re-install XP without losing applications or associated re..

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I would like to re-install XP on my PC without losing the installed
applications and associated registry information. How would I do this?
Thanks
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techy613
 

Rock

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techy613 wrote:

> I would like to re-install XP on my PC without losing the installed
> applications and associated registry information. How would I do this?
> Thanks

A repair install should retain programs and data. There is no way to do
a clean install and retain installed programs.

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

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Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
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In news:1FDDF616-7BC5-408E-82D3-165F23DC0EB4@microsoft.com,
techy613 <techy613@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:

> I would like to re-install XP on my PC without losing the
> installed
> applications and associated registry information. How would I
> do this?


Why do you want to do a reinstallation? What problem are you
having?

There is no way to literally do a reinstallation without losing
all of the above. However you can do what is called a "repair"
installation, which may meet your needs. See "How to Perform a
Windows XP Repair Install" at
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
 
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--
techy613


"Rock" wrote:

> techy613 wrote:
>
> > I would like to re-install XP on my PC without losing the installed
> > applications and associated registry information. How would I do this?
> > Thanks
>
> A repair install should retain programs and data. There is no way to do
> a clean install and retain installed programs.
>
> How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
>
> Clean Install Windows XP
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
>
> --
> Rock
> MS MVP Windows - Shell/User
>
> techy613
Thanks for the info. Do you know which system files I would lose? Should I
save the orignal ones and replace the new ones after the installation?
 
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--
techy613


"Ken Blake" wrote:

> In news:1FDDF616-7BC5-408E-82D3-165F23DC0EB4@microsoft.com,
> techy613 <techy613@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:
>
> > I would like to re-install XP on my PC without losing the
> > installed
> > applications and associated registry information. How would I
> > do this?
>
>
> Why do you want to do a reinstallation? What problem are you
> having?
>
> There is no way to literally do a reinstallation without losing
> all of the above. However you can do what is called a "repair"
> installation, which may meet your needs. See "How to Perform a
> Windows XP Repair Install" at
> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
>
> --
> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
> Please reply to the newsgroup
>
>
> thanks for the info. My PC started to slow down (5 minutes to start an application). I tested for virus, spyware etc. and defragged, All I found was a suspicous process called DefWatch, which I stopped via msconfig. Have you heard of this process? How can I eliminate it forever, if its malware? So I thought it would be a good idea to re-install.
 
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In news:9294C8D3-FCD0-40CC-A943-904C549AC95D@microsoft.com,
techy613 <techy613@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:


>> In news:1FDDF616-7BC5-408E-82D3-165F23DC0EB4@microsoft.com,
>> techy613 <techy613@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:
>>
>>> I would like to re-install XP on my PC without losing the
>>> installed
>>> applications and associated registry information. How would I
>>> do this?
>>
>>
>> Why do you want to do a reinstallation? What problem are you
>> having?
>>
>> There is no way to literally do a reinstallation without
>> losing
>> all of the above. However you can do what is called a "repair"
>> installation, which may meet your needs. See "How to Perform a
>> Windows XP Repair Install" at
>> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
>> Please reply to the newsgroup
>>
>>
>> thanks for the info. My PC started to slow down (5 minutes to
>> start
>> an application). I tested for virus, spyware etc. and
>> defragged, All
>> I found was a suspicous process called DefWatch, which I
>> stopped via
>> msconfig. Have you heard of this process? How can I eliminate
>> it
>> forever, if its malware? So I thought it would be a good idea
>> to
>> re-install.


"defwatch.exe is a part of Norton Antivirus Corporarte Edition,
and is responsible for monitoring the virus definition files and
ititiating procseses to bring them upto date if they aren't." See
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/defwatch/

Randomly stopping processes or programs is *not* a good idea
unless you know what they are. Google can help you get
information like this. In this case, stopping this process
apparently reduced your protection.

In my view, reinstalling is usually a mistake. With a modicum of
care, it should never be necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or
any other version). I've run Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows
95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, each for the period
of time before the next version came out, and each on two
machines here. I never reinstalled any of them, and I have never
had anything more than an occasional minor problem.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to
almost any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is
"reformat and reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them.
It gets you off the phone quickly, it almost always works, and it
doesn't require them to do any real troubleshooting (a skill that
most of them obviously don't possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You
have to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all
your programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and
application updates,you have to locate and install all the needed
drivers for your system, you have to recustomize Windows and all
your apps to work the way you're comfortable with.

Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome,
you may have trouble with some of them: can you find all your
application CDs? Can you find all the needed installation codes?
Do you have data backups to restore? Do you even remember all the
customizations and tweaks you may have installed to make
everything work the way you like?

Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and
far between; reinstallation should not be a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only
after all other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person
have failed.

Note that a repair installation isunlikely to solve this kind of
problem, and there is no way to do a full installation "without
losing the installed applications and associated registry
information."

You say that you have "tested for virus, spyware etc." Exactly
how have you done that? What products have you run, and are they
up to date? When it comes to anti-spyware software, you want to
be sure to run more than one product, since no single one is good
enough.


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
 
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--
techy613


"Ken Blake" wrote:

> In news:9294C8D3-FCD0-40CC-A943-904C549AC95D@microsoft.com,
> techy613 <techy613@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:
>
>
> >> In news:1FDDF616-7BC5-408E-82D3-165F23DC0EB4@microsoft.com,
> >> techy613 <techy613@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:
> >>
> >>> I would like to re-install XP on my PC without losing the
> >>> installed
> >>> applications and associated registry information. How would I
> >>> do this?
> >>
> >>
> >> Why do you want to do a reinstallation? What problem are you
> >> having?
> >>
> >> There is no way to literally do a reinstallation without
> >> losing
> >> all of the above. However you can do what is called a "repair"
> >> installation, which may meet your needs. See "How to Perform a
> >> Windows XP Repair Install" at
> >> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
> >>
> >> --
> >> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
> >> Please reply to the newsgroup
> >>
> >>
> >> thanks for the info. My PC started to slow down (5 minutes to
> >> start
> >> an application). I tested for virus, spyware etc. and
> >> defragged, All
> >> I found was a suspicous process called DefWatch, which I
> >> stopped via
> >> msconfig. Have you heard of this process? How can I eliminate
> >> it
> >> forever, if its malware? So I thought it would be a good idea
> >> to
> >> re-install.
>
>
> "defwatch.exe is a part of Norton Antivirus Corporarte Edition,
> and is responsible for monitoring the virus definition files and
> ititiating procseses to bring them upto date if they aren't." See
> http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/defwatch/
>
> Randomly stopping processes or programs is *not* a good idea
> unless you know what they are. Google can help you get
> information like this. In this case, stopping this process
> apparently reduced your protection.
>
> In my view, reinstalling is usually a mistake. With a modicum of
> care, it should never be necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or
> any other version). I've run Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows
> 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, each for the period
> of time before the next version came out, and each on two
> machines here. I never reinstalled any of them, and I have never
> had anything more than an occasional minor problem.
>
> It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
> support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to
> almost any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is
> "reformat and reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them.
> It gets you off the phone quickly, it almost always works, and it
> doesn't require them to do any real troubleshooting (a skill that
> most of them obviously don't possess in any great degree).
>
> But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You
> have to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all
> your programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and
> application updates,you have to locate and install all the needed
> drivers for your system, you have to recustomize Windows and all
> your apps to work the way you're comfortable with.
>
> Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome,
> you may have trouble with some of them: can you find all your
> application CDs? Can you find all the needed installation codes?
> Do you have data backups to restore? Do you even remember all the
> customizations and tweaks you may have installed to make
> everything work the way you like?
>
> Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
> that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and
> far between; reinstallation should not be a substitute for
> troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only
> after all other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person
> have failed.
>
> Note that a repair installation isunlikely to solve this kind of
> problem, and there is no way to do a full installation "without
> losing the installed applications and associated registry
> information."
>
> You say that you have "tested for virus, spyware etc." Exactly
> how have you done that? What products have you run, and are they
> up to date? When it comes to anti-spyware software, you want to
> be sure to run more than one product, since no single one is good
> enough.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
> Please reply to the newsgroup
>
> techy613
I ran nortorn and Mcafee anti-virus, and microsoft beta and aol antispyware.
I also noticed an unknown service in msconfig called Netropia HK server. Have
you heard of this one? If its malware, how do I get rid of it? You mentioned
that I should reply to the newsgroup. I hope my method of reply was correct
(I hit the "post button").
Thanks again for your excellent help.
>
>
>
 

Rock

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Oct 13, 2002
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0
19,280
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

techy613 wrote:

I really don't understand what you are asking. You don't save system
files prior to doing a repair install. After doing a repair install you
will need to reapply all updates from the WU site. But I see that you
are getting help from Ken Blake on cleaning your system. Keep with that
part of the thread.

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User