Troubleshooting Windows XP

[John]

A few weeks ago I was having problems opening MS apps (taking a long
time) and doing other things on my Snow Leopard Mac. I isolated the
problem by logging into another user account and then MS apps worked lie
a charm there, so that told me the problem was software and not
hardware. I then did more troubleshooting and traced a big part of the
problem to sone corrupted fonts after of which my MS apps ran like
normal again.

On a Windows PC can one create a new user account and troubleshoot like
I do on my Mac when I have problems like the one above?


John

 

[MyNews]

Dam Spyware!

 

[glee]

A few weeks ago I was having problems opening MS apps (taking a long
time) and doing other things on my Snow Leopard Mac. I isolated the
problem by logging into another user account and then MS apps worked
lie
a charm there, so that told me the problem was software and not
hardware. I then did more troubleshooting and traced a big part of the
problem to sone corrupted fonts after of which my MS apps ran like
normal again.

On a Windows PC can one create a new user account and troubleshoot
like
I do on my Mac when I have problems like the one above?

Yes, and amazingly it's called Creating a new user account.
Start> Control Panel> User Accounts> Create a new account

 

[Paul]

A few weeks ago I was having problems opening MS apps (taking a long
time) and doing other things on my Snow Leopard Mac. I isolated the
problem by logging into another user account and then MS apps worked lie
a charm there, so that told me the problem was software and not
hardware. I then did more troubleshooting and traced a big part of the
problem to sone corrupted fonts after of which my MS apps ran like
normal again.

On a Windows PC can one create a new user account and troubleshoot like
I do on my Mac when I have problems like the one above?


John

Before fooling around with accounts, I'd recommend reading up on them
a little bit.

For example, many people are tempted, to go around deleting
things, once they've set up their new (debug) account. In some
cases, they mess up so bad, they're faced with logging in
as an Administrator, and then they discover they don't know
what the Administrator password is. Or it's never been set.
I don't know the details, but I'd want to understand
enough about accounts, so I don't need to do some kind
of nasty recovery thing, to get back in

I don't know enough, to give a recipe as to how to protect
yourself. I expect creating an account will go off without
a hitch. But if you're one of those people who "saves
disk space, by deleting things, and oh, what does this do...",
then I'd do more research before going further.

If you make a full and complete backup (with "bare metal
recovery capability"), you can learn how to deal with
accounts, and no harm will come to you. So you don't have
to do web research if you have a backup to use. That's
how I learn stuff - make a backup, and try it . If
you're happy with the results, then you can toss the
backup and write over it.

Paul

 

[John]

Before fooling around with accounts, I'd recommend reading up on them
a little bit.

For example, many people are tempted, to go around deleting
things, once they've set up their new (debug) account. In some
cases, they mess up so bad, they're faced with logging in
as an Administrator, and then they discover they don't know
what the Administrator password is. Or it's never been set.
I don't know the details, but I'd want to understand
enough about accounts, so I don't need to do some kind
of nasty recovery thing, to get back in

I don't know enough, to give a recipe as to how to protect
yourself. I expect creating an account will go off without
a hitch. But if you're one of those people who "saves
disk space, by deleting things, and oh, what does this do...",
then I'd do more research before going further.

If you make a full and complete backup (with "bare metal
recovery capability"), you can learn how to deal with
accounts, and no harm will come to you. So you don't have
to do web research if you have a backup to use. That's
how I learn stuff - make a backup, and try it . If
you're happy with the results, then you can toss the
backup and write over it.

Paul

So Windows would work like a charm again once logged into another
account if the problem is software? Also would doing a clean install
touch personal data on Windows? I am not sure and have given out
technical advice to others using the mac defs. On a Mac a clean install
would just create a new system folder but would not touch personal
documents.


John

 

[Paul]

So Windows would work like a charm again once logged into another
account if the problem is software? Also would doing a clean install
touch personal data on Windows? I am not sure and have given out
technical advice to others using the mac defs. On a Mac a clean install
would just create a new system folder but would not touch personal
documents.


John

Windows XP has a "Repair Install" capability, if you have the retail
installer CD handy. A Repair Install leaves user data and applications
installations intact. It won't remove malware. You need to reinstall
Service Packs, security updated (from Windows Update). There are also
complications with respect to Internet Explorer (i.e. Microsoft
recommends removing IE8, before the Repair Install - most people
won't be doing a Repair Install for fun, so I don't see how this
is a very convenient way of having set up versions of IE past
IE6.) There may be a similar issue to research, with Windows
Media Player.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

*******

WinXP also has "System Restore", which preserves some of the changes
made to each partition. There are rules about what is tracked
and what is not. For some trivial issues (like small problems
with my graphics card), I can "go backwards in time" to a time
when the system was working well. That could be something as
simple as backing out some change to the registry. If you've
turned off System Restore, then there won't be any tracking
of changes.

http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/System_Restore:_Limitations_and_Complications

If you use System Restore while in a normal session, you can also
undo it. So if today is Friday, you can go back to Tuesday, and
then go forward to Friday again.

But System Restore isn't a cure for malware either, because
the first thing malware attacks, is System Restore. All the
Restore Points will be infected.

*******

There is a tool called System File Checker, which has the capability
to put back copies of system files. You may be asked to insert
the install CD, for it to work. When I tried it for fun,
I needed to make two registry changes with Regedit, before
it would run.

And as far as I'm concerned, it's hardly ever likely to
"save your bacon". Too many nasty things can happen to
your install, for something as simple as that to fix it.
But since I'm listing various tools, it deserves honorable
runner-up mention.

*******

Creating another user account, might be a cure for a
"corrupted profile", whatever that is.

"How to copy data from a corrupted user profile
to a new profile in Windows XP"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

*******

In addition to all of those, your Dell/HP/Gateway/Acer may have
its own version of file restoration tools. Those can range
from "nuke and rebuild", often with no warning of the consequences,
to more intelligent methods, that are closer to a Repair Install.
Not only should you read the Laptop User Manual, but you should
also google to see how much damage or difficulty, any method
like that is known to cause. I think my new laptop has at least
one "nuke and rebuild" type option. I have a full backup of
that machine, to protect me.

Paul

 

[glee]

So Windows would work like a charm again once logged into another
account if the problem is software? Also would doing a clean install
touch personal data on Windows? I am not sure and have given out
technical advice to others using the mac defs. On a Mac a clean
install
would just create a new system folder but would not touch personal
documents.

The act of creating and using a new user profile does not hurt anything,
it just adds a user. It's useful to troubleshoot whether a setting in
another profile is the cause of an issue, but issues that have other
system-wide causes will have the same problems in all profiles.

As for a clean install:
XP Clean Install Explained -
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Google (or your favorite search engine) can readily find what you are
asking.

 

[John]

The act of creating and using a new user profile does not hurt anything,
it just adds a user. It's useful to troubleshoot whether a setting in
another profile is the cause of an issue, but issues that have other
system-wide causes will have the same problems in all profiles.

As for a clean install:
XP Clean Install Explained -
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Thanks for the website. Looks like its an entirely different thing in
Windows than on the Mac. I gave the wrong advice to this PC user.