If you haven't already done so, please read our June, 1997 column on Summer Safeguards. It could save you time, effort and money -- really.

The visitors to our PC Clinic and the discussants in our Message Board Forum often have the same problem: they tried to install new software without cleaning up the Windows environment.

The underlying problem is the not unreasonable and common assumption that Windows is ready for the installation of new software because it has been running trouble-free. Sometimes this is very far from the truth! Metaphorically speaking, Windows might be showing up for work and doing the job to your satisfaction but nevertheless be dying of cancer and struggling with a lot of excess baggage to boot!

When installing new software, there are three things you should do no matter how trouble-free your PC's performance has been lately.

1. Perform hard disk maintenance.
2. Disable all unnecessary programs.
3. Restart Windows to flush active memory.

Hard disk maintenance. For best performance, you should already be doing this several times a week. (Systems installed by Installations Plus+ do this automatically.) There are two utilities to run. ScanDisk checks and corrects the "filing system". Defrag re-arranges and packs the files together making free space contiguous. Windows 95 users can run these utilities from Programs/Accessories/System. Prior to Windows 95, these utilities were included in DOS (v6.0 and later) and in such add-on software as Norton Utilities.

Disable unnecessary programs. Not disabling running programs is the most common cause of software installation problems. Most Windows installations -- especially more recent ones which benefit from lots of memory, hard disk space, and raw processing power -- are always running many programs or tasks "in the background". These include the programs in your Startup Group, such as Microsoft Office launcher, perhaps a communications program (fax, answering machine), and maybe a calendar. All of these make your computing experience easier and more pleasant; none are essential for Windows to operate.

In Windows 3.xx, you can temporarily remove programs from the Startup Group by dragging their icons from that Group to any other. In Windows 95, the simplest procedure is to use Windows Explorer to navigate to C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (assuming Windows is located on the C-drive in the "Windows" folder or directory). Then drag everything in the Startup folder to another, temporarily. If you haven't done this before, please get expert help!

Other programs launch automatically when Windows starts but are not in the Startup Group. For example, many systems run an anti-virus program, which is a good thing to do of course, but which can make software installation literally impossible. Programs of this type often can be disabled using options within the software itself. (Don't forget to re-enable them later.) Some have to be disabled by editing the Windows initialization file, win.ini. These programs appear on the run= or load= lines, which can be disabled by removing the program reference (e.g., C:\UNI3\pmsentry.exe or notepad.exe) or using a semicolon to make Windows ignore the whole line. If you need to edit the win.ini file, be sure to make a backup first, and don't do it if you're not familiar with the process. You could disable not only a background program, but Windows itself! Again, if you haven't done this before, please get expert help!

Restart Windows. Actually, you should do this both before installing new software, and before running the newly-installed software for the first time. Restarting Windows flushes the active (volatile) memory or RAM, making the maximum amount available for a fresh installation. The reason you need to do this before installation is that you can close or disable some programs, but they will leave bits and parts of themselves still running in RAM. Restarting is the only way to flush the bits and parts away. The reason you should do this before first running a new program is that -- strangely enough -- the code used to install the new program may be left behind after installation interfering with the very program it installed.

If you follow these three steps -- perform disk maintenance, disable unnecessary programs, and restart Windows -- we can't guarantee your new software will install properly, but the likelihood of success is very high. These steps put your PC into the condition under which the software manufacturer tested his installation procedure. If your system meets the manufacturer's published hardware and software requirements success should be yours. Bon chance!

1. PC Tips is an irregularly-issued column produced by Installations Plus+ for those of its clients who don't pretend to power user status.  You are welcome to submit suggestions for future columns to the PC Tips Suggestion Box.

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• The November, 1996 PC Tips on Laser Printers
• The December, 1996 PC Tips on Buying a Personal Computer
• The January, 1997 PC Tips on Computer Viruses
• The February, 1997 PC Tips on Deleting Files and DLL Problems
• The March, 1997 PC Tips on the "Hole" in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Windows Error Messages
• The April, 1997 PC Tips on Frequently Asked Questions and Their Answers
• The May, 1997 PC Tips on More Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
• The June, 1997 PC Tips on Summer Safeguards
• The July, 1997 PC Tips on Modem Update and Free Speech & the Internet
• The August, 1997 PC Tips on "Windows 93", the World Wide Wait, and an H-P Printer Problem
• The September, 1997 PC Tips on Summer Safeguards, Windows 95 Registry, and Software Upgrades
• The April, 1998 PC Tips on Modems (56.6 kbs, ISDN, Cable), Scanners, Free Email
• The May, 1998 PC Tips on Backups: A Special Report
• "Highway Robbery," Nathaniel Wice's TIME Digital Magazine undercover investigation of sleazy computer "salesmanship", which appeared in the November, 1996 issue
• "Does Not Compute," Michael Maren's New York Magazine article on selecting a PC repair shop, which appeared in the November, 1996 issue

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