Need BIG help...win XP new installation

theholyavenger · 11-01-2002, 09:55 AM

I just bought Win Xp home edition (upgrade) and previously had Win ME installed in my computer. I was reading the manual and so considering of doing a new installation with my upgrade version. So i popped the cd in, set the bios to boot cd-rom drive first, formatted my primary hard drive (backed up first of course), and waited till installation was finished. But to my horror, after i restarted my computer and after the friendly welcome screen greeted me, i found nothing laying on my desktop other then this recycle bin sitting alone in the corner....Is it suppose to be like this? Or do i have to add everything back to the desktop as a shortcut? Cause now i'm having the notion that i'm the limited user instead of the computer administrator... Any ideas of why this happens? Should i format my hard drive again and do Win Me installation first then upgrade?

Bokken · 11-01-2002, 10:00 AM

This is totally normal. If you click on Start you will find that everything is there and you can once again make shortcuts from there to your desktop.

btw this always happens with XP home and Pro with doing a full instal. If you do an upgrade however everything will be as it was before you upgraded.

Actually click on Start, right click on the icon you want and click on show on desktop. I'm not sure if this works on Home edition as I'm running Pro but I don't see why not.

[ 11-01-2002, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: Bokken ]

andrewas · 11-01-2002, 10:56 AM

Right click on the taskbar, switch to the start menu tab, hit Windows Classic. And there you go, the Classic start menu is your once again. I actualy prefer it this was. The XP version tries to make things easy by moving your programmes around according to how much you use them, I have a very erratic usage pattern, so this bugs the hell out of me.

If you right click on the desktop, hit properties, hit themes and select windows classic, it looks very much like win98 did.

Blade · 11-01-2002, 03:46 PM

Well the easyest way to even see is by hitting the start bar, if nothing other than windows default is there look in explorer and find the programs and make the sort cuts. I hope you used the ntfs file system though because its more stable than fat32. Hope you like XP i know i do have had it for a year and its yeat to crash on me, the programs i run though are a different matter though [img]tongue.gif[/img]

theholyavenger · 11-01-2002, 04:27 PM

Okay my mistake then, everything's in the start menu. But the stuff's i've backed up into my secondary hard drive wouldn't display on the add/remove program function...do i have to format it too and install all my games again? (i used to put all my games in my other hard drive so it wouldn't affect the windows system by any means).

Also, why does this "send error report" sometimes pops up and if i clicked on "Don't send", the program i'm working with would shut down by itself. This is getting annoying as it starts to happen more frequently.

andrewas · 11-01-2002, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by theholyavenger:
Okay my mistake then, everything's in the start menu. But the stuff's i've backed up into my secondary hard drive wouldn't display on the add/remove program function...do i have to format it too and install all my games again? (i used to put all my games in my other hard drive so it wouldn't affect the windows system by any means).[/QB}

Sigh. Windows has a horrible little thing called the registry. It stores info on all programmes that are installed etc. Well, most programs. pre-windows programs and most things from the open-source community dont use it. Anyway, it a program is supposed to appear in the add remove list, it uses the registry. Problem with that is that all data in it is stored on the C: drive. SO you will have to reinstall all your programmes. You wont need to format though, just install over the top and then reapply patches & mods, your saves should be intact.

Quote:

[qb]
Also, why does this "send error report" sometimes pops up and if i clicked on "Don't send", the program i'm working with would shut down by itself. This is getting annoying as it starts to happen more frequently.

This is the new version of the GPF blue screen of death. Its a bad sign if it happens a lot. But its probably down to drivers. Go look up what hardware you have and find XP drivers for it.

theholyavenger · 11-01-2002, 09:27 PM

andrewas...you seem to know a lot, are you a computer engineer? (i'm not only referring to this posts but other posts regarding computer technical difficulties as well)

BTW, my primary hard drive where windows is installed is formatted using the NTFS, so should i convert my secondary to NTFS as well? Currently it's in the FAT32 file system.

If i want to backup all my data from secondary(d

into drive c:, and format it to NTFS, what do i type in the command prompt?

EX: a:\>format d: <-----something like this?

