Fred’s System Setup Secrets


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Call me a slow learner. But over the years I’ve had to develop a series of defensive strategies to cope with the inevitable problems and hassles of hardware and software failure -- especially because I test a lot of hardware and software, and regularly make my PCs blow up. (In a figurative sense, of course.) 

I just bought a new PC -- my best guess is it’s maybe the 30th machine I’ve used as my day-to-day personal system at work or at home. With each new machine I’ve used, I’ve tried various tricks and techniques and eventually developed a set routine that ensures that the system runs right from the start, stays rights for as long as possible, and can be made right with minimum fuss when things inevitably go awry. 

Some or all of these tips -- learned the hard way from painful experience -- may help you. Yes, a few of them may be overkill for normal users who don’t abuse their PCs the way I do, but others are universal and can help anyone. 

In any case, here are the steps I take when I get a new PC or when I want to recondition an older machine. Check them out, and then join in the discussion. I’ll be glad to answer whatever questions I can about the steps listed below, and then I’d also love to hear from you: What tricks or techniques do you use? What tips can you share? What steps do you take to keep your system running smoothly? 

Setting Up A New System 

1. Open the cover: You’d be amazed at what can come loose during shipping! Ensure that all cards are seated, all cables connected, all socketed chips are firmly plugged in; nothing should be loose or flopping around, except perhaps some unused power connectors, and they should be tucked out of the way of fans or other moving parts. (Use care to prevent damage to the PC components either through excessive force or static discharge.) 

2a. First boot. If the system won’t boot, contact tech support. Don’t waste time trying to fix a problem that shouldn’t be there -- that’s what your new-system warranty is for. 

2b. If it boots fine, right click on "My Computer," select properties, then the Device Manager tab. There should be no problems indicated (by yellow exclamation marks or red Xs). If there are, see 2a. 

2c. If Device Manager shows no errors, exercise the system and try everything -- ensure the sound card and speakers work, the printer prints, etc. Poke around the system and make notes of things like the BIOS settings, the network properties, and so forth but make no changes to the system setup yet. Simply ensure that everything works, and make note of any special settings. If you uncover problems, see 2a. 

3. If everything works, make a full backup of the system, even if the manufacturer has included a "Recovery CD" or similar tool. Often, those vendor kludge CDs will restore the system to a working state, but not to the same state it was in when it arrived on your door. I use PartitionMagic to safely create a large new partition on the systems’ hard drive, and then use Drive Image to copy the original factory setup to the new, empty partition. (A firm believer in overkill, I’ll also eventually burn that factory setup image to CD for long-term safekeeping.) But in any case, having a full backup by whatever means you choose means you can get back to your PC’s factory-fresh state when you need to. 

4. Install any non-original-equipment peripherals you want to use on the system. Visit the OEM’s and peripheral vendors’ sites; download (but don’t install) updated drivers, patches, etc. Place these new drivers, patches, etc. on the new partition you created in step 3. 

5. Using the Win9x CD that came with your PC, copy the CAB files to the new partition. Some OEMs don’t send you a Win98 CD; instead they play games with the CAB files and store them in a C:\WINDOWS subdirectory; wherever they are, find them, and copy them. 

6. Run a thorough antivirus program, scan using the latest available virus definitions. 

7. Make and test a Windows emergency boot floppy disk (Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk). Check to make sure you can restart you system from the disk and access your backup files from that disk. (For example, if you store your backups on a CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) make sure the emergency boot disk contains the drivers needed for you to access your CD.) 

8. Here’s a step that’s bound to be controversial: Reformat the C drive from the emergency boot disk. Do NOT reformat the partition that contains any backup files, downloaded drivers, Windows CAB files, etc. Just wipe out the original factory install. Why? Because most vendors include branded or customized Windows components, special backgrounds or screen savers and such that are basically just ads. And most have made assumptions about the way the system should be set up -- assumptions that may or may not jibe with your needs. Wiping out the factory installation lets you put back just what you want, in just the way you want it -- not the way some marketing department decided for you. Besides, with a full backup, you always can restore the factory setup, if you need to. 

9. Setup Windows afresh using the CAB files in the untouched, non-reformatted partition; and install all new drivers, patches, etc you downloaded earlier so everything is operating properly. Run Windows Update (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com); get all to-date critical updates. 

10. In My Computer/Properties/Performance/File System, choose "network server" (even if it’s not a server); under the Floppy Disk tab, uncheck "search for new floppy." Under My Computer, Properties, Performance, Virtual Memory, set virtual memory the way you want. (In systems with abundant disk space, I place the swap file out of the way on the second partition, and set a minimum size equal to the amount of RAM, with no maximum size set.) 

