On 27 Mar 1999 04:30:54 GMT, thewarns@aol.comNot (The Warns) wrote:
:-So know I have a new question.  Is there a program that will backup the
:-registry each time my computer is booted and save it with a unique filename?
:-Thus for example, I could have 2 weeks of registry files on one disk.
:-I suppose an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or at least days
:-reinstalling software.

Windows creates backups the first time it is booted on any given day.
It by default keeps five backups.
They are stored in
C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP
where C:\WINDOWS is your windows folder.  This folder is hidden.
They are stored in rb000.cab through rb0nn.cab where nn is the maximum
number of backups you have set.
The file
C:\WINDOWS\SCANREG.INI
again where C:\WINDOWS is your windows folder, contains settings
controlling what files are saved and how many copies.
Something to keep in mind about the number of copies is that the DOS
restore program can only display five entries that may not be the
newest five copies.
It is run by keying
scanreg /restore
from a DOS prompt.
If you have more than five, you would have to manually extract the
copy you wanted if it is not displayed.  If you can boot windows, it
would be easier to extract them from that and save them somewhere easy
to get to.  Reboot into DOS and then restore the registry and other
files.

Another option would be to use a DOS batch file to copy the registry
and perhaps some other files.  I have a batch program I wrote for
windows 95 that keeps up to ten copies of the registry.  I don't
really know what I would do with the tenth oldest, but it was just a
nice round number.
I'm not sure how you would make it only do one copy a day unless you
used the task scheduler to handle running it.
Advanced DOS batch files are not something that I know a lot about.
Below is the batch file.
--begin
set savepath=c:\myback~1\jimmy
if .%windir%.==.. goto doexit
if exist %savepath%\system.d10 del %savepath%\system.d10
if exist %savepath%\system.d09 rename %savepath%\system.d09 system.d10
if exist %savepath%\system.d08 rename %savepath%\system.d08 system.d09
if exist %savepath%\system.d07 rename %savepath%\system.d07 system.d08
if exist %savepath%\system.d06 rename %savepath%\system.d06 system.d07
if exist %savepath%\system.d05 rename %savepath%\system.d05 system.d06
if exist %savepath%\system.d04 rename %savepath%\system.d04 system.d05
if exist %savepath%\system.d03 rename %savepath%\system.d03 system.d04
if exist %savepath%\system.d02 rename %savepath%\system.d02 system.d03
if exist %savepath%\system.d01 rename %savepath%\system.d01 system.d02
attrib %windir%\system.dat -h -s
copy /b %windir%\system.dat %savepath%\system.d01
attrib %windir%\system.dat +h +s
if exist %savepath%\user.d10 del %savepath%\user.d10
if exist %savepath%\user.d09 rename %savepath%\user.d09 user.d10
if exist %savepath%\user.d08 rename %savepath%\user.d08 user.d09
if exist %savepath%\user.d07 rename %savepath%\user.d07 user.d08
if exist %savepath%\user.d06 rename %savepath%\user.d06 user.d07
if exist %savepath%\user.d05 rename %savepath%\user.d05 user.d06
if exist %savepath%\user.d04 rename %savepath%\user.d04 user.d05
if exist %savepath%\user.d03 rename %savepath%\user.d03 user.d04
if exist %savepath%\user.d02 rename %savepath%\user.d02 user.d03
if exist %savepath%\user.d01 rename %savepath%\user.d01 user.d02
attrib %windir%\user.dat -h -s
copy /b %windir%\user.dat %savepath%\user.d01
attrib %windir%\user.dat +h +s
attrib +a %savepath%\*.*
:doexit
set savepath=
--end
The first line sets the folder that is used for the backup.  This is
the DOS 8.3 format name of the path I am using by the way, you would
likely want to change it.
The folder this points to must already exist.
This program will not run in the autoexec.bat file because the
environment variable windir is not defined then.  It skips the backup
code and exits.
This will also not work if you have set up user profiles and each user
has their own desktop/start menu as this only copies the common
registry files.  The user registry files would be stored in the folder
c:\windows\profiles\user
where c:\windows is your windows folder, and user is the user name
that you log on as.  I have not used user profiles in a while, but I
think that there is only a user.dat file there.
It will work in a DOS window.  You could place a shortcut to it in the
startup folder or in the task scheduler that runs it minimized and
closes it on exit.

I hope that this helps. 8-).