Closing out all programs when doing an install is generic advice from the software people. It can eliminate the potential for installation problems although I've never run in to it. When I do installs on my system I don't shut anything down. I even run CleanSweep's SmartSweep to monitor the installation. I never had a problem yet with installing 71 games, 93 programs and whatever updates I've done through the Windows Update site.




The standard disclaimer.... I don't work for Dell nor am I associated with Dell. I'm not even related to Michael Dell, although there are times I would like to be the first born
son to Bill Gate$.


If Windows was perfect, Bill wouldn't
be trying to sell you the next version.

All opinions expressly contained herein are subject to more opinion.

Hi Majestic,

"It can eliminate the potential for installation problems although I've never run in to it" You must be the luckiest guy in the world, would you pick some lottery numbers for me?

Steve

As far as the lottery and visiting the local Indian casinos I have no luck there.... found it was cheaper to mail them a check.

As for shutting down the background programs, I've never have. I've done installs like that on my ole Compaq with Windows 3.1/95 and my Dell with Windows 98SE. As you can probably tell I install and uninstall quite a bit of software. In case your wondering, I've never re-installed any of my Windows operating systems. I prefer to fix what's broke and keep the registry clean.




The standard disclaimer.... I don't work for Dell nor am I associated with Dell. I'm not even related to Michael Dell, although there are times I would like to be the first born
son to Bill Gate$.


If Windows was perfect, Bill wouldn't
be trying to sell you the next version.

All opinions expressly contained herein are subject to more opinion.

Majestic: I’ll pass along a funny one.

I was using CleanSweep to monitor an install of IE4.0. When I rebooted the install broke down completely.

I had a good time trying to re-install IE4 but finally got it done!

Now I was back on the web, so I checked CleanSweeps Update site. They had one that “Eliminates a problem when installing IE4”!!!

Now if I intend to use CleanSweep, I always check their update BEFORE using it. – duh!

The main killer of installs are anti virus software and other obscure monitoring programs that a user may have running. A skilled user like yourself won’t have a problem, but the majority would be better off closing everything down.

Jim Hardin wrote:
- I was using CleanSweep to monitor an install of
- IE4.0. When I rebooted the install broke down
- completely.

With Internet Explorer installs I just let it install and skip the monitoring. I figure Windows and Internet Explorer are so tightly wrapped together in code that to uninstall I.E. would kill Windows.


- Now if I intend to use CleanSweep, I always check
- their update BEFORE using it. – duh!

I'm still using CleanSweep version 3.05 which was intended for Windows 95, but will work with Windows 98 with a little modification. I haven't bothered to check for updates as they have dropped support for that version long ago.




The standard disclaimer.... I don't work for Dell nor am I associated with Dell. I'm not even related to Michael Dell, although there are times I would like to be the first born
son to Bill Gate$.


If Windows was perfect, Bill wouldn't
be trying to sell you the next version.

All opinions expressly contained herein are subject to more opinion.

I never ran into any problems so I stopped shutting down all the background programs.

Then I had one program that appeared to install OK but wouldn't run. I called the vendor and they asked iy I had shut down all the background programs, first. I had to say, No. They had me shutdown all the background riff-raff and re-do the installation. Everything worked fine. Boy was I embarrassed.

I have always shut everything down, ever since.

If you are interested in a good free utility that shuts down all the background programs with just a couple of clicks, try End It All. It's on the PC Magazine website.