11. In the networking applet, ensure that File and Printer Sharing is not bound to any TCP/IP stack. In Dial-Up Networking, make sure only TCP/IP is active, and that "log on to system" is not checked. 

12. Adjust the Recycle Bin (via its properties) to a reasonable size. By default, the Bin will take 10 percent of your hard drive space, and on today’s large drives, that’s an insane waste of space. A mere two or three percent is usually ample. 

13. Run ScanDisk in "thorough" mode on all drives, and be warned this could take a while, depending on disk size, file system type, disk speed and CPU speed. 

14. Run a fresh antivirus scan. 

15. Make another backup, call it "perfect new OS (operating system) setup." 

16. Install your applications, plus any software updates and patches for those apps. 

17. Make all cosmetic tweaks, tune-ups, and changes -- the icon spacing and arrangements; system sound effects; mouse pointers and movements, etc. 

18. Run Defrag on all drives. 

19. Run a fresh antivirus scan. 

20. Make another backup, call it “perfect new OS+apps setup." 

With that you’re done. Not only do you have a fresh setup with everything newly installed and just the way you want, but also you now have three backups. You can, if need be, quickly get back to the original as-delivered-from-the-factory, or to a fresh, new virgin OS setup, or to a fresh, full-blown OS and applications setup. 

In my work I find I use that last backup a lot. When -- not if, but when -- I blow up my system, I’ll copy my data files to a safe place, then restore that perfect OS+app setup, copy my data files back, and pick up where I left off. 

Of course, running through a 20-step setup process is a hassle and it’s clearly not for everyone. But taking the extra time, one time, up front, to get everything perfect pays off again and again over the years when a system goes belly-up and needs to be redone. With Drive Image and a CD-R of the perfect setup in hand, I can restore a system in its entirety -- OS, apps, everything -- in just minutes. 

This way gets the awful, messy, grunt-work out of the way right away, and lets you reap the rewards of a stable, easy-to-restore system for as long as you own it. Of course, the same techniques can be used on older systems too -- it’s never too late to start! 

Now, please join in the discussion. I’ll be glad to answer whatever questions I can about the steps listed above, and I’d also love to hear from you: What tricks or techniques do you use? What tips can you share? What steps do you take to keep your system running smoothly?
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3) XP Folder Views
Hi Fred, I have recently switched to Windows XP Home and find it much more stable than W98SE. In fact I am very pleased with the system except for one minor annoyance. I have a number of partitions on my disc, and some of the files I need to access regularly are not on the XP partition. What I find frustrating is that Explorer assumes that I will keep all my files where IT thinks they should be - My Documents. I find it annoying to have to click My Computer before I can see the other partitions in Explorer. Do you know of any way of changing the default view in the left hand pane so that My Computer is always expanded? Thanks, Barrie Whiteley

Although you can get anywhere in Windows from any view of any folder (by drilling up, down, or sideways), the "My Documents" shortcut is really meant only as a way to get there--- to the My Documents folder. 

For other destinations on your hard drive, it's simpler to create a direct link to that location rather than to go through the mutli-click navigation needed to get there via other folders. In this case, it'd be much simpler to have a direct "My Computer" link available instead of having to go through "My Documents" to get to "My Computer" and the rest of your partitions and drives.

You can easily create one-click links to any drive or folder--- or all of them--- by right clicking anywhere on the empty desktop, and selecting Properties/Desktop/Customize and then checking "My Computer" and "My Documents" (and anything else you want) in the "Desktop icons" dialog box area.

Once the "My Computer" and "My Documents" icons are on your desktop, you can leave them there, drag them to a folder, or drag them to the QuickLaunch area of the taskbar (next to the Start button). When you want to go to My Documents, the shortest route is then to click the My Documents folder directly, but if your intended destination is someplace else, click the My Computer icon instead.

Once the My Computer folder is open, it will show you all your drives/partitions at once. You can create additional shortcuts that point directly at any of these other drives or partitions--- or to any folder or even a specific file on any drive or partition--- simply by right clicking on the desired object and then selecting "Create Shortcut." You can put the shortcut anywhere, including on the QuickLaunch bar, and then access these destinations in literally one click.

That's how I have my system set up--- all my most-used drives and folders have their own one-click shortcuts on my QuickLaunch bar, so I can get to them immediately, without having to navigate through intermediary folders.

