hey inhaler. :)

wow... that's quite the hd space and organization scheme you have going. it does seem similar to mine, but on a much grander scale. ;)

I like your 'D:\Link' idea, I never thought of that. I think I might just create LINK_someapp.lnk files in %WINDIR% rather than having a dedicated directory though. I probably wouldn't need too many of these so it should be ok. (Actually your way is probably better since it allows for really short names...)

I think it's possible to somehow specify the location of 'Documents and Settings' during installation, but I could be wrong, maybe that was Win2k. I just found this site that has loads of interesting info. on creating an unattended xp installation disc:

http://www.msfn.org/unattended/xp/

I see your program files directory is on D like mine, but I want this silly directory away from the OS. I don't want anything extraneous on the OS's partition (too bad I can't prune the junk out of the OS itself. ;). That site I linked to above is really good, wish I'd found it earlier. ;) I don't think I have the time to go through it now though. :|

I learned from someone else's recent mishap and made sure that the machine was not connected to the internet until after i'd installed a proper firewall. In the past I've gone a few days or more without installing one. :P

Yeah, I don't think we need to worry about divulging the locations of our files, someone would have to first find our machines and then break in, I doubt it's worth anyone's effort to do it. :P I'm sure it's possible to do though. ;)

Oh I almost forgot... defragging in XP - what a mess. :| I investigated this back when XP came out and I learned that you can't really do a good defrag job on XP. I don't recall all the details now but essentially (IIRC) the API MS provides for this purpose is quite limited (deliberately, I forget their reasons) and you simply cannot defrag as effectively and with the amount of control as you could on earlier versions of windows.

I remember in the old days with Norton SpeedDisk I could move Quake3 to the head of the hard drive where it belongs, adjust the temp files locations and generally do all kinds of crazy things. It was so satisfying after a defrag to see all those file blocks neatly lined up. :P

As I said I don't recall all the details now, but at the time of my investigation the best defrag app. for XP seemed to be Diskeeper:

http://www.executive.com

This has got to be one of the most OT threads around but it's a nice change from thinking about why some LS related thing isn't working for someone. :)

(I know this post rambles on without much direction, I'm low on sleep. ;)

(Almost forgot, I hate all those 'My' folders too. :P Perhaps since Bill owns so much of what we run he wanted to make it clear that we do in fact truly own these particular folders and their contents. ;) I say why stop at 'My Documents' and 'My Music', why not be consistent in this naming scheme. Let's call the drives 'My C Drive' etc., and who needs HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE when you could have the oh-so-friendly MY_HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. And really now, wouldn't my_explorer.exe be a lot less intimidating for newbies? ;)