Reinstalled xp-pro, what would you do?

BB,

If the app is not registered, then how does it know there is an old one its got to remove?

Regards - Charles

 

That is an excellent question to which I have no answer.

I often wonder if it searches the registry or the HD. Or both maybe.

BillyBob

 

Goodnight BB, always enjoyable having discussions like this.

Now if brew01 would check back in....

Regards - Charles

 

If it's a clean installation of Windows, there's nothing to unistall. Just delete the folder and it's gone. Simple as that.

 

Despite all the warnings and cautions to uninstall the old version before installing the new version, of whatever program, I seldom do. Most of the time they overlay quite nicely. What our original poster (who has gone to sleep during this conversation) described was "no programs in Start, none in Add/Remove, but programs in WE still listed ", probably most of which will not work, or are corrupted, though he did not say that.

The original poster should have done a system restore first, then an SFC, before trying a repair install. Something went wrong in the repair install (that confusing beginning press r thing?) and he got a new OS with a bunch of dead programs. The original problem may be carried over, and who knows what else is wrong? That is why I thought TonyT gave good advice- start over, do it clean. Because of the thunderstorm that prompted this, we cannot rule out hardware damage, either. He could spend hours picking through everything trying to fix it, and may, or may not, be successful, or a few hours to do reformat and reinstall, which would ensure that nothing in XP is corrupt or broken.

To clarify BB's and Charles' remarks, An OS "Upgrade" gives you the full OS version, merely requiring the old OS key to verify that the user qualifies for it. If you are reinstalling the same OS, and want to retain programs and files, you have to "repair ".

Hope the backups are done, because when a repair install is done, it's anyone's guess what will still be there, and what will still work. It goes well most of the time. It can also go horribly wrong. If an SFC won't clear up the corrupt OS, the repair install probably won't do much better. That's why the clean install was recommended.

XP Pro has other restore tools,ASR (Automated System Recovery) and the Recovery Console, but some preparation must be taken ahead of time. Also popular for back ups and recovery are Drive Image programs, or additional drives. Our original poster, with XP Pro, had several options before taking the dramatic reinstall step.

Having fried a few mobos and modems, and limping along trying to make XP hang on using damaged equipment (which can sometimes be done!) I would open the case and start sniffing for a burned plastic smell, especially near the modem, memory and power supply. If any odor was detected, I'd pull the item and replace it, rather than waste the time trying to force XP to act right on damaged hardware. I only say this because I fried a modem, and thought it ended there, and was wrong, in 2002, and, though I learned a lot trying to figure out the odd behavior of my computer, I didn't fix it until I replaced the mobo. (The only BSOD I have seen on my computer since then was the "Total System Failure" (How is that for ominous?) when I tried to follow some simple instructions in an MS KB article. ) I have now learned that electricity does funny things- goes in places you think are safe (phone and cable lines, too!) and can jump here and there, melting everything or "randomly" strike parts and pieces.

Now we just need to wait for the original poster for an update...

Johanna

 

Good morning all:

I am liking this post more and more. What I see is;

Who does what and/or how it gets done may well depend a lot on the INDIVDUAL machine. I say this because I have three machines. Two with 98SE and this one with XP. And believe me they need to be handled differently.

TonyTs' last post says a lot as far as installing/reinstalling software.

The reinstall of 98SE and how it goes DOES depend on how the machine is booted. If booted from the HD, Setup will create a new folder ( usually Windows001 ) if it sees that a Windows Folder is already there if we are not carefull and we will have TWO installs of Windows. ( I have made that mistake )

If the machine is COLD booted from a floppy, I have yet to see it go anywhere other than C:\Windows. Because at that time it does not even know Windows even exists and will go right over what is already there. And in this case IT WILL overwrite everthing but still maintain all software . ( OR MOST of it anyway )

Reinstalling XP is a TOTALLY Different story because when we boot to the CD there are SEVERAL CHOICES offered. And ( I can not say this for 100% sure ) but if we make the wrong choice we will have a new install of XP. If we want to make a REPAIR ( which I have done with the help of a Friend ) we MUST make the correct selection or we may be in trouble.

