Copying a Program for Dummies

The likely consequences of following Tiesha's guide

Our founder's late mother-in-law, bless her cotton-pickin' little heart, was one of those people who somehow decided that she was computer-literate because she could use an electric typewriter. One time he caught her editing the system files on her Windows computer, deleting lines she didn't think were necessary. Needless to say, she needed more help than he could give her. Thank goodness this was long before eHow.com and people like Tiesha Whatley got into the "advice" business, since Whatley is no more computer-literate than she was. Want proof? Just read her post titled "How to Copy Programs to a Memory Stick" (now brought to you by ItStillWorks.com, even if it never did)...

First, we aren't sure we'd take computer advice from a wedding planner with a BS in English (BS? really? not to mention that her LinkedIn profile says "BA in accounting"). We're especially unsure given that she's already picked up two DotD awards for computer illiteracy. But what the heck, maybe she got it this time: you know, blind pigs and acorns, etc... Whatley opens by telling her readers that

"...More and more software companies are making special portable editions of their popular programs so that they can be installed right onto a memory stick. If there isn't a portable version of the program you want to copy, it is easy just to copy it over to the memory stick."

That's odd: we thought software companies were getting more and more sticky about their intellectual property and making it harder to copy your program. But hey, if you find a portable version of some essential software, sure. Here's how Tiesha says to copy it:

"Find the containment folder of the program files that you want to copy over to the memory stick." "Right-click on the containing folder of the program and point the mouse pointer to "Send to." Click on the drive that houses the memory stick."  If the program is indeed portable, this might work. We suspect, however, that copying most programs one finds "essential" (Whatley's word) won't be so easy. What Tiesha says next, however, is downright ridiculous:

"Copy over registry entries. Some programs won't work unless the registry entries are present. Click on "Start > Run." Type in "regedit" and wait for all the registry entries to appear. Find the registry entry for your program, right-click on it and send it to the memory stick."

Is she kidding? Surely she's kidding: copy the registry entry? First, you can't copy a registry entry the way she says to and second, what good would it do to have that little bit of binary code just loose on your flash drive? Talk about computer ignorance!

Nope, as Tiesha gets around to in the "tips" section, if you want to port your program to a different computer, you can copy the setup and installation files to a flash drive ("memory stick") and perform a fresh install. Trying to run a program from a flash drive isn't almost certain not to work even if you do copy the registry entry... and that's why we're giving Ms. Whatley her third Dumbass of the Day award in computers and fourth overall... there will be more: we promise!

copyright © 2016-2023 scmrak

DD - COMPUTERS