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Screwed Up XP Pro Install
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Posted by: demon0
I recently reinstalled XP Pro from an official retail CD (not the upgrade version, but the full one... the original one). This reinstall was prompted by a complete upgrade of hardware on one of my computers. I went ahead and did the installation and everything worked fine. I have seen the XP install fail many times before, but this was not one of those times. It had no errors whatsoever. Everything appeared to be O.K.
But then I restarted into the OS, and instantly noticed issues. The XP Visual Style was not installed (or perhaps it was just disabled... I know there is a way to do that somewhere deep in the settings of the OS), and I could only get to Classic styles. But I really couldn't care less about that. The next issue... no network. I went to check IP and that sort of thing, but there was no network adapters in the Network Connections window. I went to refresh and got an error about the Network Connections service not being started. I then headed over to the Administrative Tools and then Services. This is when I noticed the strangest thing yet... NOTHING was started. OK... so I am exaggerating. But there were only about three or four things started, and all stupid ones like Windows Audio. Some of the ones that I thought were necessary for Windows to run were not running. The weird part, though, is that they are set to Automatic as the start type, yet they don't start automatically. I manaully started the Network Connections service and voila... network adapter. I was able to Ping.
I went to open IE so I could go download Firefox. No such luck. Why? Internet Explorer is not installed. Now just think about that for a second... IE not installed on Windows... yeah right. Well, it is the truth. In fact, about the only thing in Start->Programs is Accessories and Games, and then Remote Assistance and Help and Support.
I had the brilliant idea of installing the SP2. I figured that would get IE and such installed. Well, it didn't. I now have XP Pro SP2 installed, but have nothing enabled or installed whatsoever.
Does anyone have any idea what may be going on here? I successfully installed the OS from that disk before. Also, just now I tried installed it onto a virtual machine (don't have another real one handy) and it worked beautifully. If you don't know why it happened, could you at least help me get the services started automatically? I don't really care about IE and the visual styles... I can definitely live without them, but without the certain services pretty much nothing works.
If none of this works, I'm just going to install Windows ME on that computer.
Posted by: TwiztidJuggalo
try another reformat and fresh install, make sure you select everything correctly
also I hear ME is a nightmare
-matt
Posted by: goranpaa
Do NOT install ME! That is the worst OS ever made by Windows!
I have had that OS once. Never again! You're better of with Windows 98 then.
Do as Twiz says and reinstall XP instead.
Posted by: demon0
"Do NOT install ME! That is the worst OS ever made by Windows!"
I don't see what is so bad about ME. I used it without any major issues for two years. I actually prefer it to XP (for everything but gaming, that is), because it uses the 9x system calls, like HMemCpy, for example. I feel they are much more stable than the NT-variants way of doing things.
Anyway, I will try a reformat, reinstall tonight.
Posted by: demon0
OK, I appreciate all the help. It turns out the reinstall did work. It seems what I messed up the first time was I pressed "cancel" accidentally during one of the CD prompts. While the install did not fail with any errors, it skipped an entire section. Now everything is working smoothly... thanks a bunch...
Posted by: Zakir
OK. Forget what you heard about ME being better than XP. XP is based on the 2000 kernal instead of the 98 kernal, as ME is. This is a more stable and secure kernal with more user friendly options built in. I would not use ME if they paid me to. I would run 98 without a second thought or better yet 2000 and 98. Most of the 9.x commands have different more user friendly commands, you just have to learn them.... all the basics are the same... just some of the odd ones are different. Goranpaa definetely wins on the ME is the worst MS OS so far... there are memory leaks, major kernal erros, everything that MS could screw up, they some how managed to... and what are you losing goign to from ME to 98 other than pinball? Ah! Oh well.... good luck.
Posted by: demon0
I did not hear ME was better than XP. I am basing what I said based on my own opinion. Like I said, I used ME for two years. Those two years were even on a crappy Dell computer, and I had no major issues. I say no major issues because I have never had a single Windows installation NOT crap out on me every once in awhile. But it never required a full reformat/reinstall because of some screwy driver things (like XP required on that same Dell PC). I would have to agree that on custom-built PCs, when you know all the drivers you need and everything, XP is definitely a more stable OS. But I have never had any problems with ME.
Not to mention, I like the network user model of 9x much better than XP-based systems. Have you ever tried to setup a network with a Win 2003 server and XP clients? It is a nightmare compared to NT 4 server w/ 9x clients, mostly because of XP's true multi-user design (the whole user profile thing). I have corrupted user profiles once every six months or so on XP, and have to migrate to a new user. Right now my home directory in XP is Demon0_3. That means its the third time I had to migrate because of corruption!
I'm getting a bit off topic here, but the bottom line is this: I would use ME on any older computer that I don't wish to use to play games.
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