Windows default settings

[CmpTch9]

Greetings! I have a question about the desktop settings in Wondows 98. I
have several old machines which have had all the settings changed, such as
the mouse pointer style, system font, background, screen saver, etc. Is
there a quick way to reset them all to Windows defaults with one or two
clicks? Maybe a registry setting or something, so I don't have to open all
those settings one at a time on each of my 25 machines?

Thanks,
Jay

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

No. If these are old machines, did they come from somewhere else? In
general, the best thing to do with used machines is to reinstall the entire
system from scratch. Trying to tidy up old systems is a fool's errand. Can't
succeed 100%, ever.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"CmpTch9" <CmpTch9@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:77A04AC8-B682-4C96-B803-D2887880A67C@microsoft.com...
> Greetings! I have a question about the desktop settings in Wondows 98. I
> have several old machines which have had all the settings changed, such as
> the mouse pointer style, system font, background, screen saver, etc. Is
> there a quick way to reset them all to Windows defaults with one or two
> clicks? Maybe a registry setting or something, so I don't have to open
> all
> those settings one at a time on each of my 25 machines?
>
> Thanks,
> Jay

 

[thanatoid]

=?Utf-8?B?Q21wVGNoOQ==?= <CmpTch9@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote in
news:77A04AC8-B682-4C96-B803-D2887880A67C@microsoft.com:

> Greetings! I have a question about the desktop settings in
> Wondows 98. I have several old machines which have had all
> the settings changed, such as the mouse pointer style,
> system font, background, screen saver, etc. Is there a
> quick way to reset them all to Windows defaults with one or
> two clicks? Maybe a registry setting or something, so I
> don't have to open all those settings one at a time on each
> of my 25 machines?
>
> Thanks,
> Jay

"Old" being a relative term (this machine will be 10 years old
in Sept. and has a CD-R drive) I am pretty sure that your
computers have CD drives. Fix the best one up, either by
adjusting the settings, defragging, getting rid of junk etc.
etc. etc. or by doing a complete clean reinstall after an fdisk
partition creation and format.

Make an image of the nice clean C:\ partition and use that CD to
make the rest of the computers exactly the same, taking about 10
minutes per machine. If not all the machines have a CD drive,
you can open them up and plug one in, the C:\drive image is
copied without even going into DOS and it takes just a few
cables to hook up the drive.

If there are some differences in hardware, the first time Win
boots up it will either adjust the settings or ask you if you
want to do it yourself. Minor stuff.

--
"This is not nuclear. This is just a test."
- illyria

 

[CmpTch9]

Thanks for the reply. Could you please tell me more about this? The one
machine I'd like to model the others after, does not have a CD writeable
drive, just a CD-R. Does this procedure copy the entire C: drive? How much
space does this image take up, in case I need to move it to a 3rd machine
just to burn a CD? Does it take with it all the applications programs, data,
and related files, or is it just all the settings and defaults? All the
machines are using the same hardware and system configurations.

Thanks again.

"thanatoid" wrote:

> =?Utf-8?B?Q21wVGNoOQ==?= <CmpTch9@discussions.microsoft.com>
> wrote in
> news:77A04AC8-B682-4C96-B803-D2887880A67C@microsoft.com:
>
> > Greetings! I have a question about the desktop settings in
> > Wondows 98. I have several old machines which have had all
> > the settings changed, such as the mouse pointer style,
> > system font, background, screen saver, etc. Is there a
> > quick way to reset them all to Windows defaults with one or
> > two clicks? Maybe a registry setting or something, so I
> > don't have to open all those settings one at a time on each
> > of my 25 machines?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jay
>
> "Old" being a relative term (this machine will be 10 years old
> in Sept. and has a CD-R drive) I am pretty sure that your
> computers have CD drives. Fix the best one up, either by
> adjusting the settings, defragging, getting rid of junk etc.
> etc. etc. or by doing a complete clean reinstall after an fdisk
> partition creation and format.
>
> Make an image of the nice clean C:\ partition and use that CD to
> make the rest of the computers exactly the same, taking about 10
> minutes per machine. If not all the machines have a CD drive,
> you can open them up and plug one in, the C:\drive image is
> copied without even going into DOS and it takes just a few
> cables to hook up the drive.
>
> If there are some differences in hardware, the first time Win
> boots up it will either adjust the settings or ask you if you
> want to do it yourself. Minor stuff.
>
> --
> "This is not nuclear. This is just a test."
> - illyria
>

