XP install tip

[johnthay]

Finally bit the bullet yesterday and installed XP Pro. Decided not to go for the full clean install and didn't want to upgrade so chose the New Install option. Everything was fine until I started reinstalling software when I realised that the Program Files folder now contained a mixture of new and old files and that I would have to manually remove the old junk.
My suggestion for a new tip is to rename the Program Files folder before starting the XP New Install process.
I thought I had read up fairly extensively on the do's and don'ts with installing XP but I got caught out and I'm sure I'm not the only one!

 

[jw50]

What do you gain by renaming the Program Files directory? All those old files are still there just in a renamed directory. If you are then going to delete them why not just delete them before do the installation. Why did you not uninstall old programs before you installed XP? What you are describing is not unique to installing XP, you would have the same problem installing any version over an existing OS.

This is one of the primary reasons you dont do a full install over an existing OS, just backup your data files and then do a reformat and clean install, it doesn't take much more time and it minimizes future problems.

 

[phishhead]

exactly....

 

[GeeZuZz]

Doesn't XP ask you if setup should delete all old windows related folders before installing on a partition with an old os?

i got that question...


by the way, i usually rename folders instead of deletng them because deleting windows in DOS is EXTREMELY slow....

 

[phishhead]

i just use format c: /u cleans it pretty good...and I don't have to worry about left over shit all over my partition