"Denny's System Tips"

Certified in both Windows 95, 98 and NT, is the owner and one of several technicians operating DEW Associates Corp, a registered Microsoft OEM and system builder.
Systems Technologies, a subsidiary of DEW Associates Corporation, is a Microsoft DSP and Systems Solutions Partner.
Welcome Dennis!!

Here's an efficient way to automate the backing up of partitions, daily, weekly or monthly using the Task Scheduler included with Windows 98. (For most versions of Windows 95, you will have to apply a plus pack to get the Task Scheduler program.)  Following the steps below you can automate the image creation process.

1. First, create your script file (This example assumes your image will be stored on drive D: ).  To do this, open a DOS shell in Windows, and type edit script.txt at the C:\ prompt.
   In the DOS editor screen, add the following lines to script.txt:
          SELECT DRIVE 1
          SELECT PARTITION C:
          STORE

2. Save script.txt with the above lines to the C: drive, or to a diskette if you would like to run it that way.

3. Find your Drive Image directory in Windows Explorer.

4. Once in the directory, right-click on the pqdi.exe file, and select properties.

5. Click on the Program tab.

6. Adjust the command line to specify the location of the script file, and where you would like to store the image.  (In the above example the command line would read:
   PQDI /CMD=C:\SCRIPT.TXT /IMG=D:\IMAGES\BACKUP.PQI)

7. Click on Advanced and check the "MS-DOS mode" box.

8. Finally, add PQDI.EXE to the Task Scheduler.  Configure it for a specific time, date, etc.

Registry Backup And Compression

A little known fact, Windows 98 compresses the system registry automatically when it has more than 500k of "wasted space" in it. If you want to compress your registry manually, boot to an MS-DOS prompt (you must not be in Windows when you do this). To compress and optimize your registry, which is always a good thing to do anyway, type: "SCANREG /OPT" (without the quotes). Now, to backup the registry from the command prompt, type: "SCANREG /BACKUP" (without the quotes).

If you perform both operations, you have now compressed the registry as well as having backed it up. Okay, now I guess you're looking for something else right? Okay, try this.

Remember that Autoexec.bat file you don't need anymore, well now you have a new use for it. First, create a new folder on your hard drive, and name it regback. Now create a small batch file and call that batch file from the Autoexec.bat.

First, create a batch file named REG.BAT, and insert these lines: (This presumes that your hard drive is "C" and that you have created a new folder named regback).

COPY C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP\*.CAB C:\REGBACK
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SCANREG /OPT
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SCANREG /BACKUP

Now save the batch file and call it from your Autoexec.bat file. Each time your system starts, your registry will be optimized and backed up and previous copies saved to the Regback folder. Every now and then clean out the Regback folder to save disk space, but remember, you will always have several registry backups to use in the event you need them to recover your system.

All About Scanreg; and then some!!!

Okay, if you've read an earlier tip, you're probably asking what it ScanReg and what is so important about it.

There quite a bit of pro and con about Microsoft and what they have done right and wrong, and if they've done anything right at all, it is their inclusion of this tool. Some background on this neat hidden little tool as well as its use both inside and outside of the Windows 98 GUI interface.

Windows 98 comes with not one, but two Scanreg files, Scanreg and Scanregw. Scanreg is used within MS-Dos and from a dos prompt, while scanregw is used within Windows 98 and called from the "Start", "Run" command line.

ScanReg (Registry Checker) is an automated registry verification and backup utility that is provided with Windows 98. The ScanReg.ini file is a Windows system file that contains configuration information for the way that ScanReg runs.

ScanReg also has a neat little companion tool called Sredit.exe that enables you to configure Scanreg to work in the manner you wish. As an example, in addition to backing up the registry (user.dat and System.dat), including the Win.ini and System.ini files, you can add several other files to the registry backup as well. SREdit.Exe allows you to alter the default configuration settings for the ScanReg program.

Get Sredit.exe HERE

The SREdit tool can be found in the Config folder on the Windows 98 CR-ROM as well as part of the Windows 98 Resource Kit.

SREdit.Exe works by modifying the ScanReg.Ini file, eliminating the need for the user to modify this file directly. This can be useful for creating emergency recovery disks as well as optimizing the performance of your computer.

