[Ham-Computers] DOS Trick

Sat, 16 Nov 2002 23:06:34 -0500

The opportunity for errors is far higher with Windows, which is why many
programmers do not use it for system maintenance. I am one of them. I have never
had to reformat a hard drive in twenty-two years. I wonder how many Windows
users can say that honestly, heh? 	

Easier is not always better. I prefer the more foolproof approach. I have fixed
systems trained technicians could not fix, mainly because they did not
understand how the system really worked. The point and click mentality. Keeping
users unaware is the name of the game now, so they must depend on the company
for assistance. It worries me when people can not even match up colors correctly
when cables are color coded!	

Duane Fischer, W8DBF	

----------
From: Trevor Holyoak <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] DOS Trick
Date: Saturday, November 16, 2002 10:57 PM

You can actually do this much easier from Windows, just do a search in 
Windows Explorer. Then you can just select any files that show up on the 
resulting list and hit the "delete" key.

You may find leftover files (program fragments) but not _file_ 
fragments. There are actually file fragments all over your hard drive, 
but they are ignored. To make it fairly simple,
when you delete a file, it's actually just marked as deleted, and the 
next info is written to the disk, it can write over portions as it needs 
to. Once a file is marked as deleted, though, it will no longer show up 
in a directory search.

The reason you may find leftover files after a program has been 
uninstalled is that often a program puts files in more than one 
directory, and the uninstall program doesn't always delete them all. 
This may be because it's assumed you may want files you created with the 
program (probably a valid assumption), or because it's possible that 
another program is using one of the files, or because Windows still has 
a lock on one or more files, or it might just simply be lazy 
programming. (I'm actually amazed every time I write an uninstall script 
that actually successfully removes all traces of the program - Windows 
often keeps locks on things that make that impossible.)

- Trevor

Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:

>	
>One of the best ways to find left over pieces of a supposedly deleated program,
>is to go into the DOS window, or C:\ Be sure you are no longer showing
'windows'
>as the directory. Using a cd\ and enter will get you to the C:\ prompt.	
>	
>Type: dir/b corel*.* /s  Press enter.	
>	
>This will search all directories on the entire hard drive for any reference to
>'corel', or whatever word you place there.	
>	
>Use the information shown on the screen to go into the proper directory and
>remove the unwanted file fragments. 	
>	
>DOS has many powerful tools that Windows takes away from users. there is a lot
>more to a computer, then point and click.	
>	
>Then reset the default for MSIE as another person indicated. 	
>	
>Duane W8DBF	
> 
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