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Inspiron 1501 appearance

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My Inspiron 1501's appearance looks like Window's 2000 (ME Edition). I am not particularly a fan of it and would like to make XP default, but every time I do it in "display" (after a reboot of my PC), it reverts itself. I believe this has something to do with "Crystal XP," but I am not sure. How do I prevent this from reverting? (BTW: I am running on XP)

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by technogeek-1995

In Control Panel's Display menu, then Yes. And by "Crystal XP" I am referring to that, but I get it direct from crystalxp.com

And another BTW, this happened after an uninstall of service pack 3 and then a reinstall.

by thumbsup2

Or was that you with an infected PC? I can't remember now. Anyway, have you checked this particular computer inside out?

by technogeek-1995

I installed AVG (I think) and checked it along with my anti-virus (Webroot)...nothing came up, but this was after I removed cookies, history, and something else (internet related, maybe download history) from the windows folder and that got rid of the problem.

by thumbsup2

But, I suspect you still have more than meets the eye and your current problems are a result of not getting all the critters removed.

If you have not downloaded and installed MalWareBytes and Spybot Search and Destroy, and then done a full system scan with these tools, with your AVG and any other antivirus tool in your arsenal, all WHILE in Safe Mode, you're not done yet. You also need to download and install CCleaner, to be run while in safe mode several times until it reports no problems, after all of the scanners find the critters they're able to see.

No one tool can find all of the nasty viruses/spyware/malware/trojans out there. It takes using a number of tools and making sure you run them all, over and over again, till they ALL report a clean system while in Safe Mode, then run them all again in regular mode just to be sure. If any one program reports finding something, they all need to be run again, repeat till your system is clean. Because, when one thing is removed, it leaves another vulnerable to being detected which couldn't be seen while the first thing was running. You gotta keep at it.

by technogeek-1995

I did everything that you said...from downloading CCleaner to running several sweeps in safe mode w/networking. The problem still hasn't gone, and now I am getting a "New Hardware" wizard at start up. But if you follow the wizard, it just says PRINTER and doesn't specify, which is odd. Also, all my hardware is installed (checked in Device Manager). Could I have an undiscovered Virus?

by thumbsup2

... and nothing was found, yet you have problems booting up, chances are very high that one of the viruses, or removal of such, has damaged critical system files.

By the way, did you run all of these sweeps WITHOUT the internet connected and with your system restore disabled? If not, you may STILL be infected. Did any of the sweeps reveal anything found at all?

You can try a repair install of Windows over the top of the existing install which will, hopefully, retain all of your data even though you'll need to reinstall all software. Be sure to backup your data before you try it and be sure to unplug any external devices (printers, HDD's, etc...) while it's being brought back up to speed. Once you have antivirus and all of the Windows service packs and critical patches installed, you can begin reinstalling the rest of your software.

But, once a system is as damaged as the one you're describing, you're going to be better off in the long run if you just save your data, wipe the drive and reinstall a fresh copy on clean drive, then install all drivers for what's in the system, then getting antivirus installed and going online to get your service packs and critical patches. Don't go online till you have your antivirus installed. Again, once that's done, start installing your other software and external devices.

by thumbsup2

It's normally in C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Outlook. You might need to turn on hidden and system files to find it.

Copy all of the PST files you find onto external storage (floppy, CD, Thumb Drive, whatever). When you have the system restored, you can import the contents of any PST files into the new one which gets created the first time you run Outlook. You don't want to just copy and paste the old one over the new one. That brings any problems along with it. Just import the contents.

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