magnus%thep.lu.se@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) (01/30/91)
We've recently installed MS Windows 3.0 on a PS/2 used by students. Since this machine is used by a lot of people, some of them rather hackish, we put Windows on a write-protected SpeedStore partition. This works just fine, but every now and then you get a dialog box saying "Write protected disk in drive D:". This happens (not surprisingly!) when you try to change e.g. the colours, but also every time you start the File Manager. Clicking on Abort a few times enables you to continue, so everything works, but it's still a bit of a nuisance. Is there any way of installing Windows so that the files Windows needs to change (like WIN.INI) are on one disk (writeable) while the rest of the files are on the write-protected partition? That way, Windows itself would be safe for e.g. virus attacks, and the configuration files could be restored from a safe copy (on the write-protected partition) when needed. Or is it necessary that all the Windows files are in the same directory? Magnus Olsson | \e+ /_ Dept. of Theoretical Physics | \ Z / q University of Lund, Sweden | >----< Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se | / \===== g Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52 | /e- \q
tcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu (Carl Schelin) (01/31/91)
In article <1991Jan30.145905.9746@lth.se>, magnus%thep.lu.se@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) says: > >We've recently installed MS Windows 3.0 on a PS/2 used by students. Since this >machine is used by a lot of people, some of them rather hackish, we put >Windows on a write-protected SpeedStore partition. This works just fine, but >every now and then you get a dialog box saying "Write protected disk in >drive D:". This happens (not surprisingly!) when you try to change e.g. the >colours, but also every time you start the File Manager. Clicking on Abort a >few times enables you to continue, so everything works, but it's still a bit >of a nuisance. > >Is there any way of installing Windows so that the files Windows needs to >change (like WIN.INI) are on one disk (writeable) while the rest of the >files are on the write-protected partition? That way, Windows itself would >be safe for e.g. virus attacks, and the configuration files could be >restored from a safe copy (on the write-protected partition) when needed. >Or is it necessary that all the Windows files are in the same directory? > >Magnus Olsson | \e+ /_ >Dept. of Theoretical Physics | \ Z / q >University of Lund, Sweden | >----< >Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se | / \===== g >Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52 | /e- \q If you'll look at your Windows Manual on Page 553 (in mine) it tells you how to install Windows on a network. If you have a protected partition and a non-protected one (as you imply), you should be able to place all the windows files on the protected one, and then follow the installation instructions to install only the basic information needed on a "workstation". As a Network Manager, I've installed it this way and it works great on a net. It should work equally as well on a PS/2. If you need further help, E-Mail me at: tcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu Carl Schelin
magnus%thep.lu.se@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) (01/31/91)
In article <1991Jan30.172936.19653@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> tcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu (Carl Schelin) writes: >If you'll look at your Windows Manual on Page 553 (in mine) it >tells you how to install Windows on a network. If you have a >protected partition and a non-protected one (as you imply), you >should be able to place all the windows files on the protected one, >and then follow the installation instructions to install only the basic >information needed on a "workstation". Thanks for the information (and thanks also to the person who made the same suggestion in email). I must confess that it's a trifle non-intuitive to treat a write-protected partition as a network! I'll try it out as soon as possible. Magnus Olsson | \e+ /_ Dept. of Theoretical Physics | \ Z / q University of Lund, Sweden | >----< Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se | / \===== g Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52 | /e- \q
jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) (02/01/91)
magnus%thep.lu.se@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) writes: >Is there any way of installing Windows so that the files Windows needs to >change (like WIN.INI) are on one disk (writeable) while the rest of the >files are on the write-protected partition? That way, Windows itself would Make a new directory with the following files: *.INI WIN.COM WINVER.EXE Put this directory ahead of the normal Windows directory in the PATH variable and you're done. This is the configuration you get if you install WIN3 using a network server, except that the .GRP files are also in the local directory. You may need them in the new directory; I didn't try that configuration. BTW, if you're using the paperboy.exe app (from cica, I think) it locks up (requiring a reboot) if there aren't at least two .BMP files in the directory from which you start Windows. Guess who found this out the hard way... Joe Morris