Over time, Windows loses stability. If you keep a computer for more than two years, at some point you're going to have to bite the bullet and reinstall Windows from scratch. But contrary to popular belief, you won't have to reformat your hard drive (with one exception, discussed below). The bad stuff you need to get rid of is all in your Windows folder.
Before you begin, gather your Windows and application CD-ROMs. Back up your data files (just to be safe), and then clear two days off your calendar. If everything goes smoothly, you can reinstall Windows in a few hours. But you have to assume something will go wrong: You may not be able to find a necessary CD, or data won't be where you thought it was, or something will simply refuse to work.
There's a difference between a repair reinstall and a complete reinstall. Though a repair (also called a refresh) will let you keep your current settings, a complete reinstall will give you a truly fresh version of Windows. Repairs are fast and easy, but they don't fix anywhere near as many problems. The instructions below are for total reinstalls, except where noted.
Your Vendor's Restore CD
Most computers ship with a vendor-specific restore CD rather than with a Microsoft Windows CD-ROM. (If your PC came with a Microsoft Windows CD, or if you bought a retail copy of Windows, skip to the section for your version.)
Some restore CDs give you all the options of a full Microsoft Windows CD, but with better instructions and the convenience of having all the right hardware drivers. Others can do nothing except reformat your hard drive and restore it to the condition it was in when you bought the PC. (This case is the exception I mentioned above that requires a reformat.)
If your restore CD is reformat-only, back up your data files to a network or a removable medium before reinstalling Windows. If you use Windows 98 or Me, back up C:\My Documents, plus the folders inside C:\Windows discussed in the 98/Me section below. If you have Windows 2000 or XP, back up C:\Documents and Settings. Also back up any other folders in which you store your data files.
Windows 98 and ME CDs
These Windows versions keep some important data inside your soon-to-be-erased Windows folder, so you need to copy several of its subfolders to another location. Right-click My Computer and select Explore. Double-click the C: drive icon (in Me, you may then have to click View the entire contents of this drive). Right-click in the right pane and select New, Folder. Name the new folder oldstuff.
Go to the Windows folder (you might have to click View the entire contents of this folder), hold down Ctrl, and select the following subfolders: All Users, Application Data, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, Profiles, SendTo, and Start Menu. If you don't see them all, select View, Folder Options (Tools, Folder Options in Me), click the View tab, select Show all files, and click OK. (If you still don't see them all, don't worry about it.) Press Ctrl and drag the folders to C:\oldstuff (see FIGURE 1).
Restart Windows with a start-up disk in your floppy drive. (To make a start-up floppy, insert a disk, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, click Startup Disk, Create Disk, and follow the prompts.) At the Startup Menu, select Start computer with CD-ROM support. While the drivers load, insert your Windows CD-ROM.
Unless you're doing a repair reinstall, type the command c:\windows\command\deltree /y c:\windows and press Enter. Deleting your old files could take time, but the /y switch suppresses confirmation prompts, so take a break.
When you're back at the A: prompt, type x:setup, where x is your CD drive letter (it's likely one letter past what it usually is in Windows, so if it's D: in Windows, it's probably E: here). Press Enter and follow the prompts.
Once you're back in Windows, reinstall your graphics card driver. If you have Windows set up for more than one user, you'll also have to re-create each account. Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, Users to do so. It's important that the user names match those in the old installation. If you're not sure, open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\oldstuff\profiles. There you'll find a folder for each registered user name (see FIGURE 2). Don't worry about passwords. Log off and log back on as each user. When you're done, log off and back on one more time, but instead of choosing a user name and a password, press Esc to enter Windows without being a specific user.
Select Start, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt (in Windows 98) or Start, Programs, Accessories, MS-DOS Prompt (in Windows Me). Type xcopy c:\oldstuff\*.* c:\windows /s /h /r /c and press Enter (if you want to know what the xcopy switches do, enter the command xcopy /?). When xcopy asks if it should overwrite a file, press a for All.
When xcopy is through, reboot and log on (as a particular user, if necessary). Open My Documents to make sure all your personal files are where they belong, including your Internet Explorer favorites and your custom Start menu shortcuts.
Now skip ahead to "Finishing the Job."
Windows 2000 and XP CDs
Boot your computer with your Windows CD-ROM inserted. When you get the 'Press any key to boot from CD' message, do so. (If you don't see that message before Windows starts, restart Windows, press the key you're prompted to enter for your PC Setup program, and change the boot order so your CD drive is first.)
At the 'Welcome to Setup' screen, press Enter. The R (repair) option takes you to the Recovery Module, which is useful if Windows won't boot, but it's no help with a reinstallation. Soon you'll be told that there's already a Windows installation on the computer. Press r for a repair reinstall or Esc to begin a complete, destructive one. For a complete restore, select your C: partition and press Enter. When you get the warning that says an operating system is on that partition, press c. When you are asked your partition preference, select Leave the current file system intact (no changes). When you're told that a Windows folder (or Winnt folder for Windows 2000) already exists, press l ('ell') to delete it and create a new one. Follow the series of prompts. When the installation program asks for your name, enter temp.
