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Windows xp reinstall

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by lindaeeds

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Yesterday I had to reinstall winxp with sp2. I had the trojan Metajuan which was removed after the reinstall.
Can I get the reinstall to recognize the many programs on my PC?
So far- I have tried to open Word & Excel via cliking on the exe files- but its not working.
Is there a way to do this? Or do I have to also reinstall (via the CD or download) every program I had on my PC?

Any help I can get is trult appreciated,
Linda G

10 replies

by snuffy09

you have to reinstall ALL of your old software.

Once you Fortmat your HD and reinstall your OS you are starting over from scratch. you must reinstall all of your 3rd party software and download/install any drivers needed by your hardware.

In theory, all of your old data isnt 100% gone computer forensic software and some data recovery software can be used to recover data from your harddrive that has not yet been overwritten by this install.

by lindaeeds

Ok- I guess I should give more info. Sorry.
I did not reformat the drive. I reinstalled winxp to the same directory as the original install.
All my old programs- ms office prof, various drawing/graphic/photo pgms, Adobe reader, etc, etc are still there on the drive.
The are all gone from the start menu. Some programs will launch if I click on the associated exe file.
But the various programs in the ms office prof xp suite will not launch. I get 2 messages when I try to launch excel
1st "One of the object libraries(vbaen32.olb) is missing or damaged. Please run setup to install it."
2nd "MS Excel is not installed for the current user. Please run setup to install the application."
After clicking on those 2 messages the program closes. So, I cannot access the program at all. I've tried to also launch the program by clicking on an excel file- but I get the same messages again.
I assume the same will happen with the other office suite programs.
The problem may have something to do with the fact that after the reinstall there are now 2 folders for me in docs & settings. The old one- Linda & a new one Linda.HOMEOFFICE.
Maybe I need to move some of the files fron the old folder to the new folder? But that's just a guess.
I am not a computer maven- I know just enough to get by most of the time. But this time, I'm at a loss as what to do.
I could reinstall the office xp suite, I do have the discs. But then I'd have to go thru all the updates, which I'm hoping I can some how avoid.
Any further advise is really appreciated.

by thumbsup2

When you reinstalled Windows over the top of itself, you erased the registry entries which told Windows that the applications were installed. None of the DLL's are registered now. You will need to reinstall all applications if you want to have any hope of things working normally again.

Also, as mentioned in another post, we hope you realize that reinstalling Windows over the top of itself has NOT removed the virus. All you've done is prevent it from automatically starting. It's still there and will eventually get reactivated. If it were me, I would back up my data files (documents, pictures, etc...) then format the drive and install Windows fresh right now before you get too much time invested in reinstalling all of your applications. You're already experiencing problems with user accounts and you'll soon find that some programs won't want to reinstall over the top of themselves cleanly. You WILL have other problems that have not cropped up yet. It's best to get it cleaned up right from the start.

by snuffy09

You only reinstalled the Operating system directory. So all of your old programs are still in place but when you launch them you get error messages? Thats because your registry was replaced when you "reinstalled your operating system" your operatings system doesnt know where your program files are because your registry doesnt know where they are.

I have only done "reinstalls" like this if there is data i need to backup (pics, music, doc files) before i do a format-install. Your going to end up doing the same amount of work (reinstalling software) anyways after a reformat.

In the end it is less "painful" if you just format your harddrive and resintall your software. you can keep your computer as is and keep reinstalling software but it can get confusing if your looking in your doc & settings folder, plus you will probably face problems down the line. Your registry should always reflect whats actually on your computer

by peconet tietokoneet

Your best bet is to get hold of another harddrive and have it as a backup drive. You just need to have the hdd to hold your data and programs so that it will be faster to re-install then to download everything..Again.

by dumphrey

is that your programs are still there. Some may or may not work. Try each one. The problem is that if your programs are all still there, you did not fully wipe your hard drive to reinstall. So, the trojan may or may not still be there.
But as a general rule, yes you need t reinstall all your programs.

An inexpensive external hard drive and windows backup can also be used to save many headaches in the future.

by robotmfr

Recovery or installing your pc gets the original software installed as the factory give it to you.

If you install third party software when you unpack the pc.. im sure you gonna need to install or download again al the software you install

by older mycroft

If you have EXE files to click on, it sounds like these programs still exist somewhere (maybe on the second partition) that was not affected by the re-install.

However, these EXE files will not work anymore since their registry links no longer exist.

The data from these programs is still valid but should be backed up to another storage medium (another hard drive, a thumb drive, an optical disc) so that when you re-install the programs, the data does not get over-written.

by lindaeeds

Thanks everyone. I posted some more info under the 1st reply to my post.
I am open to any suggestions. Maybe calling it a reinstall was using the wrong term. I explain what I did in that post.
It's like my system is the same as it was before I had to install winxp again. But the other programs & winxp are not communicating anymore.
The trojan was removed completely by the fee based Norton techs. None of the symptoms that were present when the trojan was on the drive are there anymore & the virus scan is clean.
My drive is not partitioned & is a NTFS not a FAT.
I will provide any info you guys need to help me resolve this.

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