The following is a detailed description for installing the applications included on the application recovery CD under WinME. This description goes with the previous information on how to unpack the applications off of the Recovery CD. Thank You, Steve, for this information
I didn't like the way my hard disk came from the factory so I formatted the hard disk and installed my own version of Windows me. After that I could not play DVDs. So I got out my Application Recovery CD to install WinDVD and it wouldn't let me. This didn't seem fair, as I already paid for WinDVD, so I figured out how to make the Application Recovery CD work.
I had to enter this into my registry:
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REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\Shared Info]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\Shared Info\Shared EXEs]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\Shared Info\Shared DLLs]
"SONYCHK.DLL"="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Sony Shared\\SonyChk\\SonyChk.dll"
"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Sony Shared\\DMICall\\dmicall.vxd"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\Shared Info\Shared VXDs]
"DMICALL.VXD"="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Sony Shared\\DMICALL\\dmicall.vxd"
Alles anzeigen
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Just cut and paste everything between the lines with the asterisks and save it in a file. Name that file LMSony.reg and then double click on it. That should place the needed items into the registry.
I also put two files on my hard disk. I got these from the original hard disk. The two files are
c:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\DMICall\dmicall.vxd
c:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\SonyChk\sonychk.dll
and of course I put them in the folder with the same name after creating those folders.
That is all there was to it. I don't know if the application recovery CD can be made to work on a non-sony computer. I suspect the vxd somehow checks to make sure it is a sony laptop.
Alas, Windows 2000 does not use vxds. Perhaps someone can carry the torch to find out how to make it work without any vxd. The sonychk.dll has a single function (named _sonychk). I suspect all one would have to do would be to make a dll with that function that would return the right answer and you wouldn't need the vxd. I am guessing that the install exe on the Application Recovery CD just calls _sonychk in sonychk.dll and looks to see if it returns a 0 or a 1. Sonychk.dll then calls the vxd which checks the computer's hardware to see if it is a sony laptop. If there was a sonychk.dll that simply returned the correct answer you wouldn't need a vxd and could then load the apps onto Windows 2000.
...alle originaltools fürs modell! ich fass es nicht. gleich mal von vorne loslegen. 
