Deen writes: > I have to admit I don't really know if that's true. I was advised that by the networking guys, and accepted it as the whole truth :) maybe part truth, the stuff you see bottom right in the 'tray' is loaded, Explorer too is loaded, that's what you're looking at - the GUI or graphical User Interface and a few other windows related bits but nothing else until you 'launch' it then it loads into memory. ... I try not to apply too much logic with Windows, and anyway I've had empty desktops (except for shortcuts I might put in temporarily) for so long, I never got a chance to verify that little titbit... Apologies if I am spreading more lies and untruths... (but it's election time in Australia) tch! Deen! we don't have to share our misery with the world ;-) > About the backups, I should have been clearer. The Desktop sits outside of what the user sees (My Documents). It's counter-intuitive to have a place called "My Documents" and put things outside this space. the desktop is actually two things, the GUI such as any graphical operating system uses, and a folder in the windows directory called 'desktop' which it just so happens is displayed by windows as the main interface. the hierarchy is simple and all the 'desktop' folder is actually just a bunch of shortcuts and a few programs the user may have left or stored there. Incidentally one can lurch back 10 years in time by changing the system.ini file (shell=Explorer.exe) to read "shell=winfile" and instead of seeing the GUI one expects in windows it'll look end behave exactly like the old windows 3.11 (pre win 95 :-) Programs can be loaded to memory, used then put away without all the fancy fluff! >The standard backup (the wizard anyway) doesn't back it up... only the user's My Documents folder. you can tick any box to decide what precisely gets backed up and in what manner.. and that's just the proprietary windows backup program - hundreds of free backup programs exist to allow all manner of backup routines, one just need look at any of the freeware sites such as tucows or winfiles. > Me, I don't like to mix my documents with the OS, so it's on another partition (they squabble for swap space), little swap space is ever used on newer PC's as few if any programs load so much as to overwhelm the RAM - usually in excess of 512 mb.. The OS exists as a couple of files in the root C:\ drive and also in C:\windows. Everything else, programs, documents etc just sit in folders inside the C:\ directory all neatly in their spaces ready to be called up when needed. It's pretty much the same across all operating systems except some OS's don't use a REGISTRY. this is the bit mac people fear and loath, it's the bit that 'installed' programs register in to allow windows to put some bits of the program inside special folders WITHIN the operating system. it means installs and uninstall routines can be used by programs to ensure they are 'embedded' in the computer. It also means one can't drag and drop a program out of the operating system like one can in a mac and get away with stealing the program off someone elses machine (!) It can be a confusing idea but it can also increase efficiency - if say ten programs need a 'dll' (a dynamic library) rather than each and every program having the same file each in their own directory, windows will keep just a single copy of the dll in the system file, the registry then tells the program where to find that dll when it's needed. Imagine having 64 shared dll's associated with a program and 14 instances of that program on a machine, then add 12 other programs using those same dll's (or whatever the particular OS uses in place off dll's, whatever they may be called) we'd now have 1664 files scattered across a machine when in fact 64 might have done the job. Lets now assume they were around 100kb each, you can see that having them on the computer only once, and all in one place ready to share has some merits. > Still, I probably shouldn't talk about computers... > > just trubble... maybe not here ;-) but it's worth talking about them. many user forums exist as well as usenet groups and web pages that walk people through the intricacies of what must be the most sophisticated technology many of us will ever face in our life times. it's worth getting to know these beasties whether one wants to or not - once they're tamed somewhat and the idiosyncrasies are comprehended they can be wrestled into servitude quite nicely know thine enemy ;-) k