With SREdit.Exe, you can make the following changes to the way that ScanReg runs:

You can specify the directory or directories where ScanReg stores its backup copies of the Registry.

You can set the maximum number of backup copies allowed as well as select additional system files (such as AutoExec.Bat, Config.Sys, or Msdos.sys) to be backed up.

You can set ScanReg to optimize the registry. (When this value is set, ScanReg removes the space reserved in the registry for deleted keys, which typically reduces the size of the registry.)

As you know, the registry is critical to your Windows 98 based computer because Windows 98 and Windows 98 based applications store their configuration information in the registry. Therefore, it is crucial to back up the registry regularly and frequently so that this information can be recovered in the event that the registry is damaged. It is also a good idea to back up the registry before installing a new application or new hardware.

Registry Checker automatically backs up and restores the registry. You can also run it manually at any time using the following procedure.

To manually back up the registry using Registry Checker:

On the Start menu, click Run.

Type scanregw.exe, and click OK.

First Registry Checker verifies that the registry is structurally sound. If the registry is found to be sound, Registry Checker offers to back it up. Registry Checker will back up the registry and store the compressed CAB file in \Windows\Sysbckup directory (a hidden directory).

On those occasions where the registry structure is sound, but a content change in the registry is keeping the computer from booting properly, you will need to manually restore the registry and maybe other critical boot files from a backup. You would accomplish this by using the following procedure:

To restore the backup manually:

On the Start menu, click Shut Down.

Select Restart in MS-DOS mode and click OK.

At the MS-DOS command prompt, type "scanreg /restore" (without quotes).

Select the latest known good backup.

Backed up, compressed registry files are listed with the name Rbxxx.cab. The files show the time and date of backup. Next to each CAB file are the words Started or Not Started.

"Started" means that the file has successfully started Windows 98, and is a known good file. "Not Started" means that the file has never been used to start Windows 98, so it is not a known good file. This doesn't mean that it isn't a good registry backup, but only that it has never actually been used to start Windows 98.

The syntax for the backup would be:

C:\Windows\Command>SCANREG /BACKUP /COMMENT="MESSAGE"

The syntax to either view the backup with message and/or restore would be:

C:\Windows\Command>SCANREG /Restore

or

C:\Windows\Command>SCANREG (and then view the backup files)
*************************
The Registry Checker scan and backup tools can be configured with the Scanreg.ini file, which in itself can be edited using the Sredit.exe file.

Configurable settings in the Scanreg.ini file:

Backup= Enables and disables Registry Checker.

Backup=0 Disables backups

Backup=1 Enables backups

MaxBackupCopies= Specifies the maximum number of backups to store in the Backup folder.

MaxBackupCopies=5
5 is the default number of copies.

BackupDirectory=

Changes the location of the backup folder where the CAB files are stored. For example,

BackupDirectory=   C:\RegBackup.

Files=                        Adds system files to be backed up.

The "File=" entry does not exist by default, and is used to specify additional files you want to back up in the .cab file. To specify additional files to be backed up, type "Files=<folder code>,<file name>" (without the quotation marks), where <folder code> is the numerical code for the folder in which the file you want to back up is located, and <file name> is the name of the file you want to back up. If you want to back up multiple files in the same location, separate each file name using a comma (,) and no spaces.

The following table lists the possible folder codes:

Folder code Folder
------------------------------------------------------------
10      <windows> (for example, Windows)

11      <windows>\System (for example, Windows\System)

30      Root folder (for example, c:\)

31      Root host folder (for example, c:\)

As an example, if you want to back up the 3d Maze.scr and Actmovie.exe files located in the Windows\System folder, type the following line:

Files=11,3d maze.scr,actmovie.exe

Optimize=      Enables and disables automatic registry optimization.

Optimize=0    Disables optimization

Optimize=1     Enables optimization
*************************
The following are the command line options for "ScanReg" (Registry Checker)

Some options apply to ScanReg only, ScanRegw only, or either.

MS-Dos only!

ScanReg [/backup] [/restore] ["/comment=<text>"] [/fix]

Windows 98 only!

ScanRegw [/backup] ["/comment=<text>"] [/fix] [/autoscan] [/scanonly] [filename]

/backup Backs up the registry with no prompts to the user.

