China DOS Union

These are some of my own experiences with installing a Windows operating system, configuring the operating system, and installing application software. I hope they will be of some help to everyone. If there is anything unreasonable, I hope you will point it out.

1. Partitioning: let the operating system occupy one partition by itself, with only the operating system and nothing else installed on it, so this partition does not need to be especially large. Let application software occupy one partition by itself, and do not keep personal data in it. Personal data and the contents of current work should occupy one partition by themselves. There should also be one partition for storing some mp3s, VCDs, DVDs, e-books, as well as backups of the operating system and application software installers; this partition should be relatively large. If you still want to divide more partitions, then that is up to you. I think there is no need for too many partitions; 4-5 is enough, otherwise it is actually a waste of hard disk space, unless there is some special purpose.

2. For machines with multiple hard disks, the operating system should be placed on the faster hard disk.

3. Virtual memory configuration: use a fixed-size virtual memory file as much as possible, and place it on drive C. Generally speaking, drive C has the fastest access speed (except on multi-hard-disk systems). If memory is under 64M, set it to 2.5 times the memory size; if under 256M, set it to 1-2 times the memory size; if over 256M, then setting it about the same size as physical memory is enough.

4. Temporary directory: set the temporary directory under the root directory, such as C:\Temp or D:\Temp, and use the same setting for all users. Set Internet Explorer's temporary directory under the system temporary directory, such as C:\Temp\Temporary Internet Files. In 2000 and NT, you can directly modify the system and each user's environment variables Temp and tmp in System under the Control Panel. Win9X users can add these two lines in Autoexec.bat:
Set temp=c:\temp
Set tmp=c:\temp
Generally drive C has relatively fast access speed, so the temporary directory is best placed on drive C.


5. Applications: do not install them under the default C:\Program files; install them on another drive instead, preferably by category. For example, small tools such as Winzip and Ultraedit can be installed under D:\Tools, and network tools such as STerm, LeapFTP, FLashGet can be installed under D:\Network. Large software can occupy a directory of its own, such as D:\Microsoft Office, D:\Microsoft Visual Studio, D:\Matlab. Personally, I think it is best not to make the directory hierarchy too deep, and not to have too many subdirectories under one directory.

6. Change the default path of My Documents and move it under your own personal directory. For example, on a multi-user machine choose E:\XXX, and on a single-user machine choose E:\. That way it is more convenient when using things like Office.

7. Change IE's settings and enable clearing the temporary folder when exiting.

8. Organize the Start Menu: after you have installed countless pieces of software, do you feel that your Start Menu is a mess? Do it yourself. Sort things into categories and delete those unnecessary menu items, such as Readme, Help, Uninstall, and so on. If you want to uninstall, just do it from the Control Panel. Also delete as much as possible from the startup menu, leaving only the things you want. Things like Office Startup, Office document lookup, Adobe Gama Loader, and so on can be deleted completely. Put useful things into categories, for example network application software under the "Network Tools" directory, things like WDL Reader under "Reading Tools," things like Winamp and Realplayer under the "Audio/Video Tools" directory........

9. Disk defragmentation: after installing all application software, delete the unnecessary files in the system, such as 2K's dllchache, clear temporary files and IE temporary files, History, and the junk under the recent directory, as well as some other junk, and then defragment the disk once more.

The benefits of the above configuration:

1. Reinstalling the system is convenient. There is hardly any need for any backup at all (except for some websites in Favorites and CDPlayer information), and you can directly format drive C.

2. Reinstalling software is convenient. Some software actually does not need to be installed, such as STerm, CTerm, LeapFTP, Winamp, Winzip, Origin, Flash5, Dreamweaver... This saves a lot of trouble, and you do not even need backups. Also, some software installers are fairly smart: when they detect the same files, they do not copy them again, such as Office and Visual Studio. Compared with them, Matlab is much worse. This can save a great deal of installation time.

3. Organizing the system is convenient. Generally the temporary directory is placed under C:\Temp, so you can finish the job just by deleting it at once. IE's temporary files are also in a single directory, so they can be cleared all at once. Since the partition for application software and the partition for mp3s, VCDs, and software backups are rarely written to, after one defragmentation they almost never need defragmenting again. And because the operating system partition is relatively small, defragmenting it is also faster. It is recommended to clear all junk files before defragmenting the hard disk.

4. It is relatively safer when a virus breaks out. For example, when CIH breaks out, it starts destroying from drive C. Since the personal data partition is farther back, it is less likely to be damaged. If it were placed on drive C, I guess there would be no hope.

5. There should be more, but I can't think of them all at the moment.



The above are just some of my personal experiences and thoughts. I hope everyone will point out problems and add to them.