There are myriad other ways to customize the folder views in XP. See, for example, 
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009 or
http://www.google.com/search?q=customize+%22folder+view%22+xp

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7) Does Partition Magic Void Warranties?
"Robin" raised an intriguing issue:

I have a question concerning your comments about running a couple of operating systems and the use of Partition Magic. I have just ordered a new Dell and when talking to the salesman, I happened to mention that I was considering doing this as I had some software that ran on Win 98SE and not XP, he stated that if I did this I would void my warranty on the Dell. This somewhat confused me, is he correct or was he blowing some ignorant smoke?

It's normal for a vendor not to offer support for stuff you've installed on your own. If you add, say, Partition Magic or a second operating system, the vendor has every right not to give you support for that specific stuff, or for problems the added software may cause with the original setup: In other words, the vendor is responsible for the machine *as shipped,* not as modified by you. (And even then, the hardware vendor may defer all software support questions to the software publishers.)

But there's no way that adding new software should somehow prevent you from getting help for, say, a dead CPU or video board. The idea that adding new software to a PC would prevent you from getting warranty service for *hardware* failures is (IMO) indefensible.

To keep my own user-modifications from muddying the hardware support waters for my systems, here's what I do: When I get a new machine, I burn a CD with the as-delivered OEM factory setup; then I make my modifications. If something goes wrong that I just can't figure out,  I'll restore the original, factory image and see if the problem persists. If the original setup eliminates the problem, then I know it's my own modifications that caused the trouble. That's not something I can pin on the vendor, so I'll start fresh and see if I can solve the problem on my own.

But if the problem persists even with the original, factory setup, then that *is* the vendor's responsibility. I'll call tech support and do whatever they say; if their fix works, I'll then burn a new image of the corrected system setup. But if the machine can't be fixed, and must instead either be sent in for service or serviced on-site by a factory technician, having the original OEM setup on the drive ensures that they can't use my modifications as an excuse to tap-dance out of giving me service. 8-)

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The "P" in PC stands for "personal." But most new PCs ship in a generic state designed to suit the lowest common denominator among buyers. New PCs are almost never tuned optimally for performance, and in fact, often arrive with a very safe, conservative settings that are designed more to minimize returns and tech support calls than to deliver all the performance of which the new machine is capable.

And, in the marketing free-fire zone that is today's PC industry, odds are your new PC comes bearing non-optional, preinstalled software ranging from productivity suites to online service subscriptions to chat software, and more. Instead of having a lean, clean new machine, your just-bought PC probably arrives already burdened with all manner of software complexities, and set up the way the vendor and its partners wanted rather than the way you might prefer.

Aside from the annoyance of not having control over your "personal" computer, this inbuilt initial complexity may make later troubleshooting much harder. After all, the best troubleshooting technique involves a stepwise simplification of your system setup until the troublesome element is revealed; but if your system's supposedly pristine state already is highly complex, you may already have too many variables at play for efficient troubleshooting.

Finally, whatever portions of your PC that haven't been modified probably have been branded: You'll see logos -- ads, really -- on your desktop, in your system tray, on the boot screens -- everywhere. Maybe some don't mind paying for the privilege of being a marketing target, but it bothers me: I consider it system-level spam.

Starting -- and Staying -- Lean and Clean

For all the above reasons, with each new machine I've personally used over the years (something like 35 to date), I've employed an evolving set of procedures on each brand new machine. These procedures ensure that the system runs right from the start, stays rights for as long as possible, and then can be made right with minimum fuss when things inevitably go awry. (I test a lot of hardware and software, often deliberately seeking "worst case" scenarios, and thus regularly drive my PCs to their figurative knees.)

For many years, my setup routine needed only minimal ongoing adjustments and tweaking as OSes and hardware evolved. But more recently, with the newest PC I bought, I realized that OS and hardware changes meant it was time for some major adjustments to my System Setup process. And so, today's article documents those changes, and updates the original "System Setup Secrets" article, which ran back in 1999.

Some or all of these tips -- learned the hard way from painful experience -- may help you get your new PC running right, or even restore a not-so-new PC to optimal condition. But I'll freely admit a few of the steps may be overkill for normal people who don't (ab)use their PCs the way I do. Still, most of the steps are universal and can help anyone.

It can take anywhere from a couple minutes to several hours to complete this process, depending on how many of the steps you choose to follow, and (to a degree) what your skill level is: Naturally, the more familiar you are with these kinds of operations, the faster you can go.

In any case, here are the changes and amplifications to the original "System Setup Secrets" article; you may wish to open that article in a second browser window so you can refer back to it was we move along today.

Steps 1 -- 4: No changes.