/restore Displays a list of backup files available, sorted by date and time of the backup.

/comment= Specifies that a comment is attached to the backup, which is displayed with /restore.

/fix Repairs the registry files.

/autoscan Scans the registry files every time it is run, but only backs up once per day.

/scanonly Scans the registry files and returns an error level. Does not back up.

Filename Scans the registry file specified and displays a message indicating whether

Or not any errors were found. Does not backup the registry.

Note: The registry scan results dialogue only appears when used within Windows 98.

This table identifies the error levels returned by ScanReg.
*******************************************
Error level Error

2 The registry is bad.

0 No problems found.

-2 Not enough memory. Free some memory. In real mode, Registry Checker may  require more memory, or high memory (HIMEM) needs to be installed (ScanReg does not work in Safe Mode command prompt only). In protected mode, the Windows drive may be full.

-3 File not found.     One or both of the registry files are missing.

-4 Unable to create User.dat or System.dat.

-5 Reading the registry failed.

-6 Writing to the registry failed.

-7 Sharing violation (protect mode only). Another application has the registry open.

Caution: You must not back up core configuration files using the Emergency Recovery utility and CfgBack utilities from the Windows 95 compact disc. If these Windows 95 backup registries are restored to the Windows 98 system, the computer will not boot.

Quite often when viewing instructions on a web page, delineating where spaces should be is sometimes difficult. With that I'll provide an example of using the "message" appended when creating the backed up registry file.

For this example, let's presume that you have a clean Windows 98 install and you have everything working just as you want it. Now you want to add a new program such as Norton or McAfee Anti-virus and you want to insure a way back if there are problem.

Question, how do you tell which registry backup is the one immediately preceding the installation of the anti-virus program? Easy, append a message to it!

Note: The underscore "_" between words represents a blank space!

C:\>SCANREG_/BACKUP_/COMMENT="B4NORTON"

For Curing Many Problems With 98, Try SCANREG/FIX and SFC 1st

Have your Windows 98 CD Rom disk handy.

1. Reboot the system and either hold the Ctrl key down right after memory post or when you see the “Starting Windows…” dialogue, touch the F8 key.

2. Choose #5 Command (MSDOS) Prompt only.

3. At the dos prompt, change directories to X:\Windows\Command, with “X” being the directory where Windows is installed.

4. Now type SCANREG/FIX <enter>

5. Follow the dialogue and let Scanreg review your registry and make any necessary repairs.

6. When Scanreg is done, reboot into Windows.

NEXT:

1. Insert your Windows 98 CD Rom disk into the drive.

2. Click Start, Run and type SFC <OK>

3. This will start the System File Checker.

4. Click on the settings button and select “Check for changed and deleted files” and click OK to start.

5. Replace any files that are detected as bad or corrupt. Also watch the file dates carefully and always try and replace older files with newer files, and most important, always use the latest version numbers for all files. SFC will copy the old file to X:\Windows\Sysbckup in case you need it back.

When SFC is done, reboot the system and note the performance.

Related Information:
Q186909 Registry Checker Continues to Detect Registry Damage

Q183887 Description of the Windows Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe)

Q183603 How to Customize Registry Checker Tool Settings

Q184023 Command-Line Switches for the Registry Checker Tool

Back Up Your "ISP" Information!!!

Is there an easy way to back up the ISP information? Have you recently purchased a new computer and had to call your Internet service provider to get going on the Internet?

The information you seek is stored in the Windows 95/98 Registry. To make a backup, click Start, Run, type in

regedit

and press Enter. As always, be very careful when you are running RegEdit--you can do some serious damage to your system installation if you delete something you shouldn't or add something that doesn't belong.

When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\RemoteAccess. Click RemoteAccess to select it, then choose Registry, Export Registry File. When the Export Registry File dialog box appears, type a name and choose a location for your new file. Now click Save to save the file and close the dialog box.

Back in RegEdit, choose Registry, Exit to close the program.

Since one reason to make a backup is to protect yourself if your hard disk should fail, copy this file to a floppy disk or a Zip disk for safekeeping. If you need to restore the settings, locate your ISP REG file and double-click its icon. This merges the file with the Registry and restores your original settings.