Once the installation is complete, your system will reboot into Windows, and you'll be logged on as user Temp. If the screen is difficult to read, reinstall your graphics card driver.
If you are reinstalling Windows XP, skip to "For Both Windows XP and 2000."
If you're reinstalling Windows 2000, log off as Temp and back on as Administrator. Now log off and on again, this time as Temp. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Documents and Settings. One of the subfolders will be named Administrator. Another will be named something like Administrator.computername.
Select Start, Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt. Type cd "\documents and settings" and press Enter. Then type xcopy administrator\*.* administrator.computername /s /h /r /c, replacing computername with the last part of that folder's name (after "Administrator.") in Documents and Settings. Now press Enter, and when you're asked about overwriting files or folders, press a for All.
If you have any users on the old installation besides Administrator, continue with the "For Both Windows XP and 2000" section. Otherwise, open Windows Explorer and make sure your data files are where they belong. Then go to Control Panel's Users and Passwords applet and delete the user Temp before skipping to "Finishing the Job."
For Both Windows XP and 2000
Reopen Windows Explorer. Select your C: drive (you may have to click Show the contents of this folder). Right-click in the right pane and select New, Folder. Name the new folder oldstuff. In the left pane, choose the Documents and Settings folder. It should have subfolders for each user from the previous install, plus one for Temp and a few others. Move the folders for your previous user names to oldstuff.
Select Start, Control Panel, User Accounts (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Users and Passwords in Windows 2000). Create an account for each user who was registered before the reinstall. Be sure to use the exact names. They are the same names as the folders you just moved to oldstuff (as shown in FIGURE 2). In Windows XP, at least one user must have administrator privileges.
Log off and back on as each user, before logging back on as Temp. Make sure that you select Log Off and not Switch User at Windows XP's Log Off dialog box (this isn't an issue in Win 2000).
Log on as Temp, select Start, Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt (in XP, Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt), type xcopy c:\oldstuff\*.* "c:\documents and settings" /s /h /r /c, and press Enter. Press a when asked if you want to overwrite a file. Log off Temp and log on to each restored account to make sure everyone's documents and data are where they belong. Log on as an administrator and run Control Panel's User Accounts applet again to remove the user Temp.
Finishing the Job
Now you've got Windows going, but not much else. You may have to reinstall your printer, sound card, and so on. Luckily, if a driver for the gadget came on your Windows or vendor restore CD, it was probably reinstalled automatically.
You'll have to reinstall your applications to reintroduce them to Windows. Some of their settings will not be changed by the reinstallation, but those that were stored in the Registry were wiped out.
Once your Internet connection is running again, browse to Windows Update and download all critical updates for your version (see FIGURE 3). Then visit the sites of your hardware vendors to update your drivers.
After the reinstall, some of your data may not show up where it should. Search for it in both your Application Data and oldstuff folders, and see if you can move it to the folder in which Windows or your apps are looking for it. If you find a folder called Identities with two subfolders whose names are long and indecipherable, try moving the contents of one to the other and see if your data reappears.
You've probably guessed that the final step is deleting the c:\oldstuff folder--and the Administrator folder in Windows 2000. Make this the very last step, however. Wait a couple of days, weeks, or even months until you're confident that all of your needed files are accessible.
Friday, February 22, 2008
How to Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data
How to disable or uninstall the pilot version of Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications
Disable WGA Notifications
| 1. | Log on to the computer by using an account that has administrative permissions. | ||||||
| 2. | Make sure that the WGA Notifications version that exists on the computer is a pilot version. The version format for the pilot version is 1.5.0532.x. In this case, you can uninstall versions 527-532 only. For example, you can uninstall versions that range from 1.5.0527.0 to 1.5.0532.2. To find the WGA Notifications version, follow these steps.
| ||||||
| 3. | Rename the following files by changing the extension to .old:
| ||||||
| 4. | Restart the computer. |
Manually uninstall WGA Notifications
| 1. | Log on to the computer by using an account that has administrative permissions. | ||||||
| 2. | Make sure that the WGA Notifications version that exists on the computer is a pilot version. The version format for the pilot version is 1.5.0532.x. In this case, you can uninstall versions 527-532 only. For example, you can uninstall versions that range from 1.5.0527.0 to 1.5.0532.2. To find the WGA Notifications version, follow these steps:
| ||||||
| 3. | Rename the following files by changing the extension to .old:
| ||||||
| 4. | Restart the computer. | ||||||
| 5. | Unregister LegitCheckControl.dll by using Regsvr32. To do this, follow these steps:
| ||||||
| 6. | Restart the computer. | ||||||
| 7. | Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK. | ||||||
| 8. | At the command prompt, delete the following files by typing the Del command. Press ENTER after you type each command.
| ||||||
| 9. | At the command prompt, type regedit. | ||||||
| 10. | Locate and then right-click the following registry subkeys. Click Delete after you locate each subkey.
|
When starting up Windows, before the desktop appears I get a STOP 0x0000007F blue screen error message.
