--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 206 WINDOWS 32BIT Ref: E4N00009 Date: 04/18/97 From: MARK WRIGHT Time: 04:02am \/To: GARY GILMORE (Read 7 times) Subj: Backup program GG=> JS> That is software dependent, isn't it? Is there no NT GG=> JS> backup software that can reconstruct the registry? GG=>Dunno. I have various BU software for Win95, and none so far have restored GG=>registry to where it was before the problem that required the restore. GG=>It's gotten to the point to where I just don't bother backing up the main GG=>Windows files. I'm wasting my time, since I always have to reinstall Win GG=>anyhow. :-/ GG=>I would assume that NT is about in the same boat. Gary, have you considered a possible hardware problem causing failures of backups or restores?. Backups were a problems prior to lfn aware programs, are you trying to use a older backup programs(s) that are unaware of long file names?. If you are find doslfnbk.exe on the web, this will allow you to use nonlfn backups with complete restores. As to the hardware problem question, two busmastering cards without proper setup can cause endless nightmares. Time_Wounds_All_Heels______Mark Wright______Kirkland WA__USA * OLX 2.1 TD * OK, I'm weird! But I'm saving up to be eccentric. --- GEcho 1.11+ * Origin: (1:343/70) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 206 WINDOWS 32BIT Ref: E4N00010 Date: 04/16/97 From: GREG BATTES Time: 3:31 am \/To: CHRIS HOLTEN (Read 7 times) Subj: Re: To NT or Not to NT GB> I've heard nothing but good things about Windows GB> NT, so I thought I would ask a generic PC question here. CH> First off, if all you have heard is nothing but good about Windows CH> NT, you probably haven't heard enough about it yet. I've been running CH> NT for over 3 years now and do consider it a fine operating system, CH> but it is certainly not perfect...especially NT 4.0. Hmmmm. Well, actually, I haven't heard a lot. I'm unfamiliar with PCs. Having read this letter, the info is a little disquieting. Would you say NT is here to stay? Also, can you run more than one OS on a single computer? For example, can you: 1) boot from a removable hard disk with Win 95 on one, then shut down, and boot from another with Win NT? 2) Tell it to warm boot boot looking at a different partition GB> software options for the Amiga. What I like is GB> Photoshop and other paint programs, and Director for GB> outputting slide shows to video. MAC, with its 10 or so GB> percent of the market share scares me. But I've heard GB> of limitations with the PC, and I still hear MAC is GB> more user friendly (T/F?). CH> Any computer that you expect to be able to turn your brain off when CH> you turn your computer on and still possibly get something done with CH> it is going to be more user friendly, but keep in mind that mentality CH> also very much limits what you and software/hardware developers are CH> going to be able to exploit with that particular operating system CH> because of a concious keeping things as unsophisticated and simple as CH> possible. OS/2, NT, Windows 95 are all pretty user friendly, but they CH> also allow quite a bit of sohistication and flexibility in CH> configuration and setup. To make the most of them, which is usually CH> quite a bit more than a MAC, you will have to learn what you can do CH> with them. Some folks think that is not user friendly and if you use CH> the corrolary to "turning your brain off when you turn your computer CH> on" then perhaps in that respect, they are not user friendly. They CH> are easy to learn, which in some circles (but not many) is not the CH> same as "user friendly". While your reply is extraordinary, I, in fact, do want to > not < mess with the stuff you seem to know pretty well. While I hardly would consider it turning my brain off, I want to preform the task I bought or will buy the computer to do. I don't want to get sucked into a loop of tedious, non-directed pursuit of minutia and the wasting of money (I've done both on the Amiga and now know a goodly amount about a dead computer). In other words, I don't want to get a machine that is the best narrow tasking computer around. I want to be able to take advantage of the plethora of software out there. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm still smarting from the frustrations associated with the Amiga. The information you provided is very useful to me. What it tells me is that I have to do more research. I do have another question, though. Did Win NT 3.5 have the backwards compatibility problem (and running games) you mention 4.0 having? Would that problem also extend to Win 95? Again, thanks for the thorough answer. --- DLG Pro v1.16/DLGMail v2.63 * Origin: Mike's Video House - Glendale, CA 818-240-1593 (1:102/852) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 206 WINDOWS 32BIT Ref: E4N00011 Date: 04/17/97 From: GREG BATTES Time: 3:29 am \/To: GREG HOLLAND (Rcvd) (Read 8 times) Subj: Re: Purchase GH> I have a few years experience with DOS/Windows 3.1 and about a year GH> with GH> Windows 95. My primary use of a PC is for graphics with Photoshop and GH> GH> other programs along with PageMaker for DTP work. I've never cared GH> for GH> the Mac, although I don't have a whole lot of experience with them. I GH> GH> don't think there's a lot of future for them, though. That's my concern. Anyway, since you didn't mention to the contrary, it appears you are very fine with running Photoshop and related programs. That's really the crux of my questioning. Incidentally, are there any notable shortcomings that the PC has when it comes to the hardware itself? My understanding is that you are running in 32 bits. Did you have to buy special graphics cards, and are there enough busses for all the stuff one might want to install, for example for video? GH> I'll be buying a new machine as soon as the Pentium Pro MMX comes GH> out, GH> and will be using NT4 as the OS so I have SMP support, as I plan to GH> get a GH> dual CPU machine. I new to PCs. What's the advantage of a dual CPU? Faster? GH> Although I have only a little experience with NT4 so GH> far (on systems at work), I can say that from a user's point of view GH> you GH> can't tell the difference between NT4 and Win95. The "look and feel" GH> are GH> identical. That's good to know. GH> I find Win95 easier to use than Windows 3.1 was, and much GH> more GH> stable. NT's real strong point is supposed to be its stability, so I GH> expect it to be even better than Win95 in that respect. The only GH> significant thing that may cause you some headaches would be the lack GH> of GH> "Plug and Play" or as it's commonly known in Win95, "Plug and Pray". GH> That sounds unpleasant. GH> You'll need to spend a little time getting familiar with PCs in terms GH> of GH> IRQs, DMAs and the other variables you might run into, but they GH> aren't GH> really difficult to figure out. Yeah, I guess. thing is, not having yet committed to a platform, I haven't yet begun addressing that. I hope it would/will be easy. GH> In terms of "user-friendliness" of the Mac, that's always been a sore GH> GH> point with me. Maybe I'm different from those who like Macs, but I GH> find GH> their interface rather UN-friendly and illogical. For example, to GH> delete GH> a file, you drag it to the trash can. That part makes sense. But GH> later, GH> to remove a floppy disk from the drive, you drag the icon of that GH> disk to GH> the same trashcan. That doesn't make any sense to me at all. Again, a platform with which I have little experience. But, unless there is something coming that will change things radically, I hope to get something within a couple months. I'm leaning heavily toward PC. I hadn't realized there were sub-genres with the OSs. Thanks! --- DLG Pro v1.16/DLGMail v2.63 * Origin: Mike's Video House - Glendale, CA 818-240-1593 (1:102/852) --------------- ** A related thread FOLLOWS this message. FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 206 WINDOWS 32BIT Ref: E4PA2610 Date: 04/20/97 From: GREG HOLLAND Time: 06:43am \/To: GREG BATTES (Read 7 times) Subj: R: Re: Purchase Greg, GB> Incidentally, are there any notable shortcomings that > the PC has when it comes to the hardware itself? My > understanding is that you are running in 32 bits. Did > you have to buy special graphics cards, and are there > enough busses for all the stuff one might want to install, > for example for video? The Pentium and Pentium Pro CPUs are 64-bit processors (handling 64-bits of data at a time) and Windows NT is a 32-bit OS. Seems like the OS is almost always a step behind the hardware, but I'm not sure why that is. Most new machines come with pretty decent graphics cards. For running Photoshop I'd recommend using the Matrox Millennium with at least 4 megs of WRAM. (WRAM is a somewhat new designation for a memory type, supposed to be a little better than VRAM.) That card will accept up to 8 megs, so you can run at really high resolution and color depth if you need it. You'll usually find three or four slots each of ISA (a 16-bit slot good for standard I/O, sound cards, modems, etc.) and PCI (a high-speed 32-bit buss for network, graphics, and drive controllers). Todays systems will have your parallel and serial ports built-in on the motherboard so you don't waste a slot for that. If you're interested in video capture there should be some PCI cards available for that soon if not already. If performance is a big issue for you, rather than using the IDE drives that