Need help de-crapifying my new PC...

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 8:58 am

Warning: Registry cleaning doesn't fix "bugs". Its just removing unused keys and bad references(wich wouldnt mean anything anyway). You can; sometimes; happen to get your machine do some crazy stuff if you run the registry cleaners. I have seen this problem both using ccleaner's and jv16's tool.

Anyway; Go find the program in the start-up sections (heck; use msconfig) and simply remove them. Then you can wonder what to do next.

as they all say; the best way is to reinstall it all. Registry cleaning isnt always safe etc etc...

And since you don't have anything on the machine that needs to be backed up, it shouldn't take more than 60 minutes(formatting, installing windows, installing drivers and software) as PB suggests.

Trond · Post by **Trond** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:22 am

RTFM, Click start, click run, type in C:\DRIVERS\SETUP\RESTORE.EXE, press enter, select the crap that you want to uninstall and click ok.

PB · Post by PB » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:01 pm

> RTFM, Click start, click run, type in C:\DRIVERS\SETUP\RESTORE.EXE,
> press enter, select the crap that you want to uninstall and click ok.

I know you're referring to utopiomania, but I just wanted to say that in my
case, my XP "booklet" (not a manual by any stretch of the imagination) has
no mention of the above. Also, if I try it, I get an error because no such
path exists. I even checked if it's in C:\WINDOWS\DRIVERS\... but nope.
Is it something specific to Packard Bell computer setups?

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:13 pm

PB wrote: Is it something specific to Packard Bell computer setups?

Its pretty obvious isn't it?

PB · Post by PB » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:19 pm

Well, not really. I thought it may have been something similar to "msconfig"
that applied to all PCs running Windows. But I guess not.

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:21 pm

oh

About msconfig i don't understand why people needs other software to take care of the pc startup. Is it because they don't know msconfig or is it because they know something i dont???

utopiomania · Post by **utopiomania** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:39 pm

Trond, the program is available from the Start menu the usual way, but it didn't allow me to
remove all of them (as the manual also states by the way..)

Anyways, I've managed to clean it up, including orphaned registry entries and create a bootable
recovery disk using the Acronis program.

If they keep their promise I should be able to restore it fully to it's last state in 2 or 3 minutes.
Maybe I'll test it some day.

PB · Post by PB » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:39 pm

Win2K doesn't have msconfig, so that's probably why. It existed for Win98
and then XP (don't know about ME). And Trond's tip about using Restore.exe
sounded like it could be an MS tool, going by the name, don't ya think?

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:59 pm

PB wrote:Win2K doesn't have msconfig, so that's probably why. It existed for Win98
and then XP (don't know about ME). And Trond's tip about using Restore.exe
sounded like it could be an MS tool, going by the name, don't ya think?

Oh!

yeah; but i know everything(well; not far from) and i haven't heard of it before so i didn't even go check hehe

One thing i didnt know was that msconfig was non-existent in windows 2000. but again; when i used w2k i wasn't into that stuff.

PB · Post by PB » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:17 pm

> i didnt know was that msconfig was non-existent in windows 2000

See here: http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:34 pm

PB wrote:Don't they have to give you an OS CD anyway? Surely it's illegal not too if they sold you a Windows PC?

Actually its not illegal.

Beginning with Windows XP OEMs are no longer allowed to provide an installable copy of Windows. The only thing they are allowed to provide is a recovery solution such as a restorable image of an already installed and configured Windows.

Microsoft did this because they discovered that people were copying the OEM CDs and giving them to family, friiends, etc.

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:41 pm

PB wrote:> i didnt know was that msconfig was non-existent in windows 2000

See here: http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

ah that cleared it up

Intrigued · Post by **Intrigued** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:08 pm

Check out (just one place) http://downloads.thetechguide.com/msconfig.zip (bottom of the link listed here). Win2K's On Startup, it can happen.

I've done such in the past, get at Win2K's On Startup.

Shannara · Post by **Shannara** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:32 pm

How is the PC doing? I also recieved a restore disc with my laptop. But it restored all the crap as well. I ended up buying XP Pro, formatted, and install from there. That cleared off everything nicely