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Fonts directory and Application Data directory: reinistalling Win98SE, should I restore these?



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 14th 05, 04:49 PM
Tuttle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Fonts directory and Application Data directory: reinistalling Win98SE, should I restore these?

Greetings. After a disaster, I have done a format and clean install of
Win98SE plus all Critical Updates. Prior to the disaster, I made a backup of
my Fonts directory and my Application Data directory. Now I'm wondering what
to do with those backups.

1. Can I just copy the backup Fonts directory to replace the Fonts directory
that has been created in the new Win98SE installation? Or do I need to drag
the font files out of that backed-up Fonts folder, and then use the File |
Install New Fonts command to install each of the fonts from the backup?

2. Application Data directory contains files related to various
applications. Can I copy those files over to replace the ones in the new
Application Data directory? Will that restore the user preferences I had set
for those applications before the reinstall?

Thanks for any guidance.



  #2  
Old March 14th 05, 05:28 PM
Gary S. Terhune
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Tuttle" wrote in message
...
Greetings. After a disaster, I have done a format and clean install of
Win98SE plus all Critical Updates. Prior to the disaster, I made a

backup of
my Fonts directory and my Application Data directory. Now I'm

wondering what
to do with those backups.

1. Can I just copy the backup Fonts directory to replace the Fonts

directory
that has been created in the new Win98SE installation? Or do I need to

drag
the font files out of that backed-up Fonts folder, and then use the

File |
Install New Fonts command to install each of the fonts from the

backup?

Unless you have a font manager, you have to reinstall the fonts
manually, just the way you describe in the latter half of that
paragraph. Fonts aren't installed by virtue of being in the Fonts
folder. There are Registry entries that get created during installation.
If you want a mass instalaltion procedure, a fonts manager is needed,
such as Adobe ATM or Bitstream Font Navigator.

2. Application Data directory contains files related to various
applications. Can I copy those files over to replace the ones in the

new
Application Data directory? Will that restore the user preferences I

had set
for those applications before the reinstall?


That's a case-by-case issue. I strongly recommend *against* simply
dumping the old files into the new location. All kinds of havoc will
ensue.


--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm


  #3  
Old March 14th 05, 06:02 PM
Tuttle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Tuttle" wrote in message
...


drag the font files out of that backed-up Fonts folder, and then use
File | Install New Fonts command to install each of the fonts from
the backup?


Unless you have a font manager, you have to reinstall the fonts
manually, just the way you describe in the latter half of that
paragraph. Fonts aren't installed by virtue of being in the Fonts
folder. There are Registry entries that get created during installation.
If you want a mass instalaltion procedure, a fonts manager is needed,
such as Adobe ATM or Bitstream Font Navigator.


Okay. That's as I suspected, and I sure appreciate your confirmation.

2. Application Data directory contains files related to various
applications. Can I copy those files over to replace the ones in the

new
Application Data directory? Will that restore the user preferences I

had set
for those applications before the reinstall?


That's a case-by-case issue. I strongly recommend *against* simply
dumping the old files into the new location. All kinds of havoc will
ensue.


Okay, thanks for the warning. I'll hunt through some of them. Maybe, with
luck, some are text-readable files so maybe I can copy over some of the
settings into the new files.

Thanks very much for the help Gary. I recall your name from when I used to
read this group. You gave great support then, and clearly you still do!!!


  #4  
Old March 15th 05, 12:04 AM
Tuttle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Tuttle" wrote in message
...
Greetings. After a disaster, I have done a format and clean install of
Win98SE plus all Critical Updates. Prior to the disaster, I made a
backup of my Fonts directory


drag the font files out of that backed-up Fonts folder, and then use
File | Install New Fonts command to install each of the fonts from
the backup?


Unless you have a font manager, you have to reinstall the fonts
manually, just the way you describe in the latter half of that
paragraph. Fonts aren't installed by virtue of being in the Fonts
folder. There are Registry entries that get created during installation.


I thought I should post what I found, for benefit of anyone in future
searching for similar info.

As I said, I had made a backup of the entire Fonts directory from my Win98SE
system. I had simply dragged/copied that entire folder to an external USB
drive.

Today, following Gary's advice, I opened the old Fonts folder from the
external drive so I could view its contents. I left that window open. Then
on my newly-installed system I went to Control Panel | Fonts and opened it,
in order to use the Install New Fonts command to install the fonts from the
backup. Surprise, surprise: all the fonts from the backup were present in
the system's Fonts folder. Bizarre. I even tried using them from within MS
Word, and they work.