Files We Can Safely Get Rid Of

We're often asked which files can be safely removed from a Windows 95/98 system to recover needed disk space.

Here's a short list of the files that you can make disappear without disastrous ramifications. Keep in mind that in certain circumstances you may want to create a folder and name it something like "Delete" so that instead of deleting the files entirely, you can move them to this "Delete" folder. Then, when you've run your computer for several days or a few weeks without encountering any related problems, it is probably safe to get rid of everything in that "Delete" folder. To find these files, use the Find, Files and Folders from the Start Button and type in "*.XXX" with .XXX being the listed extension. Make sure you search your entire computer instead of simply one folder!

.CHK -- Scandisk backup file. If there are lost clusters found when you run Scandisk, these files will be created. They will not come back, but new ones can be created with future Scandisk uses.

.GRP -- Program Manager Group file. If you never use Program Manager anymore, why keep these around? They will not come back, but an install program could create new ones.

.GID -- HELP-related file. When you run a Help file, it creates a "GID" to make future accesses to that particular help file faster. They are a complete waste of space, and usually one of the worst disk-hog offenders. You'll have to delete these on a regular basis, as they are recreated with every Help file execution.

.FTS -- HELP-related file. When you perform a search with a Help file, this is created to make all future perform faster. You may not need these unless you use HLP files on a daily basis. They will reappear if you do a search in a HLP file. You should search for these on a regular basis and delete them.

.CNT -- HLP-related file. Ever notice those tables of contents when you launch certain Help files? If you don't need a table to help you navigate through a Help file, delete these. They will not come back.

.AVI -- Movie file. If you already know how to use Windows, and no longer need to refer to these AVI teaching screens don't keep these around. Just becareful not to remove the ones from other programs on your system. Make sure you "watch" them before deleting them, because you might delete a movie you wanted to keep.

.TMP -- Temporary file. When you exit out of Windows without shutting down everything, these files could be littering your hard drive. Typically, they can be found in the \Windows\Temp\ folder. Many programs have temp files to help speed up processes, so at times they are a necessary evil. You might find hundreds of these just waiting to be deleted.

.~MP -- Temporary file. See .TMP above.

.BAK -- Old file. When a new version of a program comes along, sometimes it will rename the old version with a .bak extension. Be careful when removing these files as they may be needed. Investigate before deleting.

.$$$ - Old file. See .BAK above. Usually not needed, but not always verify first.

.OLD -- Old file. See .BAK above. Usually not needed, but not always verify first.

What do you mean by Baseline??

I asked my friend Dennis, "What is this Baseline I keep hearing about in 98's registry?"
So he replied:

Okay, when Win98 first installs, it places a text file at \Windows called sfclog.txt. This forms a baseline of the installed files on your system. When you run SFC (System File Checker), it compares every system file on the system against this text file or baseline. Naturally, if you run this right after the install and before any updates etc, there is nothing really to compare, just a check for damaged files. But as you move through the updates and then run SFC, you will see it compare the updated files as against the original install. This is the precursor to the final release of the next Win98 and Win2000's future ability to completely repair itself with little or no user intervention.

I've run into this before, however most people haven't been reading the text files they receive with one of the three SE versions release that are out there. There is a full versions, and update version and an upgrade version. If people purchase and use the *update*, then generally these problems do not occur. Yes, generally, as you never know how people maintain their machines. SFC is great *IF* people run it right after they have added all the updates and *before* adding other software, as this sets the baseline.

As for the upgrade version, this appears to be the worst of the bunch for some reason. The new installer Microsoft is using will not overwrite newer files unless you tell it to. If the SFC baseline is out of date and you have several differing levels of DLL's files on your system, the upgrade will play hell with the system. People need to read the readme texts and follow the instructions.

The OEM version of SE, as well as the retail version, work really well, but these are on clean systems, not upgrades.

"Sent To". Right Click To Anything or Anywhere

Thanks Dennis, I just love this one:::)))
I had just started an experiment on how to make a "sendto" for a directory when my friend sent me the below tip.. Sooooooooo simple. I didn't know about the Startup>>run>>sento. Now, I do that, go to make a shortcut, type C:\whatever, and bingo, you wanna send something to your favorite "Unzipping" Directory, just right click on it and send it there.  This is especially handy for sending to nested directories.

