Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Do you archive/store your downloads (mainly install files)?

<< < (6/10) > >>

app103:
If you lose one of your versions, you can see if its archived at OldVersion.com:

http://www.oldversion.com/
-laughinglizard (October 07, 2007, 05:49 PM)
--- End quote ---

Similar site:  http://oldapps.com/

I save everything...I am a packrat.

Keep in mind 4 of the primary reasons for saving older setup files:

1. Newer doesn't mean better.
2. Sometimes freeware goes payware.
3. System requirements may increase in newer versions while the hardware on your PC may not.
4. A lot of great little known freeware has a tendency to disappear from the web and become lost forever.

I have setup files for applications, or versions of applications, that I will probably never use again, but that doesn't mean I will get rid of them.

I have recently found myself contributing to the oldapps.com collection, filling requests on their forum for stuff that is near impossible to find, and in some cases supplying English versions to applications where the older version that is most commonly found, is in a different language.

I also inherited a lot of setup files from my father. I think it could possibly be the entire Tucows Windows collection of 1999. I don't even know what half of it is.  ;D

My dad has this habit of hitting a download site and getting everything he can and including it on a special partition with any pc he gives as a gift. The collection grows larger with every pc. My first PC from him came with a collection of about 100 setup files. My second came with over 300! It is up to the receiver of the pc to find out what it all is. It's actually kind of fun.

One of the greatest discoveries I have come across in the collection is an ancient, free, mildly crippled, non-expiring demo of an application for ripping CD's (CD Stripper). As it turned out, it is the ONLY thing I can use on my old P1 that will work and not crash. I did buy the most recent version of it, but alas, just like the rest of the CD ripping software I tried, it crashes on the old PC. I would have loved to have been able to purchase & receive a full version setup of the ancient one instead. I only bought the newer one because I felt they deserved my cash...it was more or less a donation, since I will never use the newer one on any pc I own. (I already have much better tools that can do same job on newer pc's)

CD Stripper..
Then:
Do you archive/store your downloads (mainly install files)?
Now:
Do you archive/store your downloads (mainly install files)?


Also, as a favor for friends that own older 9x pc's, I give their old snails new life by reinstalling their OS for them, properly configuring it, and supplying older freeware that will run better on it than the newer versions they would probably end up with if I didn't supply the older ones. So there is actually a need for me to keep all that old junk, the way I see it. It saves me a lot of time & trouble hunting down those files online while I am at their house, not to mention the extra time needed to download it all over dialup (most of them are still dialup users).

As far as archiving them, I do this as I download them, kind of. Everything gets it's own folder...I will make a note of the version number either in the name of the subfolder in which I store it and all related documentation, or in the file name itself.

It initially goes into an 'Untried' folder if it is something I have never used. Once installed, the application's setup folder is moved to the 'Installed' folder. Once uninstalled, it gets moved to a 'Not Installed' folder. If I had a good reason for uninstalling it, there will be a text file added with the reason, to remind me just in case I should get the crazy notion to try it again. Call it a personal mini review, if you like.

Armando:
Keep in mind 4 of the primary reasons for saving older setup files:

1. Newer doesn't mean better.
2. Sometimes freeware goes payware.
3. System requirements may increase in newer versions while the hardware on your PC may not.
4. A lot of great little known freeware has a tendency to disappear from the web and become lost forever.

-app103 (October 11, 2007, 03:27 PM)
--- End quote ---

Nicely summarized.

Darwin:
Yes - app you've highlighted exactly why I am still obsessive about archiving my software downloads...  :Thmbsup:

tinjaw:
Now I have even more reason not to archive my files.





I will just ask one of you for them if I can't find them on the Net.  :P

Darwin:
I did a double take on that one, tinjaw... Didn't notice the second line of text  ;D

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page