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Subject:Re: Word 95 question From:Buck & Tilly Buchanan <writer -at- DHC -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 5 Jun 1997 16:30:52 -0500
Becca Price wrote:
>
> My dad is looking to delete some icons from his desktop without
> necessarily removing the applicaition. He heard of a program called
> TweakUI that is supposed to do this, but can't find it. I'm a Win3.1
> user
> still, so can't help him - does anyone here have any advice,
> information, etc. I can pass on?
Don't delete any icon that does not have a small white arrow in the
lower left corner of the icon. That icon indicates it's a shortcut and
deleting a shortcut does not wipe out the program.
On the other hand, most non-shortcut icons (My Computer, Trash Bin, etc)
take the program with them if you delete them. Those require either
registry entries to restore, or re-installing from the Win95 CD.
Make a backup of the registry prior to making major changes. Here's how
to do it:
1. Restart your computer in MSDOS mode (don't try this in a dos window,
the registry is in use then).
2. CD to C:\windows
3. type--
attrib system.dat -r -s -h <enter>
attrib user.dat -r -s -h <enter>
md registry
copy system.dat c:\windows\registry
copy user.dat c:\windows\registry
attrib system.dat +r +s +h <enter>
attrib user.dat +r +s +h <enter>
exit <enter> or simply reboot.
Here's what you did:
1. Turned off the Read only, System, and Hidden File attributes for the
registry files.
2. Made a directory for backup registry files
3. Copied the registry files to the backup directory
4. Reset the attributes
5. Started Windows95
You should back up the registry files on a regular basis. Never, never,
ever, make major changes to Windows 95 without first performing this
exercise.
If you screw up and are unable to boot to Win95, get into DOS (press F8
while the cursor is blinking or while "starting Windows 95" is on screen
during startup.
Turn off the attributes of the registry files.
copy your backups from c:\windows\registry to c:\windows
Perform the good ol' 3-fingered salute and you're back in business with
your backed up registry files.
The preceding was written by a Tech Writer, not a Documentation
Engineer.
--
Buck Buchanan
writer -at- dhc -dot- net
Arlington, TX
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