Here's my theory: because I had copied/backed-up the entire Fonts folder,
including the folder, somehow Windows knows that that is a special system
folder. In fact when I opened the old Fonts folder from the external drive,
its File menu also had the Install New Fonts command. So maybe because I
didn't just copy the fonts files, but copied the entire folder, Windows
automatically loads all those fonts onto the new system. Weird, but saved me
a lot of work.

I tested my theory about Windows having some "link" between the old copied
Fonts folder on the external drive, and the "real" Fonts folder on the new
system. I installed a new font onto the new system. I then opened the old
Fonts folder from the external drive, and magically that new font is now
there as well.

Strange stuff, but sure helped me out. Any comments on my theory?


  #5  
Old March 15th 05, 12:56 AM
Gary S. Terhune
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Well, *I've* never seen that happen without intervention from some
third-party app (and I'm not sure I've even seen it then.) But stranger
things have been known to happen.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"Tuttle" wrote in message
...
"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
"Tuttle" wrote in message
...
Greetings. After a disaster, I have done a format and clean

install of
Win98SE plus all Critical Updates. Prior to the disaster, I made a
backup of my Fonts directory


drag the font files out of that backed-up Fonts folder, and then

use
File | Install New Fonts command to install each of the fonts

from
the backup?


Unless you have a font manager, you have to reinstall the fonts
manually, just the way you describe in the latter half of that
paragraph. Fonts aren't installed by virtue of being in the Fonts
folder. There are Registry entries that get created during

installation.

I thought I should post what I found, for benefit of anyone in future
searching for similar info.

As I said, I had made a backup of the entire Fonts directory from my

Win98SE
system. I had simply dragged/copied that entire folder to an external

USB
drive.

Today, following Gary's advice, I opened the old Fonts folder from the
external drive so I could view its contents. I left that window open.

Then
on my newly-installed system I went to Control Panel | Fonts and

opened it,
in order to use the Install New Fonts command to install the fonts

from the
backup. Surprise, surprise: all the fonts from the backup were present

in
the system's Fonts folder. Bizarre. I even tried using them from

within MS
Word, and they work.

Here's my theory: because I had copied/backed-up the entire Fonts

folder,
including the folder, somehow Windows knows that that is a special

system
folder. In fact when I opened the old Fonts folder from the external

drive,
its File menu also had the Install New Fonts command. So maybe because

I
didn't just copy the fonts files, but copied the entire folder,

Windows
automatically loads all those fonts onto the new system. Weird, but

saved me
a lot of work.

I tested my theory about Windows having some "link" between the old

copied
Fonts folder on the external drive, and the "real" Fonts folder on the

new
system. I installed a new font onto the new system. I then opened the

old
Fonts folder from the external drive, and magically that new font is

now
there as well.

Strange stuff, but sure helped me out. Any comments on my theory?



  #6  
Old March 15th 05, 02:45 AM
Alan Edwards
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion, "Tuttle"
wrote:

Comments?
Yes, your are close. This is due to a couple of things and can be
remedied.

1. You have left the System attribute on the false font folder
2. You have left the hidden (and very well hidden) Desktop.ini in the
false font folder.

I strongly suggest you fix this, as the mirror effect of having two
system-enabled Fonts folders can be a bit confusing. You may find it
hard to determine exactly where the fonts are. You may think they are
in both folders but it is not necessarily so. The Fonts folder is not
a WYSIWYG system.

Remove the System attribute on the false folder.
Remove Desktop.ini (You may have to actually search for it from within
the false folder to see it)

....Alan

--
Alan Edwards, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/index.html

Today, following Gary's advice, I opened the old Fonts folder from the
external drive so I could view its contents. I left that window open. Then
on my newly-installed system I went to Control Panel | Fonts and opened it,
in order to use the Install New Fonts command to install the fonts from the
backup. Surprise, surprise: all the fonts from the backup were present in
the system's Fonts folder. Bizarre. I even tried using them from within MS
Word, and they work.

Here's my theory: because I had copied/backed-up the entire Fonts folder,
including the folder, somehow Windows knows that that is a special system
folder. In fact when I opened the old Fonts folder from the external drive,
its File menu also had the Install New Fonts command. So maybe because I
didn't just copy the fonts files, but copied the entire folder, Windows
automatically loads all those fonts onto the new system. Weird, but saved me
a lot of work.

