PC Madness
by Les J. Kizer
Greater Tampa Bay PCUG
Mid-Hudson Computer UG
SeniorNet PCUG - USF Tampa
From the August 2003 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
The causes for insanity are only recognized by looking backward at one's tracks
in the snow. What contributed to such a state? Would insanity have occurred if
one didn't experiment with various application programs and even the operating
system itself? Or is Microsoft the cause? I'm not sure. In looking back,
however, I discovered madness.
Possible Causes of Madness
- Top of the list is the Microsoft Windows operating system. I like stability,
to do a job once and know that it is finished. Since the children left home,
this fool operating system is the most unstable thing in my life. Each version
promises improvements. Yes, it improves, but it continues to act as someone who
is sick or changed their medication by breaking in new ways. When will they
really fix the darn thing?
- Another contributor to insanity: the ever increasing insecurity of the
Internet with its email. We have viruses and threats of viruses that go beyond
amusement to sabotaging our lives. Just for protection, we need several
applications, such as: credit card protection, GRC leak tests, Kookaburra's
Cookie Pal, Lavasoft's Ad-Avare, McAfee's Antivirus, a pop-up stopper, SPAM
protection, SpyBot checker, Symantec's Norton Antivirus, web-link validators,
and a ten dozen others. When will they really fix the darn thing? And all
these protection programs must be kept constantly up to date, like we have
nothing else to do with our time.
- As a generality, most application manufacturers produce higher quality
products than Microsoft; however, all applications have bugs. Bugs require us
to occasionally check for updates to those programs. Most of these programs are
so much better.
- And then there is that huge thing within Windows called a "registry." Almost
every action passes steps through this giant table. Every time an application
program is installed, the registry becomes larger. Uninstalling the same
application might reduce its size but never to the smaller size it was before.
Just using an application may grow the registry still larger. As the registry
grows, response time slows. So, now we need iv16 Power Tools, Microsoft System
Tools to monitor what is happening, Symantec's Norton System Works, and a host
of other small programs to shrink the registry and still it contains useless
junk. And if you edit the registry yourself, your system is in mortal danger.
When will they get rid of the darn registry?
In just maintaining the PC, the operating system and its application programs,
how do we manage to have time to use it for something useful. Is there any
wonder that for an experimenter, like me, madness lurks in the wings?
Operating System
Early in the Justice Department monopoly suit against Microsoft, Justice
proposed breaking Microsoft into five companies along product lines. Myron
Kandel, CNN, suggested an alternative breakup: Yes, setup five companies;
however, give each company the entire product line and let the five companies
compete against each other in the market place. (Can you imagine what our
automobiles would be like if they were all made by the same company?)
There is nothing I, as an individual, can do about the operating system because
there is not yet an alternative desktop operating system of merit. I'm stuck,
you are stuck, we all are stuck with whatever Microsoft gives us.
Mad Logic
By compartmentalizing the usage, I could reduce the size of the registry,
eliminate some of the Internet and email problems, and have a place to
experiment.
Ah! My kingdom for more than one PC. That's it! When I buy a new PC, I'll
keep the old PC for a toy. But then all of the latest hardware is on the new
PC, and, shucks, I wanted to experiment with the latest stuff. In addition, I
do add and change hardware as the spirit moves. Well, at least it sounded like
a good idea.
Initial Stages of Madness
About then I saw an ad for swappable disk drives. Why not have several
swappable C drives: one for very stable bread and butter applications that never
see the Internet, one for Internet and email, and one for experimenting. To
swap a disk requires a power off reboot; that is, it is necessary to turn the
power off, physically swap the disk drives and then turn the power on.
What Needs to be Shared
To share data, a few applications need to be common among the three systems.
This was accomplished with another physical disk drive, installed as the D disk.
On this D disk are installed the applications common to all three C disks, not
many: Corel Office, Juno email (because it is not an Internet exposure as some
other Internet products are), and several testing programs. This installation
allows data produced while using a program from one C disk to be available when
using another C disk. To easily accomplish this feat, I designed a base
operating system with the applications that are common to all three disks. This
base operating system is stored on another disk drive. Since I expect the
operating system to fail, on failure or even slowness, I simply copy the base
operating system over the failing operating system, add the few applications
that are unique to that PC and continue.
Backup
As you know, there are many ways to backup a system. I choose to install a
third disk drive to contain a mirror of my data. This third disk drive also
contains the base operating system. Since it is so easy to replace an operating
system with the clean base operating system and there are so few applications
running on each operating system, I no long backup the actual operating system.
Upgrades
Each time I replace a defunct operating system with the base operating system
the latest Microsoft upgrades are installed on the base operating system. It is
done by copying the base operating system to the C disk, doing the upgrade, and
then copying the upgrade C disk to the base operating system.
Because of all the problems Microsoft has with the Internet, I upgrade the
Internet C disk religiously. As for the other two C disks, unless there is a
problem, I don't upgrade.
Experimenting
Experimentation has become a delight. The most positive thing: I can install a
program on the experimental PC, learn the program, play with it, and only then
decide if I want the program installed on the bread-and-butter PC or the
Internet PC. If the experimental system blows up, the base operating system is
installed immediately on the experimental PC.
Conclusion to Madness - Not Really
In this example, the latest hardware is available to all three systems. Since
fewer applications are installed on each PC, registry problems are drastically
reduced and performance is good. This combination has worked well for several
years.
The End to Madness
No way. An inventive mind can always do more. Stay tuned.
There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this review as long
as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. This review is
brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal
Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group
is a member.
For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here
Tulsa Computer Society 8/01/2003
Don Singleton, President