Win98 Registry

to me, the easiest and quickest way is to copy the registry files when everything is working the way you want to another directory - then if anything changes and you like it, replace the copies with a new copy - if you don't like the change, replace the registry files with the copy that worked like you want it.... to a point, windows makes a copy everytime it doesn't find a problem with the registry, but there is usually a difference between "nothing wrong" and "not right" so i keep a copy in a storage directory when i like how everything works....

Quoted text (15 lines)

>x-no-archive: yes >Chaps, >I know this is off topic, but then you're probably the best bunch of chaps to >ask, and I do only use my PC for racing sims. >I know how to dump the Win98 registry to a file, but when it goes wrong, what's >the best way to restore it. >Importing it just seems to add the old one to the currect bunch of crap. >Thanks. >R.

Win98 comes with a program called scanreg. Run it anytime to make a registry backup then run it later to restore that copy of the Registry when things go wrong. Richard S Beckett wrote

On Thu, 22 Jul 1999 00:02:25 -0500, "Tracey A Miller" >Win98 comes with a program called scanreg. Run it anytime to make a registry >backup then run it later to restore that copy of the Registry when things go >wrong. There's a shareware program called Win Rescue 98 that does the same thing and has a couple other features as well. It's saved my *** more than once... :)

>>I know this is off topic, but then you're probably the best bunch of chaps to >ask, and I do only use my PC for racing sims. >I know how to dump the Win98 registry to a file, but when it goes wrong, what's >the best way to restore it. >Importing it just seems to add the old one to the currect bunch of crap. Exactly. The windows registry is actually two files -- user.dat and system.dat that live in your Windows directory (c:\windows or whatever you have named it). It's a real good idea to back these up prior to installing software or doing any editing in the registry. I just copy them to a backup directory. Restoring them is a little more complicated than just copying them over the top because you have to play with the properties. They are read only, hidden files. So if you have to change the ones in place in not be read only before copying the old ones over them. It's also a good idea to know how to do this from the DOS shell in case things go terribly wrong (use the "attrib" command). Here is a good article from PC World that I recommend you bookmark and print out in case of emergencies. It covers all kinds of scenarios for saving and restoring your registry -- http://www.pcworld.com/current_issue/article/0,1212,10584,00.html Being able to restore your registry can be a life saver. Hope this helps, Dave Ewing

I use a .bat file to copy the critical files in win95 to another drive and another .bat file to restore them. The backup.bat renames the system.dat and user.dat with the current date, and the restore.bat must be run in dos. here they are just cut and paste into your notepad and name them what you will. backup.bat echo.|date|find "Current" >cu##ent.bat echo set date=%%4> current.bat call cu##ent.bat del cu??ent.bat > nul copy C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT D:\Backup copy C:\AUTOEXEC.DOS D:\Backup copy C:\CONFIG.SYS D:\Backup copy C:\CONFIG.DOS D:\Backup copy C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.INI D:\Backup copy C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI D:\Backup copy C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI D:\Backup attrib -r -h -s C:\MSDOS.SYS attrib -r -h -s C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT attrib -r -h -s C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT copy C:\MSDOS.SYS D:\Backup copy C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT D:\Backup\%date%SYSTEM.DAT copy C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT D:\Backup\%date%USER.DAT attrib +r +h +s C:\MSDOS.SYS attrib +r +h +s C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT attrib +r +h +s C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT restore.bat copy D:\Backup\AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT copy D:\Backup\AUTOEXEC.DOS C:\AUTOEXEC.DOS copy D:\Backup\CONFIG.SYS C:\CONFIG.SYS copy D:\Backup\CONTROL.INI C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.INI copy D:\Backup\SYSTEM.INI C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI copy D:\Backup\WIN.INI C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI attrib -r -h -s C:\MSDOS.SYS attrib -r -h -s C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT attrib -r -h -s C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT ren C:\MSDOS.SYS C:\MSDOS.SYS.bak ren C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT.bak ren C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT.bak copy D:\Backup\MSDOS.SYS C:\MSDOS.SYS copy D:\Backup\USER.DAT C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT copy D:\Backup\SYSTEM.DAT C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT attrib +r +h +s C:\MSDOS.SYS attrib +r +h +s C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT attrib +r +h +s C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT *note: the system.dat and user.dat files will be in the form 07-21-1999SYSTEM.DAT and 07-21-1999USER.DAT, before running the restore.bat program you must rename them to system.dat and user.dat.

Quoted text (26 lines)

>to me, the easiest and quickest way is to copy the registry files when >everything is working the way you want to another directory - then if anything >changes and you like it, replace the copies with a new copy - if you don't like >the change, replace the registry files with the copy that worked like you want >it.... >to a point, windows makes a copy everytime it doesn't find a problem with the >registry, but there is usually a difference between "nothing wrong" and "not >right" so i keep a copy in a storage directory when i like how everything >works.... >>x-no-archive: yes >>Chaps, >>I know this is off topic, but then you're probably the best bunch of chaps to >>ask, and I do only use my PC for racing sims. >>I know how to dump the Win98 registry to a file, but when it goes wrong, what's >>the best way to restore it. >>Importing it just seems to add the old one to the currect bunch of crap. >>Thanks. >>R.

To email me remove the "u"s