Also how things go may depend on how Windows was installed in the first place. Was it a clean install or and Upgrade ( over top of ) to an existing ? All of mine are the latter.

So the conclusions that I personally have come to.

How things work or what can or cannot be done may well depend on several things.

First off the machine itself
The User and their preferences.
The individual piece of Software.
And last but not least, the OS and how it was installed/setup.

One of the bigger problems is that each one of us that is involved it this post has a different machine And what works for me ( or my preference ) may well crash ( or at least disrupt ) someones elses. Even if it involves the same OS and/or software.

One of the problems that I have and need to be carfeul of is that very little ( if any ) so called 3rd party software is installed on the C: drive. And with that I have to be very carefull if I do have reinstall anything. And YES my Firends I HAVE messed up.

LOL. My Wife is somewhat reading this as I write and she just asked " Who wound you up this morning. "

Y'all have a fine day
BillyBob

 

That is correct.

My previous reply before this one more or less relates to the above.

As you can see from my previous post there is a LOT of user intervention when I say that just about all 3rd party software is installed to other than the default location. So therefore I need to be VERY carefull if I have to reinstall.

And I believe that this applies whether Windows knows the software is there or not.

A default install path may be C:\Program Files\anything.

I have changed MANY a path of that type to read D:\anything.

BillyBob

 

Hi, I'm back,,

To clarify,
The Install was done as a new install not a repair. When asked to where to install the OS I said the same HD location. It asked to reformat or to do a "clean" install of xp-pro without overwriting second party files I requested the latter. I beleive the prompt was (L).
When doing the install it needed a new computer, admin and user name but yet remembered things like my time zone and language.
Now it seems ok but as I stated the programs are listed in win explorer under c:\program files but do not appear at start-all programs, or the add remove programs folder unless I reinstall the program. What I have reinstalled seem to work fine, in fact those I don't reinstall but launch from the executable also seem fine.
Do you forsee any trbls if I don't reformat and do another install to the formatted drive?

 

Brew01,
Thanks for checking in. Is it possible to just re do your shortcuts without having to do the whole reinstall of the program? Might save some time if the actual programs (exe files) are okay.

Johanna

 

Good to read that thing are looking better.

Johannas' Suggestion will work. But will the programs work properly ?

I am thinking and have a question or two. And I welcome ideas from others.

If a Format & clean install was done and the programs still remain, that says to me that the programs are on another partition.

Am I correct ?

If so any updating or changes that may need to be made to the programs ? Will they know where to go ? It would not surprise me if you tried to do and online update and be told " Can't Find "

Any Data that may be saved by the program. Will it be saved in the proper place ?

I believe the info required for all this is in the REGISTRY. If it should be within the program itself then all might be OK.

Things like Word Processors and Quicken come to mind the most. Even some games might fit the idea.

I myself would re-install to be more sure of it working PROPERLY

BillyBob

 

Absolutely not!

What you describe is normal and harmless. Explorer is simply a record of what's present on your drive. Most any program listed in explorer can be run, as you have stated, just by clicking it or creating a shortcut and clicking that, as Johanna suggests, and provided that its environment contains a path to any files it requires.

A few programs get that information from the registry, or .ini files, or additions to the environment and those are the ones that you'll find necessary to reinstall.

 

Thank you sparrow for echoing my thoughts.

BillyBob

 

Thanks all

Thanks for all the info, I'm going to just do reinstalls of programs that won't launch properly from their .exe. Thanks for all the replies.

 

You are welcome. And that is a start. You will just have to watch the behavior of the programs.

I just looked in my XP Pro C:\Windows folder today. There are 85 .INI files in it. There were some that even I did not realize were there. Just for the giggles of it I moved three card game .inis out and guess what. 2 games would start but that was it. ( can't find error ) the 3rd would not run at all. Moved them back. rebooted and all was well again.

But my main Idea ( which I believe you do undestand ) was to give you some idea what might be wrong and were to look if something did not work properly. ( or at all )

BillyBob