One of my favorite tips of all time (and don't stop me if you've heard this before) deals with the SendTo menu. If you only have the default shortcuts in there, you're missing out on a world of functionality. You could be putting shortcuts in there for various (common) applications... and possibly even folders. The "must have" shortcut in the SendTo menu has to be Notepad. It's the easiest way to view a textual file. Click on the Start button, select "Run," type in "sendto" (without the quotes), then make a new shortcut to Notepad within that folder. Don't stop there, either... think about what else you might be able to "send" stuff to.

If you frequently move items to your desktop? Add this common destination to your Send To menu, and from then on, you can accomplish the move using the right-mouse button.

To add the desktop to your Send To menu, simply place a shortcut to the Windows\Desktop folder inside the Windows\SendTo folder.
Open the Windows folder, right-mouse-click and drag the Desktop folder directly over the SendTo folder, let go, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here. You may also wish to rename the new desktop shortcut, now inside the SendTo folder.

From now on, moving an item to the desktop is a simple, right-mouse operation. Just right-mouse-click any file, folder, or shortcut; select Send To; and in the resulting list, select Desktop. No clicking or dragging necessary!

How About Speeding Up By Using The Fastest CPU Priority

Open regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\BIOS In the right hand pane create a new DWORD Value called "CPUPriority" (no quotes) -> double-click on it -> check the Decimal box -> type 1.

This should speed things up by using the fastest priority to the CPU when opening any program, and should work with 99% of the PCs out there using Intel and early AMD CPU’s.

How Much RAM Will Win98 "USE"

I get a lot of questions about RAM and I've heard a lot of different opinions by "Experts" about how much Ram Windows 98 will actually "USE".  I'm having no problem with 128.
I recently talked with a teacher in computering and she says that Windows 98 actually does not use more that 64meg. There's a lot of debate about this and I need to know what is true.  So I asked my friend Dennis the question:

Chip sets aside, how much Ram will Windows 98 utilize???
He says:

Depending largely on the motherboard design (type of chipset), the type of memory (EDO, Sdram, FPM etc, etc, etc) and the CPU, Win98 will use just about all you can give it. I repeat, "depending on the MB, memory and CPU".
Rule of Thumb #1, there is no rule of thumb!

There is no one basic machine setup that will work wonderfully for everyone, as machines are not applications oriented. You can have one machine that will handle most Microsoft applications well, but add Adobe Image Ready or Photoshop and it quickly turns into a dog. All of this is the result of the base design of the machine. While Sdram is faster than EDO, EDO will shine when you need raw horsepower and large expansive memory areas. The first mistake most people make is trying to "assume" that one set of hardware parameters will work in all cases, and they won't. The second mistake is that they do things backwards, first by building what they perceive as a powerhouse and then they add the apps, instead of figuring out what they want to do and then build the machine around those parameters.
---------------------
Well, that settles it for me.  But I was in the middle of another article where I read this from a MVP in a discussion group who said:
"<<The cacheable limit of the BX chipset mainboard is really high, at least 512 meg and I think way higher. So put in RAM to your hearts content, but unless you are editing huge graphic files or some other memory intensive task, expect to see diminishing performance increase for every upgrade.>>>"

Again I asked Dennis about this "diminishing performance" issue.
He responded:

"I really don't know who writes this stuff, but they have little or no concept of motherboard chipset architecture and how it relates to memory, the different types of memory as well as the functions of the CPU. A BX chipset motherboard can cache a total of 1 GB EDO memory at 66 MHz or 1 GB Registered DIMM or 512 MB unbuffered SDRAM memory at 100 MHz. An LX chipset based MB can cache a total of 1GB EDO or 512 MB SDRAM at 66MHz."

"For the most part, people buy memory with little or no concept of what memory they have (EDO, Sdram, Fpram, FPM, RDram etc) and they just stick any old thing on the board with the expectations that it will work. Moreover, everyone looks at price as opposed to what they want achieve and then they get mad when it doesn't work as expected. I've seen people mismatch ECC with NON-ECC, Parity with non-Parity, different clock types and expect it to run and wonder why it doesn't."

For more see System RAM Cacheability