COMMENTARY--Recently, my Windows machine froze up--for no apparent reason--and I spent hours troubleshooting. Sound familiar? Here's my story--and why Microsoft can't let this sort of thing continue.One of the projects I have so far managed to put off this year is writing a book about troubleshooting Microsoft Windows. I have a publisher and a contract and if I'd turn in a first chapter they'd even send me a check. Finish the book and I'd collect royalties.
So why haven't I started the book? Probably because of the futility I sometimes feel when troubleshooting my own Windows systems. I've always been able to make things better, but often I can't say for sure what fixed the problem or even what the exact trouble was in the first place.
For most Windows users, fixing their computer's brain is a lot like human psychopharmacology: We know things that can help, but darn if we know how and why they work. Take two Paxil or a copy of Norton SystemWorks, and call us in the morning.
One example of this is the computer I am working on right now. Recently it started freezing up, for no particular reason, at least no reason I've been able to figure out. I'd be working in an application and the machine would just seize up. I couldn't use the mouse and keyboard. The only way to get control of the computer was to hold down the power button until the machine restarted.
It even froze in the diagnostic Safe Mode, which is supposed to be so safe that in it nothing can bomb the operating system.
Sounds like a hardware problem, doesn't it? Maybe even bad memory.
So how would I recommend readers of my would-be book solve such a problem? Well, since the machine froze sort of randomly, regardless of what I was doing, I doubt the Windows XP help system would have done much good.
I tried the System Restore feature, but for me that didn't help. I rolled the machine back a whole month, just in case any recent software installations were causing the problem, but it kept freezing up.
New in XP, System Restore is supposed to remove all the changes that have been made to your OS and configurations back to a day and time you specify. If your computer is working and immediately after you install something it stops working, System Restore will generally fix the problem. You can find the System Restore option by going to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools.
For some reason, probably related to an uninstall/reinstall problem in the past, Norton SystemWorks (formerly known as Norton Utilities) wasn't running properly on the system in question, even though Norton AntiVirus seemed to be running fine. I doubt I had been infected with a virus, but just to check I went to the Panda Software Web site to use its free online virus checker. Make that "tried to use" since my machine froze about halfway through the scan.
I unplugged all the peripherals, save the mouse and keyboard, but to no avail. I also uninstalled some unnecessary applications. I went into MSCONFIG and turned off some startup items and still the system kept freezing up.
Microsoft's online Knowledge Base has helped me in the past, but only when I was able to precisely describe my problem. "Hangs for no reason" doesn't seem very precise.
What was wrong with this computer? I was not at all certain. I knew I would be able to fix it, using if I must the big gun of upgrading from XP Home to XP Pro, which has solved problems in the past, or as a last resort doing a factory reinstall of the OS. Perhaps I would even need to wipe the disk and start over, although reinstalling all the applications would be really painful.
That I couldn't simply tell Windows to reload the OS and fix itself while leaving apps installed makes me mad, though I suppose that's the problem System Restore is supposed to solve. And it sometimes does, but not for this problem.
At one point I thought a piece of code might have gotten corrupted somehow. Or maybe it was something in the Registry, the dismal swamp of Windows, which was freezing me up. In fact, when I have strange Windows problems my first guess is that the Registry's at fault, although a full freeze isn't too common.
Whoever developed the concept of the Registry--which contains information about how programs work with one another and the operating system--deserves a special place in, well, you know. Not heaven. Programs are very good at making changes to the Registry but pretty poor at removing them when the program is uninstalled. There are whole books written about the Registry and how to muck with it. My advice to most users is to never touch the Registry yourself. That's what Norton WinDoctor, which is part of SystemWorks, is for.
So what did I do? I uninstalled the remnants of Norton SystemWorks. This required a trip into RegEdit, something I don't like to do. Then I reinstalled the app and used its one-button fix to see what could be done to repair my machine. It found no viruses but 67 bad shortcuts and 157 defective Registry entries, which it then went on to fix.
The good news is that after running WinDoctor--which said it was able to fix all the errors--the machine has been running for 15 hours without crashing. This is much better than when it routinely crashed between 3 and 5 minutes after booting.
Since WinDoctor seemed to have solved the problem, I can make what medical doctors call a "differential diagnosis"--a technical term for "informed hunch"--that the Windows Registry, seat of all evil, was to blame. Hopefully setting WinDoctor to run on a regular basis will prevent future problems, as it seems to do on my other machines.
Hearing this tale of woe, a good friend offered this simple solution: Never install software on your computer. What I think she really means is install as little software as you can get away with and then don't mess with it.
That's not an option for someone who writes about software and, frankly, I should be able to install and uninstall apps all day without destabilizing the OS. I should also be able to move applications from one drive to another or from one machine to another without a complex uninstall/reinstall routine. And, of course, if Microsoft can build something as trouble-prone as the Registry, perhaps it could also provide a set of free tools for fixing it.
As much as I love Norton SystemWorks and as highly as I recommend it, should I really have to buy third-party software to solve Microsoft's problem? I don't think so.
Have you had any Windows nightmares recently? What happened? What do you think we or Microsoft can do to improve this situation? Let us know at edit@zdnet.com.au
7%
1%
I got my registry program at http://www.yourcomputerstore.webs.com
They have a few to select from and many have the free download.