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bromaine

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Renaming Windows folder

I attempted to load some utilities from Win 95 Cd awhile ago. Unfortunately without noticing it, Windows reinstalled to a new directory called Windows.000. I then deleted the orginal Windows folder. Now I have a application that looks for the orginal Windows directory and won't run without it. The call to the directory is hidden in an executable so I can't change it. How can I rename Windows.000 to Windows without reinstalling or reconfiguring each application? I tried just renaming Windows.000 to Windows, then nothing would run. PLEASE HELP!!!!
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sico

Why not create another directory called windows and copy all the info into it. Have you tried a re-install this may solve your problem....?
I'm not on a PC at the moment so I'm not 100% sure, but Tweakui (downloaded with powertools from microsoft.com) allows you to change where windows keeps it's files.  I'm not sure whether it allows you to change the windows directory though.  If it does I'll repost this as an answer.
Here's your problem. Once windows and other windows applications are installed, they install MULTIPLE path statements in the registry that include your Windows.000 path name.  Once you rename the path, then all those registry entries are no goot! hotter dammen! and many things stop running. Also, I think that if you do a file search through your system you will find other references to your Windows path in files outside the registry as well.

Now, you can try to twiddle all those instances, but my bet is that you won't get somethig right, and your system will be honked again.  'Tis the price of inattention, to be reinstalling your 95 system, but be of good cheer, half the world is working for Bill Gets for free, reinstalling his 95 operating system, because after all what Bill wants, Bill Gets!

SO byte the bullet, and reinstall once again.  After all it will be easy this time, because you can name the home path correctly!
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ASKER

I know a re-install will cure the problem. However my main concern is the large volume of other programs I would have to re-install. Also I have a large volume of programs downloaded from internet that would be very time consuming to relocate and again download. Therefore I am searching for a way to rename Window.000 to Windows and all the applicable references to the directory..This problem was actually created by a Warranty Service provider's technician when my hard drive dropped dead and had to be replaced....
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smeebud

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do I have to be concerned about *.ini files that may have references to the Windows directories ...just want to cover all bases before I do this, and thanks to smeebud
follow up comment to smeebud: did you mean to modify MSDOS.SYS or did you mean CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT..I didn't realize MSDOS.SYS could be edited. Also I am not sure Windows95 actually has a MSDOS.SYS file, again thanks
Good point bromaine,
Usually on boot the system will read your System.ini, and Win.ini. It would not hurt to
check there, but it's rare that they get changes by the registry. it's works the opposite.

Yes, the MSDOS.SYS can be edited. I doubt that it has been changed as it's a read only file. But look at it anyway because it contains the name of the working directory.
You can use quick view to see it.
Or, from Dos you would, [EXAMPLE]
C:\>ATTRIB -S -R -H MSDOS.SYS [enter]
C:\>EDIT MSDOS.SYS [enter]
then you see it. Once there, without making changes, to exit and know that you have not changed anything, go to File/Exit. If it says do you want to changes, say NO.
then you must re-lock it.
C:\>ATTRIB +S +R +H MSDOS.SYS [enter]

And yes, look at your autoexec.bat and config.sys.

Let me know if I'm not being clear.
Good questions BTW. You're right on top you game.

regards,
Bud
thanks I will give all this a try, hope I don't lose everything on my hard drive...will let you know how I make out and then also give you your points, again thank you
I think you're goinmg to be safe.
Don''t underestimate the find from your start button.
You can do a windows.* and ind all windows references, and the same with
Window.000
one last question..I have a utility called grep, it can report the occurence of strings of text in any or all files...it reports a very large number of occurences of windows.000 in all kinds of files.  *.ini, *.stf, *.exe, etc
is this a concern? will these files automatically up date to windows ? or will they all have to be reinstalled after I complete change to windows directory?
I think I would rather leave my system as is rather than lose so many applications on my system....and again thanks in advance
Well,
I would go ahead and run Grep, looking for window.000.
It certainly can't hurt. .ini files are very important. I'm always trying to get programmers to have the infomation in .ini files rather than the registry, they are all registry crazy these days as if their program was the only one ever going to be loaded. hence the reg becomes quite.
I monitor my Windows and Windows\System as follows.
I recomend  WMATCH as below.
===============
My Foolproof Installation And Removal Method
Take 5 extra minutes on installations and you
will always have a uncluttered system; and maybe
prevent yourself from having to reformat your harddrive
and reinstall Win95.

Utilities Needed:

1. Get WRP, free.
    WRPV3.ZIP is the Best and easiest Registry Backup/Restore
    I've Seen. Go To:
    http://www.webdev.net/orca/ and Search for WRP and
    download it and install. It's a well written batch file operation
    that saves your,
    AUTOEXEC.BAT
    SYSTEM.DAT
    USER.DAT
    PROTOCOL.INI
    SYSTEM.INI
    WIN.INI
    CONFIG.SYS
    MSDOS.SYS
    And will restore all to there original state if needed.
    This has save my tail on many occasions.

