Re: OT: W98-related question

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

J R FOX wrote:
> But your screen resolution theory
> is quite possible, as an explanation.
Yes. Recall some postings a few years back about native
resolutions, esp. of LCDs.

I just now installed the Games section of Win98SE (you
apparently cannot pick and choose: all or none) and
tried opening Freecell. On a 15-inch Samsung LCD,
running at 1024 X 768, you can adjust the height of the
Freecell window, but not the width beyond a certain
point. And Alt-Tab just doesn't work. Nothing happens.
Maximize (on the upper right corner) just gives you a
longer window, but one at most two-thirds of the screen
width.
> When you delete them -- as I did, inside the running
> W2K -- they spring right back, automatically. So, I
It is not enough to simply delete FILEs. You have to go
into Control Panel->Add Remove Programs, and uninstall
the program. And even that doesn't always work.

When a Windows program is installed, it leaves traces
of itself all over your system, including (most
importantly and relevantly here) innumerable entries in
the Windows Registry. (Whenever I uninstall a program,
I then--after first exporting the Windows Registry--go
in and edit the Registry and manually remove all
references. In one case recently--and this was a niche
app that I'm sure did not have built-in default
entries, the way Word or WordPerfect may--I had to
remove 40-odd references from the Registry.)
> But, when I went back to the primary W2K boot
> partition, and ran FreeCell again, damn if it doesn't
> always *still* come up reporting Version 5.0, looking
> just the same, with the scores from that version !
> Why can't these files be killed and replaced ? My

Probably partly because they're Microsludge apps. And
partly because of the phenomenon I just described. And
just copying the W98 version from another PC very
likely won't work. Like all true Windows apps, you have
to run an install routine that hooks up the app with
all its supporting files and logs it in the Registry.
I'd was going to suggest uninstalling all versions
through the Control Panel, Add/Remove
Programs, but since it appears that it's not the
difference between 98 and 2K, but the difference in
screen size and resolution, it wouldn't do much good.
Now I have to try to get rid of Games. The things I do
for this list! (Grin).
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx