An Interesting Windows XP Issue - Part 1

A few months ago I saw an article in Information Week's Langa Letter column on performing a "No Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option" refresh of Windows XP. Having experienced some of the results of doing reinstalls with Windows 98 and 2000, I was dubious but was able to successfully use the technique multiple times to clear up issues with Windows Genuine Advantage errors. As long as you have a valid CD-Key and don't mind calling India to get the approval code from Microsoft the refresh install can really do wonders for clearing up all kinds of registry problems, pesky spy-ware issues, and other sundry ailments that a non-refreshed XP is heir to.

The first problem I ever ran into with this kind of repair was when I tried to fix my sister's machine - a fairly new Dell - whose chief symptom was "slowness." As most IT Pro's know, slowness is a relative term and is very subjective based on the experiences and perception of the user. Unless the user has done benchmarks on the machine in the past and can compare them to benchmarks in the present, it is difficult to objectively say whether or not a system is really slow. But when she gave me her machine and it took me nearly two minutes to reach a non-hourglass desktop I figured that was slow for a 2.5Ghz system. The first step was to remove the cancerous "Norton System Works."

[START RANT]
Currently - in my mind - "Norton System Works" is the worst piece of software out there for home users. Users recognize the "Peter Norton" name and think they're getting something really good. But Pete's been gone for a while, and "Norton System Works" is the equivalent of tying a cement block to the back of your bike before you go out for a ride. Does it work? Does it protect you from evil? Maybe, but your system might run faster if you just turned it off and unplugged it.
[END RANT]

After cleaning her system of spyware, removing the Norton System Works and adding memory things were running faster, but I thought I would run the refresh install from the Langa Letter - but I couldn't. New Dells include a special repair partition on them and this allows Dell to do "rollback" fixes to their systems which restore it to a pristine state. That is probably very handy for modern computer users who don't want to know how to fix their system and would prefer to just back up their data and start over. However, it prevents a refresh install because the XP installer thinks you want to make the system multi-boot. In the end, I made the improvements I could and did not do the refresh install on that system. It is much faster, but I regret not being able to do that little bit extra.

The second issue I had running the refresh install came on the 17th. I'm going to make that its own post - a part II to this entry.