many systems come with you will want to use SCSI drives as NT can get much better performance with them. GB> I new to PCs. What's the advantage of a dual CPU? Faster? Exactly. Not quite twice as fast, but there's a significant increase, especially with Photoshop as I'm told that it's written to be able to take advantage of "multi-threading" which allows the OS to split a task (for example, applying a filter in Photoshop) into different jobs that can be handled separately by each CPU. You don't *quite* get double because the handling of two CPUs adds a certain amount of overhead all by itself. GH> The only significant thing that may cause you some > headaches would be the lack of "Plug and Play" or as > it's commonly known in Win95, "Plug and Pray". GB> That sounds unpleasant. It is when it doesn't cooperate! But NT doesn't have it yet. That simply means that when you add a card you need to configure it yourself and if there are any conflicts with other cards you're on your own to solve the problem. That's what I meant by "You'll need to spend a little time getting familiar with PCs in terms of IRQs, DMAs and the other variables you might run into." As long as technical stuff doesn't cause your brain to shudder it's not really hard to figure out. And anything that you can't figure out on your own can be solved with a little help from your FIDO friends. GB> But, unless there is something coming that will change > things radically, I hope to get something within a couple > months. I'm leaning heavily toward PC. The only change on the horizon that I'm waiting for is the Pentium Pro with MMX. "MMX" is a new set of 57 (?) CPU instructions built into the microcode of the CPU that makes it possible to handle many multimedia (sound and video) operations much faster. In some Photoshop applications claims of 400% faster have been made. That kind of increase makes it worth waiting a little while in my book. Last I heard, the P-Pro MMX is due out in June. *Greg* @ 03:31AM, 04-20-97 * #1755 CMPQwk 1.42 running on Win95 * A day without sunshine is like night. --------------- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> LAST Message In Thread <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 206 WINDOWS 32BIT Ref: E4N00012 Date: 04/17/97 From: GARY GILMORE Time: 09:44pm \/To: ALL (Read 7 times) Subj: New in the Windows95 FDN New in the Windows95 File Distribution Network. (W32_FDN) (Announcement made with moderator permission) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Area : W32_P&D - W32_FDN: Win32 Patches & Drivers --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NU20PTCH.EXE 1,388,137 Norton Utilities 95 2.0 Update. Updates Norton Utilites 2.0 to 2.03. [Total bytes of announced files: 1,388,137] Announced files are available here at 1:2410/400 (any time except ZMH), and on other systems which carry the W32_FDN. To carry the W32_FDN areas on your BBS, contact your local fileecho provider, or ask the sysops in your area about obtaining a feed. W32_FDN is available via the FileGate, Filebone, Planet Connect, and the paonline.com & other FTP services. Authors! Submit your new Windows95 programs to us for wide distribution. Contact Gary Gilmore @ 1:2410/400 (or garyg@oeonline.com) for details. Visit the W32_FDN Page on the net at "http://oeonline.com/~garyg/w32_fdn/" for more information. --- * Origin: bloom county * W32_FDN Headquarters * 313-582-0888 (1:2410/400) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 206 WINDOWS 32BIT Ref: E4N00013 Date: 04/17/97 From: GARY GILMORE Time: 09:59pm \/To: ALL (Read 7 times) Subj: New in the Windows95 FDN New in the Windows95 File Distribution Network. (W32_FDN) (Announcement made with moderator permission) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Area : W32_P&D - W32_FDN: Win32 Patches & Drivers --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04NAV97A.EXE 1,235,667 Norton AntiVirus Update - April, 1997. NAV95201.EXE 2,062,454 Norton AntiVirus 2.0.1 Update. Updates Norton Antivirus 2.0 to 2.01. [Total bytes of announced files: 3,298,121] Announced files are available here at 1:2410/400 (any time except ZMH), and on other systems which carry the W32_FDN. To carry the W32_FDN areas on your BBS, contact your local fileecho provider, or ask the sysops in your area about obtaining a feed. W32_FDN is available via the FileGate, Filebone, Planet Connect, and the paonline.com & other FTP services. Authors! Submit your new Windows95 programs to us for wide distribution. Contact Gary Gilmore @ 1:2410/400 (or garyg@oeonline.com) for details. Visit the W32_FDN Page on the net at "http://oeonline.com/~garyg/w32_fdn/" for more information. --- * Origin: bloom county * W32_FDN Headquarters * 313-582-0888 (1:2410/400)