Using OAW to install EAW default?

[AngleOff]

Hi all,
I probably can, but I wanted to ask here before I mess anything up.
I've been doing alot of testing and it has become a real pain keeping
track of files that overwrite same files, renaming, switching out.
I do not like having several EAW installs. I am usually pretty
organized and can find my stuff, but lately alot has been confusing, so I would like to manage all this with a manager. (OAW)

Is it possible for me to use OAW to 'put back' my default root folder?
If it is, I can put stuff back that may have been overwritten. Normally,
I would just do it, but yesterday, I had an occurence that never
happened to me before. I took alot of screenshots which are left in the root folder as bmp's. I resaved several of them as jpg's in the same folder, to be moved a little later. Got busy doing something else, and did a 'reset all' in OAW. When I went back to get the jpg's they were gone!
An OAW reset has never before removed any jpgs, so this was very disconcerting! (Although it may very well be that I always managed to remove them before any reset.)
Anyway, alot of this test stuff can be placed in OAW folders and loaded and removed with a mouseclick, but I would like to be able to replace
some default-named files that would get overwritten. (Some CDF's,
d3d.dll, eaw16.hm, smack32.dll, any files with default names that were edited.) I could test this with another EAW/OAW install, but your answers here would really save me a hassle!
Thanks,
AO

[Wudpecker]

Yep, AO. It is SO convenient to use OAW for all this testing. If you could trust it to work as you want.
Experiment. Try things out.

You can use the OAW "undocumented feature" of putting CDF files (or any files) in an OAW directory and calling them up for action.

I used this as a quick-and-dirty way to have your own engine sounds for your aircraft. Just put them in the 3DZ files for your plane.
Even whole game scenarios I put in this way.

The problem, I know, is what happens to the old CDF and other files?
Getting files like CDF's replaced back on the next game play? I doubt it. But don't really know.

Mr. Jelly's "copy code" for OAW isn't as simple as it looks, I guess.
Tony hasn't let us in on exactly how this code works. Or what the rules are. We just have to try things out.

Like you said, many others--including Ray Otton--have complained that some files just disappear on the next game use if you leave them in the EAW directory.
-even without 're-set all'.

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There is another trick:

Moggy has a way to use the CD-check in the EAW.ini file to save having to copy a full install every time you want to try out a new exe.
He just uses a "minimum" EAW install.
You know--this one in the ini file:

[Miscellaneous]
Debug Flags=0
Debug Path=.\

He changes that.
He says he makes a "CD copy" of the full EAW files into an EAW directory. Then he points all his EAW.ini files to that directory.
I would guess something like:
Debug Path=C:\Eaw\FullGame

To get the game running, he does a "minimum" EAW install into another directory. The stuff that's in that minimum directory he uses to copy into each test game or new scanario.---it's very small.
Moggy says he has dozens of scenarios that work this way.