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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-11-19

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) The 10 Best & Worst Things About XP

Windows is undoubtedly the "800 pound gorilla" of the operating system world. What happens with Windows--- for good or ill--- affects us all (even non-Windows users!). That’s why, no matter what OS you’re using now, and no matter whether or not you ever plan personally to use XP, it behooves us all to know what’s going on with it.

I’ve been using “XP Professional” on various high-end and midrange systems; and have been living with it as my full-time personal-use OS ever since I got my hands on XP’s “gold” code some time ago.

In the time I’ve been using it, I’ve found some things I’ve come to really like about XP, and some that make me grit my teeth in frustration. I’ve gathered them into a list of ten items--- the five best and five worst things I’ve found about XP.

In addition, I've also found several "mixed bag" items that I simultaneously like *and* dislike--- XP's built-in firewall, for example: Conceptually, it's a great idea (and thus might make the "like" list), but is so anemically implemented it's almost a joke (and thus could easily be on the "dislike" list).

My full list--- 13 items in all-- amounts to a feature article of some 2000 words, and thus is way too long for an email newsletter. Instead of choking your mailbox, I've devoted an entire InformationWeek column to the topic. Please check it out, and then tell us what’s on *your* list. Do you agree or disagree with my choices? What other items would you add to either the “best” of “worst” side of the ledger? Which items do you consider to be “mixed bags?”

When we’re done, we should have a treasure trove of pros and cons about XP, all based on real-life XP-user experiences. It should be highly informative--- and fun. Join in!

The article should be posted at http://www.informationweek.com/864/langa.htm ; the discussion area is always open, even in advance of the article posting: http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa .

See you there!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit.htm

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2) Creating a Windows CD from a Recovery Disk

Reader Rick Austin sent along this clip:

Thanks, Rick. There's a lot of good stuff at the EasyDesk site. But note that Rick's "make a cd" process only works if you have all the Windows "CAB" files available; some OEM "system restore" setups use abridged or custom versions that won't let you do a full install, period. Still, it could be handy for those who have the right files. Thanks for the pointer!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit.htm

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3) What About Backup To/From Tape?

For Win9x and ME systems, backup programs that run from inside Windows usually can't back up or restore *all* files. That's because Windows uses some files when it runs, and the backup tools usually skip files that are in use. This isn't a problem for most user-created data files (which are normally not in-use during a backup), but that's not what we're talking about here: We're specifically discussing backing up the system files themselves. The standard Windows-based tape backup method will save all your data, but may not back up (or later, restore) 100% of your system files.

Some Windows-based backup tools (XP's, for example) can do something called "shadow copying" of system files for backups: They make copies of open system files, and then copy the copy. Thus, they do a better job of making full backups than do most standard Win9x/ME-based backups.

But the only 100%, guaranteed-certain way I know of to get a complete copy of everything, exactly as it exists at the time of backup, and with no chance of missing anything, is to go outside the normal operating system. With the OS shut down and inactive, everything--- *everything*--- on the disk can be captured, including hidden files and system files that otherwise would be in use.

But even this gets dicey with OSes that either lack DOS (such as Win2K and XP) or that hide DOS (such as ME); or that use file systems (such as NTFS) that DOS doesn't understand. Vendors are scrambling to keep up: Drive Image 5, for example, can work using "virtual floppy disks" that let you boot to a DOS-like environment even from within XP; and PowerQuest says DI5 works fine with NTFS drives. (I've kept my drives FAT32, so I can't vouch for this myself.)

In any case, by using a separate, simple OS (like DOS) to capture all the bits on your hard drive, you can be certain you truly and honestly have *everything* backed up in a way that can be restored 100%.

Some tape backup software can either do the "shadow copying" trick and/or run from DOS (or a DOS-like environment) and thus might capture everything on your system. But tape has other problems: Unless you have a very clean, environmentally-conditioned storage area, tapes can go bad--- just sitting on a shelf--- in as little as a year or two. (See http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010719S0003 )

CD-Rs can last anywhere from 5 years to something like a century, and they're much, much cheaper than tape. That's why I've long advocated CD-R as a backup medium. And because of the need to be sure you've gotten all the bits, every time, I've long recommended tools like Drive Image that can go outside the normal OS and capture everything on your hard drive.

I'd though I'd heard of all the antivirus tools there are--- and in fact, thought we'd mentioned almost all of them at one time or another in the newsletter. Well, I was wrong:

Fred, In the latest installment of the Langa List you mentioned that Norton was one of the best, if not the best, commercial anti-virus programs available. I have been receiving E-Mail responses from various clients indicating that I had a virus in the documents I was sending. Now, I had Norton 2001 installed on my computer and had all of my updates current. I uninstalled Norton and installed NOD32 to see what it would find. Sure enough, NOD32 found the very viruses the E-Mails told me of.  I went to the website http://www.nod32.com  and had a look. I would highly recommend this anti-virus program. It is fast and very effective. --- Les

Thanks, Les! Always good to learn of a new--- and heretofore unknown (to me)--- option!

