When you add a new piece of software
to your system, or if you're upgrading an existing program, and Setup
says "It is highly recommended that you exit all Windows programs
before proceeding", I want you to ask yourself if you've done a regbak before
starting this installation. If you haven't, hit QUIT and close all your applications
and do a REGBAK right NOW! You'll thank us for this later, we all hope it will be
long later, but that later is going to come eventually. |
Start/Run/Regedit/<Enter> File/Export. |
If we built your system, there will
be a "Zinstall" subdirectory on your C: drive. Inside Zinstall you'll
find the "Win95" subdirectory containing the *.CAB files and several other
subdirs containing the drivers for other hardware installed in your system. There
will also be a "RegBak" subdirectory containing the backup we did when
we first installed everything on your system. Notice that within the "RegBak"
subdirectory there is a file named a bunch of numbers. Those numbers are a date
spelled backwards, ie: today's date would be spelled 970915.reg. There is also a
file called RegBkLog.txt which will have a brief description about each of the *.reg
files in RegBak. You're going to continue this tradition by exporting your current
Registry to (today's date backwards).reg in C:\Zinstall\RegBak and then opening
up the RegBkLog.txt and making your own entry to explain why you're doing this RegBak. |
Very Well Done. Now you may go ahead
and install that free Stock Tracking software you just downloaded off the internet
with at least the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you can start over
where you left off before everything blew up into little pieces. Nor should you
consider that just because the installation CD came from a reputable software house
that you are immune from horrible problems related to its installation. Before you
install *anything* new on your system, do a RegBak. You'll thank us for this later. |
RegBak recovery. |
Oh, so your Software Tracking program
blew your system to smithereens eh? Okay, to recover from such a mess, your first
step is to go into System and "Uninstall" the errant program. Frequently
that is all you'll have to do to recover. |
But, if after you've done that you
are still having problems (remember
we're talking about real problems here, not just normal flakey Windows class operation
:), it is time to break out
the RegBak tools. We have to give you warning here though, when you restore a copy
of an old Registry, you're opening a door to a time machine. Once restored, you're
computer "becomes" the system that is was at the exact instant that RegBak
was created. Each and every Operating System level change you made since that moment
in time is going to go away permanently and irrevocably. It is NOT however, going
to bring back the *.vxd or *.dll files that some misbehaved software packages replace
and then don't clean up after themselves properly when uninstalled, so this method
isn't a total cure-all. It is however a LOT better than nothing. |
Start/Run/Regedit File/Import C:\Zinstall\RegBak\(BackwardsDateToWhichYou'llReturn).reg Start/ShutDown/Reboot. |
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