Start from new...

I have some problems with my computer. It's FULL of
garbage programs and processes that are simply useless.
And I tried to erase programs and files and all sorts of
stuff but that just made things worse... really worse. It
took some long hours to get things back to the crappy
state they were in before.

But my main question is this. How do uninstall everything
and reinstall it afterwards without having an ME disk. I
bought this computer 3 years ago and everything was
already installed (as far as I can remember) so I never
had a disk or floppies or anything. What are the steps to
starting all over?

Thanks guys,

Dustin

Go to eBay or similar and see if soemone has an ME CD for sale. Other than
that you can't do anything without being able to (re)install the operating
system.

"Dustin" wrote in message
...
I have some problems with my computer. It's FULL of
garbage programs and processes that are simply useless.
And I tried to erase programs and files and all sorts of
stuff but that just made things worse... really worse. It
took some long hours to get things back to the crappy
state they were in before.

But my main question is this. How do uninstall everything
and reinstall it afterwards without having an ME disk. I
bought this computer 3 years ago and everything was
already installed (as far as I can remember) so I never
had a disk or floppies or anything. What are the steps to
starting all over?

Thanks guys,

Dustin

Dustin
If you have a CD burner on the system, you may be able to create an install
disk.....
Do a Search on your system for the file
BASE2.CAB
You should find it in either the C:\Windows\Options\CABS folder, or the
.....\INSTALL folder.

Copy the entire contents of that folder to a CD, and you should be able to
use that to install the OS, in conjunction with your Startup disk.

HTH

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f.../Mar27pmvp.asp

"Dustin" wrote in message
...
I have some problems with my computer. It's FULL of
garbage programs and processes that are simply useless.
And I tried to erase programs and files and all sorts of
stuff but that just made things worse... really worse. It
took some long hours to get things back to the crappy
state they were in before.

But my main question is this. How do uninstall everything
and reinstall it afterwards without having an ME disk. I
bought this computer 3 years ago and everything was
already installed (as far as I can remember) so I never
had a disk or floppies or anything. What are the steps to
starting all over?

Thanks guys,

Dustin

Besides Noel's advice, be sure to make a note of your 25 digit product key
before you wipe your disk!!

Assuming you can still access and run WinMe, i.e. your pc with WinMe still
works, then you need to search the registry (using regedit.exe - Edit /
find) for the following:- "ProductKey" (no quotes). It should give you the
code you need.

On the other hand, if you you've deleted the old copy or formatted the
disk - then you've lost it.

Mart



"Noel Paton" wrote in message
...
Dustin
If you have a CD burner on the system, you may be able to create an
install
disk.....
Do a Search on your system for the file
BASE2.CAB
You should find it in either the C:\Windows\Options\CABS folder, or the
....\INSTALL folder.

Copy the entire contents of that folder to a CD, and you should be able to
use that to install the OS, in conjunction with your Startup disk.

HTH

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f.../Mar27pmvp.asp

"Dustin" wrote in message
...
I have some problems with my computer. It's FULL of
garbage programs and processes that are simply useless.
And I tried to erase programs and files and all sorts of
stuff but that just made things worse... really worse. It
took some long hours to get things back to the crappy
state they were in before.

But my main question is this. How do uninstall everything
and reinstall it afterwards without having an ME disk. I
bought this computer 3 years ago and everything was
already installed (as far as I can remember) so I never
had a disk or floppies or anything. What are the steps to
starting all over?

Thanks guys,

Dustin

Go to www.belarc.com and get The Belarc Advisor. It will give you a list of
all product keys for programs installed on your system.

"Mart" wrote in message
...
Besides Noel's advice, be sure to make a note of your 25 digit product key
before you wipe your disk!!

Assuming you can still access and run WinMe, i.e. your pc with WinMe still
works, then you need to search the registry (using regedit.exe - Edit /
find) for the following:- "ProductKey" (no quotes). It should give you the
code you need.

On the other hand, if you you've deleted the old copy or formatted the
disk - then you've lost it.

Mart



"Noel Paton" wrote in message
...
Dustin
If you have a CD burner on the system, you may be able to create an
install
disk.....
Do a Search on your system for the file
BASE2.CAB
You should find it in either the C:\Windows\Options\CABS folder, or the
....\INSTALL folder.

Copy the entire contents of that folder to a CD, and you should be able
to
use that to install the OS, in conjunction with your Startup disk.

HTH

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to
NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f.../Mar27pmvp.asp

"Dustin" wrote in message
...
I have some problems with my computer. It's FULL of
garbage programs and processes that are simply useless.
And I tried to erase programs and files and all sorts of
stuff but that just made things worse... really worse. It
took some long hours to get things back to the crappy
state they were in before.

But my main question is this. How do uninstall everything
and reinstall it afterwards without having an ME disk. I
bought this computer 3 years ago and everything was
already installed (as far as I can remember) so I never
had a disk or floppies or anything. What are the steps to
starting all over?

Thanks guys,

Dustin

Thanks guys, I do have a cd burner so I will try and find
that file and copy that onto a cd, and I think I may have
already made a start-up disk a couple days ago, so I am
assuming that is the disk I should use as well.

Thanks for the help, I'll report back if all of this works
out And I can deal with how to re-install Norton later

Dustin







-----Original Message-----
I have some problems with my computer. It's FULL of
garbage programs and processes that are simply useless.
And I tried to erase programs and files and all sorts of
stuff but that just made things worse... really worse.
It
took some long hours to get things back to the crappy
state they were in before.

But my main question is this. How do uninstall
everything
and reinstall it afterwards without having an ME disk. I
bought this computer 3 years ago and everything was
already installed (as far as I can remember) so I never
had a disk or floppies or anything. What are the steps
to
starting all over?

Thanks guys,

Dustin
.

....a word to the wise.....
Don't bother - Norton is probably at least involved in, if not the root
cause of your current problems - get yourself a decent ME-friendly AV.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f.../Mar27pmvp.asp

wrote in message
...

Thanks for the help, I'll report back if all of this works
out And I can deal with how to re-install Norton later

Dustin

Hmmm, but I just bought the year subscription thing And
what are the names of the Windows friendly types of anti-
virus softwares?

Dustin




-----Original Message-----
....a word to the wise.....
Don't bother - Norton is probably at least involved in,
if not the root
cause of your current problems - get yourself a decent ME-
friendly AV.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post
messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f...2001/Mar01/Mar
27pmvp.asp

wrote in message
...

Thanks for the help, I'll report back if all of this
works
out And I can deal with how to re-install Norton
later

Dustin



.

Anything except Norton would do for a start!g (and NAV2004 is worst of the
lot!)

I use AVG - and it's free - from www.grisoft.com


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f.../Mar27pmvp.asp

"Dustin" wrote in message
...
Hmmm, but I just bought the year subscription thing And
what are the names of the Windows friendly types of anti-
virus softwares?

Dustin




-----Original Message-----
....a word to the wise.....
Don't bother - Norton is probably at least involved in,
if not the root
cause of your current problems - get yourself a decent ME-
friendly AV.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post
messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/f...2001/Mar01/Mar
27pmvp.asp

wrote in message
...

Thanks for the help, I'll report back if all of this
works
out And I can deal with how to re-install Norton
later

Dustin



.