Plug and Play - Win 9x install log files – need to know

Allows a computer to automatically detect and install local devices (i.e., those physically connected to the computer).
Windows 9x
Windows 9x automatically installs and configures most Plug and Play–compliant devices. For devices that are not automatically configured, the Add New Hardware Wizard, installs and configures legacy and Plug and Play devices that require installation information, such as the driver location .
When installing a PCI or ISA Plug and Play card, you’ve got to power down, install the card, and power up again before Windows will recognize the device and install the drivers. When installing USB, IEEE 1394 and SCSI devices, the device can be installed while the computer is running.
Tool Time - Very A+
ASD (Automatic Skip Driver ) Whenever a driver cannot be loaded or windows 9x simply skips loading a driver, it is recorded in a log file. ASD.EXE displays the contents of this log file so you can determine why a particular device driver may not be active. You can run this from the Start Menu Run box.
MSINFO32 Complete hardware and software system analysis.
HWINFO Displays everything you'd ever want to know about the hardware configuration and utilization of your pc. To run, type HWINFO /UI in the Start Menu Run box - a subset of MSINFO32.
MSCONFIG MSCONFIG is a 98, ME and XP command that opens a window that contains a variety of Tabs. Each tab shows the data and current selections of a number of system files - a subset of MSINFO32.
DR. Watson Runs in the background of Windows and logs details of application errors, recording the tasks that were running, the contents of the stack, and which application caused the error. There is a folder in \Windows called Dr Watson. Look for the Doctor’s log files in there.
SCANDISK Used to find and repair errors on the disk. Isolates and marks bad clusters.
SCANREG Windows 98 and me registry tool that can be used to backup, restore and repair registry files.
Registry Checker
Not available in Windows 95. It automatically backs up the registry each day, and by default, it keeps the last five days of backups. Backups are kept in cabinet files in the \Windows\Sysbckup folder as rb001.cab, rb002.cab and so on. To revert to one of these backups, you must first be in MS-DOS mode. For Windows 98, boot from a bootable disk.
SYSEDIT Used to view and edit system files, including the autoexec.bat and config.sys files, the win.ini and the system.ini files.
DEFRAG DEFRAG rewrites parts of a file on contiguous sectors on a hard disk to increase the speed of access and retrieval.
EXTRACT (DOS) It is used to uncompress and extract a file (or files) from system installation cabinet files. It is mainly used to retrieve and replace corrupted system files with fresh ones.
SFC (System File Checker) Checks system for valid system files and replaces when necessary.
Start / Run SFC
Disk Cleanup This tool presents a wizard that allows you to cleanup temporary files in multiple locations within Windows. Right-click on drive.
Note the Disk Cleanup is not that smart and other temporary files might be lurking about within your system. By convention, temporary files may start with the ~ character. So you might want to do a search for these guys.
Look what I found on my hard drive just the other day…
If application locks up when firs opened, delete all files and folders under \Windows\Temp
Keystroke Shortcuts in Windows
Display Properties Window
REGEDIT.EXE Is the registry editor. Use Regedit to edit the Win9x registry
The Registry - One BIG system parameter database
In Win9x the registry consists of 2 files - Very A+
SYSTEM.DAT
USER.DAT
These files live in the \WINDOWS folder. They are Hidden files. Be sure Windows is set up to view hidden and system files (throw show extensions in there for good measure).
The registry (no matter which version of Windows 95 and newer) is considered to be a hierarchical database. Very A+
Active Sub KEY
Major Key
Key
Entry names
Data Types
Hkey_Local_Machine
This key contains computer-specfic information about the type of hardware and software installed, software settings, and other information. This information is used for all users who log on to this computer.
Hkey_Current_Config
This key points to a branch of Hkey_Local_Machine \Config that contains information about the current configuration of hardware attached to the computer.
Hkey_Dyn_Data
This key points to a branch of Hkey_Local_Machine that contains the dynamic status information for various devices as part of the Plug and Play information. This information may change as devices are added to or removed from the computer. The information for each device includes the related hardware key and the device’s current status, including problems.
Hkey_Classes_Root
This key points to a branch of Hkey_Local_Machine that describes certain software settings. This key displays the same data as it did in Windows 3.1 – essential information about Windows 95 shortcuts and core aspects of the Windows 95 user interface.
Hkey_Users
This key contains information about all the users who log on to the computer, including both generic and user-specific information. The generic settings are available to all users who log on to the computer. The information is made up of default settings for applications, desktop configurations, and so on. This key contains subkeys for each user that logs on to this computer.
Hkey_Current_User
This key points to a branch of Hkey_Users for the user who is currently logged on.
Thank you SCANREG!
SCANREG will scan, fix, backup and restore your registry! This is a good thing. You should be able to repair 90% of Windows problems with judicial use of this tool. You will be a computer God! SCANREG runs in DOS mode only.
Usage: SCANREG [/
? : Displays usage (help)
BACKUP : Backup the registry and related system configuration files. RESTORE : Choose a backup to restore. Restore System.da0 and User.da0 Very A+ from Backup.
FIX : Repair the registry.
Deliverable: A new backup of the registry. Booting to a previous copy of the registry. All done with one hand tied behind your back…
Windows and memory - or how we fool the computer in to thinking it has 4 GB of memory
What can be a little confusing about Windows memory management is that Windows uses three different kinds of memory and two of them don’t really exist - at least they are not "officially" RAM. As we all know by now RAM exists in chips that are located on the motherboard of the system unit. RAM is memory. Windows designates the following three kinds of memory.
Virtual Memory
(disk swap file)
Linear Memory
Physical Memory
(RAM)
First - when run, each application gets assigned memory addresses between 0-4Gb in Linear Memory. The paging unit of CPU and the OS work together to keep track of this data in what called the Page Table.
Windows Virtual Memory Manger (VMM) is then responsible for mapping these addresses to a physical location - either on disk (virtual memory) or in RAM (physical memory).
When a resource or program is needed but is not in RAM, a page fault is generated and a page-in is done. This brings the data in from the swap file Win386.swp on the disk and puts it into RAM.
If more RAM is needed a page-out is done and data is swapped out to virtual memory.
These Pages are (usually) 4K chunks of programs or data.
A Good Rule:
Set your virtual Memory to 2 to 2.5 times more than RAM. Unless you have HIGH memory, like 500MB, then increase your Virtual Memory to equal value.