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Should I re-install XP Home?
I was given three free computers, which were going to be thrown away.
One had nothing inside the case, except the MB, so that one is only for parts. Another one I'll be working on, after I get a hard drive for it. The third one booted right up, and except for a bad CD drive, all the hardware works fine. I replaced the CD drive. The OS is XP Home Sp2. It was password protected, but I turned out the password was the person's name, so I got past that, and immediately removed the password, since I dont need or want a password. Upon opening XP, I found it loaded with toolbars, and some idiot program called Bear Share that kept popping up. It also contained a PCTools program to scan for malware. I ran that, and found 1041 malware issues, mostly from those toolbars and that Bear Share program. I let the (outdated) program remove all malware, and then removed all the toolbars, and that annoying Bear Share program. Little by little, I've been going thru and removing all sorts of crappy programs. An old version of Turbo tax, several large games, numerous folders that contained programs that had missing .exe files, tons of temp files, and so on...... When I got it, the 20G hard drive, had 2 partitions, with only 800 megs available. I now have 15G available. Anyhow, it's working just fine now, but because of all that malware, I wonder if I should re-install the OS. I plan to upgrade to Sp3, but wonder if it's worth it, considering the former condition of the malware that was on it. I do have a XP Home SP2 CD. But that brings up another question. If I do re-install, is there any way to save some file (which one), so I dont have to re-activate with MS? I have the registration number and all of that, but I'm on dialup internet and would prefer to avoid the hassle. Or, would it be better to just reinstall over the top of what I have now? XP is pretty new to me, so I'm not sure what to do. I mostly still use Win98se. One final question. I downloaded the SP3 upgrade from MS, at a WIFI spot, the .exe version. But they did not specify if it's for XP Home, or XP Pro. How do I know which one I got? Thanks for all help! - BTW, that Bear Share program was a real bitch to remove, but I finally killed it, and then ran regedit, and removed every instance of it from the registry. I assume that program was something used to pirate illegal software. I'm just glad it's gone..... |
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Should I re-install XP Home?
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Should I re-install XP Home?
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#4
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Should I re-install XP Home?
wrote:
I was given three free computers, which were going to be thrown away. One had nothing inside the case, except the MB, so that one is only for parts. Another one I'll be working on, after I get a hard drive for it. The third one booted right up, and except for a bad CD drive, all the hardware works fine. I replaced the CD drive. The OS is XP Home Sp2. It was password protected, but I turned out the password was the person's name, so I got past that, and immediately removed the password, since I dont need or want a password. Upon opening XP, I found it loaded with toolbars, and some idiot program called Bear Share that kept popping up. It also contained a PCTools program to scan for malware. I ran that, and found 1041 malware issues, mostly from those toolbars and that Bear Share program. I let the (outdated) program remove all malware, and then removed all the toolbars, and that annoying Bear Share program. Little by little, I've been going thru and removing all sorts of crappy programs. An old version of Turbo tax, several large games, numerous folders that contained programs that had missing .exe files, tons of temp files, and so on...... When I got it, the 20G hard drive, had 2 partitions, with only 800 megs available. I now have 15G available. Anyhow, it's working just fine now, but because of all that malware, I wonder if I should re-install the OS. I plan to upgrade to Sp3, but wonder if it's worth it, considering the former condition of the malware that was on it. I do have a XP Home SP2 CD. But that brings up another question. If I do re-install, is there any way to save some file (which one), so I dont have to re-activate with MS? I have the registration number and all of that, but I'm on dialup internet and would prefer to avoid the hassle. Or, would it be better to just reinstall over the top of what I have now? XP is pretty new to me, so I'm not sure what to do. I mostly still use Win98se. One final question. I downloaded the SP3 upgrade from MS, at a WIFI spot, the .exe version. But they did not specify if it's for XP Home, or XP Pro. How do I know which one I got? Thanks for all help! - BTW, that Bear Share program was a real bitch to remove, but I finally killed it, and then ran regedit, and removed every instance of it from the registry. I assume that program was something used to pirate illegal software. I'm just glad it's gone..... The network redistributable for WinXP SP3 is here. In the System requirement