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This is the week when we're featuring some of the stupid things Leaf Group kept when they started migrating (allegedly) technical stuff over from eHow.com to their newly-christened niche site Techwalla.com. Just because people think they're "Wallas" (whatever those are) doesn't mean they have the slightest idea what they're talking about. Whatever the case, today's the second time in a week we've found useless advice about backing up your software; this time from
Nina Nixon attempting to explain "
How to Make a Backup Copy of Software." Well, no, Nina, that's not how you do it...
Nina explained, as Demand Media demanded, that
"There may be times when all you may need to do is to reinstall a software program. When this happens, having a backup copy is much more convenient than relying on a total system restore."
Once we saw that, we knew we'd found another dumbass; probably one whose research involved reading Tiesha Whatley's
almost identical topic. After all, what moron thinks that reinstalling a program entails a total system restore? Unless maybe you're reinstalling the OS, that's a ridiculous statement!
Nixon, however, continues to dismay with her computer illiteracy, explaining that to make a backup copy of your software you must use the "Backup and Restore" utility from the Control Panel (Nixon appears to have used Windows Vista, suggesting that her instructions wouldn't be of much use today anyway). She then instructed her readers to
"Select the software you would like to back up. Typically, it is located in a similar location: "My Computer, C: Program Files." Note: Check the box next to the software you would like to back up."
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Yup, that's it... another computer illiterate who thought that copying software means copying the directory. Of course, a literate person knows that the more complex the software (and Nixon warned people to "
know the volume sizes of all the software involved before copying"), the more likely it is to have installed drivers, libraries and other ancillary files in multiple locations. That's not to mention that installing software usually edits the registry.
 
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No, folks, to make backup copies of software you duplicate the installation files, not the installed files. But people like Nixon (and Whatley) can't seem to figure this out, so they explain how to back up data, not software... which is precisely why they have no business telling people how to do it! It's also why they receive Dumbass of the Day awards. |
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