Guest Horns Posted June 25, 2008 Posted June 25, 2008 Re: Microsoft Phasing Out Win98 !? I wish they'd send us XP or something to replace it. This PC came out with XP when XP was new and had all the bugs. I couldn't do a thing with it so I went back too 98se. Well seeing as how the system didn't come with an XP CD. there was no way to ever upgrade or re-install it. Kind of like a recall on a vehichle. Shouldn't thier be a replacement ? "Bill in Co." wrote: > cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) wrote: > > On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 02:48:31 -0700, "Bill in Co." > >> cquirke (MVP Win9x) wrote: > > > >>> 2) XP does not have a maintenance OS: True, and that's Bad > > > >> Yeah, and that one scares me a bit, at least at this point in time. > I've > >> had to go down to DOS on a few occasions, including reinstalling and/or > >> "fixing" windows, and losing that "maintenance OS" capability kinda > bothers > >> me (even if you do have a "Recovery Console" in XP) > > > > You can have the best of both worlds; the safety and maintainability > > of FATxx with the stability and scalability of XP. > > Yeah but it *seems* that the consensus is that if you choose to use FAT32, > you must be an idiot, or something! (or at least it FEELS that way to me, > sometimes). > > Of course NTFS has advantages. But for a single, non-networked, user? > (Not as many adavantages as otherwise, although still some good ones there, > admitedly). > > >>Tips: > > > > 1) Keep C: as a FAT32 < 7.9G > > > > This will ensure 4k clusters, which fit the processor's natural page > > size for best virtual memory performance. > > > > There are other goodnesses to a small C: > > - keeping C: de-bulked makes for sustained performance > > - faster defrag and Scandisk / Chkdsk / AutoChk for C: > > - most writes, thus corruption risk, kept on C: (page/temp/TIF) > > - as data is off C:, it's safer from file corruption > > > > 2) Install a Win9x DOS mode to HD > > > > Easiest way is to format C: /S from a Win9x DOS mode before installing > > XP; that way, the XP installation process will preserve the DOS mode > > as a "Microsoft Windows" Boot.ini boot alternative. > > > > 3) Use DOS Mode Scandisk, not XP's file system checker > > > > I suspect XP's file system checker is pretty useless on FATxx volumes, > > because if you rt-click such volumes and go Properties, Tools, Check > > for errors, it zips through the process so quickly that I doubt if it > > does anything at all. I suspect this is where the XP vs. FATxx horror > > stories come from; plain lack of decent file system maintenance. > > > > 4) Shrink Temporary Internet Files (TIF) for each user account > > > > FATxx is less efficient than NTFS when it comes to large numbers of > > entries per directory - and that's a big problem with IE's ludicrous > > huge default TIF size. > > I'm using 100 MB for the TIF. I don't see any "big problems". > > > Huge TIF also means the tiny files within TIF > > get ancient before they are finally FIFO's out; hello, fragmented file > > system! > > Even if it is fragmented, (and it is), I don't really see or feel the > results, in practical terms. (Besides which, I often run Defrag anyway, > just because I like to). > > But let's face it: even when the files ARE fragmented, the *observeable* > difference in performance of the application (like Word, or whatever), to > the user, seems minimal, at least from what I've seen. > > > 5) Locate shell folders off C: > > > > Now that you have volumes other than C: that are safer for data, you > > want to relocate "My Docs" etc. off C:, and I'd also un-nest the bulky > > "My Pics", "My Vids" and "My Music" and the dangerous "My Received > > Files". TweakUI for XP can do this, but once again, it has to be > > repeated for each user account - and any newly-created user accounts > > will start off with MS's duhfault shell locations and huge TIF. > > > > 6) Use a compitent partitioning/formatting tool > > > > XP is worse than useless when it comes to FAT32 volumes over 32G in > > size, plus you want all volumes to be aligned such that if you do > > convert to NTFS later, you won't be cursed with s-l-o-w 512-byte > > clusters. BING from http://www.bootitng.com fits the bill on all counts; you > > don't need to install it to HD, just use it to manage partitions. > > > > 7) Know the limitations of FATxx! > > > > Choosing FATxx over NTFS is throwing away per-user security as a > > tradeoff for better safety. Many of XP's per-user and per-file > > security features require NTFS to work, and if you convert a C: to > > NTFS later, the installation will not be set up with the appropriate > > NTFS security attributes that would have been in place had you set the > > system up as NTFS in the first place. > > I'm the only user, so security is a non issue for me. > > > Also, remember that NTFS is required if you want single files to exceed 2G > in size. > > Actually, it's 4 GB, but you can't use Windows Explorer to copy or move > files larger than 2 GB, as I recall. You've got to do that in DOS. > > > If you don't want to lose the security benefits of NTFS, but want some > > measure of maintainability, you can use a hybrid approach; a mixture > > of NTFS and FATxx volumes. For example, you can route all incoming > > material through FATxx so that it can be virus-scanned from DOS mode > > as a pointer to what may have infected the system. > > > > You'd need to make decisions about C: as well as your data locations, > > as to whether you want NTFS or FATxx for these. If you see value in > > security settings that require NTFS in order to protect the OS, you > > may choose an NTFS C:; if you don't mind losing the ability to recover > > data via Diskedit etc. and want NTFS's security benefits, you might > > choose NTFS for your data set as well. > > > > There's still no interactive file system repair tool (like Scandisk) > > for NTFS, but you can formally scan NTFS from a Bart's PE CDR and > > Trend's SysClean that you can drop and run from a USB stick. Both > > Bart's PE and Linux boot CDRs require USB sticks to be present at time > > of boot, unlike XP which will detect them on the fly. > > > > > >> -- Risk Management is the clue that asks: > > "Why do I keep open buckets of petrol next to all the > > ashtrays in the lounge, when I don't even have a car?" > >> ----------------------- ------ ---- --- -- - - - - > > >
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