CLINT’S TIPS: How to ease the pain of periodically re-installing Windows

Some tips for doing re-installs frequently…

1) Always keep your hardware drivers for any computer in C:\HARDWARE\computername\hardwaretype\hardwarename

For example:
c:\hardware\Hades\video cards\ATI\ for your video card drivers.

And of course, make sure this folder is copied onto 2 computers, or part of your backup process. This is very helpful. For one thing, install CDs are often lost. For another thing, personal research allows you to leave little notes like “Use the install CD, then upgrade to this version, but NOT the latest version, it sucks”. Information that’s not used frequently and often forgotten can save you if you put it in a place where you can’t miss it.

2) I always keep my basic non-installable command-line tools in C:\UTIL\, which is replicated to every computer every reboot. Lots of my tools thus work, automatically. I copy my command-line, 4NT, from another computer as well. So out of the box, most of my “ClintIsms” work without any form of installation.

3) I find it helps to make a folder called \RE-INSTALL\ somewhere, with numbered subfolders, to deal with those programs that require pesky installation:

U:\RE-INSTALL
├──1 (do before bringing online)
├──2 (daily use programs)
├──3 (near-daily use programs)
└──4 (weekly or less use programs)

For me, folder 1 just includes WinZip (so I can unzip my other programs), my antivirus (EZ AntiVirus), my firewall (SyGate), and my settings tweaker (X-Teq Pro).

Before going to folder 2, we must bring the computer online safely. This involves fully patching the machine without connecting to the internet — which is a catch 22. The updates are on the internet, but you need them to safely be on the internet. How do you solve that? Answer: CTUPDATE. CTUpdate is a command-line script that can first be set to download every patch for an OS. You do this once ever, and add it to your backups. You now have all the patches in an offline form. CTUpdate can then apply them without ever going online. It also reduces the total reboots to about 3 or so instead of 10 or so, and runs without you having to click or do anything! Unfortunately, it fails if you don’t make sure these 4 files are deleted, so I had to make a ctupdate.bat to run ctupdate.cmd by deleting th ese 4 files:

C:\bat>cat ctupdate.bat
if exist c:\recycled\SetOSEnvVars.cmd *del c:\recycled\SetOSEnvVars.cmd
if exist c:\recycled\wsusscn2.cab *del c:\recycled\wsusscn2.cab
if exist c:\recycled\update.txt *del c:\recycled\update.txt
if exist c:\recycled\MissingUpdateIds.txt *del c:\recycled\MissingUpdateIds.txt
c:\util\ctupdate\client\Update.cmd
REM note that if it’s XP, it’s c:\recycler\ and not c:\recycled\

Folder 2 includes my daily use programs, which are different for each person. For me, they are AudioScrobbler, Winamp, EditPlus (text editor), Firefox (but having a new version is tricky; still, an old version is better than nothing), MSCOMCTL.ZIP (a DLL I always end up needing), TweakUI, WinZip Command-Line Addon, VLC Player, John’s Adventures Desktop Background Switcher.

Folder 3 includes things I use not quite daily. ActivePerl, EvilLyrics, VNC server, Winrar. IT’S IMPORTANT TO PUT VNC SERVER IN YOUR STARTUP! If you mess up your video card such that your computer can’t display anything, you can VNC in and fix it. You could also use Remote Desktop in this situation.

Folder 4 are my more esoteric tools that I only occasionally use. CoolEdit audio editer, Acoustica audio converter, ImageMagick, Xing mp3 encoder (which I only use for CBR encodes; I use c:\util\LAME.exe for VBR encodes).

Anyway — being able to install windows in only 3 reboots, and get most of my drivers and programs installed without having to hunt them down and download them (or find the install cd) really helps take away a lot of the stress of the process. And repositories that can be backed up are helpful too. But my last tip has to do with those programs you only use rarely — once a month, once a year. Make a C:\INSTALL-FILES\ and make separate folders for util-net, util-video, util-sound, util-diagnostic, games-misc, games-tetris, etc. This repository will grow to be several gigs big, but it’s really nice to be able to install any program you’ve ever installed in the past without having to connect to the internet.

And for God’s sake, don’t leave your EXE files exposed. Zip them. This protects them from a virus better than running antivirus, as most virii wont look inside a ZIP file. I lost thousands of EXEs in my c:\INSTALL-FILES\ due to the w32.licum virus — but 0 of my zipped ones.

 

SOFTWARE: I guess it’s best not to mess with Windows Update if you care about that nice Arial font that most pages use…

So who did the Windows Update that came out last night? Since I had automatic updates, I had no choice. But I tried to stop it by killing some processes. This was a bad idea. I should have just let it go.

