deb@cci632.UUCP (Deborah Brown) (08/02/90)
Last night, I was using file manager (Windows 3.0) to move a file from one directory to another. I had three windows open while I was doing this. I copied the file ok, but when I went to exit the file manager, I was told that there was an "unrecoverable file damage" or something like that. I found out that my main window that contains the basic functions had disappeared. I exited windows and started up again and was told that the main program group was damaged or invalid and had to be recreated. No problem. I opened the manual to find out what to do, but the manual was no help at all. I wound up reinstalling Windows. My questions: What the heck did I do? Has this happened to anyone else? How does one recreate a group without reinstalling the entire package? In case it matters, I'm running it on DOS 4.01. Thanks in advance! ***********************************Oh boy!************************************* Quote: "I think that last leap in time has added more holes to that swiss cheese memory of yours." Al, QUANTUM LEAP Disclamer: "Disclaim THIS, pal!" (my employer thinks I'm working) Debbie Brown: cci632!jloda!deb -OR- deb%jloda@cci632 ********** It's 1995: do you know where your quantum physicist is? ************
akm@spencer.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (08/09/90)
In article <38980@cci632.UUCP> deb@cci632.UUCP (Deborah Brown) writes: ... >I exited windows and started up again and was told that the main program group >was damaged or invalid and had to be recreated. No problem. I opened the >manual to find out what to do, but the manual was no help at all. I wound up >reinstalling Windows. I have had similar problems. I find that program manager groups "die" for no obvious reason. A couple of times I think that I was trying to do "too much", for example, running more than one copy of windows, at other times I was not doing anything unusual. I suggest that MS includes an option that allows us to save the program manager groups without having to exit windows (similar to the save changes dialog box that comes up when we quit windows.) kartik{ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Department of Computer Science akm@oregon.BITNET University of Oregon
ashing@milton.u.washington.edu (Al Shing) (08/09/90)
In article <1990Aug8.171222.11281@cs.uoregon.edu> akm@spencer.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes:
#
#I have had similar problems. I find that program manager groups "die" for
#no obvious reason. A couple of times I think that I was trying to do "too
#much", for example, running more than one copy of windows, at other
#times I was not doing anything unusual.
#
Can you summarize what one needs to do to run more than one copy of Windows?
Do you need to run an entirely separate copy from another directory? Other-
wise, how do you keep them from using the same swap files, configuration
files, etc?
--
Al Shing (ashing@cac.washington.edu)bnk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Bob N Keenan) (08/09/90)
In article <38980@cci632.UUCP> deb@cci632.UUCP (Deborah Brown) writes: >Last night, I was using file manager (Windows 3.0) to move a file from one >directory to another. {etc.} >...that there was an "unrecoverable file damage" or something like that. I >found out that my main window that contains the basic functions had disappeared. >My questions: >Has this happened to anyone else? >How does one recreate a group without reinstalling the entire package? > Debbie and others- yes this happend to me too. to fix it, from the program manager window, select New, then 'program group.' call the group MAIN. you will then have your "main" icon along with the others (windows apps, games, non- windows apps etc) click to the main icon - it will be empty. then bring it to full screen by pressing the ^ arrow in the upper right hand corner. selecet New, then "program item" then type the name of the icon ex.: file manager is called FILE MANAGER. press return, then use the browse button to look through the directory of .exe files. you will manually need to add each item. (dos prompt, file manager, print manager, setup, clipboard, and control panel) then description line, type the name of the icon the way you want it to appear on the screen. then on the command line, using the browse button will put the path and the name of the .exe file in for you. I hope these direction aren't TOO confusing. mail me if you have questions and i'll try to be more specific...............bob K. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Bob N. Keenan | ALGEBRA QUIZ ~ University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee | Q: What is 5q+5q? ~ bnk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu | A: You're welcome! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
bcw@rti.rti.org (Bruce Wright) (08/09/90)
In article <38980@cci632.UUCP>, deb@cci632.UUCP (Deborah Brown) writes: > Last night, I was using file manager (Windows 3.0) to move a file from one > directory to another. I had three windows open while I was doing this. > > I copied the file ok, but when I went to exit the file manager, I was told > that there was an "unrecoverable file damage" or something like that. I > found out that my main window that contains the basic functions had > disappeared. > > What the heck did I do? Something might have clobbered one of the .GRP files, or possibly PROGMAN.INI. If that isn't the case I don't have any good ideas - possibly a Windows bug or a hardware error. > Has this happened to anyone else? Not to my knowledge. But that doesn't mean too much - software and especially hardware errors can be very specific. > How does one recreate a group without reinstalling the entire package? This depends on what's corrupted. If at least some of your group files are intact, you can re-install them pretty simply by the following steps (starting from the DOS prompt): 1. Save the old PROGMAN.INI file somewhere in case something goes wrong. (This is the Program Manager's initialization file). 2. Delete the old PROGMAN.INI file. 3. Save the old group files (*.GRP) somewhere in case something goes wrong. 4. Run Windows and select the New option under the Program Manager's File menu. 5. For each group, select New Group and type in the group's file name (if the file is corrupted you may need to type the group name too). Group files are named things like MAIN.GRP and ACCESSOR.GRP in the Windows directory, so it's pretty easy to figure out which file goes with which group. 