I posted links in the last issue for a variety of tuning/tweaking resources, but reader Dave remembered one of a type I'd forgotten:

Hi Fred, I've been looking for this site for weeks since Microsoft quit supporting these apps. My favorite is the MS Dos section, but I'm sure other will like the Win95 section.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/default.asp?url=/TechNet/archive/wfw/0_welcom.asp

Thanks, Dave--- I should have thought to mention the Resource Kits! See http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=resource+kit&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 for more info, or go to http://support.microsoft.com and search there: Some ResKits are downloadable, and some are available in limited form on the setup CDs of older versions of Windows; others are available only online. But all can help you tune, tweak and perfect your Windows setup.

6) $10,000 For Your Trouble?

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. You just may win $10,000(!), your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber (full details also available via this link): http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... (Full details available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

Either way, thank you, and good luck!

I've been focused on XP itself--- not third-party add-ons (yet), so I haven't researched it exhaustively. But WinDoctor does seem to think that some of the DI5 pseudo-boot-to-DOS files are corrupt, when in fact they aren't.

Using Control Panel's Add/Remove applet and selecting "repair" for DI5 only takes a minute and corrects the problem, so it's an annoyance rather than a showstopper. But it *is* annoying...

8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...

Well over a 1600 of your fellow readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://www.langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm

WEB HEAD JESSIE`S NEWSLETTER
http://www.webheadjessie.com/

The Common Sense Carpenter
http://hammer90.tripod.com/CommonSenseCarpenter/

K3WWP's activities in ham radio
http://www.alltel.net/~johnshan/index.html

US Ex-Pats in Germany
http://communities.msn.com/TheKrohneZone/_whatsnew.msnw

Nostalgic prints and reproductions
http://grampatom.com/links.asp

All kinds of phone info and services
http://www.infinitytelcom.com/

Magnetic Therapy
http://www.galaxymall.com/health/pathway/links.html

GrandMa's House
http://www.grandmas-house.net/

The Detroit Magazine
http://therebelstar770.tripod.com/detroit/

Last issue, we ran an item about a strange recommendation reader Dave Cheatley got from PC Pitstop--- one that suggested an 80MB minimum size for a browser cache. The folks at PitStop are good--- I used to work with 'em at WinMag--- so I wasn't surprised when they got on the case immediately to figure out what was going on:

Hey Fred,  David Cheatley found a bug in the text for the cache size tip. There are two limit numbers in the tip, the low limit is 5MB and the high limit is 80MB. The text was using 80MB instead of 5MB for the lower limit. I agree that a cache size of 5 to 10 MB is plenty for any fast connection such as cable or DSL. Dialup users may want more, but even then 25MB is very generous. It's been about 18 months since I did the experimentation to determine those numbers, but as I recall browsing became noticeably slower when I tested a full cache at 100MB so I picked 80MB as the upper limit.

To some extent you don't have to worry about making the cache size too small. IE will exceed your cache limit if it needs more cache than that during a particular session (the time you open the browser window to the time you close it). IE is supposed to bring the cache size back down below your limit when you close the browser window, but it often seems to "forget" to do that. There's a KB article that refers to this problem: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q301/0/57.ASP
--Dave Methvin

Thanks, Dave!

Bob Morrison sends along these words of wisdom from kids:

"Never trust a dog to watch your food." -Patrick, age 10

"When your dad is mad and asks you, 'Do I look stupid?' Don't answer." -Hannah, age 9

Never tell your Mom her diet's not working." -Michael, age 14

"Stay away from prunes." -Randy, age 9

"Don't pull Dad's finger when he tells you to." -Emily, age 10

"When your Mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair." -Taylia, age 11

"Never let your three-year old brother in the same room as your school assignment." -Traci, age 14

"A puppy always has bad breath--even after eating a Tic-Tac." - Andrew, age 9

"Never hold a dustbuster and a cat at the same time." - Kyoyo, age 11

"You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk." -Amir, age 9

• Free And Better Than "Net Detective"
• Letter To You From Pape Tanor
• More Free Outlook Express Resources

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: A free resource that does what the commercial software "Net Detective" does; a moving letter about the Sept 11th attacks from one of the children sponsored by LangaList subscribers; and more free resources to help you manage Outlook Express data.

Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

See you next issue!

Best,

Fred

(fred@langa.com)

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