fetid shit. It's truly amazing the errors HFSLIP'ers have discovered in dissecting hotfixes over time. Can you make big bucks and put out shitty product? Microsoft does it every day, along with Sony, Dell, Disney, Ford, McDonald's... The mark of a successful business (that smart people will fucking loathe) is to treat you like a six year old: give you what they want you to have, not what you ask for.

IMO, Windows users owe a debt of gratitude to TommyP and Tomcat76 (and Tain for hosting the HFSLIP site). TommyP and the HFSLIP crowd managed to do in our respective short timeframes what a multimillion dollar corporation couldn't seem to manage: removing IE and slipstreaming hotfixes. Apparently it's so fucking difficult that two random guys guys did it for free in their spare time. Also, thanks to Tomcat76 who has made huge contributions to HFSLIP in his own right and continues to take it in new directions.

BTW, if you read this far, Tomcat76 made a version of HFSLIP for Windows NT 4. He doesn't seem to be around, and no one is really interested in answering questions about it, especially me. A version of NT4SP7 pre-slipstreamed seems to be floating around the torrents.