Windows 2000 wanted

[Hassan I Sahba]

Recently as early this year, I discovered that MSIE on my system was
having a terrible reaction to a few web pages, something to do with
iframes. During load of such pages, I watched, vis MS System Monitor,
my physical RAM level plummet at approx rate of -100mb/sec. Several
times, I waited a moment before fleeing, and that drop went into very
large numbers.

If you go to Internet Options, select the Security tab and click
Custom Level for the Internet Zone, theres an option called
"Launching programs and files in an IFRAME."
I don`t know if this helps but I thought I`d mention it.

HiS

 

[omega]

This is a very good explanation of the reasons to use partition saving.
After setting up a new windows installation, and installing the most
essential stuff you feel you need, take an image of the C: drive.

It was a process of years to get my configuration, and my paths, and all,
how I wanted. Not that's ever exactly how I want, of course. There's always
more to do, better software, change of plans. It's part of why tweaking
one's environ, incorporating different utilities, is so absorbing.

For my own pref, I don't even like reverting 4 hours in time, much less back
to early beginnings

Later when a virus, or a technical glitch, makes the system bad, you just
restore the clean and optimized image and you are back in your favorite
settings in a clean windows installation.

It can also be very useful if you install a lot of programs to try out,
and is too lazy to use TUN and other means to keep the computer clean.
Just restore an earlier image, and you get rid of all the crap you have
installed but actually do not need.

Yes, multi-boot ability of different copies of the same OS, that can save
a large amount of headache and time.

One approach is to have a tmp partition to boot into, where you don't care
what happens to it, and let those mystery installers do their damage there.
Instead of thrashing your active system.

The other approach is as you describe. Go ahead and let your active
environment get littered up, and don't spend time worrying about it.
Instead just revert back via a clean image from time to time.

One good example: I think REM does this for the matter of his kids using
the computer. He gives them their own partition to mess with, and when it's
time, sets it back to a clean state. Makes a lot better sense than going in
and trying to clean up after whatever it is they installed, etc.

 

[omega]

If you go to Internet Options, select the Security tab and click
Custom Level for the Internet Zone, theres an option called
"Launching programs and files in an IFRAME."
I don`t know if this helps but I thought I`d mention it.

Yes, that is what I ended by doing after discovering the disaster, changed
my security permissions on iframes. What I haven't done is to see whether
there was some update for MSIE for this. I'd thought I was pretty complete
on the patches for my MSIE v5.5, but then again, I haven't checked up on
that for some time....

One interesting thing to me was that I witnessed the problem when visiting
some standard sites. One page at www.jsiinc.com, which was using iframes.
All over the place at Sourceforge. And I think at Microsoft. (Not positive
on this last. MSFT beats me up so hard when I visit them using MSIE, that
I can barely sort out one cause from another. I've taken to using independent
browsers when visiting their sites.)

 

[Roger Johansson]

Yes, multi-boot ability of different copies of the same OS, that can
save a large amount of headache and time.

One approach is to have a tmp partition to boot into, where you don't
care what happens to it, and let those mystery installers do their
damage there. Instead of thrashing your active system.

I used a dual-boot system for a number of years.
But I found that I was too lazy to use the second partition, except when
I had too, because of problems in the first.

And then I got problems with fixing the first partition from the second,
because it is hidden, so the programs I could have used to fix it did not
see the faulty partition.

In the long run I realized that I had very little use for a dual-boot
system, so I scrapped it and use only partition saving now.

My main use for a dual-boot system was to get the computer up and running
after a crash. The self-booting rescue CD's which are available now make
it easy to solve this problem in a simpler way than using a multiboot
system.

 

[omega]

I used a dual-boot system for a number of years.
But I found that I was too lazy to use the second partition, except when
I had too, because of problems in the first.

You mean for the matter of dealing with installers? There might be a few
good arguments that laziness would have had going for it. A main one:
The strategy does mean that while you are booted into the tmp to do the
installs, you are functioning within a narrow mode of activity. Desired
changes in system during that period, including even the small matters
such as relevant Windows MRU lists, none of that would be automatically
retained for when you boot back into your normal environment.

And then I got problems with fixing the first partition from the second,
because it is hidden, so the programs I could have used to fix it did not
see the faulty partition.

[...]

In payware, such as Ghost, you can mount and browse your image file,
explorer style. You can browse it, search it, extract files, extract
directories. I know I've just switched from talking about hidden
partitions, to images of partitions, but I feel it's natural to think
of both things together. If this ability is to be found in the freeware
realm, then I missed it. I have the impression that it is, unfortunately,
lacking.

