Firestorm TTT – Clean Install 2015

Hopefully by now you know TTT is Firestorm’s Tool Tip Tuesday. This week Jessica walks people through the process of performing a clean install. First step is backing up your Firestorm Viewer ‘s chat logs and settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc0dBfVGJ0

None of the steps for a clean install are technically difficult for the intermediate computer user. However, if you are not used to working with files and navigating the hard disk, I suspect you will be in over your head. Copy-Paste, Move, and disk navigation using the Windows File Explorer (and Mac equivalent) are required skills.

I think most of the developers for Second Life, Lab or third parties, assume you have those basic skills. Jessica doesn’t give you the basic clicks needed to get started. A right-mouse-click on an open space on the desktop opens a menu and one can left-mouse-click New->Folder and name the created folder. Then double-left-mouse-click to open it. Those steps will catch up the file copy-paste-move and folder creation novice.

Potrazi me...

Potrazi me… by Lana Quicksand, on Flickr

Jessica does as good job of getting the basics into a 5 minute video. It moves fast. She skips explaining why some things are done the way she shows and there are no choice points. This can be good. It is direct and to the point. I think is simplified as much as it can be.

There is a wiki page that provides more of the thinking behind what is needed when doing a clean install. See: Firestorm Viewer Clean Install. Unfortunately this link is gone from the main page of the Firestorm Wiki. So, bookmark the page if you will want it in the future.

The main wiki page now has a link to the video rather than the written instructions. However, Google can find the written instructions. And on the wike page with the video is a link to the text version.

In 2011 I wrote my tutorial on performing a viewer clean install. I just updated it. See: Second Life Clean Viewer Install. I wrote mine for those of us that run multiple brands of viewers. I often have the main SL Viewer (often an RC version), one or two SL Project Viewers, and various third party viewers. Firestorm is almost always installed. I love its power user tools. Alchemy is one I usually have installed too. Black Dragon comes and goes. Now and then I play with Singularity Viewer, Cool VL Viewer, RLV, and Kokua.

In 2011 when I wrote the article it was more common for there to be viewer conflicts. So, from time to time one had to remove every installed viewer and re-install from scratch. I haven’t had to do a mass clean install in years. But, knowing how can save you heartache.

Also, much of the advice floating around Second Life, in the forum, wiki, support groups, wherever is out of date. We add new stuff but seldom clear out the old stuff. People get an answer and seldom look to see if their answer is out of date. Be skeptical. Research any recommended process/fix that is going to take you more than a couple of minutes to accomplish. Often advice given has no relationship to the problem, its just a blind shot. So, well meaning people can have you jumping through pointless, for your problem, hoops.

A majority of all the problems where a clean install is recommended are fixed by restarting the computer and waiting an hour before logging in. This clears transient problems in the computer and gives network problems and server problems a chance to clear.

Before performing a clean install to fix a problem, wait a day – 24 hours. The problem is likely to disappear on its own.

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