|
|
|
re: $NtUninstallB*
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Michael Pollock
(10 messages posted)
You may be correct that I cannot safely remove files or folders I cannot readily
identify, but your comments do not truly speak to what I ultimately want to accomplish--simplifying
the structure of my XP hard drive. The issue is not space, but:
1)Why have something that will not be used?
2)Is the "status quo" the result of intentional design or lack of design?
Though I risk "encroaching" on another question I have posted to the forum, an illustration
of what I mean of the latter question is 4 different folders, thus 4 different Start
Menus, within my Documents and Settings directory, with 3 of them significantly "slimmer"
than the 4th. As they are not all identical, it would seem possible to remove not
just those 3 Start Menus, but also their entire folders without adversely impacting
Windows.
Turning to the second question, there were quite a few programs released in conjunction
with Windows 2000 that claimed Internet Explorer was required for them to work properly,
if at all. WRONG! They only required the presence of a single .dll file that Windows
installed in its IE subdirectory. They would work so long as first, that dll was
installed somewhere on the computer, and second, the program could be configured
to look for that file wherever it might be located rather than only in the IE subdirectory.
Of course, many software designers and programmers were either too LAZY or too intimidated
by Microsoft (fear of either licensing requirements or being denied access to critic
code needed to design their programs) to add that functionality to their programs.
In Windows98 I was able to remove, without the "promised" instability, a number of
components that were allegedly critical to Windows, to wit, Outlook Express, Office
and Internet Explorer. I had no need for any of them as I used Netscape for the both
my e-mail and web browsing, though I eventually switched to Opera for the latter,
and PageMaker for my word-processing (admittedly a bit of over-kill, but I started
using desktop publishers, first a program called Avagio, then PageMaker, back in
the days of DOS, finding that with my typing speed, 85wpm, it was faster to input
text directly into a dtp rather than importing the text from a wp program). Granted,
I may have lost some "functionality", but that functionality was also features I
did not, and would not ever, use.
As most of the software I use on a regular basis was designed specifically for Windows98,
and those that were not nevertheless ran in Windows98, I still consider Windows98
to be my primary OS--this XP laptop is a "failsafe" as I have begun to have hardware
issues with my Windows98 machines that cannot be resolved simply by buying new hardware
as increasingly such hardware does not have Windows98 drivers, and finding the specific
used equipment I need can be time-consuming, but those hardware issues are likely
to force me, in time, to abandon it. The question is what will replace it?
Working with more recent versions of Windows at both libraries and in clients' homes/offices,
I have become sufficiently familiar with them to see more reasons to dislike them
than see them as "improvement" over Windows98. Then there is the matter of 16 bit
programs, of which I use quite a few, not just not running in the newest versions
of Windows, but specific programs I use not having XP or Vista compatible equivalents.
The idea of switching to Apple has never appealed to me because while I could run
my those programs on emulators, I would have to purchase not only the OS, but also
the hardware. With Linux I would not need to buy any new hardware, but the ability
to run my Windows programs in an emulator is more limited than with Apple, though
largely due to my knowing so little about Linux programming. I am, however, working
to address that issue.
Perhaps by these remarks I risk alienating the very people whose help I need in addressing
my complaints with WindowsXP, but if so, it won't be the first time someone has taken
offense at my "calling the kettle black".
- Written in response to:
- re: $NtUninstallB* (MartinM: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 11:50 am)
Responses to this message:
|
|
All messages in this thread [show all]
 |  |  | re: $NtUninstallB* (Michael Pollock: Wed, Nov 28, 2007, 1:45 pm) |
| |
| |
Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum
|
|
|
|