Possible Solution: If you have Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus, this problem occurs because there is a limited amount of kernel space available for kernel drivers. For Windows 2000, this limit is 12 KB. If the operating system runs out of kernel space, then the computer displays a blue screen error message. See this web site for more information: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2002071208532048?Open&src=w (See also: KStackMinFree.reg)
Also, turn OFF Windows XP’s Prefetching.
The Prefetcher component in Windows XP is part of the Memory Manager, and helps to shorten the amount of time it takes to start Windows and programs.
In some configurations, the prefetcher can cause errors (such as drivers not loading after bootup, Code 10 errors, etc.). It has also been said that the application prefetcher does not actually speed up application launching.
To disable the Prefetcher component, use Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) to locate the EnablePrefetcher value under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
Change the value of the EnablePrefetcher value to 0 , and then quit Registry Editor. The next time you start your computer, the Prefetcher component will not start.
You can also adjust how the Prefetch behaves by chaning the value of "EnablePrefetcher" as follows:
0 ---- Disable Prefetching
1 ---- Enable Application Prefetch
2 ---- Enable Boot Prefetch
3 ---- Enable both Boot and Application prefetching (Default value)
5 is not a valid value for this parameter as it is a 2 bit switch.
Even if you keep the prefetch ON, you should periodically delete the contents of the following folder. It's contents will be refreshed in 3 days or immediately if you run the command below. Be sure to reboot
twice after deleting the contents of the folder.
Contents to Delete: c:\windows\prefetch
Rebuild Now (run):
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
System32 Folder Opens When Logging on to Windows
SYMPTOMS
When you log on to Microsoft Windows, a Microsoft Windows Explorer window may open that displays the contents of the System32 folder.
This behavior also occurs if there is a String value that contains only a single quote character (") as the Value data in the following Registry key:
This behavior also occurs if there is a String value that contains only a single quote character (") as the Value data in the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
CAUSE
This behavior can occur if a null, incomplete, or damaged entry exists in the registry.
RESOLUTION
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
Use Registry Editor to view the following two Windows registry keys:
Use Registry Editor to view the following two Windows registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Verify that all the values in these keys do not contain any incorrect, incomplete, or null entries (such as "").HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
MORE INFORMATION
An incorrect entry in the following registry value has been confirmed to cause the behavior described above:
You can resolve this behavior by deleting the Remainder value that has "" next to it is in the following registry key:
If you are uncertain whether an entry is incorrect or incomplete, you may want to delete all entries other than the default Windows entry. The following entry to run the System Tray is the only required Windows default entry:
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Value: ActiveMovie File Extensions
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: ActMovie.exe /Check
If the value data for this entry is null or appears in Registry Editor as quotation marks, you may experience the problem described above. To correct the problem, change the value data to match the entry above or delete the ActiveMovie File Extensions value.Value: ActiveMovie File Extensions
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: ActMovie.exe /Check
You can resolve this behavior by deleting the Remainder value that has "" next to it is in the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run
If you are uncertain whether an entry is incorrect or incomplete, you may want to delete all entries other than the default Windows entry. The following entry to run the System Tray is the only required Windows default entry:
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Value: SystemTray
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: SysTray.exe
Value: SystemTray
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: SysTray.exe
Increasing Windows XP's performance
Possible Solution: Disable Kernal paging using the following regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\SESSION MANAGER\Memory Management.
Click on the Memory Management folder and right-click the LargeSystemCache entry. Select Modify, and type 1 in the Value Data field.
If you have 512MB or more of RAM, you should also locate the DisablePagingExecutive entry and ensure it is set to 1 as well. (This setting keeps as much information as possible loaded into RAM rather than to the swap file.)