Now [UPDATE: it's fixed now], all non-bolded text on all webapages are italics, including any text box I type in. Firefox 2.0.0.13 and I already decided Firefox 3.0 is something I’d like to avoid based on trying it out [UPDATE: it wasn't a firefox error, it happened in IE as well]. So what the hell is happening? How can a Windows Update affect Firefox? [UPDATE: It didn't. My Arial font got corrupted.] Is Microsoft pulling some shit (forced incompatibility)? [UPDATE: No.]

This just goes along with my general rant against changing computers. If I set something up, it should stay exactly as I set it up – for the rest of my life. This is progress? Now I have to find a new web browser, and kiss my working plugins goodbye? I need the NoSquint plugin to live on a 52-inch monitor. [UPDATE: To add to this rant .. a font file, once installed, really shouldn't be touched. Ever!]

UPDATE: My arial font may be corrupted.

UPDATE: Fixed by downloading arial font HERE.

 

JOURNAL: COMPUTER: The Birth Of Hades – part 4 – I hate XP and I’m forced to run it!

My new computer is coming along quite nicely, but I still think Windows XP blows compared to Windows 2000. Change is bad when you already have everything you need and just want to continue using the same hardware and software you’ve been using for 10+ years. If I want to do new stuff, I’ll get another computer for that. Leave my main computer alone. Also: Micro-review of Shrek 2. ** WARNING: SUPER-LONG POST **. You might want to ’star’ this for lunch. Click for the rest–>

 

LINKS: Swearing at work helps employees AND employers, baby hedgehogs are cute, Windows Vista sucks at the very simple act of COPYING FILEs

Yup.  Damn those hedgehogs are amazingly cute for such a fugly animal.

 

LINKS: student & mother arrested because student dropped cake in cafeteria; student’s wrist broken — and other bad stuff

Busy day full of bad news. Corporate censorship by Verizon. Cop fined just $400 for shooting at people in an off-duty road rage. But if you cough on an officer, expect to go to jail. More stuff below. Please make sure to read about the [black] student getting her wrist broken by the [white] security guard, after he made her go back and clean up her cake she spilled. It’s the last link. Please read it. This shit makes me nuts.

 

LINKS: No one had less to do with today’s post than Jesus.

Kathy Griffin’s Emmy remarks to be censored – thank you Catholic League.  Hilarious MS-DOS 5 Upgrade Video – a 5-minute “rap” about MS-DOS 5.0 and how you MUST GET IT.  They even say, “Give me 5!”.

 

LINKS: overly-harsh punishments, disabling the Windows key

Joggers drop flour to mark route; charged with felony; “decontamination” ensues; paranoid fucks.  Disable Windows Key via registry.

 

LINKS: Bullet-proof baby stroller, first goatse photo pool, police brutality, overly-harsh punishments, sexually harassing monkeys, neat music video by non-musician, reincarnation banned in China, and other madness

It’s the weekend and I’m getting nothing done!
Click for some links.

 

JOURNAL: The Death Of “Storm”, Day… er… Part 7

I WANT MY WINDOWS KEY TO WORK GODDAMNIT… wtf. No, Control-Escape isn’t good enough for me!! It was my meta key for winamp…. I don’t want to use the stupid buttons. I like normal keys, damnit.

 

JOURNAL: The Death Of “Storm”, Day… er… Part 6

Girder sucks, but it’s all I know. I can’t believe that Girder under XP can’t capture the Windows keyboard, but Girder under 2K can. Laziness has prevented me from downgrading XP to 2K, but more and more, I just find more things I hate about XP. Now that my XP machine has become my primary machine… I am half-tempted to re-install windows. But, in the interest of the short-term, I will try to live with this crap. I have for 2.5 years already; just not as my primary computer.

 

LINKS: Technology War=Killbots, Vista=Teh Suck, Sex Offenders’ plight

Iraq killbots to begin killing humans. Sex Offender Registration Targets Homeless — Man Faces Life In Prison At Tax Payer Expense … For Homelessness! High-Quality Content Can’t Be Easily Played by Vista. Flickr To Add Video… And more!

 

JOURNAL: WORK: The click of death.

Definitely the worst mouse-click ever.

 

LINKS: Article on mass army desertions in Iraq (plus: Make Your Own T-Shirts, why Vista sucks, and a neat search engine)

You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead In Iraq. Design your own t-shirts for $15. Microsoft Vista requires you to already have windows to install it! (WTF?). Also, a really need search engine. Read on for the links.

