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Add/Remove Pgrms Seeing Other Partitions

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6 replies

by jim b.

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I have a system where the 120GB hard drive is partitioned into three primary partitions (using Partition Magic 8.0). Each partition has Win XP Pro installed on it. I use PQBoot for Windows to switch between partitions (swtiching causes two partitions to be "hidden" and the one I want to be "active".) I use this setup in order to freely experiment on one partition without dorking up my main partition (where the stuff I care about is).

Here is the problem. Imagine my shock, when I open "Add or Remove Programs" and see programs on the other partitions listed there! This problem exists on each partition so "Add or Remove Programs" has become a library of all programs on all partitions.

What if I forget what is installed on which partition and try to uninstall a prgm on the 2nd partition while I am in the 3rd partition? I'm getting the shivers!

Why is this happening? How do I stop it?

6 replies

by cg it

why is it happening? The O/S will see the entire HDD. The BIOS will report that there are X # of HDDs on the IDE controllers and they have X # of partitions/extended partitions. Installing a second O/S on a different partition doesn't mean that partition now becomes invisible.

You can't stop it from happening.

by jim b.

Yeah, but what I'm getting at is the "Add and Remove Programs" feature in one Win XP partition can see the applications installed in ANOTHER Win XP partition. Do my three Win XP partitions share the same registry? If so, how? If not, then what the heck is happening?

by saihib

What's happening is normal. Each OS is fully aware of what is installed on each partition because those partitions are not really "hidden." That's why programs installed on another partition show up in Add/Remove Programs.

by wlbowers

You need to get a copy of Virtual PC. It allows you to create a virtual computer and load anything on it you want.

You can load software and changes and if you don't want to save the changes when you shut down the virtual you tell it to dump the changes.

Then you don't have this kind of problem.

Lee

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