Step 5: This isn't so much a change as an amplification of this step because many -- perhaps even most -- new PCs now ship with "System Restore" CDs. Don't mistake this for a true OS CD: Instead, System Restore CDs are actually a kind of drive image of your system as it was when it left the factory: Theoretically, you can use that image to restore your system to its original condition. (However, you'll lose all your customizations, alterations, changes -- and most importantly -- any data files you've saved or created since you got the machine). While this limits the usefulness of a System Restore CD, some are in "open" format: You may be able to find the OS setup files somewhere on the CD by searching or browsing. But commonly the System Restore is in a single large file that's an all-or-nothing deal: You can only restore the entire drive image as a whole, and specific files (such as the Windows setup files) are simply not separately accessible. For more information on restore your OS on a system that came only with a System Restore CD, see my January 15th LangaList newsletter.

Step 6: No Change

Step 7: With the advent of "reduced-DOS" OSes such as Windows ME, and DOS-free OSes such as Windows 2000, the importance of having a good DOS-level boot floppy actually has increased (because DOS lets you perform some low-level diagnostic and repair procedures that are otherwise difficult or impossible). But ironically, those same OSes make it harder to create a true, full-blown DOS boot floppy. Our "Save Your Butt With DOS" series can help you create not only a true DOS boot floppy, but also an entire library of powerful, low-level tools that just may save your bacon someday. (If the following arcane DOS terms and tools are unfamiliar to you, that same "Save Your Butt With DOS" series has links to tutorials, glossaries and help-sites that can answer just about any DOS-related question you may have.)

In the above-referenced discussion on boot floppies, I advocated using the ancient DOS memory tool EMM386 in your boot floppies' Config.Sys files: No modern software actually uses the old-style "expanded memory" that this tool was originally designed to create, but I recommended EMM386 because it could perform other functions, such as loading DOS-level drivers (e.g. your CD-ROM drivers) out of the way in otherwise-fallow "high memory" addresses between 64K and 1M of main system memory.

But some new software cannot run at all when EMM386 is running, even if EMM386's expanded memory functions are turned off. (Powerquest's Drive Image 4.0 is one such app.) And -- I'm not 100 percent sure of this, but the data are mounting up -- there appears to be a mild conflict between some PC power-management software and the ancient EMM386 driver.

So, I now recommend REMming out all references to EMM386 in all your config.sys files everywhere -- on boot floppies and on hard drives. That way, if you're running a DOS utility that can benefit from "loading high," you can un-REM the EMM386 line and reboot to reactivate the driver. But normally, EMM386 won't load, and thus can't interfere with anything.

Step 8: No change

Step 9: After performing the original Step 9, run Windows' System File Checker (SFC.EXE) to create a record of your newly-installed, perfect configuration, and also to you resolve any incipient conflicts that may have arisen already with the software you've loaded so far.

SFC is not a very friendly tool, and offers little guidance on the best way to resolve conflicts. But in general, later files with higher version numbers are usually preferred over earlier/lower files. And in any case, you have the backup made in Step 3 to fall back on, should something go awry.

Later, if you're as hard-core as I am about system stability, in the future, you can run SFC again after installing any new software to see what the new install changed. For example, some badly-done installation routines overwrite newer system files with older files. SFC will let you spot -- and reverse! -- such changes before they destabilize your system.

Step 10: Virtual Memory is a huge and complex topic. The article "Real World Answers About Virtual Memory" may help resolve any questions you have about applying Step 10's suggestions on optimizing your new PC's Virtual Memory settings.

Step 11: With the growth of the Internet and the proliferation of always-on network connections, online security has become incredibly important. The advice originally offered in Step 11 is valid, as far as it goes, but today's online environment demands more: Our "Secure Your PC Online" series will help you plug all the holes, and make your new PC as safe as can be.

Step 12 -- 15: No change.

Step 16: This change is occasioned by the fact that some OSes in widespread use -- to a degree Win98, and especially Win95 -- are getting long in the tooth. Older applications written specifically for those OSes may ship with older system components that may destabilize a newer OS if you let them overwrite new system files with the old ones.

So, if possible, install your applications, plus any software updates and patches for those applications, in the approximate chronological order of their initial release. By itself, this will help minimize the changes of destructive overwriting, but to be sure, use the System File Checker (from Step 9) to ensure that your older applications haven't downgraded your new setup in any way.

Also, check the advice in our series on "Resource Leaks" to ensure you're not hobbling your new system with "leaky" old software.

Step 17 -- 20: No changes.

Of course, there are other OS-specific steps that you may opt for: For example, in WinME, you may choose either to reduce the amount of space reserved for System Restore files, or you might prefer (as I do) to completely disable the System Restore function. But OS-specific steps like these are outside the 20 general setup steps outlined in the original System Setup Secrets article (and refined above), so we'll leave them for another time.

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