 

What OS Are You?

Which OS are You?  I am, apparantly, Windows 98.

 

Technology War: Net neutrality bill is a poison pill

U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has snuck the dreaded and condemned "broadcast flag" into a bill on Net Neutrality.  In effect, it would allow broadcasters to veto any features of digital televisions and downstream devices.  This would ultimately give Hollywood studios control over technology and ensure that technological innovation does not affect their business model.

One alarming element of the broadcast flag proposal is how it prohibits the use of free and open source software in digital TV applications (including PC operating systems, video drivers, etc).  This is because tech companies would be required to build devices to be robust, to resist the attempts of their owners to modify them.

Um………… Can we say "load of crap"?  As a user of open-source video drivers who has used his video card to record hundreds of gigs of television, I do not want my rights to use my technology as I see fit taken away.

Net neutrality is good, but this bill is a poison pill that should be rejected.

Beware wolves in sheeps' clothing.

 

Technology War: Microsoft helps write Oklahoma “anti-spyware” law that helps Microsoft use your own computer to incriminate you

http://www.okgazette.com/news/templates/cover.asp?articleid=423&zoneid=7

 Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Next step, Washington?

It seems everything is a bait-and-switch conspiracy nowadays.  Give them what they think they want:

Called the “Computer Spyware Protection Act,” House Bill 2083 would create fines of up to a million dollars for anyone using viruses or surreptitious computer techniques to break on to someone’s computer without that person’s knowledge and acceptance, according to the bill’s state Senate author, Clark Jolley.

But really, make it exactly what they don't want:

That means that Microsoft (or another company with such software) can erase spyware or viruses. But if you have, say, a pirated copy of Excel — Microsoft (or companies with similar software) can erase it, or anything else they want to erase, and not be held liable for it. Additionally, that phrase “fraudulent or other illegal activities” means they can:

• Let the local district attorney know that you wrote a hot check last month.
• Let the attorney general know that you play online poker.
• Let the tax commission know you bought cartons of cigarettes and didn’t pay the state tax on them.
• Read anything on your hard drive, such as your name, home address, personal identification code, passwords, Social Security number … etc., etc., etc.

“I think in broad terms that is still a form of spying,” said Marc Rotenberg, attorney and executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.

And I'd agree.

 So basically, Microsoft uses spyware as an excuse to spy on us.  Corporations manipulating lawmakers into changing the law so that our computers testify against us.

Nothing is sacred, and this is only the beginning.

 

Fire.

So I tried installing VectorLinux on Fire (after burning a new disc with better media).  No go.

At least with Kubuntu, through some googling I found out Alt-M puts you in adminstrator mode.  So I can do administrator stuff despite the fact the button everything says to push doesn’t exist.

Of course, that did nothing to fix the network, which doesn’t work.  And I’m not super-duper interested in finding out what the problem is when the card worked fine under windows.

This is my 3rd bout with Linux (Slackware in 1999, Redhat in 2002) and once again I do not think it is ready for old machines.  Maybe it would work fine on new machines, but Windows is still better in my book.  And less annoying.  Yes, I said it.

 

Ubunto… Kubuntu… Meh.

Well, my computer “Fire” seems to be shaping up a bit.  Once we realized the cd was invalid, despite passing verification, we realized we’d spent like 2 nites pulling harddrives 5 times, ram once, cpu once, moving monitors, and all kinds of crazy shit.  All of it was a wild-goose-chase stemming from thinking the computer was bad instead of the CD!

Burned a new cd.  Used its self-testing method to self-test.  Fine.  The thing actually worked.

I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, so I only installed the base package.  What a mistake that was.  I was all done and all I got was a unix prompt!  “HELP” only revealed shell operator commands.  I guess I’m supposed to know all this stuff already?  I manually went thru directory trees looking for “startx” where I thought it should be.  Finally, I realized I only had the base package installed.

So I decide to install the rest.  How do I do it?  I don’t know.  Apt-Get?  Nah.  My network wasn’t configured.  I said “configure network later”.  No opportunity was given.  If “configure network later” means having to do it manually later, then warn me!!!   I kidna figured I would be presented with an opportunity of equal ease to setup my network.  And to install the additional packages.  No fucking way.

So, yes, I had to install again starting from scratch.  This time I put in my network info right away, and did the full installation.

Yay!  I had a login prompt by bedtime!  But… My browser wouldn’t work.  Oh look, my network card is greyed out.

I’d like to change the settings, but they are greyed out.  They say I need to push the “Administrator Mode” button to be able to make those kinds of changes.

