February, 1997
(Some previous months still online.)
A Potpurri of Advice
- Deleting files
- Winsocks and other DLLs
- Deleting files
- When the roll of compulsive characters is called, the elves at Installations Plus+ always answer "present". They like everything neat, tidy, and organized -- including their hard drives. And that means suffering from the compulsive desire to delete any file or program that's not needed, or old, misfiled or duplicated. A textbook case of deletion dementia.
"What's so bad about deleting unneeded files?" you ask. Nothing, if you don't accidentally delete more files than you planned to. Nothing, if you're 1000% sure you're deleting the right file. Nothing, if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that no other program needs that file. Nothing, if you're clear in your mind about what the file does. Nothing, if you also "erase" or remove all the links and references that point to the file you're about to banish from your hard drive. Nothing, if you're certain that you've configured your system so that the deleted file can be retrieved, if necessary, tomorrow.1
What we're trying to convey here is that file deletion may be a prelude to extreme unction. We don't recommend you delete anything unless you really need the room on your hard drive, you know exactly what you're deleting, and, if it's a Windows program you're expunging, you use "uninstallation" software.2 Feeling compulsive today? Wear a bowtie or polkadots, avoid stepping on cracks, or take your car in for detailing, but for heaven's sake leave your hard drive alone!
If you're still unconvinced and want to remove That Internet browser that came preloaded on your new PC, consider the following. That browser of course has files in the "Browser" directory -- subdirectories of which house the sound and animation plug-ins also used by the "other" browser -- but it also has files in the Windows and Windows\System directories. That browser is specifically referenced in several Windows configuration files (Win.Ini and System.Ini) and is associated through the Windows Registry with several file types -- probably HTM (Internet Hypertext), GIF and JPG (Internet graphics) among them. The latter files won't open without That browser. That browser also happens to be used by your online service (AOL or CompuServe) to provide Internet access, although you would have no reasonable way to know that. And we could go on.
In short, if you made the file yourself in a word processor or spreadsheet or database program, and you absolutely need the space it occupies,3 and you have a good undeletion configuration, and you're careful to do it right, go ahead and delete the file. If you didn't make it yourself and need to remove it, use professional uninstallation software to do the job as safely as possible.
- Winsocks and other DLLs
- DLLs -- Dynamic Link Libraries -- are resource or helper files used by many of the software programs written to run under Microsoft's Windows operating system. Some DLLs, like the one we mentioned above, are used to provide libraries of icons or buttons or macros. Others, such as the Winsock.Dll, contain protocols or transaction scripts, which tell a communications program, for example, how to transfer data. If you look in your Windows\System directory you'll find, mixed in among other strange things, a bewildering variety of DLLs which were placed in this directory -- which is in the system's "search path" -- so that they could be invoked by more than one software application.
So what has all this DLL business got to do with you? Well, as we just learned, some DLLs are shared among programs. That wouldn't be a problem except that different DLLs can have the same name ! For example, the Winsock.Dll used by CompuServe to communicate with the Internet has the same name but is quite different from the Winsock.Dll used for the same purpose by America Online. If you use multiple online services, you must make sure there is no Winsock.Dll in the Windows or Windows\System directories -- where it would be shared -- but that copies of the associated Winsock.Dll are located in each program's directories and subdirectories where the respective online program can find them.
Confusing? You bet! But it gets worse. If you run CompuServe, which loads its Winsock.Dll into working memory, and then try to run AOL, which will want to load its Winsock.Dll, you don't get online, you get an error message. In any given Windows "session" once a DLL is loaded it stays loaded until you close Windows down. So to run AOL after running CompuServe you need to restart Windows, to clear its active memory. (But now that you're running AOL, don't try to run CompuServe without restarting Windows again.)
Got that? Good, because there's more.
To belabor the obvious, the problem we just reviewed wasn't a problem with online communications software (AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy, MCI Mail, etc.), and it wasn't a Winsock problem either. It was a problem caused by different DLLs having the same name. In an ideal world, every software writer would be allowed to use an existing uniquely-named DLL to help his program, or to create a new one, also uniquely-named, instead. In our less-than-perfect world, what actually happens is that the same name gets used over and over again.
The same-name, different-function problem surfaces routinely with communications programs and the Winsock.Dll, but it's other common manifestation is even more insidious! In this instance, installing an older version of a seemingly benign program can cause widespread repercussions among similar, but sometimes wildly-unrelated, newer programs, again because the new and old software use DLLs of the same name but different function.
Here's the scenario for the other common manifestation. You upgrade your operating system to Windows 95. Certainly nothing wrong with that! Then a friend surprises you for your birthday with a brand-new copy of WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows. You're ecstatic. You've been using WP6.1 on the job and can't wait to set up your own, individualized copy at home. You do the installation, which with Windows 95 is a breeze. You go into the software and customize the colors, fonts, and macros. Three hours later you're a truly satisfied PC user, having accomplished a little piece of artistry, unique and all your own.