How To Display, Use, and Clear "My Recent Documents" on the Start Menu in Windows XP
To Display the My Recent Documents Folder
To display the My Recent Documents folder on the Start menu:| 1. | Right-click Start, and then click Properties. Or, if the Start menu is already displayed, right-click an empty area of the Start menu, and then click Properties. |
| 2. | Click Customize. |
| 3. | Click the Advanced tab. |
| 4. | Under Recent documents, click to select the List my most recently opened documents check box, click OK, and then click OK. The next time you click Start, the My Recent Documents command is displayed on the Start menu. |
To Clear the Contents of the My Recent Documents Folder
To clear the My Recent Documents list, follow these steps:| 1. | Right-click Start, and then click Properties. Or, if the Start menu is already displayed, right-click an empty area of the Start menu, and then click Properties. |
| 2. | Click Customize. |
| 3. | Click the Advanced tab. |
| 4. | Under Recent documents, click Clear List, click OK, and then click OK. Your most recently used documents are removed from the My Recent Documents folder. Note that this action does not delete the documents from your hard disk. |
How to connect and disconnect a network drive in Windows XP
Connect a drive from My Network Places
| 1. | Click Start, click My Network Places, click Entire Network, and then double-click Microsoft Windows Network. |
| 2. | Double-click the domain that you want to open. |
| 3. | Double-click the computer that has the shared resource you want to map. All the shared resources for that computer automatically appear in the window. |
| 4. | Right-click the shared drive or folder that you want to map, and then click Map Network Drive. |
| 5. | Click the drive letter that you want to use, and then specify whether you want to reconnect every time that you log on to your computer. Note Network drives are mapped by using letters starting from the letter Z. This is the default drive letter for the first mapped drive you create. However, you can select another letter if you want to use a letter other than Z. |
| 6. | Click Finish. |
Connect a drive from My Computer or Windows Explorer
| 1. | To connect a drive from My Computer, click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Explore. To connect a drive from Windows Explorer, right-click Start, and then click Explore. |
| 2. | On the Tools menu, click Map Network Drive. |
| 3. | In the Drive box, click a drive letter. |
| 4. | In the Folder box, type the UNC path for the server and shared resource in the following format: \\server name\share name. You can also click Browse to find the computer and shared resource. |
Use the Net Use command to map or disconnect a drive
You can use the net use command for batch files and scripts. To use the net use command to map or disconnect a drive:| • | To map a network drive:
| ||||||
| • | To disconnect a mapped drive:
|
Disconnect from a mapped network drive
| 1. | Click Start, and then click My Computer. |
| 2. | Right-click the icon for the mapped drive. |
| 3. | Click Disconnect. |
How to set performance options in Windows XP
How to manually change the performance of foreground and background programs
| 1. | Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box. | ||||
| 2. | Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance. | ||||
| 3. | Click the Advanced tab, and then use one of the following methods under Processor scheduling:
|
| • | If you click Programs, the foreground program runs more smoothly and responds more quickly. If you want a background task such as a Backup utility to run faster, click Background services. |
| • | The Programs option allocates short, variable time slices (quanta) to running programs, and the Background services option assigns long, fixed quanta. |
How to manually manage computer memory
When your computer is running low on RAM, and you must have more RAM immediately, Windows uses hard disk space to simulate RAM. This is known as virtual memory. It is also known as the paging file. This is similar to the UNIX swapfile. By default, the virtual memory paging file (named pagefile.sys) that is created during installation is 1.5 times the RAM on your computer.You can optimize virtual memory use by dividing the space between multiple drives and by removing space from slow or heavily accessed drives. To best optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard drives as possible. When you select drives, follow these guidelines:
| • | Try to avoid having a paging file on the same drive as the system files. |
| • | Avoid putting a paging file on a fault-tolerant drive such as a mirrored volume or a RAID-5 volume. Paging files do not require fault-tolerance, and some fault-tolerant computers experience slow data writes because they write data to multiple locations. |
| • | Do not put multiple paging files on different partitions on the same physical disk drive. |
How to manually change the size of the virtual memory paging file
You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.| 1. | Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box. |
| 2. | Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance. |
| 3. | Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory. |
| 4. | Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change. |
| 5. | Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set. |
Notes
| • | To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB. |
| • | For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use much memory. |
| • | To delete a paging file, set both the initial size and the maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. We strongly recommend that you do not disable or delete the paging file. |
How to manually optimize the memory usage
You can optimize your computer's memory usage. If you use your computer primarily as a workstation instead of as a server, you can devote more memory to your programs. Your programs will work faster and your system cache size will remain the default size that came with Windows XP. You can also set aside more computer memory for a larger system cache if your computer is used primarily as a server, or if you use programs that require a larger cache.| 1. | Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box. | ||||
| 2. | Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance. | ||||
| 3. | Click the Advanced tab, and then use one of the following methods under Memory usage:
|
How to manually change the visual effects
Windows provides several options to set the visual effects of your computer. For example, you can show shadows under menus. Shadows give menus a 3-D look. You can configure Windows to display all the contents of a window while you move the window on your screen. To make large text more readable, you can display the smooth edges of screen fonts.Windows provides options to turn on all the settings (for best appearance), or none of the settings (for best computer performance). You can also restore the default settings.
To change the visual effects, follow these steps:
| 1. | Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box. | ||||||
| 2. | Click the Advanced tab, and then under Performance, click Settings. | ||||||
| 3. | Click the Visual Effects tab, and then use one of the following methods:
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)