6. Exit Windows. 7. Run Windows again and see if the Program Manager comes up properly. If installing one or more of the group files causes problems, you may have to start over and not install that group, or install it under a different file name and add programs to it manually (see below). You can recreate fatally corrupted groups manually by adding programs to them (also under the New option). The program file names are for the most part pretty obvious for the standard Windows programs - just look at *.EXE in the Windows directory. If you want to locate Windows applications on your machine (other than the ones that come with the Windows distribution), you can run SETUP to scan the disk (this is what Windows does during its install process in order to scan the disk for Windows applications). Choose the Options menu and select the item about setting up applications. (If you are having trouble with the Program Manager you can still get to Setup by starting Windows with WIN SETUP). By the way, the PROGMAN.INI file is editable and you can change the group file names easily using a DOS editor - may be useful in trying to recover from this sort of problem. The *.GRP files are NOT editable. As far as I can see it's an unpleasant problem no matter how you deal with it. Re-installing Windows is in some ways the simplest because it is more mechanical, but it may not be the fastest unless the corruption is really severe. Bruce C. Wright
steveha@microsoft.UUCP (Steve Hastings) (08/10/90)
In article <1990Aug8.171222.11281@cs.uoregon.edu> akm@spencer.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: >I suggest that MS includes an option that allows us to save the program >manager groups without having to exit windows (similar to the save >changes dialog box that comes up when we quit windows.) Try doing what I do: First run a DOS application, then switch back to the Program Manager. Close the Program Manager to exit windows, with the Save Changes box checked. Program Manager will save all changes, then notice that you have a DOS app running. It pops up a dialog box saying "Application still active; choose OK to end it." Instead of clicking "OK", click "Cancel" and you will still be in Windows, but with your changes saved. This takes less time to do than to explain, especially since I always have several DOS apps loaded anyway. -- Steve "I don't speak for Microsoft" Hastings ===^=== ::::: uunet!microsoft!steveha steveha@microsoft.uucp ` \\==|
strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) (08/10/90)
akm@spencer.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: >In article <38980@cci632.UUCP> deb@cci632.UUCP (Deborah Brown) writes: >... >>I exited windows and started up again and was told that the main program group >>was damaged or invalid and had to be recreated. No problem. I opened the >>manual to find out what to do, but the manual was no help at all. I wound up >>reinstalling Windows. >I have had similar problems. I find that program manager groups "die" for >no obvious reason. A couple of times I think that I was trying to do "too >much", for example, running more than one copy of windows, at other >times I was not doing anything unusual. I too have corrupted groups now and then. Every other day I copy all group files (i.e. *.grp) into a backup directory. If a group file gets corrupted I simply copy the backup over the corrupted file. I haven't tested this much. If I start Windows on my machine at home in real mode, it pops up a few dialog boxes "Cannot open group file +$%&/()" (I translated the message from German into English). Instead of a file name, the message contains some random garbage. If I leave Windows after this message, the check box of the final message is grayed, so I cannot force Windows to write incomplete group datasets, this way. >I suggest that MS includes an option that allows us to save the program >manager groups without having to exit windows (similar to the save >changes dialog box that comes up when we quit windows.) A workaround which works for me is: I open a DOS window, tell the program manager to terminate Windows and check the "save groups" box. Windows first saves the groups and cancels the termination request because of the open DOS application, then. On a 386 this is quite fast. But I second your suggestion: there should be a save menu entry in the program manager. Wolfgang Strobl #include <std.disclaimer.hpp>
chrisg@microsoft.UUCP (Chris GUZAK) (08/10/90)
In article <38980@cci632.UUCP> deb@cci632.UUCP (Deborah Brown) writes: > >My questions: > >How does one recreate a group without reinstalling the entire package? Run setup with the -p option. This recreates all the default groups. >Thanks in advance! >Disclamer: "Disclaim THIS, pal!" (my employer thinks I'm working) >Debbie Brown: cci632!jloda!deb -OR- deb%jloda@cci632 No problem.
jmorriso@fs0.ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison) (08/12/90)
Speaking of programs clobbering your Program manager .grp files, and other Windows files, I tried a program of of Cica, I think it was click, or something like that. It allowed you to run programs by pressing a button on a panel it left on screen. Any way it tried to change the win.ini file and it screwed up! Obviuosly MY fault for trusting shareware/ public domain! I sure won't trust HIS stuff for a while. Even the push-buttons looked shabby, he couldn't have tested it very thoroughly. This program DESTROYED my win.ini file! I was bloody luck to have Norton (Bless you, Peter!) to pull the file back from the lost realm. Anyone else unfortunate enough to try this shoddy program, who did not have Norton around would be right up the creek! With a trashed win.ini file you can't do anything! You would need to reinstall just about everything. This brush with fate was too close for me, I have backed up my .ini and .grp files. For some reason, when I first installed Windows, the Program manager was a bit flaky, and if it crashed, you could destroy your .grp files, which is very unpleasant. I think it is pretty stupid of Microsoft to make the .grp files binaries, they should be text files, so we can change things easily! Just try changing icons manually eith these HUGE libraries out there. Fortunately there is groupbuild for this. Even Excel or WOrd can start the DDE needed to change your icons quickly.