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  1. Member wulf109's Avatar
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    Can it be re-installed without losing registry setting for you existing programs. Re-install from Windows or command prompt?
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  2. No, when you re-install it wipes out the registry. Having said that you can save your settings in regedit by going to File->Export and save it to a flash drive. On the clean install go to File->Import. I recommend finding the specific program in regedit then right-click on it, select export and save to a flash drive. That way it won't muck up your entire registry if something goes wrong.
    Last edited by MOVIEGEEK; 17th Mar 2012 at 13:29.
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  3. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    You can do a repair install with winxp sp3.Also if you try to import your saved registry settings you will get an error message.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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    Originally Posted by johns0 View Post
    You can do a repair install with winxp sp3.
    I would say that you can TRY to do a repair install. My experience is that such rarely works, but others have had more success than me.
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  5. Unless you have some kind of major problem, repair install almost always retains all registry settings, files, program functionality, drivers, etc.

    Have done this many, many times.

    That is the SECOND repair option, NOT the first one.

    You boot from the install CD.
    Last edited by Nelson37; 17th Mar 2012 at 14:59.
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  6. I have re-installed Win Xp many times. The best way is to have a version that is closest to version you have installed. Such as if you have Xp with sp2 try to use that one or an earlier version such as sp1a. After booting from the Windows disk, it will ask if you want to repair or install, do an install. It will look for a Windows already installed. If it doesn't find one that version will not work. If it does find a previous Windows, tell it to do a repair.
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  7. I never had any luck with repair, my OS was usually too mucked up so I always did a re-install. As for Import not working you can also double-click on the exported .reg file to install.
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  8. Member ranchhand's Avatar
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    I have done XP repair reinstall many times and never had it fail, but I always use the original Windows XP installation disk, that is the key. I have attempted reinstall using a different but identical type of XP disc with no success. Don't know why. Without your original disk you are up a creek without a paddle. By the way, as a side thought, if you do try it and have the disk, the computer will reboot three times during the process and the notice will appear, "Press any key to boot from CD". DON'T DO IT. Just leave it and in a few seconds the process will continue. If you press a key it will attempt to boot from the CD and it will screw your system royally, possibly will lose everything on it. I don't know why M/Soft did this, but be aware.
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  9. Member lacywest's Avatar
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    I use XP and WIN 7 ... and for awhile ... last year ... I would reinstall both over again ... if XP screwed up.

    But now I leave WIN 7 alone and just ... delete the XP partition and reinstall XP and use ... VistaBootPRO 3.3 ... to fix the Boot menu so that the Bootup Menu displays WIN XP or Windows 7 again.
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    Yes, if you have a good image backup.
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  11. Member zoobie's Avatar
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    Curious why so many have to repair/reinstall anything...Maybe I don't want to know.
    Anyway, if you do, make sure to disconnect any other hard drives.
    MS doesn't tell you this but if you re-install with 2 hard drives hooked up, it will turn the second into raw files.
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    Originally Posted by zoobie View Post
    Curious why so many have to repair/reinstall anything...Maybe I don't want to know.
    I work in IT for a living and my professional opinion is that Windows was poorly designed. The registry idea in hindsight is completely idiotic, but it shows what's wrong with Windows. Microsoft made some poor technical decisions many years ago when the internet was a somewhat safer place and they've found it impossible to undo those bad decisions because everybody has gotten used to them. I've never worked on any other OS where for no discernable reason a program may simply stop working but it can happen in Windows.

    Having said that, I have to admit to my own stupidity for some of the Windows reinstalls I had to do. For years I was too cheap to buy a UPS and I live in a place where unfortunately we get several brown outs a year. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of my "Windows" problems were actually of my own doing where brownouts caused disk drive problems that the restore function could not fix. I've been using UPSes for a while now and those weird disk drive problems I used to have in the pre-UPS days have not re-occured. I advise people to use UPSes at home (many don't though) if you live in a place like I do where power is just not reliable.
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  13. A lot of the programs that are installed and reinstalled over the period of time leave some junk on the windows registry or leftover files on the users hdd, and I don't think its windows fault but the software developers ones. I use windows operating systems since windows 3.11 and many of the complaints about the OS its actually from some poor written software or driver. There is no registry cleaning or such program on the planet that "cleans" all that left overs, some are great some are poor at doing that but none is perfect. I usually delete manually leftovers from software that i uninstall and also from HDD, but even than due to the nature of me installing and uninstalling a lot of programs i have a practice of reinstalling the operating system no more than once every 3 months
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  14. joollyjohn jollyjohn's Avatar
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    I have re installed WXP a couple of times. It shows as Windows1 in the C drive. and works fine.
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  15. Member lacywest's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jollyjohn View Post
    I have re installed WXP a couple of times. It shows as Windows1 in the C drive. and works fine.
    Oh man ... that would bug me if it said ... Windows1

    As for cleaning up the registry ... I use Regcleaner ... there is a feature that you see as soon as you start it and displays programs I've already uninstalled or deleted and shouldn't be displayed anymore and allows them to be removed by clicking the bottom right button ... I'm thinking that when I use this feature ... it is cleaning up the registry ...

    I also use ... Your Uninstaller 2010 ... to remove programs ... has different levels of removing ... one choice is very aggressive.
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    Yes, if you were prescience enough to have an Image backup.
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  17. As for cleaning up the registry ... I use Regcleaner ... there is a feature that you see as soon as you start it and displays programs I've already uninstalled or deleted and shouldn't be displayed anymore and allows them to be removed by clicking the bottom right button ... I'm thinking that when I use this feature ... it is cleaning up the registry ...
    I use youruninstaller 7 ( you mean 7 i never heard of youruninstaller version 2010 or i have missed something) and revo and ccleaner and glary utilities and many more but as I sad there is no program that will "clean" meaning delete them all some will be left on HDD and on registry. It is good after you uninstall some program ( with any of the "uninstallers" like youruninstaller which is good ) to manually search ( you can use software called "everything" very neat program and search for name of the program or the company or the packet and so on ) and how many files are left over after uninstallers youd be supprised. After that enter regedit in start and in find enter the same name ( company program packet and so on ) for example if you uninstall authoring works 4 you will search for Pegasus and tmpgenc and authoring works and so on ( you can manually search the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER ( this two usually keep the most data but also others groups ) and delete from there after that you can run ccleaner which will delete the missing links between the delete keys. All this will not 100% assure that you not left something and with time the registry will became sluggish and with that the whole OS ( you can use temporal remedy like registry defragment programs and registry cleaners ) but in the end if you uninstall and install a lot of programs you will have to reinstall the OS ( even 7 ).

    Oh man ... that would bug me if it said ... Windows1
    Me too that means that some copy of the OS is left ( invisible or visible somewhere on the HDD)

    Yes, if you were prescience enough to have an Image backup.
    That is very clever idea, in practice you install the clean OS install the programs that you use the most, make the settings and make image backup next time you screw something you can backup from the image. One problem tough with this idea tho, almost all the new software update very often ( some every day others weeks some stay with years depends of the programers)
    and it is still shit some software is last updated 2007-2008 and still rocks is this Microsoft fault? Hell no.
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