I tested my theory about Windows having some "link" between the old copied
Fonts folder on the external drive, and the "real" Fonts folder on the new
system. I installed a new font onto the new system. I then opened the old
Fonts folder from the external drive, and magically that new font is now
there as well.

Strange stuff, but sure helped me out. Any comments on my theory?


  #7  
Old March 15th 05, 04:35 PM
Tuttle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Alan Edwards" wrote in message
...
In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion, "Tuttle"
wrote:

Comments?
Yes, your are close. This is due to a couple of things and can be
remedied.

1. You have left the System attribute on the false font folder
2. You have left the hidden (and very well hidden) Desktop.ini in the
false font folder.

I strongly suggest you fix this, as the mirror effect of having two
system-enabled Fonts folders can be a bit confusing. You may find it
hard to determine exactly where the fonts are. You may think they are
in both folders but it is not necessarily so. The Fonts folder is not
a WYSIWYG system.

Remove the System attribute on the false folder.


How do I do that? I've Googled, but the only methods found involve booting
into DOS. If I do that, I won't have access to the USB drive. Is there
another way to do this, such as maybe just opening a DOS window in Win98SE?


  #8  
Old March 15th 05, 11:57 PM
Alan Edwards
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Open a DOS window

....Alan

--
Alan Edwards, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/index.html

In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion, "Tuttle"
wrote:

"Alan Edwards" wrote in message
.. .
In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion, "Tuttle"
wrote:

Comments?
Yes, your are close. This is due to a couple of things and can be
remedied.

1. You have left the System attribute on the false font folder
2. You have left the hidden (and very well hidden) Desktop.ini in the
false font folder.

I strongly suggest you fix this, as the mirror effect of having two
system-enabled Fonts folders can be a bit confusing. You may find it
hard to determine exactly where the fonts are. You may think they are
in both folders but it is not necessarily so. The Fonts folder is not
a WYSIWYG system.

Remove the System attribute on the false folder.


How do I do that? I've Googled, but the only methods found involve booting
into DOS. If I do that, I won't have access to the USB drive. Is there
another way to do this, such as maybe just opening a DOS window in Win98SE?


  #9  
Old March 16th 05, 12:35 AM
Tuttle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion, "Tuttle"
wrote:

"Alan Edwards" wrote in message
.. .
In microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion, "Tuttle"
wrote:

Comments?
Yes, your are close. This is due to a couple of things and can be
remedied.

1. You have left the System attribute on the false font folder
2. You have left the hidden (and very well hidden) Desktop.ini in the
false font folder.

I strongly suggest you fix this, as the mirror effect of having two
system-enabled Fonts folders can be a bit confusing. You may find it
hard to determine exactly where the fonts are. You may think they are
in both folders but it is not necessarily so. The Fonts folder is not
a WYSIWYG system.

Remove the System attribute on the false folder.


I opened a DOS window, opened that drive, cd'd to the copied Fonts
directory, then did this:

E:FONTS attrib -s *.*

It returned a whole bunch of failure messages, like the following:

Not resetting hidden file E:\fonts\VGASYS.FON
Not resetting hidden file E:\fonts\MARLETT.TTF
etc. ...


What next?
Should I just delete the entire directory? I no longer need this backup, as
I have reinstalled my system.
In future, to make a backup of my fonts would it be better to drag just the
visible *contents* of the font folder, rather than the entire folder?

(Thank you for your help)


  #10  
Old March 16th 05, 12:50 AM
Gary S. Terhune
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

That isn't the command you want.You want to remove the System attribute
from the folder, not from the files within the folder.

E:\attrib -s FONTS

Don't delete the folder. While it *appears* that all of the fonts have
been automatically installed to your new system, they haven't. Those
files you see in the C:\Windows\FONTS folder aren't really there. Those
are mirrors of what's in the other fonts folder.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"Tuttle" wrote in message
...


I opened a DOS window, opened that drive, cd'd to the copied Fonts
directory, then did this:

E:FONTS attrib -s *.*

It returned a whole bunch of failure messages, like the following:

Not resetting hidden file E:\fonts\VGASYS.FON
Not resetting hidden file E:\fonts\MARLETT.TTF
etc. ...


What next?
Should I just delete the entire directory? I no longer need this

backup, as
I have reinstalled my system.
In future, to make a backup of my fonts would it be better to drag

just the
visible *contents* of the font folder, rather than the entire folder?

(Thank you for your help)



 




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