Then, as they say in novels, comes the dawn. You're up early to play with your new toy. But, poof, overnight the magic dragon has breathed a foul odor on WP6.1. It sort of opens, accompanied by a crescendo of error messages, and -- my word! -- the colors and layout are all screwy. You try a carefully-crafted macro, and crash. It's closed.
Horror-stricken and panicked you try rebooting your PC, to no effect. Then you root around in other software. Guess what? The problem is not limited to WP6.1. Your old, clunky word-processor (insert the name of the one you don't like about here) doesn't work properly either! So you decide to un-install (or re-install) WP6.1, since that's the last change you made to your system. Good thinking, but no waltz, Matilda.
Welcome to the DLL Crash of the Day club. First a little reassurance. Really, dear user there's nothing wrong with you or your hardware. Like all Crash of the Day members, your only sin was this. You loaded a Windows 3.xx program (not labeled Windows 95 compatible) on a Windows 95 machine. Unfortunately, the Windows 3.xx program uses DLLs of the same name as newer programs already on your PC. When first loaded, the 3.xx program runs because, during installation, it replaced the newer DLLs with the older ones it can use. But Windows 95 isn't so easily fooled! On its next reboot it checked its complement of DLLs, found some old ones and replaced them with the "right" new ones from the on-drive backup directory -- WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP -- it maintains for just such occasions. Voila! Your "old" Windows 3.xx program, WordPerfect 6.1 in our example, no longer works properly because it can't use the newer, same-named DLLs designed for Windows 95. And some of your other software doesn't work properly either, because Windows 95 only replaced the DLLs it needed, not all of the old ones loaded by the pre-historic version of WP6.1.4
What's a guy/gal/other to do? Got Windows 95? Good! Don't load software not specifically labeled for use with Windows 95, and then, if possible, avoid stuff from smaller, less well-known manufacturers who themselves may not be fully aware of the DLL interaction problem. Oh, and if you're the person stuck with the WP6.1 situation just discussed, you get to reinstall Windows 95 and all of its software all over again. (Sure hope you have backups...) And if you want WordPerfect 6.1, please treat yourself to the Windows 95 version.
1. Windows 95, of course, has its Recycle Bin, which unconditionally retains "deleted" files until you empty the Bin. A real blessing for the careless compulsive! In later versions of DOS (5.0 and up) and in Windows 3.xx, the Undelete software retains a deleted file until you save another file which then locates itself in the space previously occupied by the deleted file. You can make Undelete safer by activating the Delete Sentry feature, which stores deleted files in a hidden directory. Delete Sentry ultimately removes deleted files on a first-in-first-out basis when the size of the hidden directory reaches 7% of the hard drive's capacity.
In addition to the built-in deletion protection offered by DOS and Windows, many fine companies -- notably Symantec who makes the award-winning Norton Utilities -- market deletion-tracking software which works like the Windows 95 Recycle Bin. Although there's nothing inherently wrong with deletion-tracking software, our experience is that the folks who use it have more than their share of problems with their hard drives, possibly because they're inveterate tinkerers who can't leave well enough alone!
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2. Today many Windows programs include an uninstall option either as part of their setup sequence or as a separate icon. In a simple world, that would be all you'd need. Here's the rub. You install Program A, which puts its smart-icon library in the Windows\System directory. Then you install Program B, which economically enough uses the same library to produce its smart icons. Then you decide to uninstall Program A, which no longer meets your needs. Program A uninstalls all its files, including the smart-icon library. Oops. Now Program B opens with a big, blank useless toolbar!
While there are no complete and perfect answers to uninstallation, common problems like the one just outlined can be avoided by using a commercial uninstallation program. Software, like UnInstaller 3, produced by Microhelp uses proprietary methods to determine when a file -- like the smart-icon library -- is used by more than one application. Because this type of software scans your hard drive just before performing an uninstallation, it's more accurate than a program's uninstall option, which uses information stored when the program was first installed.
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3. If you're really running short of space -- if you have less than 5% of your hard drive still available -- instead of deleting files, it would be safer and smarter to run the DoubleSpace or DriveSpace program that comes with your version of DOS or Windows. These programs compress the files on your hard drive and effectively increase its capacity by 85% or more.
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4. It may have occurred to you that when you performed the upgrade from whatever Windows to Windows 95, almost all of your old software continued to run properly even though some of it must have used "old" DLLs. And your friend, who gave you WP6.1 for your birthday, had it loaded on his machine when he upgraded, and it works just fine. All true. In the upgrade, Windows 95 adjusted and substituted DLLs to make the older software continue to operate. But that's a one-time, global trick which it won't repeat on a load-by-load basis. And besides, Windows 95 wasn't invited to your birthday bash.
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