VirtualPC Virtual Network Adapters in Windows (Server 2008)

I am using a set of Microsoft VHDs to demo their software (specifically Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2), and I wondered why my Local Area Connection was around Local Area Connection 24 and my network card was Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network 15. My guess is that Microsoft passed these VHDs around for review before release, so it stored past local area connections and network adapters. The Virtual Machines had a startup script called startup.cmd that referenced a Local Area Connection that wasn't the current one. I changed the number to match mine, then decided to remove the old adapters through the registry. Here's what I did (take caution and perform backups before editing the registry):

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Network Cards\, network cards are enumerated by number. The Description subkey lists the name of the adapter and the ServiceName subkey lists the Service GUID. I noted the ServiceName and deleted the keys.

For Windows Vista/Server 2008 and above, the keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\NetworkList\Profiles represent the networks. I deleted all but the network I was interested in (the domain). The network names are listed under Description and ProfileName. Interestingly, one of the networks was corp.microsoft.com.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}, network connections are listed (like Local Area Connection n) by GUID with their names under Connection\Name. I deleted all the GUIDs for the connections I didn't want.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\Description, adapters are enumeratec and used the numbers are listed under the data of the REG_MULTI_SZ key. I cleared the data for Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network Adapter and Microsoft VMBus Network Adapter.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services are listed the the GUIDs representing the network cards from the ...Network Cards subkeys (ServiceName). I deleted the corresponding GUIDs from the Network Cards.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip\Adapters are listed GUIDs representing adapters. I deleted the unwanted keys. The same is true for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip\Interfaces. I left HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\Interfaces alone.

I found these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles, but they apply to NT 3.5 - 4.0:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/146333
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/147797

Slipstream Adobe Acrobat 8 updates

Want to Slipstream Adobe Acrobat 8 updates?
What you'll need: Adobe Customization Wizard 8 (http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3564), Patches, the installation files

Download and the patches to a patch folder
Copy the Adobe Acrobat 8 installation files to a folder (an install source folder)
Install and run the Adobe Customization Wizard 8
Click File -> Open Package, and point it to the folder containing the msi file, example c:\Acro8StdCD\Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard\acrostan.msi
Make any customizations to the installation process
Click Transform -> Generate Transform..., create a folder to contain the administrative installation point, and name the file, for example c:\Acro8Std\acrostan.mst
Run msiexec /a "c:\Acro8StdCD\Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard\acrostan.msi"
Click Next, click Change, select the admin install point, click OK, and click Install. Click Finish.
For each update and in order (8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.1.3, 8.1.6, etc), run the following msiexec /a c:\Acro8Std\acrostan.msi /p C:\patch\AcrobatUpd810_efgj_incr.msp
Click Next, Install, Finish
When you're done, run msiexec.exe /i "C:\Acro8Std\acrostan.msi" TRANSFORM="C:\Acro8Std\acrostan.mst" on the target workstations
Since you're using a mst file, this method doesn't help as a group policy software installation method. Using the Save package feature of the Adobe Customization Wizard might help with group policy software installations. I haven't tried to see what it can do.

Update: for installation repairs, Adobe Acrobat looks for the originally installed msi/image. If you update the network installation location, an installation that used the older files will not recognize the updated files. To maintain repair functionality, you'd either need to maintain separate install images, copy the files locally, or resort to uninstall/reinstall instead of repair.