My C partition is very small. It is less than 220 megabytes. [And that
right there is where w98 finally does win a round in compare against w2000!]
So I have C duplicated in a hidden partition, and in image snapshots of
it -- and also, with its small size, I let XXCopy make mirrors of it onto
my removable disk. After installers do overwrites, and I need to compare
versions etc, it is that easily-accessible mirror made by XXcopy which
I consult.

My main use for a dual-boot system was to get the computer up and running
after a crash. The self-booting rescue CD's which are available now make
it easy to solve this problem in a simpler way than using a multiboot
system.

I read the threads in ACF on those developments, and they sound good.
Particularly in the area where it sounds that they solve the difficulty
in opening the hood to get at XP.

 

[Roger Johansson]

In payware, such as Ghost, you can mount and browse your image file,
explorer style. You can browse it, search it, extract files, extract
directories. I know I've just switched from talking about hidden
partitions, to images of partitions, but I feel it's natural to think
of both things together. If this ability is to be found in the freeware
realm, then I missed it. I have the impression that it is,
unfortunately, lacking.

I appreciate the explorer function in ghost too.
Very useful in some cases, like when my recycle bin was blocked by a file
which could not be erased. I tried many programs to delete the file but
didn't work.

I made an image with ghost, fixed the problem in the image by deleting
the file which could not be deleted, and restored C:

I have talked to the author of Partition Saving (freeware) about adding
such an explorer function. He said he would think about it, but it was
difficult, because his way of reading the hard disk did not see files,
only sectors.

But, on the other hand, this makes his program faster than ghost, and is
good for people who do not use the explorer functions.

Freeware is getting better all the time, and is incorporating more
and more features from good commercial software, so I think we will get
freeware partition saving with explorer functions within a year or two.

The new partition saving program for linux, g4l (ghost for linux), is
still just in the beginning of its development. If I understood it
correctly this program saves all sectors, not just the used ones, so it
is probably not so fast yet.

 

[omega]

[...]
I have talked to the author of Partition Saving (freeware) about adding
such an explorer function. He said he would think about it, but it was
difficult, because his way of reading the hard disk did not see files,
only sectors.

But, on the other hand, this makes his program faster than ghost, and is
good for people who do not use the explorer functions.

Freeware is getting better all the time, and is incorporating more
and more features from good commercial software, so I think we will get
freeware partition saving with explorer functions within a year or two.

I confess my gloomy sense that it wasn't even a glint on the horizon....
As it's you who has been tracking more directly the development of the
freeware partition imaging products for Windows, I feel encouraged by
your prediction.

 

[Hassan I Sahba]

Yes, that is what I ended by doing after discovering the disaster, changed
my security permissions on iframes. What I haven't done is to see whether
there was some update for MSIE for this. I'd thought I was pretty complete
on the patches for my MSIE v5.5, but then again, I haven't checked up on
that for some time....

One interesting thing to me was that I witnessed the problem when visiting
some standard sites. One page at www.jsiinc.com, which was using iframes.
All over the place at Sourceforge. And I think at Microsoft. (Not positive
on this last. MSFT beats me up so hard when I visit them using MSIE, that
I can barely sort out one cause from another. I've taken to using independent
browsers when visiting their sites.)

This one was 4 years ago:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms99-042.mspx

This one was 2 years ago:
http://www.greymagic.com/security/advisories/gm010-ie/
"Solution:
Set "Active Scripting" or "Navigate sub-frames across different
domains" to "Prompt" or "Disable". "

Looks like there's another one due any day now.

HiS

 

[omega]

[...]
This one was 2 years ago:
http://www.greymagic.com/security/advisories/gm010-ie/
"Solution:
Set "Active Scripting" or "Navigate sub-frames across different
domains" to "Prompt" or "Disable". "

Looks like there's another one due any day now.

Or might never be? MSIE updates, from what I've seen, they are pretty much
centered on security fixes. The sites where I got the problem, they were
not hostile sites. If the cause of the problem with the runaway hit on
memory could be related to what causes security problems, I don't know.

But if not, if that iframe reaction is unrelated, and is instead a serious
rendering & performance bug -- then MSFT is unlikely to feel responsible
for a fix. Just as it never bothered to fix its low limit on system
resources in 9x.

If I complained to MSFT, the reaction would prob'ly be a sales pitch for
Windows Server 2003, or whatever latest OS it is those people are trying
to lease out these days.