 

[thanatoid]

=?Utf-8?B?Q21wVGNoOQ==?= <CmpTch9@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote in
news:556C1518-0F04-4F36-984A-241592625F32@microsoft.com:

> Thanks for the reply. Could you please tell me more about
> this? The one machine I'd like to model the others after,
> does not have a CD writeable drive, just a CD-R. Does this
> procedure copy the entire C: drive? How much space does
> this image take up, in case I need to move it to a 3rd
> machine just to burn a CD? Does it take with it all the
> applications programs, data, and related files, or is it
> just all the settings and defaults? All the machines are
> using the same hardware and system configurations.
>
> Thanks again.

Yeah, I realized after I posted that I should have told you
more.

1.
The application to do this is either Norton Ghost or (IMO
better) Acronis True Image. An older version is just fine, in
fact better. You can probably find an old version of Acronis
free if you look around. I got "Acronis TrueImage Deluxe" free
on a British computer magazine CD about 4 years ago and it has
eliminated the need to worry about just about anything except
hardware. Anyway, it's well worth the reasonable price. But the
earlier versions ARE better (I know, it's weird). And MY version
is a few MB while the latest versions are almost a hundred MB.

You can get an old version of Norton/Symantec Ghost here:

http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=nortonghost

I have never used Ghost, so I can't tell you much. The version
from that site may or may not need a serial number. I'll let you
figure out what to do.

[Acronis (www.acronis.com) also have a new(er) product call
Migrate Easy which is only $40 (T.I. is $50) and possiby even
more suited to what you want to do. But I'll let you read all
the small print and decide.]

Anyway, these applications will make an exact image of "a"
partition (look it up if you don't know the difference between
"drive" and "partition").

The size of the image will be exactly the same as what you have
or you can use compression. I have never used compression and I
have always managed to fit everything on one CD. Your mileage
may vary.

(BTW, you can do basically the same thing by copying things
either in DOS or Windows once you have your "source" computer
all tweaked and clean, but it's a LOT more hassle, takes 20 or
50 or 500 times longer and mistakes WILL be made.)

2.
A CD-R unit *will* write a CD-R. CD-R or CD-RW stands for a CD-
writeable drive (or disc). A "CD" drive will only *play* CD's
and CDR's. So I think you're OK there. Anyway, if not, get an LG
CD-RW drive. They're excellent and only about 20-30 dollars if
that.

3.
The imaging program makes an EXACT image of the partition, with
EVERYTHING (*EVERYTHING*) that is on it. It is a good idea to
have ANY computer divided into partitions. You can use the
program just for the C partition or you can actually use it to
make backups of the other partitions, although that's not its
real intent. (There are hundreds or thousands of backup programs
available.)

See this link for why you should have more than one partition:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_02.htm

If your machines are running Win98, 1.5 GB should be more than
enough for the C partition. Divide the rest of the drive as you
wish. I have 7 partitions on an 8.4 GB drive and 16 on a 40GB
drive and I am happy as a clam.

4.
It would be a good idea to really tweak the system nice before
you do the image - i.e., you should download Microsoft's
"TweakUI" for Win98 (Google), also get the tiny program from

http://www.iconsaver.com/index.html

so your icons don't go for walks and get lost (this tends to
happen even with TweakUI), and "Display Set" from PC magazine to
make your colors and text and windows etc. just the way you want
them - if you can find it.

But you can spend an infinite amount of time tweaking a Windows
machine, so just do what you feel is necessary for your
situation. Basics should be fine. I just like to fiddle.

It is essential to defragment the C drive before you create the
final image.

5.
I don't know what your exact situation is but if you actually
have 25 identical (this makes it SO much easier, too) machines,
even if you have to spend about $75 on Acronis and a CD-R drive,
it's more than worth it IMO. Every time a computer gets screwed
up by some smartass, you just put the Acronis-made disc into the
CD drive and in 10 minutes you're back to perfect (or as perfect
as you managed to make it in the first place, anyway).

DO be aware that ANY data on the C: drive created AFTER you
made/installed the image originally will be GONE. That's one of
the reasons why it's good to have partitions and keep ALL the
data on other partitions than C. IOW, NO "My Documents".

If you need any more advice, don't hesitate to ask.

t.

--
"This is not nuclear. This is just a test."
- illyria