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1881 on CD
(rev 17 Mar 2004)
This practise must be my pet hate - the chance of these particular DLL and OCX files being shared are near zero - so they could just as easily be installed on the drive of your choice.
A point worth mentioning that has caused a number of people problems
- is that having installed the Resource File Viewer - it is not
immediately
clear from the program prompts - that
there are two more stages
to get the program up and running.
These being setting up the
-
National Index
(8 CD's numbered 1 to 8) and
1881
British Census
(16 CD's divided into 8 regions -
and the CD numbering for each region set starts at 1)
.
Stage 3 of the instructions states -
(Americans use the
#
as shorthand for
number
).
So
first you must carry out this procedure using CD #1 of the National Index
- and then repeat this procedure using any of the eight CD #1's from the
1881 British Census. It doesn't matter if you set-up the National
Index first or last.
One last word - I had been automatically running a DOS program in a Window on start-up. After installing the 1881 Viewer - this program ceased to run correctly but resumed normal operation when I uninstalled the Viewer. I am still looking into this - but if you have a favourite DOS program that starts misbehaving - after installing the viewer - you are not alone.
(added 17 Mar 2004)
Question:
I spotted this "with special arrangements for recording crews of
vessels afloat". Do you know what those were and whether the data survives ?
And if it does, where ? I am particularly interested in vessels at sea in 1881
and 1901.
Answer: Vessels are included as part of the census returns and are interspursed within the rest of the census data according to the location of individual vessels. As far as the 1881 goes - the LDS 1881 CD's version includes vessels. They appear with a Vessel heading in place of Dwelling and the name of the boat follows in double quotes. If a vessel had been under-way at the time of the census - then the census details of the British crew would be taken the first time the vessel stopped at a British port - and the details recorded along with other people who lived in the locality of that port or mooring. (I am not sure what happened for Scottish visits or if there was a time limit for the vessels return to be included in the census - where it had been in another part of the world.) If you have the 1881 CD's and version 3 viewer . Click on the top 'Search' menu tab and select 'Neighbors - Advanced Query'. Then in the window that comes up - enter 'vessel' in the ' Query For' field then click 'Apply To All' - and a list will come up for that CD. - and will include the dwellings of seamen at home on the night of the census. Remembering that you must repeat this with each CD If like me you bought your CD's early then you will have the version 2 viewer - for which you can buy an upgrade. However if you have the LDS Vital Records Index - British Isle - or the Mormon Immigration Index (there may be others) - they come with the the version 3 viewer - which is also compatible with 1881. In fact you can install all of these in the same viewer. The Austrailian VRs being the odd one out requiring its own viewer. I don't know about the 1891 census - but vessels are part of the census and will be interspursed in the same way - its just finding out how to search! |
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Fooling Windows "New Machine" CD
(new 4th Sep 2003)
I had previously inherited a computer which had Windows98 SE installed from new - and I later installed Linux as a second system. Recenty the Windows98 system had become unstable. Running System File Checker and a Windows reinstall over the top did not cure the problem. Therefore it was necessary to delete at least the Windows folder to ensure that all system files would be replaced. Now the Windows98 SE New Machine (as opposed to Upgrade) CD suffers from the cuckoo syndrome - in-so-much that it will not do a clean install if a different system is already installed - it insists on wiping the drive by reformatting. What I wanted to do was within the terms of Microsoft's Licence - as Windows98 had been installed on a new machine - and it was quite reasonable to expect that it would reinstall on the same machine. After all the price of the New Machine CD is much higher that the Upgrade CD - so what are Microsoft playing at? After some head scratching I came up with the following method of circumventing this. My solution relied on my having an obsolete 1gb drive left over from a previous drive upgrade (any drive would do with enough space to install Windows). The 1 gb drive was installed as primary master - temporarily replacing the existing drive and the system started using the Windows Startup floppy. The 1 gb drive was then formatted as a quick way to clear an existing Windows95 installation.
The system was then restarted using the Windows98 boot floppy that came with Windows98 SE - and with the Windows98 SE CD in place - selecting option 1 when prompted. Having completed the installation on the 1gb drive - the system was shut down and switched off. The original drive was re-installed but set to slave (leaving the 1gb drive in place as master) - making absolutely sure that the master/slave selection links were correctly place.
The system was restarted and the original drive was now the D: drive. Both the Windows and Program Files folders were delete from the D: drive - and also the D:\ root files. The new C: drive Windows and Program Files folder were then copied to the D: drive together with the C root files.
It then remained to shut the system down - remove the 1gb drive and re-position the links on the original drive so that was again primary master. Again double checking that the selection links were correctly placed. You may wonder why I'm so vigorously stressing that the links are correctly placed. Well I learnt the hard way - losing both the original data - and data which had been backed up on a separate drive. In this case I transferred the connection from the wrong drive - both being IBM looking similar. The drive not disconnected was set as master - that same as a temporary I had connected and any drive writes went both drives. I lost 15 months of data - emails - letters - contact addresses - the lot. The ironic thing was - I needn't have used that particular computer for the test. So be warned - as I always say - learn by mistakes - preferably other peoples! |
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Microsoft Comes CleanHavn't you ever wondered why windows appears so unstable or insecure |
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Tips & Tricks |
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Right click does the trick
- I can't give advice on, or make comparisons with Windows 3x as I have
never used it. But I have noticed that ex W3x users prefer the old
File Manager to Windows Explorer. I do know that Windows 3.0 didn't
use the right mouse button - but not if this was so with the later
versions.
However Windows 95/98 makes extensive use of the right button so remember
- try right clicking on everything - you'll be surprised what you can do.
One of the areas that right clicking can save a lot effort is when you have an Open or Save window open. Imagine the scenario where you are about to save a file - but find there is another file of the same name which you would rather rename to avoid overwriting. Easy - right click on the offending file and select rename. You can then go on and save the new file as you originally intended without first cancelling the save action. Be bold experiment. NOTE: If the program you are using was written for W3x (e.g. Family Tree Maker 3.0) then right clicking probably will not work. |
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Confusion
- Beginners with
Windows 95/98 are often confused by conflicting advice on how to do
things.
This conflicting advice mostly occurs because
there are several ways
to achieve a given action
. Once this is realized - it is a question
of picking a method that bests suits your way of working. Personally
I use a number of methods according to what I am doing at any particular
time. e.g. Here are four ways of doing the simple task of Launching
Windows Explorer.
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Use the Windows
Keys
- These are the keys with the Windows logo. Most keyboards
nowdays have Windows keys - but do you use them? These allow
quick access to a number of facilities. The last example above is
but one.
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Printing Directories
or Folders
- This old chestnut just keeps coming up - and MS has
still not addressed this omission. Well there are couple of ways -
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