Guidelines - Advice - Instructions

[Lauriell]

Reading the Posts I am amazed at the technical stuff a lot of you guys seem so familiar with and wonder how you acquired it. Does anyone know of a site/magazine that provides detailed instructions for people of only average computer literacy (like me) on such things as settingup & software trials for Multiplayer; Shared Cockpits; Repaints; Changing AI Traffic; even Screenshots etc ?? The bits of advice flowing back and forth in the posts dont do it for me.

It sure would make simming life more interesting if more of us could do these things with some confidence that we were not going to crash our computers. The thought of doing a clean re-install scares the s... out of me.........Laurie

[}SkOrPn--7]

Lauriell one bit of advice I will offer and that is get a program called "Acronis True Image" from http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/index.html. This is a fairly simple program to install and then backup your entire operation system. Best thing to do is do a clean install and format then use this program to create a complete image of your "C" Drive. You can even create images as you install things so that should you run into issues you can select a PC configuration and restore that image. So for example I install my operating system having removed all of Microsoft's bloatware and create an image. I then tweak the crap out of my operating system the again create a image. I do that through out the install process of different stages so once I have FSX installed and all the main addons in it's raw form I create another image so see the pattern? I can now go back and restore my PC at which ever point I want and have a crystal squeaky clean system like brand new.

This in turn will then allow you some saving grace to go ahead and do plenty of experimenting and playing with files and should you make a blunder which you can't fix use Acronis to restore your entire "C" Drive back to the glory days of working. In my opinion this is the best and most effective way to allow a person that isn't PC savvy to have a crack at anything and not worry too much about problems. It also gives you more confident to mess around within files and folders learning as you go because to be honest the only real way to fully understand what we do is to get in there and mess with things and screw things up then try fixing it and if that fails you know you have your trusty Acronis.

For me my knowledge came from reading and searching google along with many forums related to the subject I wish to learn. This hasn't been an overnight job so don't expect this to be the case it's been years worth of doing this and plenty of experimenting plus many head pounding cluster f--- to get things right or understand how it's done.

I will see if I can dig up some simple references that will kick you off but many of the programs have a text file in the zip file and if you open and read them they give you a good run down of how to use and install that program.

I'm sure others will chip in so we will get the ball rolling.........

Ricky

[Tim Harris]

1990 played tape cassette loaded game called "Elite" on a BBC master system

2001 bought a PC from a shonky shop, started reading forums

2002 stuck finger into the motherboard and fried something, replaced entire system, but this time bought all parts separately,and from reading forums I put it together

2004 tried to update Bios via dial-up modem, went tragically wrong, wrecked everything

2005 newly bought system going great, playing FPS games, started to mess with .ini's and config files to get better ingame playability (with dial-up I was almost willing to play in wire-box mode if it ment a little bit better ping)

2006 reading more forums, trying stuff out, tweaking, attempting overclocking and other adventurous things

2007 grew up and started to tire of shooting 500 people a night, discovered more forums, played flightsim2004, CFS3...and a new love was borne 

2008 bought new computer again, this time just for FSX, got interested in creating stuff, read more forums, did stuff to FSX, and had to re-install FSX 6 times in 3 months

now after that I have no problem messing with things to see what they do

its the best way, if there's a button...push it...see what what it does and read forums, and sooooooaaaaakkkk innnn informationnnn

[Maurice_King]

Over many years of tinkering and repairing PC's for friends and neighbours as well as working in the PC/IT industry, I've learned many seeminly little things that I now employ to make my system as relaible as I can.  Things like never turning the PC off unless it is to move to the Carport for the monthly dust clean. I have found that PC's left on are by and large more reliable as they are NOT subject to the system bloating that occurs in temporary files and cacheing on bootup. Another reason is failure due to thermal shock ( the eventual fracturing of solder joints etc from repeated Heating and cooling cycles starting and stopping. ) 

I know that XP and system OS's like it are supposed to be single partition or drive systems (according to MS) , but ever since Win95 I have always advocated having a small drive such as 5 - 10 Gb as the "C:\"  and carefully moving the Documents and Settings including the "My Documents" to a completely different drive than "C:\", (This requires editing of the system registry - DO NOT ATTEMPT unless you are VERY familiar with doing so) in this way if my system does crash due to a failure of the HD or as is generally the case a failure of or damage to the Windows XP file structure or a major registry error.

My system "C:\" has only Windows and anything that MUST be on C:\ due to software constraints and my registry edited to make E:\Program Files my default location. I make a backup of my entire registry weekly This MUST be done Externally of Windows and booted from Bart PE and I GHOST the "C:\" weekly also. I find this better than Acronis but this may not suit everyone.  All other software installations can be simply copied from their installed HD's or partitions to a Backup HD as long as the EXACT same structure is kept. ( DO NOT USE ANY compression what so ever either but copy as is to the backup. )

For instance I have a 1Tb Drive that has 10 separate Directories on it each representing either a single HD or Partition in my current system and the name of that directory reflects the Contents.

The most critical one is of course "C:\"  but even more critical is the registry. there are three areas that are the life blood of your OS  the Root of C:\ itself C:\Windows\System32 -  C:\Windows\System32\config    and the C:\Documents and Settings this being one of the more critical Directories.  Oh by the way my \Program Files\Common Files Directory no longer resides on C:\ but has been moved to it's own partition as well and there is only 1 Temp Folder instead of the system bloating 4 that Windows uses by default.

