What is this referrer thingie? Well, all web servers have capability to create log files and virtually all web masters (at least those who know what they are doing) use these logs to determine how their web site is doing. The log files contain one line for each hit to web site. The format and contents of line vary from server to server (and webmasters can specify they want more or less information), but in general it has an incredible amount of information about that one hit.

Some of information gathered for each hit to a web site includes (among other things):

- The requested file (for example, index.html) - A status code indicating success or error (404 errors, for example) - The browser type being used by surfer (this is agent name, and it can also be name of a search engine spider or a spam harvester). - The screen resolution of surfer's monitor - The date and time (locally to server) of hit - The TCP/IP address of surfer (yes, every web page that you have ever looked at has your TCP/IP recorded in a web server log file somewhere). - The URL where surfer came from

It's this last statistic that causes some concern. Oh, there is a minor issue in that your TCP/IP address is stored in server logs when you access a page, but this is not very important. You see, these logs do not tend to last very long as they get very large extremely quickly. Many (if not most) web sites purge these as soon as statistics are gathered. Conceivably, of course, this could be of concern if an investigation were performed ... and these logs are looked at by webmasters for hacking attempts.

No, important information is referrer field. Why? Well, first there is privacy question. If a webmaster knew your TCP/IP address (and he would have to know your address specifically, since this is only thing relating you to line in log file - there is no name or email address stored there) he could get an idea of what you looked at before you came to his site. Thus, there is a remote chance that your privacy could be compromised ... a very remote chance since this is virtually never done by any webmaster.

When you install your operating system you can actually change name of your system folder (that's WINNT or Windows folder) as well as boot drive. If you did either of these things, just substitute appropriate information.

Fonts

Depending upon which version of Windows you are running and where you installed operating system, your fonts could be in a number of different places. Assuming you took defaults when your system was created (or it was created for you), you will find fonts in following places:

Windows 2000, NT - C:WINNTFonts

Windows 95, 98 and ME - C:WindowsFonts

If you still cannot find your fonts, all is not lost. Use "search" function form your "Start" menu and look for a folder called "fonts".

Wallpapers

Believe it or not, wallpapers are stored directly in your systems folder. They always have a file type of ".BMP", which means they are large. If you want to save your wallpapers, just back up everything with a ".BMP" file type.

Screensavers

These things are a little more complicated, since they usually require more than one file. These are stored in system folder, and they can also be found in different subfolders, including "system32" and "system".

There is almost always a file with a file type of ".SCR", and often there are ".DLL" files as well. There may be additional files (and they may be in additional subfolders) depending upon screen saver.

How do you know what to back up? It's not easy, and my recommendation is to save original files (usually ".EXE" and ".ZIP" files) in a different directory. There is simply no telling what screen saver installation has created (it could even create registry keys!)

Internet Explorer Cookies

You don't really need to know where Internet Explorer saves it's cookies, since you can make a backup of them from browser whenever you want. To do so, select "Import and export" option from "File" menu.

Internet Explorer Favorites

To save your favorites, just choose "Import and export" option from "File" menu. The wizard will guide you through process.

Putting It All Together

All right, you've purchased some hardware, say an writeable CD drive, and you've got some software, let's say you purchase Second Copy. You also know where computer puts things. Now what?

Okay, what you need to do is organize heck out of your system. What I've done is allocate a whole physical drive to my stuff. This way I know exactly where my files are ... and keeping them separate from applications and operating system files means my stuff does not get mixed up with anyone else's stuff.

If you cannot afford another hard disk drive, or if you just don't want to bother, you can create a separate partition on your system disk. Note that you can only do this on a new drive (a new system perhaps) or you will have to completely back up and restore your drive. Unless you are starting from scratch with a new system or a new disk, this option is usually not worth trouble.