Installing Drupal

It has been suggested elsewhere in another thread that all you need to do to move Drupal from one directory to another is to change the $base_url in the conf.php file. I found out this is not the case. I got errors. I got errors both when I moved drupal's file structure into the new directory and when I left the files in the old directory.

So what's the proper way to move Drupal? Thanks.

Can i use image.module only for uploading image?
When i install it on my localhost nothing was changed
and did step by step its instructions (without downloading ImageMagick)- nothing happens:( Am i must download ImageMagick immediatly? And how i`ll use it on my real site - uploading it by ftp to my hosting?
And why it is not so easy???! Whom this list of features are needed, like crop-drop-pop-size-background-flip?
Arghhh
p.s. sorry:)

Hello.
I recently contacted my provider to ask why at times, my site is at a crawl - here is their response, is there anyway to achieve what they are saying? Would Drupal be more effective in this manner, than PHPnuke?

Here was my host's response - and i hope you can tell me whether Drupal would be any "better". Thanks in advance.

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Hi,
 
 There would be little point in moving you to another server. Daffy is very lightly loaded, and the fact that it has mod_ssl compiled into it, is largely irrelevant as it does not actually have any SSL sites on it.
 
 However, as I said to you on the forum, the primary reason for any speed issues is likely to be a result of database queries. Whilst certainly the MySQL server is usually quite busy, it is not slow to the point that it would affect your site normally. The problem is mostly the content management system you are using.
 
 Most content management systems are completely overblown. The one you are currently using, you currently have 91 tables in your database. This is generally unnecessary. I did a trace on the MySQL server, and just going to your front page results in 74 queries to the database server. This will happen every time anyone looks at your page. Clicking on the 'forums' link on the front page generates 43 queries. Browsing the forums results in about 40 queries per page. Even clicking on the FAQ page, which just brings up some FAQ subcategories, results on 29 queries.

Hi.

I'd like to not use .htaccess files and instead use my httpd.conf to configure my server.

Can i just copy the .htaccess file and paste it into the
[VirtualHost x.x.x.x:80]
[/VirtualHost] (angle brackets won't show)
block?

We have figured out how to set a static page as the default node, and figured out how to detect if the user has logged in or not. But we have not been able to figure out how to load a node, for example forums, from a static page. We suspect it's relatively trivial but we're stuck. Can anyone point us in the right direction?

1) If the user is not logged in display an introduction static-page.
2) if the user is logged in have the static-page display the forums.

global $user;
if ($user->uid)
{ 
  [load the forums]
}
else 
{ 
  [intro]
}

Hi,

Id like to show off some games I have made, however, Drupal is confusing me :-( You would think that someone who has made software himself would be able to figure it all out but Im stumped.

What Id like to do is have a link like "Games" and when the user clicks on it, it goes to a page that in the main part of the page it shows lets say 3 different "articles" (in the center) one for each game... Is this possible? How do I do this?

Thanks.