What Do You Mean By Baseline?? In Windows 98



I asked my friend Dennis, "What is this Baseline I keep hearing about in 98's registry?"

So he replied:

Okay, when Win98 first installs, it places a text file at \Windows called sfclog.txt. This forms a baseline of the installed files on your system. When you run SFC (System File Checker), it compares every system file on the system against this text file or baseline. Naturally, if you run this right after the install and before any updates etc, there is nothing really to compare, just a check for damaged files. But as you move through the updates and then run SFC, you will see it compare the updated files as against the original install. This is the precursor to the final release of the next Win98 and Win2000's future ability to completely repair itself with little or no user intervention.

I've run into this before, however most people haven't been reading the text files they receive with one of the three SE versions release that are out there. There is a full versions, and update version and an upgrade version. If people purchase and use the *update*, then generally these problems do not occur. Yes, generally, as you never know how people maintain their machines. SFC is great *IF* people run it right after they have added all the updates and *before* adding other software, as this sets the baseline.

As for the upgrade version, this appears to be the worst of the bunch for some reason. The new installer Microsoft is using will not overwrite newer files unless you tell it to. If the SFC baseline is out of date and you have several differing levels of DLL's files on your system, the upgrade will play hell with the system. People need to read the readme texts and follow the instructions.

The OEM version of SE, as well as the retail version, work really well, but these are on clean systems, not upgrades.
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