winnt directory or windows directory after upgrade

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ComputerTeacher

Do I have this right? When upgrading from Windows 9x and ME to XP, the XP
system directory ends up being called Windows. But when upgrading from NT4
or W2K, the system directory ends up being called Winnt.

And, if this is the case, can I somehow rename the system directory from
Winnt to Windows?

Thanks,
 
[[On a clean install, Setup creates a top-level folder called Windows. On
an upgrade, Setup uses the current path for %WinDir% - for Windows 98 or
Windows Me, that’s typically C:\Windows; for Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000,
the drive letter may vary, but the name of the system folder is usually
\Winnt. ]]

If you do an upgrade over Win 2000, which uses WINNT, then the installation
will be in WINNT.

If you have an OEM installed version (like on a Gateway) it may be in WINNT
if they used the System Preparation Tool and never changed the setup from
WINNT to WINDOWS. Or decided for whatever reason to use WINNT instead of
WINDOWS.

I know a good number of people who have bought Gateways with XP preinstalled
in C:\WINNT.

%windir% can be anything that the person doing the install, or scripting the
install, chooses.

When performing a clean install, you can specify a different folder name,
but your safest choice is to use the default name.

It makes no difference if the %windir% is WINNT or WINDOWS. Except that it
can be confusing.

Trying to change Winnt to Windows would be tougher than a $2 steak. There
are probably 100s of registry settings that refer to Winnt.

Leave it the way it is. Or reinstall and specify Windows when installing.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Thanks Wes, your reply does help.

I read an article on the MS website regarding roaming profiles (which we use
on our network). It suggested that many roaming profile problems can be
solved if all workstations have the same versions of Windows and Office
installed so that everything is stored the same way. And it wnet on to say
we should also look at making the %WinDir% the same for that reason
(translated - do clean installs or whatever it takes to get everyone on
c:\windows)

But it doesn't matter much anymore anyway. I've decided to toast roaming
profiles. We can redirect the desktop and my document folders to the users'
home directories and use scripts to maintain network printers. I think the
only other thing we'll have to worry about is redirecting favorites, cookies
and autoarchived pst files (in case some users have them on their c drives
and reprogramming their Outlook profile to find the pst in its new
location). But I'm sure I'll find fixes for that.

Thanks again,
Jeremy


Wesley Vogel said:
[[On a clean install, Setup creates a top-level folder called Windows. On
an upgrade, Setup uses the current path for %WinDir% - for Windows 98 or
Windows Me, that’s typically C:\Windows; for Windows NT 4 and Windows
2000,
the drive letter may vary, but the name of the system folder is usually
\Winnt. ]]

If you do an upgrade over Win 2000, which uses WINNT, then the
installation
will be in WINNT.

If you have an OEM installed version (like on a Gateway) it may be in
WINNT
if they used the System Preparation Tool and never changed the setup from
WINNT to WINDOWS. Or decided for whatever reason to use WINNT instead of
WINDOWS.

I know a good number of people who have bought Gateways with XP
preinstalled
in C:\WINNT.

%windir% can be anything that the person doing the install, or scripting
the
install, chooses.

When performing a clean install, you can specify a different folder name,
but your safest choice is to use the default name.

It makes no difference if the %windir% is WINNT or WINDOWS. Except that
it
can be confusing.

Trying to change Winnt to Windows would be tougher than a $2 steak. There
are probably 100s of registry settings that refer to Winnt.

Leave it the way it is. Or reinstall and specify Windows when installing.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
ComputerTeacher said:
Do I have this right? When upgrading from Windows 9x and ME to XP, the
XP
system directory ends up being called Windows. But when upgrading from
NT4 or W2K, the system directory ends up being called Winnt.

And, if this is the case, can I somehow rename the system directory from
Winnt to Windows?

Thanks,
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