two operating systems

I made a foolish error. I bought a computer and assumed I had to load Windows XP. It was preloaded. Now, whenever I boot up, I get a window asking which OS I want to use. The one I installed has fewer bells and whistles. Also, automatic updates go to the newly installed OS, not the superior one that came preloaded. Can I un-install (if that's a word) a Windows XP operating system?

 

You certainly can. Although from what you describe you'll need to reapply all the patches/hotfixes/whatever that went to the wrong OS.

- it's possible you'll lose some items from documents & settings when you do this so copy them to some other media. To get all the user accounts you'll need to do all except the one you used to log on and then log on as a different user and do the original user info.
- you should get two OS options when you boot up. Pick to original and let it load.
- delete the Windows folder with the "new" OS you loaded.
- edit the c:\boot.ini file (set as hidden and read-only so you'll have to change that while making changes) to remove the line(s) pointing to the OS load you are removing.
- reboot and you should be fine.

As a side note, it's often nice to have the extra, bare-bones OS load to use in case your main load fails you for some reason. Were it me, I'd simply edit boot.ini to make the original version the default and set the choice time to something short like 2-3 seconds, and just keep both.

 

Newt:

I'll give that a try. Thanks for the prompt reply!

dana

 

You are quite welcome. It happened to be prompt because I took a look on here before heading to the lake to fight with some fish.