Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: lost access to all programs after XP Home installed on same partition as XP Pro Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 12:48 pm Posted by Richard Harris (270 messages posted) You may have caused a problem with the XP registry. Specifically, the registry for XP-pro had a lot of entries that pointed to programs, program preferrences, etc. By installing XP-home you probably created a new, fresh registry, that knows nothing about any of those programs. Whether the old XP-pro registry still exists, I do not know. Given where you are, the most reliable thing to do would be to re-install all programs, while logged-in under the new copy of XP-home. In theory, you could copy registry entires from XP-pro (if it still exists and if you can "read" it) to XP-home. But, in practice I doubt that anyone less than a super-geek could do it correctly. I would not try this. As for the user data that your friend did not want to lose, before going further to "fix" this PC, please consider backing up all user data off of the PC. A external USB 2.0 hard drive might be ideal. Remember that user files like DOC, XLS, JPG can be copied&pasted. But, programs and the operating system need to be backed-up by more specialized means, such as Norton GHOST or Acronis True Image. On Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 11:47 am, Jean wrote: >I'm trying to set up a legitimate OS on a friend's computer. He originally installed >a bootleg copy of XP Pro over his OEM installed XP Home. He couldn't activate XP >Pro and asked me to put the original, legit XP Home back on. XP Pro would not let >anyone log in until activated. So, I installed XP Home on the same partition in >a different folder (yeah, I know that wasn't smart but I didn't want to lose all >his data.) I can get it to boot to Home but can't open any of the programs that >were under XP Pro. They are still on the drive when I check it. Is there any way >to get the programs recognized by XP Home? Thanks for any help you can provide. > I'm hoping I don't have to go back & do a clean install as right now I have no way >to back up his data and I don't have info for all of the software that's loaded in >his computer. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: lost access to all programs after XP Home installed on same partition as XP Pro Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 8:32 pm Posted by AnchorMan (1465 messages posted) What Rich said... Also you cannot "run" his old programs because they are on a different path then the Home install. You need to "unhide system files" and also "hidden folders" to see any on the old data. Once you unhide everything you can do a search for docs etc. and should be able to find everything. (Set the advanced options in the search to include hidden and system files) You can also reinstall all the programs and should give access to old files. Good luck... Just shows it ain't worth the "free" upgrades. AnchorMan On Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 12:48 pm, Richard Harris wrote: >You may have caused a problem with the XP registry. Specifically, the registry for >XP-pro had a lot of entries that pointed to programs, program preferrences, etc. > By installing XP-home you probably created a new, fresh registry, that knows nothing >about any of those programs. Whether the old XP-pro registry still exists, I do >not know. > >Given where you are, the most reliable thing to do would be to re-install all programs, >while logged-in under the new copy of XP-home. > >In theory, you could copy registry entires from XP-pro (if it still exists and if >you can "read" it) to XP-home. But, in practice I doubt that anyone less than a >super-geek could do it correctly. I would not try this. > >As for the user data that your friend did not want to lose, before going further >to "fix" this PC, please consider backing up all user data off of the PC. A external >USB 2.0 hard drive might be ideal. Remember that user files like DOC, XLS, JPG can >be copied&pasted. But, programs and the operating system need to be backed-up by >more specialized means, such as Norton GHOST or Acronis True Image. > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: lost access to all programs after XP Home installed on same partition as XP Pro Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 8:24 am Posted by Jean (10 messages posted) Thank you both - Rich & AnchorMan. I'm just getting back to working on that computer and, you've both told me what exactly what I thought. Even though it's not what I wanted to hear, it's always nice to get confirmation from others! Thanks for your replies. Wish me luck! P.S. AnchorMan - my friend's upgrades are costing him more now than if he just did things the right way to start with! ;-) On Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 8:32 pm, AnchorMan wrote: >What Rich said... Also you cannot "run" his old programs because they are on a different >path then the Home install. You need to "unhide system files" and also "hidden folders" >to see any on the old data. Once you unhide everything you can do a search for docs >etc. and should be able to find everything. (Set the advanced options in the search >to include hidden and system files) You can also reinstall all the programs and should >give access to old files. Good luck... Just shows it ain't worth the "free" upgrades. > > > > AnchorMan > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: lost access to all programs after XP Home installed on same partition as XP Pro Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 9:30 am Posted by Rich Kurtz (12246 messages posted) Joe's List / System cleanup Can you access the folder and files under the XP Pro installation tree? If you get "Access denied" when you try to do this then you will have to take ownership of those folders and files. Directions for doing that are here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421 Your best bet is to save his personal data under C:\Documents and Settings\hisolduserid and any other folders or files he may have in other places. Especially pictures or word (.doc) documents or the like. These should fit on a CDR so if you can borrow a CD burner to use that would make a format and clean install a lot easier to take. Where did the computer come from originally? If it's a known brand like Dell, HP, Compaq or E-Machines then they should have supplied a recovery CD or there should be a recovery partition on the harddrive. Same his personal data then use the recovery CD/partition to put the computer back like it was the day he got it. That way all the programs included as part of the original system will be there. Install a good anti-virus (AVG/Avast) and firewall (XP SP2, ZoneAlarm Free). Apply SP2 if it's not already there then get the latest updates from MS. Once everything is in good shape, restore his personal data. The hardest part of this for you will be saving and restoring his data I think. If the Internet connection is dialup, order SP2 on CD from MS (it's free, just shipping I think). Repair install / Clean install [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum