Windows Tips: Safer Backups--The Long and Short of It
Scott Dunn
In October's Windows Tips, I described a simple way to back up data files using xcopy32 in the command line. But as reader Jim Barr of Salinas, California, notes, backing up data by using xcopy, xcopy32, Windows Explorer, or even many commercial programs can cause problems due to the way Windows handles long file names.
Here's the scoop: Every time you give a file a name longer than 11 characters (8 characters to the left of the period and the 3-character file-type extension to the right), Windows generates a short 8.3 version of the file name (8 characters plus the 3-letter extension) so that the name will remain compatible with older applications.
Windows removes spaces and other illegal characters, and if the original name has more than 8 characters to the left of the dot, Windows replaces all the characters after the first six with a tilde (~) and a number. For example, a file named 'Florida Polling Data.xls' also has a short file name: 'FLORID~1.XLS'.
You can see these short names by opening the DOS prompt, navigating to a folder, typing dir, and pressing Enter to view a list of folder contents. The short DOS-like names are on the left, and the normal, long Windows names are on the right.
Unfortunately, when many applications make copies of files, they create these short names anew rather than copying the existing short names. So if, for example, you have a folder containing three files named document1.doc, document2.doc, and document3.doc, the short names stored for these files are DOCUME~1.DOC, DOCUME~2.DOC, and DOCUME~3.DOC.
But if you delete document1.doc and use Explorer or xcopy to back up document2.doc and document3.doc to another folder, the new name generated for document3.doc is DOCUME~1.DOC. This means the short name DOCUME~1.DOC could point to document1.doc in one folder and to document3.doc in another folder.
If you back up only data files and you always use Windows programs that are savvy about long file names, chances are you won't have a problem, since those applications won't ever refer to the potentially mixed-up short names. But system files are another story. In many cases, Windows' Registry stores the path to files using their short names.
To see this, choose Start, Run, type regedit, and press Enter. In the Registry Editor, select Edit, Find, type ~, and press Enter. You'll have no trouble finding files and folders that use short names. As a result, it's possible for program and system file names that have been copied and restored to stop functioning because the Registry is using the wrong short form.
The best solution is to make sure you use a backup program that copies the existing short file name along with the long file name; Symantec's Norton Ghost and Norton Ghost 2001 both do this.
For batch-file or simple command-line copying, I like Pixelab's Xxcopy, which at the time of this writing is still freeware. Xxcopy uses the same DOS commands that xcopy does. It preserves short file names, and it has a few other bells and whistles that make it a convenient backup utility. You can download it from our Downloads library, or contact its creators.
Windows Me Slide Shows
Maybe you want your office computer to display a continuous series of promotional screens, or your home PC to run a slide show of the family vacation pictures you took with your digital camera; or maybe you simply want to browse the images in a folder in Explorer's thumbnail preview mode--but you don't want to buy and learn presentation or graphics-management software. Use Windows Me's slide-show feature instead.
If you're planning a presentation, first assemble your slides. (Skip this step if you plan only to browse images currently on your hard disk.) The images must be in a bitmap-based file format--such as.gif,.jpg,.bmp, or.tif--that Windows Explorer's Image Preview supports. If you use a digital camera to create your slides, they are probably already in one of those formats. (Unlike the miniature preview that Web View provides, Image Preview will not display.xls,.htm, and other files that are not bitmap based.)
Open a new folder for all the images in your slide show (and only for those images). To control the order in which they'll appear, rename the images from first to last in alphabetical or numeric order: Select a file in the folder window, press F2, and add a letter or number (such as 00, 01, 02, and so on) to the beginning of each file name.
To customize your slide folder with the proper template, right-click an empty area of the folder and choose Customize This Folder (or highlight the folder and select View, Customize This Folder). Click Next in the Customize This Folder Wizard, select Customize, check 'Choose or edit an HTML template for this folder,' click Next again, and select Image Preview. Click Next once more and then Finish.
To launch a slide show, open this folder and click the underlined slideshow text in the upper-left corner of Explorer's left pane. If you don't see the slide-show option, drag an edge of the window to widen your view.
If you do nothing, the slides will advance on their own (one every 10 or 15 seconds). To advance the slides manually, click anywhere on your screen. To go backward, move the mouse or press any key except Alt or Esc to display a set of VCR-like controls in the upper-right corner of the screen.
To run the slide show from your keyboard, press any key to make the VCR controls appear, use the arrow keys to highlight a button, then press Space or Enter to activate it. Press Esc to end the slide show.
Bonus tip: If you have a scroll-wheel mouse, you can use it to zoom in (magnify) or out (return to the normal view) as slides appear on screen.
The Insecure Administrator
You may be the only person using a Windows 2000 workstation that's tucked away in a secure location, but if you routinely boot up to your Administrator account, you're taking unnecessary risks. Because you can run any program when logged on as an administrator, you could, while visiting a Web site, launch an application that looks harmless but is actually very damaging (a so-called Trojan horse).
To close this potential security breach, configure your account as a member of the Power Users group or--better yet--the Users group. You'll still be able to run most programs and surf the Web, but a Web site won't be able to install applications that modify system files or that allow other people to launch such applications.
Step 1: Create a new identity. Choose Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management. In the left pane, double-click Local Users and Groups, or click that branch's plus sign (+). Then select the Users folder.
If you already log on to Windows using an account that belongs to the Administrator Group but isn't the default Administrator account, you need not make any changes. But if you're using the default Administrator account, create a new account for yourself by right-clicking the right pane and choosing New User. In the New User dialog box, enter the name and password you'll use to log on, and select other options as desired. Click Create and then Close.
Step 2: Join the safe group. To determine the group that your everyday identity belongs to, double-click your user account in the right pane, then click the Member Of tab. If the only group listed in the 'Member of' list is Users, click OK; if this everyday account is listed as belonging to the Administrators group, select Administrators and click Remove. Repeat the procedure to remove other potentially risky groups, such as Power Users.
If the Users group is not listed, click the Add button, select Users, click Add again, then OK twice to close the Properties dialog box for your everyday log-on identity, and close Computer Management.
Step 3: Try it out. Choose Start, Log Off Administrator (or whatever identity is logged on) and click Yes. Log on using your new identity, and make this your everyday log-on. To install a service pack, alter a restricted system setting, or do some other task forbidden to the Users group, log off and then log back on as the Administrator.
Step 4: Transfer custom settings. If you created a new account as part of this process (instead of changing the group that your existing account belonged to), you may think you have to re-create all your custom settings--Start menu arrangements, screen colors, network connections, and so on--in your new account. Don't worry: It's easy to transfer these items to your new identity.
You need to log on to your new identity at least once to create the folder that will hold that identity's custom menus and settings. Then log off, and log on again as the Administrator. Choose Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, click the User Profiles tab, select the Administrator account (or whatever account you want to copy settings from), and click Copy To.
In the Copy To dialog box, enter the path to the folder for the new identity, or click Browse to locate it. The folder you want is in the Documents and Settings folder and has the same name as the identity that you created. For example, if your new identity is the name Joe, type C:\Documents and Settings\Joe and click OK.
Click the Change button, choose the new user identity in the Select User or Group dialog box, and then click OK. This step lets you modify your settings from within your new account. Click OK again to begin copying settings. Windows warns you in a prompt that rather than merely copying information, this transfer of settings will obliterate the profile it replaces and will delete any files on that profile's desktop. If you're merely overwriting a new default profile, click Yes to confirm the operation. Otherwise, click No, and then manually move the settings from one profile folder to another via Explorer.
The next time you log on to your new account, it will look much the same as the account you copied it from, but it will include many administrative tools that don't normally show up on the menus of a Users group member. The added tools come in handy, but don't expect all of them to work as before. The restrictions on use are necessary for system security.
Windows Toolbox: BrainStorm
If you use a computer when you make presentations, you have always had to bring your presentation along with you. Until now, that is. Blox.com's Web-hosted application BrainStorm comes with several attractive templates for creating presentation slides, including bullet lists, spreadsheets, and graphics. You can modify these templates or add your own. All your work is stored on the secure servers at Blox.com, so you never have to worry about taking the right files with you.
BrainStorm is listed as a beta version, but because it's Web-hosted software, you're always working with the latest version--there's no need to install or upgrade anything. You do need Internet Explorer 4 or later, however, and preferably IE 5.
BrainStorm cannot match the performance of disk-based presentation software, but the price is right: Just sign up at Blox.com (there's no charge), or click the Brilliant webtop presentations link at the Web site for more information.
Windows Tips pays $50 for published tips and questions. Scott Dunn is a PC World contributing editor.