I recently had a rather harrowing experience with my desktop install, and thought I'd share some lessons learned.
The original fault that brought me to a re-install had to do with arcane problems relating to SidebySide errors leading to BSODs. While delving into the winxsx folder and its use as a remedy for dll hell is beyond the scope of this post, debugging my issues has led to my smoothest-running Win7 install to date.
My rather simple core recommendation has to do with the install order of runtimes, such as C++ packages. I used this page to download ahead of the re-install all the latest packages.
(Security note: Best if one can start by installing on a virgin drive, the only one connected during OS install, and can erase all partitions. Some malware can hide out in partition data. Only when the OS is fully installed and AV fully enabled are any other drives brought on line, as now whatever they may carry can be controlled for.)
First, allow Win7 to fully update through Windows Update, especially in the case of the .Net packages. Take care not to interrupt that horrifying 15+ minute wait at "32% updating Windows" during one of the reboots, as that is when .Net runtimes are getting properly set into the registry (takes that long on my Core2, HD-only oldie PC).
Next, install all the C++ runtimes, in any order. Then and only then update DirectX 9.
Even though it is not really a good indicator of problems, I suggest then monitoring the Event Viewer after a few reboots. Some early entries involve .Net 2.0 and can be safely ignored and erased. Clear all the logs after reboot until you are only seeing recent events.
If you get the no-refresh error in Explorer (need to hit F5 to update after a file is deleted or added to a folder), the problem is hard to diagnose. Make sure you run through the homegroup networking wizards enough so that you can ensure that no networked drives are being mapped. That is what causes this error, as explorer waits for data (and very much later will indeed update explorer).
The errors with eppoobe.etl and MS Security Essentials is recurring, unimportant, and can be ignored, but if it bugs you, use a different AV, such as BitDefender. BD can give you other messages, such as hogging the user data registry during shutdowns, but you can ignore those when they happen.
If you get messages stating a crash dump could not be generated and you did not crash, this is due to running something like chkdisk or a registry defrag tool at boot, either of which blocks the check for the ability to do a crash dump during boot. Ignore.
But if you really cannot do crash dumps, make sure you did not erase or disable the dump_ata.sys, dump_atapi.sys and similar drivers from the boot process. They appear as "weirdos" with an unknown publisher if you use tools like Sysinternals autoruns to examine the registry, but they should not be touched. Also, do not bother to run them through the verifier discussed below; not needed.
After a fresh install, it is a good idea to run all non-MS drivers through the verifier tool (at run or command prompt: verifier.exe). Any drivers not passing muster should be replaced with newer/previous sets. (Remember to turn verifier off after at most a day or so.)
Finally, in the off-chance anyone is using an old PT880 VIA chipset, or one using the VT8237A south bridge, I've reworked the driver install of the latest set to give 10-15% better performance, and no crashing. Drop a PM if you need that.
The original fault that brought me to a re-install had to do with arcane problems relating to SidebySide errors leading to BSODs. While delving into the winxsx folder and its use as a remedy for dll hell is beyond the scope of this post, debugging my issues has led to my smoothest-running Win7 install to date.
My rather simple core recommendation has to do with the install order of runtimes, such as C++ packages. I used this page to download ahead of the re-install all the latest packages.
(Security note: Best if one can start by installing on a virgin drive, the only one connected during OS install, and can erase all partitions. Some malware can hide out in partition data. Only when the OS is fully installed and AV fully enabled are any other drives brought on line, as now whatever they may carry can be controlled for.)
First, allow Win7 to fully update through Windows Update, especially in the case of the .Net packages. Take care not to interrupt that horrifying 15+ minute wait at "32% updating Windows" during one of the reboots, as that is when .Net runtimes are getting properly set into the registry (takes that long on my Core2, HD-only oldie PC).
Next, install all the C++ runtimes, in any order. Then and only then update DirectX 9.
Even though it is not really a good indicator of problems, I suggest then monitoring the Event Viewer after a few reboots. Some early entries involve .Net 2.0 and can be safely ignored and erased. Clear all the logs after reboot until you are only seeing recent events.
If you get the no-refresh error in Explorer (need to hit F5 to update after a file is deleted or added to a folder), the problem is hard to diagnose. Make sure you run through the homegroup networking wizards enough so that you can ensure that no networked drives are being mapped. That is what causes this error, as explorer waits for data (and very much later will indeed update explorer).
The errors with eppoobe.etl and MS Security Essentials is recurring, unimportant, and can be ignored, but if it bugs you, use a different AV, such as BitDefender. BD can give you other messages, such as hogging the user data registry during shutdowns, but you can ignore those when they happen.
If you get messages stating a crash dump could not be generated and you did not crash, this is due to running something like chkdisk or a registry defrag tool at boot, either of which blocks the check for the ability to do a crash dump during boot. Ignore.
But if you really cannot do crash dumps, make sure you did not erase or disable the dump_ata.sys, dump_atapi.sys and similar drivers from the boot process. They appear as "weirdos" with an unknown publisher if you use tools like Sysinternals autoruns to examine the registry, but they should not be touched. Also, do not bother to run them through the verifier discussed below; not needed.
After a fresh install, it is a good idea to run all non-MS drivers through the verifier tool (at run or command prompt: verifier.exe). Any drivers not passing muster should be replaced with newer/previous sets. (Remember to turn verifier off after at most a day or so.)
Finally, in the off-chance anyone is using an old PT880 VIA chipset, or one using the VT8237A south bridge, I've reworked the driver install of the latest set to give 10-15% better performance, and no crashing. Drop a PM if you need that.
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