2. Wmatch.exe. This small free utility can be obtained from
    http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/. It's 199.526 in size.
    PURPOSE
    WMATCH lets you place the filenames of two directories in
    side-by-side windows, and then shows you which files are the
    same and which are different.

3. Cleansweep, or a good installation monitor that records
    changes to ALL system records. Including C:\Windows files,
    C:\Windows\System files, System.ini, Win.ini, Config,sys,
    Autoexec.bat, Protoco.ini, and most Important, your Registry.

    OK. 1st thing to do is make a new directory, I call mine A-win,
    then a subdirectory called A-sys. Putting these on a separate
    drive is preferable, but if you don't have a separate drive,
    the new directories will do just fine.

    Now, open two instances of you file manager side by side.
    Highlight all the files [not folders] in C:\Windows and Drag them
    to A-win, thus copying them. Then do the same with
    C:\Windows\Systems, Highlight and drag all files to Subdirectory
    A-sys.
    Now you have a easy to get at backup of the important files.

3. The extra mile: Copy all between the double lines and paste it
    to notepad or your favorite text editor, then "Save as" Change.bat.
===================
@ECHO OFF
fc before.reg after.reg > changes.txt
===================
OK, the installation begins:

1. Here, before you do anything, you open your registry and export
    the entire registry, named "BEFORE.REG" to C:\1
    (C:\1 is my saving directory.)
    Then after all the installation is finished you export again
    only call this Export "AFTER.REG".

2. Run Wmatch and make sure that there are no "Different" files between
    C:\Windows and A-win, nor C:\Windows\System and A-sys.

3. Run WRP backup for a fresh copy of your important system files.

4. Close all running applications; you must leave Explorer in your
    Task Manager/Ctrl+Alt+Del on. 95 won't run without it.

5. Start your Cleansweep Monitor.

6. Click Start.....then Run.....then type or browse to the setup program
    and run your installation.

7. If the program says to reboot, go to your Cleansweep Monitor 1st
    and Stop the Monitoring, save the report to a text file, name it the
    name of the "program.txt". Close the Monitor then reboot. Not all
    programs need rebooting on installation.
    OTHERWISE, After the installation of your new software you should
    run it once before you stop Cleansweep Monitor.
    Most of the programs store their settings not only during the installation
    but during the first start. To log these modifications too, it is recommended
    to start the program once, open some windows before you stop and
    save your Cleansweep Monitor log.

8. Open your registry and make your "AFTER.REG"
    then open a dos window and CD to you C:\1 directory and run your
    "Change.bat". That will produce a text file that neatly shows you all
    of the changes made to your registry. I always rename the
    "Change.txt" to the name of the program.

9. That's it. You now have all changes recorded and the ability to
    completely uninstall it if you don't like it.

10. If you're going to keep it, run Wmatch.exe and copy all new files
      to their corresponding directories; A-win and A-sys.
      If you want to uninstall it. Run Cleansweep remove. That takes care
      of everything in most cases. If your removing the application either
      right away or soon, when you do, re-boot to Real Dos Mode and
      CD to WRP, EXAMPLE:
      C:\WRP>RESTORE [enter]
      and it will put your registry and other system files right back in the
      exact shape they were in before the installation.

11. Run Wmatch to see that it shows no differences in your windows
      files or your windows\system files periodically.

12. This sounds like a lot more work than it really is. It's about 5 extra
      minutes on installations and you will always have a uncluttered
      system.
Oh yea,
any ini with window.000 copy to a saving directory. I call my rescur directory 1, C:\1
including a texr file you create telling you where they came from. That way, in worst case.
all can be restored back to window.000
This did work, everything is just fine using directory Windows directory. Only 1 small problem, I attempted to remove several software applications thru control panel and it doesn't work, I get an error message about the uninstall program...And I have one file Windows is looking for at startup that it can't find...I deleted that file but can't find reference to it in registry or system.ini....I would increase points for all your help but I don't have any left..Many thanks smeebud for your exhaustive help....
Tell me about the error messages.

I finally resolved the problem...when I used Ultraedit to replace all the windows.000 with windows, it didn't catch all occurrences...I then did a search on C:\windows.000 and it caught the remaining occurrences.. this seems to have fixed everything...Again my thanks for the help and the pointers for the utilities, I especially like Ultraedit, very good tool...
Great,
Some times when Ultra seems to miss something, it's usually the user input.
At least that's what I've found for me........I make the wrong choice and Ultra simply does what I told it to do.

I knew you'd like it.

Bud:::)))))))