I do not see this button.  And upon googling, I am finding other people who don’t see the button.  So then they have to find out the name of the binary that is being called and “sudo <binaryname>” just to use what is essentially a control panel.

Fuck that. I might just literally throw the whole computer away.  This Ubuntu is not living up to it’s reputation.

There’s still VectorLinux to try.  At least it has some cool screensavers.

 

Damn you, Fire!

So my computer Fire is confusing me again… Now I find out the Ubuntu install cd has some sort of self-check program, and it tells me the fucking disc is corrupt! Well goddamn, I burned it using Nero with Verify turned on on my pre-built Gateway machine running Windows XP. Never in my whole life of Windows not-XP or non-Gateway cd-burners have I had this problem.

And “Storm” (my main computer, best computer ever) just had it’s cd-burner break! That Plextor burned every cd I burned for years! (Of course I’ll never get another Plextor, but that’s another story.)

So now I am stuck with 600 or so blank cds from my huge batch of 1,200 way way way way back when (3 dvd burners ago). And they aren’t “in the burn strategy list” for the stupid Gateway DVD/CD burner. It insists on a verification. And lies to you that it is fine when it isn’t. What… The… Fuck.

Am I to become suspect of combo cd/dvd drives now? Do I need to buy a separate cd burner? (That’s sooooooo stupid when dvd burners are so cheap!) Do I have to research the cd-burning capabilities for my dvd drives?

Oh why did I buy those 1,200 CD-Rs?

Fortunately Gateway had some stupid recovery program that came with their computers, and I opened the shrink-wrap and found five CD-Rs I can use in the meanwhile. I must choose wisely. Ugh. It’s like collecting fancy pennies. Worthless, but you need several kinds. Okay sue me I’m not in the mood to think of a good analogy, you’ll just have to be happy with a bad one. I’d be surprised if anyone read this far. :)

 

Goodbye “Fire”.

Well it definitely looks like our computer “Fire” is dead, and dead for good.   Carolyn gave it a bad IP address and didn’t change it back last summer, which in theory contributed to the death of that machine’s webserver, shortly followed by TCP/IP stack death and/or total OS death.  It sat for a few months during this construction detente and finally we needed the space back bad enough that we started trying to fix it — in January.  (Yes, a few months passed by, and I really needed some of the data on the 160G that lived on that machine.!)

We tried Win2K.  We tried TinyXp.  We tried Linux — both Ubuntu and VectorLinux.  No go.  Nothing installed.

Then we took the 17G out, and moved it to Carolyn’s computer “Magic”.  Our newer computers (Hell, Magic) have SATA cards and all SATA harddrives.  But Magic is our oldest new computer (if that makes sense), so it had both SATA and EIDE ports.  So we moved Fire’s old old 17G harddrive (the oldest harddrive still in use in the house: we use 17G, 25G, 80G, 80G, 80G, 120G, 120G, 120G, 160G, maybe a 200G, 250G, maybe a 300G, 400G).  We use so many harddrives I can’t rememeber them all but the total storage is about 2.2 terabytes.

So anyway we move 17G over to Magic, map it on the network, and I finally recover many files I’ve needed for about 6 months.  After a couple hours I’ve moved everything over to my main computer (”Storm”).  Now we have an EMPTY 17G drive.  We tried Ubuntu Linux and Vector Linux and TinyXP again.  No go.

I thought, “What if the installs are failing because the cd-drive is reading the disc improperly?”  Very improbably, but I hunteded down the old computers people had given me, found one, and gutted it, gaining a floppy drive, a cd drive, and 2 EIDE cables.  The 90W power supply was utterly useless and the 8G drive was too hard to unscrew (A drive screwed directly into a case?  What the fuck were they thinking back in the Pentium-II days?!?!).

Tried the new cd drive and lo and behold, the thing doesn’t even eject.  Okay, we got to stress test the cd tray at least.  “If I kick this, will it really break off?”  Findings indicate cd drive eject trays don’t break as easily as one would expect.  Still, “It’s fun to smash stuff” as Homer says to Marge.

Is “Fire” dead?  I think so.

But I’m still going to try 2 more installs.  One with half my ram in, one with the other half of my ram in.  Maybe I have some bad RAM.

And I’m going to set the bios to failsafe.  Sure, I enjoyed overclocking my P3-450 to 558mHz all these years, but if it’s making it a non-computer, it’s not worth it.

If all that fails, I’ll gut it for the cd, floppy, network, sound, and video cards and it will be on my curb. 

Someday, I’ll have a web and ftp server again.