11-01-2002, 09:55 AM	#1
theholyavenger Manshoon Join Date: February 27, 2002 Location: Faerun Age: 40 Posts: 205	I just bought Win Xp home edition (upgrade) and previously had Win ME installed in my computer. I was reading the manual and so considering of doing a new installation with my upgrade version. So i popped the cd in, set the bios to boot cd-rom drive first, formatted my primary hard drive (backed up first of course), and waited till installation was finished. But to my horror, after i restarted my computer and after the friendly welcome screen greeted me, i found nothing laying on my desktop other then this recycle bin sitting alone in the corner....Is it suppose to be like this? Or do i have to add everything back to the desktop as a shortcut? Cause now i'm having the notion that i'm the limited user instead of the computer administrator... Any ideas of why this happens? Should i format my hard drive again and do Win Me installation first then upgrade? __________________ \"There once was a warrior true,<br />with the sense knocked out of him, too.<br />But in a hamster he found,<br />some wisdom profound,<br />and now where goes he goes his Boo!\"<br /><br />~Crazy Celvan in Baldur\'s Gate II Shadows of Amn

11-01-2002, 10:56 AM	#3
andrewas Harper Join Date: October 2, 2001 Location: Aberdeen, Scotland Age: 42 Posts: 4,774	Right click on the taskbar, switch to the start menu tab, hit Windows Classic. And there you go, the Classic start menu is your once again. I actualy prefer it this was. The XP version tries to make things easy by moving your programmes around according to how much you use them, I have a very erratic usage pattern, so this bugs the hell out of me. If you right click on the desktop, hit properties, hit themes and select windows classic, it looks very much like win98 did. __________________ [img]\"http://www.sighost.us/members/Zvijer/andrewas.gif\" alt=\" - \" />

11-01-2002, 03:46 PM	#4
Blade Emerald Dragon Join Date: March 12, 2001 Location: spokane wa usa Age: 40 Posts: 926	Well the easyest way to even see is by hitting the start bar, if nothing other than windows default is there look in explorer and find the programs and make the sort cuts. I hope you used the ntfs file system though because its more stable than fat32. Hope you like XP i know i do have had it for a year and its yeat to crash on me, the programs i run though are a different matter though [img]tongue.gif[/img] __________________ <br /><br />All blades cut, be they made from metal or wood, but the sharpest and deadliest blade is the one of knowledge, and that is the least used.<br />An Archmage of the HADB

11-01-2002, 04:27 PM	#5
theholyavenger Manshoon Join Date: February 27, 2002 Location: Faerun Age: 40 Posts: 205	Okay my mistake then, everything's in the start menu. But the stuff's i've backed up into my secondary hard drive wouldn't display on the add/remove program function...do i have to format it too and install all my games again? (i used to put all my games in my other hard drive so it wouldn't affect the windows system by any means). Also, why does this "send error report" sometimes pops up and if i clicked on "Don't send", the program i'm working with would shut down by itself. This is getting annoying as it starts to happen more frequently. __________________ \"There once was a warrior true,<br />with the sense knocked out of him, too.<br />But in a hamster he found,<br />some wisdom profound,<br />and now where goes he goes his Boo!\"<br /><br />~Crazy Celvan in Baldur\'s Gate II Shadows of Amn

11-01-2002, 09:27 PM	#7
theholyavenger Manshoon Join Date: February 27, 2002 Location: Faerun Age: 40 Posts: 205	andrewas...you seem to know a lot, are you a computer engineer? (i'm not only referring to this posts but other posts regarding computer technical difficulties as well) BTW, my primary hard drive where windows is installed is formatted using the NTFS, so should i convert my secondary to NTFS as well? Currently it's in the FAT32 file system. If i want to backup all my data from secondary(d into drive c:, and format it to NTFS, what do i type in the command prompt? EX: a:\>format d: <-----something like this? __________________ \"There once was a warrior true,<br />with the sense knocked out of him, too.<br />But in a hamster he found,<br />some wisdom profound,<br />and now where goes he goes his Boo!\"<br /><br />~Crazy Celvan in Baldur\'s Gate II Shadows of Amn

11-01-2002, 10:00 AM	#2
Bokken Baaz Draconian Join Date: August 28, 2001 Location: Australia Age: 46 Posts: 708	This is totally normal. If you click on Start you will find that everything is there and you can once again make shortcuts from there to your desktop. btw this always happens with XP home and Pro with doing a full instal. If you do an upgrade however everything will be as it was before you upgraded. Actually click on Start, right click on the icon you want and click on show on desktop. I'm not sure if this works on Home edition as I'm running Pro but I don't see why not. [ 11-01-2002, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: Bokken ]

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