Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PMS Witch who wrote (18603)	4/12/2001 12:09:19 PM
From: Esteban	Respond to of 110582

Very nice treatment of the booting options, PW. I've bookmarked that one. Nice to see you posting again. Esteban

To: PMS Witch who wrote (18603)	4/15/2001 12:25:03 AM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110582

I saved that in my How To file under "PMS Witch Boot Menu." Most of my How To folders have "mr. mark" as the first two words, lol. MS-DOS Safe Mode is surely where I defragged from last time. I had made a rebootable floppy of WME with the expertcity help. And it looked like DOS and gave me the Safe Mode option. <<<[safe] mode was made available because Windows developers assumed that the core of Windows’ code is reliable, and that the source of most Windows’ problems can be found in software >>> This "locked by a disk utility" problem when I try to defrag started after I installed WinZip. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I don't know wtf I need it for. Can you think of any reason I shouldn't uninstall it?

To: PMS Witch who wrote (18603)	4/16/2001 10:58:10 AM
From: PMS Witch	Respond to of 110582

Oops … In my earlier discussion on the Boot Menu in #reply-15654080 I left out an option: Step by step Confirmation. When Step by Step Confirmation is selected, the user is allowed to manually select which parts of the Windows booting will be executed. The primary function of this feature is to assist in isolating troublesome code. It can also be used to force a customised boot without the danger or nuisance of editing registry or system files. On my system, the Enter key means Yes, or process, while the Escape key means No, or skip. I’ll work through a few choices. The first choice presented is whether to process the registry. If the problem disappears when No is selected, we can concentrate our efforts on registry issues. One mystery for me persists: The registry contains my scores in FreeCell, and when I choose to skip registry processing, those scores are still available. Maybe skipping the registry only applies to during booting? Next, we may elect to create a boot log file BOOTLOG.TXT in our root directory. This file usually gets written with the hidden attribute set, so it’s a little work to use. Also, it’s a big file with many repetitive entries, making it tedious for human readers. Analysers can be downloaded to make the job easier. Choosing to process CONFIG.SYS will result in each line within this file being presented for approval. Most systems which use this file only require a few lines, and since they represent DOS choices, one can usually tap Yes to all, without applying any brainpower. Save it for later. As with CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT will be processed in the same manner. Interestingly, users are asked to approve comments as well as code. Since comments do nothing, it doesn’t matter if they are processed or not. My AutoExec file has about a hundred lines, all acceptable, so I just lean on the key for a while, watching for the end. Windows appends WIN to the contents of this file. WIN is the command to load and execute Windows. Selecting No will result in a boot to DOS mode. As Windows starts, an option to load drivers appears. Select No, and Windows boots to Safe Mode. This seems reasonable, because Safe Mode is simply Windows without drivers. Selecting Yes brings further choices for each driver. On my system the list is a couple of screens long. Anyone attempting to isolate a problem by selectively answering No to one on each boot will have their work cut out for them. Others may want to work through the list to satisfy their curiosity and to make certain nothing unwanted gets loaded. Monitoring drivers as they are loaded can give hints about what programs are executing at boot time. I would be particularly suspicious about a driver continuing to load long after I’d removed the program associated with it. Unfortunately, as the list scrolls up my screen, most entries mean nothing to me. Sure, a driver called Mouse or another called Video goes by, but for every one that makes some sense, there’s a dozen that means nothing: Like Vdp32xtr! Cheers, PW. P.S. I fabricated the name Vdp32xtr as an illustration. Please don’t spend time researching it.