Spies & who they are

I've always had Netscape and Mozilla block 3rd party cookies, using the option to "allow cookies for the originating website only ". Unfortunately IE5.5sp2 doesn't have that option... it must have been added to IE6.

 

Out with the old and in with the new, Alice!

 

So, you are telling me I should locate a copy of Win98, or get WinMe, so that I can update to IE6? (My hardware won't work with WinXP)

Or should I just buy a new pc so I can run IE6?

 

Ah!

 

The choice would be yours of course but I suggest 98 or 98SE but not ME.

98SE is the better one as all of the additions. omitions or corrections to 98FE are all on one CD.

98FE takes two CDs ( or one CD and a LARGE download ) to get it up to date.

Also 98FE original is not 2000 compatable with out SP1. Or a truck load of updates.

ME may be loaded with hardware problems. ( I know from experience ) A $95 costly mistake on my part.

BillyBob

 

I'll pass on both 98 and Me and just stick with what I have, for now but thanks for the thoughts, BB.

 

You are welcome.

BB

 

I bought ME (step up) as part of MS's promotion for the product. The price was $29.95 for 30 days only, and I made the choice of ME or Go-Back (I knew the distinction of capabilities). IMO $95 for ME did not justify the price (same kernel as predecessor with bells and whistles, but S/R compensated and added value for me).

 

My point of View on System Restore. Which appears to be quite different than others.

Ist off. Microsoft Windows WILL NOT do it all Regardless of what Mr. Gates and Company would like us to believe.

For me the System Restore capabilities in ME no where near compensated for the hardware problems.

Bad drivers and incomplatble hardware are just that and SR will not help that a bit.

And I myself see SR as not being a bit help full unless handled MANUALLY and/or sensibley and made at a point in which the System is as stable and error free as possible.

Right now I am messing with XP Pro. This AM I have made changes, gotten rid of a couple of errors.

Next step REMOVE/DELETE Yesterdays ( now usless and loaded with errors ) restore points.

Next step. Make a new RP

Next step. When I get more changes made and all seems to be OK another NEW restore point will be made. Keeping the old temporarily.

The idea of system restore may be fine. But without a bit of common sense they can get your A** in as much trouble as it can get you out of.

What I change/take out/add today I DO NOT want changed/put back/taken out which if I am not carefull a SR will do.

Right not the only drive that has System Restore active is the C: drive. That is the only one I really need it on anyway. All the other drives have stuff on them that I do not want messed with.

But one thing about SR it can be helpfull in removing a bad install of software. Make new RP. Install new stuff. Install goes bad. Use SR and BINGO !! bad software gone. That is one good point of SR.

Right now, if things should go seriously wrong my restore point would be to plug the previous HD back in and go. I am seriously hoping that that is not needed. But is an choice if needed.

BillyBob

 

Software and hardware manufacturers/developers won't try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear! Legacy software and hardware are and should be incompatible with some computer systems to prevent or help prevent associated problems of interest on systems with few users and concentrate on current problems.

Scarce resources applied to the profitable segment of high consumer demand will maximize profits. There has to be a phase out stage or purchasing a new product would be burdened with incorporating compatibility standards. That would be an expense passed on to consumer in higher prices...not a wise business decision.

 

You do have a point ( I guess ). But that was not my point.

MY point was that at the time every stupid piece of Software and Hardware ( legacy or not ) worked fine in 98FE and later in 98 SE

But refused to work PROPERLY ( if at all ) in ME.

And the best part is yet to come.

All but a new Hard Drive it IS ALL STILL working ( and quite well I must add ) in Windows XP Pro after dumping XP Pro on top of SE.

Outside of re-installing a couple of things and updating my Scanner drivers ( I knew that I would have to do that before I put XP in ) I have done NOTHING Other than disable a few things that I do not need.

My e-mail was intact. Both Eudora and Mailwasher. MY documents remained on the D: drive where I had them. In fact everything stayed where I had it. The only thing that did get changed was the swap file and that is of no real concern anyway.

