[WriteLog] Startup Menu Follow Up

[Scot Herrick]

All,

About a week ago I whined on the reflector about not being able to have a
'batch' file that enables different configurations for different
circumstances (i.e., 'contest' vs. 'regular') on the PC. Mitch, W1GI,
supplied the reflector with a couple of helpful hints on how one can monitor
Startup programs and how to produce a separate hardware configuration to
enable a 'contest' vs. a 'regular' configuration at system boot. Here is a
short summary of what I found using these techniques...

Startup Programs

Using the START/RUN/MSCONFIG suggestion for working with the Startup files,
I was able to see a much larger number of startup programs out there than
those that just show on my task bar. One must be very careful on which
programs to longer have at startup on the PC (I touched NO system files,
only files that I clearly recognized as Accessory Programs and Application
programs...). There were two approaches:

1. Eliminate really useless startup programs. These, in my case, were files
that loaded at startup with a program I was no longer using.

2. Eliminate any duplicates in the file listing that cause the same program
to load more than once. I had three(!) of these programs that were
duplicated in the group. I eliminated the duplicate entries.

The result of this effort is a much faster load upon turning the machine on.
And while it is too early to tell, the system is reacting much better
between applications than it used to before the cleanup of the duplicate
programs (my suspicion on this is that one of the duplicated programs were
in the Norton protection suite so everything had to get looked at
twice...that's a feeling, so don't all you techs out there flame me!).

As I have commented on this reflector before, when as many startup programs
as possible are closed before a contest, the probability of a crash with
WriteLog is greatly reduced. I personally have never had a crash in WriteLog
after the effort to close out task bar startup programs not used in the
contest. The same effort also significantly speeds up WriteLog since closing
the task bar programs makes more memory available to run WriteLog. I would
urge all of you to make this effort before the contest this weekend.

Different Hardware Configurations

This effort was to establish a 'contest' and a 'regular' hardware profile
within the PC. Then, at power on, you select which hardware configuration
you want to use. Following some specific processes, one is able to work with
the device drivers for each hardware configuration and, in theory, eliminate
some not used in the 'contest' configuration.

I did the separate configurations. However, when I went in and looked for
things to eliminate within the device driver categories, I didn't see any
worth taking nor did I see any duplicates. I then went back to just one
hardware configuration and did no more with this effort.

If I remember correctly, there was some discussion about printer drivers
causing some problems in some versions of WriteLog. If all else fails, I
would suggest using the 'multiple hardware configuration' approach and
trying to remove the printer drivers from your contest configuration and see
if that fixes the problem.

The Startup Menu approach, however, is worthwhile for everyone on the
reflector.

Getting ready for this weekend - looking forward to working all of you in
the contest.

CU...Scot, K9JY

mailto:scot@k9jy.com
www.k9jy.com



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