starting over-codecs

[uglijimus]

I really want to reformat my hard drive with my recovery disk but since my DVD drive is broken I can't do so. My problem is I have to many codecs sitting on my computer and I really think it's affecting my computer's ability to properly convert videos. Is there anyway to wipe out all the codecs on your computer and start over? When I downloaded Zoom player it "disconnected" many of the codecs (all?) but they're still out there. I really want to wipe them out and start over.

thanks

[redwudz]

Try Codec Sniper. It should be able to remove most of them. And whatever you do, don't install a codec pack. It will commonly lead to the same problem you have.

[uglijimus]

thanks, i got rid of two broken codecs. I still have 177 though and I'm sure that's too many. I'm afraid of eliminating all of them though because I read about how dangerous that could be.
Does anyone know how to install only the codecs that came w/ your computer when you bought it?

[redwudz]

There's this page from MS on installed codecs for XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899113

[uglijimus]

thank you so much!

[guns1inger]

filmedit is also worth a look. Trickier to work with than CodecSniper, but does a better job.