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Thread ID: 23792 2002-08-25 21:46:00 Maintaining 32 PCs paulmckendry (649) Press F1
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73865 2002-08-25 21:46:00 Our School has 32 Windows 98 PCs. Would you recommend something like Nortons System Works 2002 as a maintenance tool to keep them in good shape.
We have Nortons for our virus Protection , on the Server, but the Pcs are prone to freezes and getting real sluggish.
The network is Novell.
If not what could be a useful idea to save me time...
Thanks
Paul
paulmckendry (649)
73866 2002-08-25 22:33:00 Hi Paul,

can you give some idea of the specs of the PCs involved? Are they all the same, or some older and some newer etc.?

There are simpler ways than Norton System Works for keeping your systems running smoothly, especially for lower spec'd machines that won't handle NSW well.

Mike.
Mike (15)
73867 2002-08-25 23:03:00 They range from Pentuiun 200s to 1200s
The 200s are four years, the 450s are three years old and we have four 1200s that are rebuilds done this year.
Hope this is enough info

Thanks
Paul
paulmckendry (649)
73868 2002-08-25 23:28:00 if they are all win98 nortons system works will be helpfull. also regcleaner, bho deamon, x-setup and other tools.

BUT the catch here is not to let anyone esle use the tools. most of these tools can cause damage as well as fix it.
tweak'e (174)
73869 2002-08-26 00:52:00 I take it you are doing the degrag thing at regular intervals Baldy (26)
73870 2002-08-26 00:53:00 Sorry, mean't DEFRAG..... maybe I need to go back to school for remedial spelling lessons LOL

BALDY
Baldy (26)
73871 2002-08-26 03:53:00 I suppose you have this trivial system administration as a "spare time" addition to a full time job. ;-)

If you have only four configurations, it might be feasible to have images of a "clean installation" for each held on the server. Any problem, pop in a bootable floppy which formats the disk and downloads the appropriate image. This assumes that user's (non-temporary) files are stored on the server.

More extreme would be for the computers to be made dumb, with all software downloaded from the server. This would be a "nice" solution, but a lot of work, and bandwidth might be a problem.

The details (network addresses, etc ...) are left as an exercise for the reader ]:)
Graham L (2)
73872 2002-08-26 22:09:00 Thanks for ideas...i just need to bend the administrators mind to such ideas..
Paul
paulmckendry (649)
73873 2002-08-27 08:26:00 if you do use norton utils do a custom install and leave out the imaging bit that really slows your PC down , I use fix-it now as it does a better job of cleaning up the registry I also use diskeeper to defrag with as it is really fast and doesnt upset my goback program as much as nortons speed disk . kiwibeat (304)
73874 2002-08-27 09:27:00 does ANYONE know what this "imaging bit that really slows your PC down" that kiwibeat constantly refers to?

i would really love to know.
tweak'e (174)
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