section... http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...ils.aspx?id=24 "Supported Operating System Windows XP Home Edition , Windows XP Professional Edition, Windows XP Service Pack 1, Windows XP Service Pack 2 " OEM computers (Dell/HP/Gateway/Acer) come with a recovery partition on the hard drive. That can be used to return the computer to factory conditions. In addition, early in ownership of the computer, the owner would be prompted to burn DVD copies of the same (image of an OS) information. If the hard drive is damaged, the DVDs made can be used to put a copy of the recovery partition back on the new hard drive. For computers within warranty period, recovery DVDs with the image on them, can be obtained from the manufacturer. After that period (roughly three years), the DVDs can be located on Ebay (perhaps still in an original bag they were shipped in). You can install an OS, using the COA on the outside of the machine. But the activation in that case, is a more normal kind, requiring the same steps as installing a retail version. I don't have a table handy, of which type of COA works with which edition. I would guess for the System Builder OEM I installed on this computer, that's about the closest thing to a Royalty based OEM version that Dell might use. I don't know if the COA license key, would work if you installed a retail version. Maybe it does, but I haven't tested it. You can certainly back up the existing computer. Or, remove the current hard drive, and pop in an "expendable" hard drive, and attempt a test install, to test your theories. Some info on the various versions. All I can tell you, is you'd match a Home install with a machine that originally had Home. And a Pro disc with a machine that had WinXP Pro. I'm not really sure how much the COA on the machine, cares about whether the install CD was retail, branded (royalty) OEM, or unbranded (system builder) OEM. You may want to look up info on what OS the computer had installed originally, in case the WinXP already on there, wasn't what was on there originally. Maybe the COA is for Win98 for example, just to make up an absurd case. You'd want to verify what the COA is for. http://www.infocellar.com/winxp/oem-recover-retail.htm I'd just pop in another hard drive, and do a test install and see what happens. Also, if you click to activate, and some kind of Internet Explorer error comes up, you may need to download and install IE8 within a couple of days, and try again. The last time I reinstalled WinXP here, I needed to temporarily install IE8, in order to complete the "click to activate" thing provided. I could then remove IE8 immediately after (and return to IE6). I don't use IE, and don't plan to promote it either. The only thing I use IE6 for on WinXP, is for the Windows Update screen. I don't browse with IE6. Paul |
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Best Answer for Re-Install XP Home!
"Paul" wrote in message ...
The network redistributable for WinXP SP3 is here. In the System requirement section... http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...ils.aspx?id=24 "Supported Operating System Windows XP Home Edition , Windows XP Professional Edition, Windows XP Service Pack 1, Windows XP Service Pack 2 " OEM computers (Dell/HP/Gateway/Acer) come with a recovery partition on the hard drive. That can be used to return the computer to factory conditions. In addition, early in ownership of the computer, the owner would be prompted to burn DVD copies of the same (image of an OS) information. If the hard drive is damaged, the DVDs made can be used to put a copy of the recovery partition back on the new hard drive. For computers within warranty period, recovery DVDs with the image on them, can be obtained from the manufacturer. After that period (roughly three years), the DVDs can be located on Ebay (perhaps still in an original bag they were shipped in). You can install an OS, using the COA on the outside of the machine. But the activation in that case, is a more normal kind, requiring the same steps as installing a retail version. I don't have a table handy, of which type of COA works with which edition. I would guess for the System Builder OEM I installed on this computer, that's about the closest thing to a Royalty based OEM version that Dell might use. Good Answer "Paul" |
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Should I re-install XP Home?
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#7
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Should I re-install XP Home?
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#8
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Should I re-install XP Home?
On Tue, 25 Feb 2014 15:33:09 -0600, BillW50 wrote in
Wow! You sound like you did a terrific job cleaning it up. Kudos! Normally it isn't worth all of that trouble, with all of that mess it is usually less trouble to install Windows fresh (grab the drivers first though). And that is what I would do now. But don't get too excited about XP SP3 yet. As some think that XP SP2 is the most stable. I have both XP SP2 and SP3 machines and I tend to like SP2 better. But for most, SP3 isn't too bad. +1 on that. -- I kill-file all messages posted through Google Groups. |
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