Sleazy Advice

   The stuff you can't really ask an MS Support tech.

  (1.) I installed XP Pro today only to discover both it and the previous install of W2K are unable to obtain DNS addresses automatically. I contacted my ISP and inputted the DNS entries manually but does anyone have an idea why this happened?

   (2.)  I have all my programs backed up on an external harddrive and another networked box. When I tried to copy/paste the install app for my email client into a drive under XP Pro the crack <my bad> appeared but the app first disappeared and later reverted to an MS .exe symbol (blue and white square) Is XP set up to treat some apps in a way that's new to me? It can't be anti crack since the crack appeared intact.

   It's not like copy of OEM XP came with a manual nor is it likely to explain the issue anyhoo. I have a ton of apps care of SOD and I don't want this OS treating them like they're not legit.
   I did install WinRAR & WinZIP without a problem so this is most likely an issue with the standard install app interface.

  Do I need permissions or a 3rd party installer?

to the troll;

kernel is fine, ntldr came precompressed and I used add/remove to dispose of my System 32 folder

"or a 3rd party installer?"

Google was my friend. I discovered MS had released an updated installer to correct the problem.

Anyone wanna take a shot on clueing me in to whatever idiosyncracies XP Pro has?

disregard everything, i suck cocks. Figgered it all out and the enemy was I.

Tips on XP will be greatfully accepted however.

The DNS problem could be because your router isn't set up properly, or you fucked up a static IP configuration.

"The DNS problem could be because your router isn't set up properly, or you fucked up a static IP configuration."

   You should work at MS my friend. After 50 hours of so called help I made a discovery while solving those DNS issues.
    Years ago while first networking two computers I was trying all sorts of settings to get it working. I knew nothing about DNS and coincidentally the manually set IP address shares a page with the DNS settings.
   For at least 5 or six years I've been manually setting the DNS entries to the IP addresses of two of my boxes IP's. Somehow the LAN worked fine and my computers ignored my misset settings and connected me to my ISP.

   Only recently (Christmas) have I had trouble with this screwup and it evidenced itself during Windows updates.

   When I think of the harm I could do in "nix".  < shudder >