All of these should be backed up independently IMHO of any other image.

For the layman Acronis and programs like it make life relatively easy with the ease of backup ;  I detest those One touch externals too but this again is personal preference.  I much prefer to use a Drive caddy with my backup drives and this has worked for me for over 15 years. (I have NOT formatted since 1995)

[Gurdy]

MK, interested in your registry tweaks to change the paths.....

[alan2]

I sent a post and it disapeared- if another post recieves a strange answer - well, now you know . 

Lauriel, good question  and I will be tuning in on sKorpn-7 responce - thank you . Its a chore just surfing and checking out sites -hoping to get answers. Im actually in dialogue with one of the forum members who is helping me out in some areas.

Meatycus hit it on the head,  press and see.

[Maurice_King]

Oh I forgot to add TURN OFF ALL Auto Updates  . Update MANUALLY when and if they are sound and reliable.

This is the primary cause of so many problems with incompatibilities it isn't funny, just look at some problems occuring in these forums with nVidia and ATI driver updates.  I'm a firm believer in these cases if it aint F#$ked then don't F#$k with it .

[Lauriell]

Thanks fellas  -Really appreciate the time you took with the advice you gave. As I expected, not much in the way of shortcuts, its readn'. tryin' and doin' (with appropriate safeguards) Time to do that and get my toe in the water.

Laurie

[skypilot]

[snip] moving the Documents and Settings including the "My Documents" to a completely different drive than "C:\", (This requires editing of the system registry - DO NOT ATTEMPT unless you are VERY

[snip]

To change the location of 'My docs", I thought you click on properties of the 'My documents' folder and click on the 'target' tab then click the 'move' button to move 'My docs' to where ever you like with out having to edit the registry?

[Tim Harris]

oh and sign up and read this forum http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ hang around in the "PC hardware" section and the "Windows" section

you will gain much vital knowledge

AND the Wiki there is awesome also http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=874816

Its an Australian Broadband and computer forum and without it I would not be here today

[teecee]

Read this forum..go here..do this, do that.. mate I am the same age as you, and believe me, nothing will teach you like personal experience.. if you want to change something.. either do a backup, and then make the change.. if it works.. OK.. if it doesn't.. put it back where it was.. and if you do not want to do it this way.. ask here.. state exactly what you need, and you WILL get answers.. the lads here are something else.. Teecee.

[Maurice_King]

[snip] moving the Documents and Settings including the "My Documents" to a completely different drive than "C:\", (This requires editing of the system registry - DO NOT ATTEMPT unless you are VERY

[snip]

To change the location of 'My docs", I thought you click on properties of the 'My documents' folder and click on the 'target' tab then click the 'move' button to move 'My docs' to where ever you like with out having to edit the registry?

Ah yes Sir you can move your "My Documents folder" to just about any place you want to in the system but this does absolutely nothing to all the installation settings and other data that is also contained in the C:\Documents and Settings folder which is just about the second most important Folder within your System in terms of Value of information contained. It contains many settings and other CRITICAL files that are created by programs and processes within the system and actually tell the OS where every thing is and what to do with it.

Without  the 2 directories below at least in XP  your system is about as dumb as a lump of rock. Protect them with vengeance.

1  C:\Windows\System32\Config

2  C:\Documents and Settings

The equivelant is C:\Users in Vista 

[}SkOrPn--7]

Thanks fellas  -Really appreciate the time you took with the advice you gave. As I expected, not much in the way of shortcuts, its readn'. tryin' and doin' (with appropriate safeguards) Time to do that and get my toe in the water.

Laurie

Check your private messages Laurie 

[Maurice_King]

Yes Laurie unfortunately there are no shortcuts to good system maintenance.

There are plenty of good tools and advice to be had, just be very careful as some tools , unless you understand exactly what your doing.

[Russ White]

Shortcuts!....I wish there were shortcuts, it would have saved me a whole lot of studying and exam taking. I am currently employed by day as an I.T specialist, looking after the computer networks for two companies. There is just me and one other guy in the I.T department here and we maintain nearly 20 servers and over 100 workstations and their users on a daily basis....

I have worked in I.T for years and have built up my formal I.T qualifications also, but even now i still learn something new everyday, we face a lot of challenges at work and sometimes with only 2 of us we have to get creative to overcome big problems.

I am also a freelance digital artist and graphic designer in the evenings and at weekends, which helps a lot when it comes to modifying graphics in FSX! 

But to answer your question, i would say the best way to learn more about computers and tweaking is to read some of the posts on this forum and ask questions if your still not satisfied. Asking questions can point you in the right direction, or make things clearer for you, but as i have always found out......there is no better way to learn than from your own curiosity and experimentation. (unless you want to wade through 20 books, each the size of the old testiment to gain an MCSE....like i had to!)

Russ.

[Maurice_King]

(unless you want to wade through 20 books, each the size of the old testiment to gain an MCSE....like i had to!)

20 geez I had 25 when I started an MSCE course in Brissy and the buggers canned it half way through ( NOT happy Jan) .

[Gurdy]

I reckon 1/2 the ppl on this forum will be IT dweebies (including myself  )