alt.comp.freeware information 06 September 2004

[REM]

But does one gain much over my method? My method has the advantage of
speed, and many of your innstalled apps still work afterwards. The crud
that does the bogging down of a system builds up in Win/System so if the
whole Windows folder is deleted then, as your way, one gets a much
faster system back.

I just don't any real benefit to formatting... this is partly down to
laziness, partly ignorance.

I think the better approach is either creation of the boot disk image
immediately after setting up a new install, or using a program like
xxcopy to create a bootable copy. Either of these saves tons of time
and have the same effect of formatting and reinstalling everything by
hand.

The method I'm using is for XP. After doing a clean install (format,
install, get all critical updates, set _everything_ up... ISP dialer,
email program, etc.) simply create an image on another partition.
This image contains everything done in the time intensive flat-footed
initial install. Anytime it looks at me funny I can simply restore the
image and I'm back to square one, a fresh install with no exploits,
with everything setup and ready to go. AV programs, new critical
updates and such must be fetched, but it's quite a bit better than the
flat-footed approach all over again, especially for those on dialup.

On another partition I keep all documents and downloaded programs so
they are still there.

Pretty much the same thing can be done with Win 9x. I don't recall if
this works on ME or not. A boot manager like XOSL is necessary here in
order to keep three bootable partitions using xxcopy with the /clone
switch.

Do complete install on C:
xxcopy /clone C: to D:
xxcopy /clone C: to E:

Here, simply use XOSL to boot off the D: (a bootable copy).
format C: (main boot partition)
and copy the "base image" off E: to C:
(E: is the real backup, C: is the main boot partition, D: is just used
to boot from to free C: and E

This solves the files locked problems and works like a charm. I used
it for quite awhile with Win 98SE. And by golly, you'll have one
partition _somewhere_ that you can boot off of out of the three! <G>

Well, as long as you don't get a really bad worm that scrambles files
on other partitions. To guard, use PGP Disk to place D: and E: copies
in for protection.

 

[Bjorn Simonsen]

Hey, Bjorn, check the headers of our posts:; nearly indistinguishable,
with same reader, and same server. I hope folks will have faith that we
are separate people. If not, I don't know what would look weirder right
now: if we were agreeing or if we were arguing.
LOL!

Quick side meander. For various other configs, setting that URL up to then
take a search word as argument is just the +S thing at the end. I mean, for
example if send "duplicates" as argument -

http://google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware+duplicates

Gerald E.Boyd <http://www.expita.com/>, one of the nicest and most
helpful persons I know from my time in cyberspace, kept a FAQ with
some useful info for those who want to dig into this URL thing, "HOW
TO "CRACK" SEARCH ENGINES BY E-MAIL"
<ftp://ftp.expita.com/wscrack.faq>. Been a while since I read it...not
since back when I "browsed" the web via e-mail only - I think

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

 

[omega]

Gerald E.Boyd <http://www.expita.com/>, one of the nicest and most
helpful persons I know from my time in cyberspace, kept a FAQ with
some useful info for those who want to dig into this URL thing, "HOW
TO "CRACK" SEARCH ENGINES BY E-MAIL"
<ftp://ftp.expita.com/wscrack.faq>. Been a while since I read it...not
since back when I "browsed" the web via e-mail only - I think

So, you've done that, the email access to web? I once read about it briefly,
when researching the subject of what activities my mother could engage in
when she went online with here Apple Color Classic. But I'd never tried it.

You hooked into inet earlier than I did. For me, it was year 95 or 96.
I confess to shameful beginnings. I started with AOL. It was pay-by-hr
back then, and I was handing Steve Case something in tune of $300 month
in fees. 8-0