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Windows 9x has alot of unecessary files that i would rather not have

on my machine for example duplicate files why is this? and the list goes on

and people are keep suggesting that i use 98lite.Ummm

because i don't wanna have to install a program to get rid of a program

it defeats the whole purpose so i ask to you guru's out there can 1 create a batch/script

to cleanup/delete all unecessary files and bitmaps etc... anything that is useless

and serve no purpose.This is what we have pure dos for

P.S

I already know about Mindows but after you update your system with patches/updates

Mindows has served no purpose because you still have duplicate files 0 byte folders etc...

This should be applied after all updates/patches

Edited by PROBLEMCHYLD
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Latest stand alone McAfee QuickClean 3? SystemSuite 2004? Crap Cleaner? jv16PowerTools?

The stuff you're talking about can be done manually from Dos or Windows. Just junk file deletion? Either get a program like Crap Cleaner or one of the pay for ones that do the same thing or look around the hard drive and delete some of it yourself I guess.

Removal of more complex stuff is already available with 98Lite. That's a more complicated task, programs you don't want, etc., but there you go. 98Lite does that very well. But it's not a crap file remover. That's a different thing to talk about.

People have been tinkering with tools for 9x for the longest time so I think a search of the net or even MDGx's site would provide you with an already available method of doing just about anything on 9x.

Am I not understanding what you're looking for? I think I remember a site like Old Cranky (Salty?) Guy's Guide or something (I forget exactly but it was something similar to that) that had his suggested method of quickly cleaning out useless Windows crap. The web is filled with ton's of that kind of stuff.

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Latest stand alone McAfee QuickClean 3? SystemSuite 2004? Crap Cleaner? jv16PowerTools?

The stuff you're talking about can be done manually from Dos or Windows. Just junk file deletion? Either get a program like Crap Cleaner or one of the pay for ones that do the same thing or look around the hard drive and delete some of it yourself I guess.

Removal of more complex stuff is already available with 98Lite. That's a more complicated task, programs you don't want, etc., but there you go. 98Lite does that very well. But it's not a crap file remover. That's a different thing to talk about.

People have been tinkering with tools for 9x for the longest time so I think a search of the net or even MDGx's site would provide you with an already available method of doing just about anything on 9x.

Am I not understanding what you're looking for? I think I remember a site like Old Cranky (Salty?) Guy's Guide or something (I forget exactly but it was something similar to that) that had his suggested method of quickly cleaning out useless Windows crap. The web is filled with ton's of that kind of stuff.

Crap cleaner is limited and so is 98lite

even if i did used 98lite/crapcleaner

after all updates and patches what purpose has it served

it don't delete duplicate files after installation etc...

it don't delete orphan reg keys etc...

as i stated before i would like all this without a 3rd party app.

A skilled person can do all this with a batch/script file

now do you get my point

example their are a unicows.dll in the Windows media player folder and the same file

is in the system folder i'm not sure if i'm suppose to delete the one in the WMP folder.

Edited by PROBLEMCHYLD
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Often when software is designed the testers notice that it needs a certain version of a file to run properly. If this also happens to be a file that is usually installed into the Windows\System folder, the designer will make sure that the version of the file that works with the program is put into the programs folder. Programs normally check their own folder first for files before the system path. So this makes sure things will work right. I recently stuck the Nero WNASPI32.DLL into the Dosbox folder so it would use that without a system ASPI being installed on XP. The NT calls weren't working smoothly with some of my dos games and I wanted it to use ASPI, which was impossible (the game wouldn't find the drive). So I stuck that file in there and the dosbox somehow showed it to my game and things went fine! Better than screwing up the new Nero which has problems with any ASPI layer installed on XP.

That's why I never bothered searching for duplicate files. Deleting some are probably okay, but most have a reason for existing where they are.

Yes, when an operating system is first installed and then updates are applied to it there often results in there being a bunch of orphan registry entries. This happens since the original non-updated version may have been dependant upon certain registry entries whereas the new way it works doesn't use them. So registry cleaners are around to find these orphaned entries and delete them. The good ones will search for likely files to modify the entry so it'll match. Hopefully this doesn't harm the execution of the file that no longer needs to be hooked into the registry there.

All in all, this type of cleaning is pretty risky. I kind of trust Norton WinDoctor to automatically do its magic, mostly because 98 is more sensitive to program malfunctions and will become unstable. XP ignores the misbehaving program in most cases and just lets you end task on the program. Mostly an uninstall and reinstall of the program will work too. So I often go with no registry cleaning on XP, but use WinDoctor on 98 just to try to catch these things before they crash my system. A 9x operating system crash can muck up a FAT32 drive so it's best to avoid that happening. Usually a restart is fine but if system files are the ones affected then it's format time. NTFS mostly protects against that kind of thing.

I used to use jv16powertools a lot. That'll do the sorts of stuff you're talking about. Since I'm not a real script user and would rather something do things with nice gui's, I'd buy this stuff rather than try to figure out how it works myself and writing a script. That old McAfee QuickClean 3, the last one before the Active X Security Center versions, also does that sort of thing. Gotta turn a lot of stuff off though. Had bugs where it would interfere with installs and uninstalls if you let it monitor them, and I never trusted its shortcut, MUI, or Active X cleaners. So when I used it I would deactivate all that. But it was good at finding orphans in the registry. Also, only the updated version 3.02 was mostly bug free.

I usually intentionally install crap like videos, pictures, music files, etc. I wouldn't want to remove that stuff. It's not like we don't have room on our hard drives these days.

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Well, if you are talking about .DLLs, you might want to use some program that can find dependencies, usually windows uses this order when searching for a DLL:

The directory where the executable module for the current process is located.

The current directory.

The Windows system directory. The GetSystemDirectory function retrieves the path of this directory.

The Windows directory. The GetWindowsDirectory function retrieves the path of this directory.

The directories listed in the PATH environment variable.

Some are listed here:

http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/tt_app.htm

More:

http://camtech2000.net/Pages/DllOrphans.html

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/dllarch.htm

http://bernatbozzo.tripod.com/

Once you have a list of unneeded files, there is no problem in making a batch that deletes them, but I sincerely doubt that you can generate the list WITHOUT third party apps.

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Since we're discussing extraneous/duplicate files in this thread, I was wondering...

Do any of you folks running Win98SE happen to have duplicates of the following files:

ACPI.SYS

APMBATT.SYS

BATTC.SYS

NETPPTP.SYS

DXAPI.SYS

NDISWMI.SYS

COMPBATT.SYS

These SYS files are found (on my computer) in both

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\

and

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\

Since they're SYS files, it's difficult to figure out if they belong in one or the other or both folders.

If anyone could tell me where these files are located on their computer, I would really appreciate it. :)

Thanks in advance for any help.

Edited by whatever420
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If that helps you, all the files you mentionned reside in my Windows/system folder only.

Yes, that info helps a lot glock... thanks :).

Now... I just need a couple more people to chime in and verify locations on their systems, and I'll be able to rid myself of the dupes...

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