And the part I like best is that my LAN never missed a beat. ( UNLIKE ME ) 10 minutes after I got XP in I was playing cards with my Wife over the LAN.

Then I re-install AVG and Kerio and plugged the Router back inot the Modem and got the updates etc.

Even my GeForce4 MX 440 is actaully ancient. By newer standards.

But my main point involved the use of what you seem to swear by and I swear at SYSTEM RESTORE.

Again, If not used correctly it can get you into as well as out of trouble.

Bottom line right now.

Even XP ( and I have only had it in for two days ) IS FAR SUPERIOR to Windows ME. And now that I have gotten into it ( with help from members here ) it is not quite as bad as I thought.

I still got 27 days so I will see what gives IF I don't like it I will dump it and go back to my VERY SOLID Win98SE.

For $199 it better be

Well I guess I gotta go get dinner started. MY Wife went back to work today after being out 3 weeks.

BillyBob

 

S/R is a tool that may help or not depending on the malfunction.
I recently uninstalled spyware and some other programs. I was given a warning that uninstalling may cause problems with some system files. The uninstall procedure went OK and then I did a R/S. Would there have been a problem without R/S? I don't know, but I don't have any problems associated with the uninstall. The procedure has always performed as expected for me when done as recommended.

I would say you are very fortunate to have installed XP as an overlay on a somewhat complex computer system. Especially, when there had been trouble with Win ME!!

 

In my Wildest dreams I would NEVER have even thought of putting XP over ME when I had it. There were too many problems there.

In I had had any problems in SE with hardware or software I would not have done it either.

S/R is a tool that may help or not depending on the malfunction.

And which Restore Point is used.

I made a restore point two days ago. There were problems ( software wise ) An overtop re-install of said software fixed things very nicely.

Plus I have made a few changes in Services.

Plus I have added some new software to another partition. But there are references to it in the Registry.

Now all has been well for the last two days.

Now will you please tell me if it makes any sense for me to keep the Restore point made two days ago. especailly when I do know that it contained problems ? And it did not contain the references to the newly added software.

There is no way in hello that I want to go back two days. ( fixing it once is enough ) So that RP IS GONE and a new one made as of app 1 hour ago.

I have one more piece of software that is working but not as it should be, Once I get that fixed and a day or two passes without problems Todays RP will leave and a new one made.

As I said before. " Microsoft and their Operating Systems do not do all of the thinking. The USER has to do a little also.

I would say you are very fortunate to have installed XP as an overlay on a somewhat complex computer system.

That sounds familiar. I heard the same thing When I put SE over FE. At the time I had no problems in FE either.

But the MAIN reason I did it was to see if it would or would not work. And at this time I am very happy with the results. But I was also prepared for it to go the other way.

And a second reason is that I was gong to have to upgrade sooner or later anyway. Newer Hardware and Software is being designed for XP. So I do have to at times break down and go wid da flo

Plus Daddy O here needed a new toy. The old one was getting boring

HHMMMM !!! Could that maybe be #1 reason ?

BillyBob

 

KenKeith

Have you ever expanded the System Volumne Information file to see what it in it ?

I did today and was amazed ( actually shocked ) at what I found in it.

I found a .lnk ( icon and all ) to Extenshun ( which was apparrently on the desktop or in the systray ). And it worked too.

I found two USLESS .shortcuts to a program that had been moved from the C: drive to the D: ( since I made the RP this AM. )

I found a .PIF file to a DOS program that I had tried to run. Which also tried to work when I double clicked it.

All kinds of references to ICONS.

So the bottom line is. The Restore Point that I made the AM is already out of date. Not that it wouldn't work but would still put all that un-needed stuff back.

But just to be on the safer side ( seing as how I had been messing with the file ) I shutdown/restarted SR and made a new one.

I have to double check to make sure but I believe SR shuts Windows down and does it work in DOS then restarts Windows again. I think this as it does need to reboot to finish.

