Cleaning a mess

[Guest You Know Who ~]

our 11 year old has his own computer and frankly it is a mess. Lots of

games and stuff which he installed and which have slowed the system to a

crawl. I would like to fix it by either re-installing windows or repairing

it. The computer came originally with windows 95 (yeah, i know, but he's

only eleven) and then was upgraded to windows xp. We have the original win

95 retail disc and the win xp upgrade disc.

 

What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.

 

b

[Guest Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Re: Cleaning a mess

 

Clean Install Windows XP

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

After restoring your system, consider installing a good

antivirus program, such as Windows OneCare. You can

try it absolutely FREE for 90 days.

http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm

 

 

--

Carey Frisch

Microsoft MVP

Windows Desktop Experience -

Windows Vista Enthusiast

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

"You Know Who ~" <you.know.who@att.net> wrote in message news:OfzxIJ56IHA.2260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

our 11 year old has his own computer and frankly it is a mess. Lots of

games and stuff which he installed and which have slowed the system to a

crawl. I would like to fix it by either re-installing windows or repairing

it. The computer came originally with windows 95 (yeah, i know, but he's

only eleven) and then was upgraded to windows xp. We have the original win

95 retail disc and the win xp upgrade disc.

 

What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.

 

b

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Cleaning a mess

 

"You Know Who ~" <you.know.who@att.net> wrote in message

news:OfzxIJ56IHA.2260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> our 11 year old has his own computer and frankly it is a mess. Lots of

> games and stuff which he installed and which have slowed the system to a

> crawl. I would like to fix it by either re-installing windows or

> repairing it. The computer came originally with windows 95 (yeah, i know,

> but he's only eleven) and then was upgraded to windows xp. We have the

> original win 95 retail disc and the win xp upgrade disc.

>

> What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.

>

> b

 

I would suggest two things. The first is to take the faster and more

reliable approach to fixing a badly compromised or damaged system - back up

any user data, then reinstall clean, starting with removing and recreating

the system partition. This ensures a clean slate, a known-good starting

point.

 

The second is to make an image of the system in that condition before you

hand it over, using something like Acronis TrueImage or Drive Image or

whatever. This will allow you to very quickly reset the computer to that

known-good condition the next time he trashes it. Instead of several

hours, you'll be done in half an hour.

 

You will need to have all the drivers on hand before you start this process!

 

HTH

-pk

[Guest Unknown]

Re: Cleaning a mess

 

Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think there was such a thing as an upgrade

from Windows 95 to XP.

There is a lot of hardware that runs with 95 but not XP compatible.

Is the old machine really worth upgrading? Memory size? Processor speed?

Hardware compatibility?

 

"You Know Who ~" <you.know.who@att.net> wrote in message

news:OfzxIJ56IHA.2260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> our 11 year old has his own computer and frankly it is a mess. Lots of

> games and stuff which he installed and which have slowed the system to a

> crawl. I would like to fix it by either re-installing windows or

> repairing it. The computer came originally with windows 95 (yeah, i know,

> but he's only eleven) and then was upgraded to windows xp. We have the

> original win 95 retail disc and the win xp upgrade disc.

>

> What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.

>

> b

>

>

[Guest Tim Slattery]

Re: Cleaning a mess

 

"Unknown" <unknown@unknown.kom> wrote:

>Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think there was such a thing as an upgrade

>from Windows 95 to XP.

 

You cannot upgrade Win95 to WinXP, but you can use a Win95

installation disk when a WinXP upgrade CD asks for proof of a

qualifying product.

>There is a lot of hardware that runs with 95 but not XP compatible.

>Is the old machine really worth upgrading? Memory size? Processor speed?

>Hardware compatibility?

 

Excellent question. Any machine that came with Win95 originally

installed is *very* unlikely to run XP well at all.

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(Shell/User)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

[Guest Gary S. Terhune]

Re: Cleaning a mess

 

You can use several antivirus programs for free (provided they're for

non-commercial use) and there's no time limit. I like Avast!, but there are

several others. And they don't come with all that dangerous "Registry

Cleaner" and other automated "cleaner" crap that OneCare does. OneCare is a

DANGEROUS product!

 

You're a shameless shill, Carey. Always have been, always will be. A total

blot on the MVP program, IMO.

 

--

Gary S. Terhune

MS-MVP Shell/User

http://grystmill.com

 

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" <cnfrisch@nospamgmail.com> wrote in message

news:%2358AXT56IHA.3652@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> Clean Install Windows XP

> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

>

> After restoring your system, consider installing a good

> antivirus program, such as Windows OneCare. You can

> try it absolutely FREE for 90 days.

> http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm

>

>

> --

> Carey Frisch

> Microsoft MVP

> Windows Desktop Experience -

> Windows Vista Enthusiast

>

> ---------------------------------------------------------------

>

> "You Know Who ~" <you.know.who@att.net> wrote in message

> news:OfzxIJ56IHA.2260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> our 11 year old has his own computer and frankly it is a mess. Lots of

> games and stuff which he installed and which have slowed the system to a

> crawl. I would like to fix it by either re-installing windows or

> repairing

> it. The computer came originally with windows 95 (yeah, i know, but he's

> only eleven) and then was upgraded to windows xp. We have the original

> win

> 95 retail disc and the win xp upgrade disc.

>

> What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.

>

> b

>

>