Also I would think it goes to DOS as Windows will not overwrite open ( in use ) files. Even SE would not allow that. That is why a Scanreg /Restore had to be done from DOS.

BillyBob

 

Hello BillyBob,

I think your getting overly excited about SR. Its like any backup system, used with intellegence, it is a lifesaver; make any major change or software install, and lately MS updates, create an SR point before.

I'm never without a new one for more than two days for exactly the reasons you outlined.

Found it useful also for this: long time ago fell for one of those virus hoaxes, you know, take such and such Widows file off because its a virus, trojan, what have you. Was able to go back more than 2 weeks to retrieve the file, copy it out, undo the restore to the present, and download the retreived file.


The following are quotes from: WindowsXP Inside/OUT by Ed Bott and Carl Siechert concerning XP's System Restore:

"By default, System Restore maintains a strict hands-off policy on all files stored in your My Documents folder and in the %SystemRoot%\Downloaded Program Files folder. Every other folder on your system is fair game, however, and the results can be disconcerting. After you use System Restore to roll back your system to a previous configuration, you may discover that the utility wiped out executable files, scripts, dynamic link libraries (DLLs), TrueType fonts, and Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) files that were stored outside of your My Documents folder and that had been downloaded after the date of the restore point you selected.

System Restore does not monitor the following files and folders:

The page file (virtual memory) or hibernation file.

Any files of any type stored in the following personal data folders:

My Documents, Favorites, Cookies, Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, History, and Temp.

Image and graphics files, including bitmap and JPEG files, and files that use extensions commonly associated with data files, such as .doc, .xls, .mdb, and .pdf.

E-mail files managed by Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. "

End of quote.


And finally, DOS? XP doesn't have it.


Regards - Charles

 

***Its like any backup system, used with intellegence, it is a lifesaver; make any major change or software install, and lately MS updates, create an SR point before.

Good thinking.

That is one reason I do not activate SR on anything other than the C: Drive. As most everything other than the OS is on other partitions. And any problems always seem to be always on the C: drive.

That is exactly what I am referring to. It we are not carefull we can lose a lot of changes that have been made.

If I used the one that I made early today I would have done just that. Wiped out some new things and put old things back.

I know users ( personally ) that think System Restore is a FIX ALL. And it is not. It is ( as you in a way said ) only as good as what is in it.

But my last reply was not really about using SR. It refers to what I found in it. And some of the things were no longer existing.

More good thinking.

I also have ( or had ) a friend that INSISTED that Microsoft was ALWAYS right. Well after the last wipeout he had ( using ME & SR ) he and I parted as Friends. HE STILL blames everybody but himself.

BillyBob

 

I think somebody and better look again.

Compared to 95, 98, 98FE it is limited but it is there.

Command.com
Edit.com
Chkdsk

Are DOS.

And after a bad shutdown XP boots into DOS to run CheckDisk just like 98 ran Scandisk.

BillyBob

 

Hi BillyBob,

I know you were part of this thread http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18390&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

OK, arguments can be made to support both points of view.

Regards - Charles

 

OK, arguments can be made to support both points of view.


Yup !!

That is what keeps these threads interesting.

BB

 

I agree with Charles the user is reponsible to maintain some order and knowledge of his own system. My system doesn't experience many changes and require a complicated record. However, problems may develop with more than one user for obvious reasons.

Many people run into trouble installing a new program, upgrade to a program, or up grade system files (patches). If a problem, uninstall and roll back and reinstall backup!

On my system as I understand it, checkpoints are automatically created every 10 hours running. And automatic checkpoints are established just before the installation of a new program and updates. However, I manually establish a S/R point prior to an installation of a program. Manual established points can be given a name and some info and identified much later and recalled. History of R/S points on a calendar show the date of the automatic installation of system updates.

With that said, one certainly should have a record that would point out the probability of the source of the problem. If RS doesn't fix, that helps to further diagnose. That is the procedure to do a diagnostic...isolate the problem by elimination. SR is a tool not necessarily the cure. I don't believe anyone has said or believes it fixes all problems.