Upgrading a screwed up ME to XP SP2

My sister-in-law has an old PC running ME. It got some kind of virus and no
longer has a cursor. She bought a new computer but I'd like to attempt to
install the upgrade version of Windows XP home addition on the old computer
to see if that will fix it. Does anyone know if that will work or will I
have to try fixing the cursor problem before I can run the upgrade? I'm
hping to end up with a usuable PC to give to my parent-in-laws. Please
answer before Christmas weekend.

Thanks!

Generally speaking you can't fix underlying Operating System problems
with an upgrade, usually that only results in a bigger mess, that is
especially so if you have virus problems!

John

jep wrote:
My sister-in-law has an old PC running ME. It got some kind of virus and no
longer has a cursor. She bought a new computer but I'd like to attempt to
install the upgrade version of Windows XP home addition on the old computer
to see if that will fix it. Does anyone know if that will work or will I
have to try fixing the cursor problem before I can run the upgrade? I'm
hping to end up with a usuable PC to give to my parent-in-laws. Please
answer before Christmas weekend.

Thanks!

Upgrading Win Me to XP SP2 will certainly work, what it won't necessarily
do however is remove any pre-existing virus or malware.

What have you done to try and remove the virus? Do you know what it was?
Have you tried or considered using system restore and rolling back to a
checkpoint created prior to the system being infected?
--
Mike Maltby



jep wrote:

My sister-in-law has an old PC running ME. It got some kind of virus
and no longer has a cursor. She bought a new computer but I'd like
to attempt to install the upgrade version of Windows XP home addition
on the old computer to see if that will fix it. Does anyone know if
that will work or will I have to try fixing the cursor problem before
I can run the upgrade? I'm hping to end up with a usuable PC to give
to my parent-in-laws. Please answer before Christmas weekend.

I have not seen the machine I'm just going by symptoms that my sister-in-law
told me. We will be in their area over Christmas and I was going to try to
mess with it then. Neither she nor her husband are particularly computer
literate so I don't that they really know what the problem is. Without a
cursor, can I easily get to the system restore screen? I've only seen ME
once (and that was enough for me).

"Mike M" wrote:

Upgrading Win Me to XP SP2 will certainly work, what it won't necessarily
do however is remove any pre-existing virus or malware.

What have you done to try and remove the virus? Do you know what it was?
Have you tried or considered using system restore and rolling back to a
checkpoint created prior to the system being infected?
--
Mike Maltby



jep wrote:

My sister-in-law has an old PC running ME. It got some kind of virus
and no longer has a cursor. She bought a new computer but I'd like
to attempt to install the upgrade version of Windows XP home addition
on the old computer to see if that will fix it. Does anyone know if
that will work or will I have to try fixing the cursor problem before
I can run the upgrade? I'm hping to end up with a usuable PC to give
to my parent-in-laws. Please answer before Christmas weekend.

Boot to Safe Mode and you will most likely see a cursor after which you
should be able to run system restore. If that fails some other
possibilities include:
a) Boot to a DOS prompt using a Win Me boot floppy (use option 2 or 3) and
then at the A:| DOS prompt enter
SCANREG /RESTORE
which will then offer you five dates from which to choose to restore the
registry. Provided the system hasn't been used much since tee problem
started one of those five dates should be from before the infection.
b) Using a boot floppy edit and edit C:\Windows\system.ini so that with
the floppy removed you boot straight into system restore.
The edit you need to do is as follows:
edit C:\Windows\system.ini
and replace the line
shell=explorer.exe
with one reading
shell=C:\windows\system\restore\rstrui.exe
Save, remove the floppy and reboot. This should now take you into system
restore.

You should now hopefully be able to tab your way round the buttons and
select a restore point to use. The interface here is much as in XP. The
initial screen has the same two options, to restore or to create a
checkpoint. By default it opens with "restore" selected (as it does in
XP). Either tab to Next and click return or use Alt-N to select restore.
You will then have to tab to the back arrow on the calendar if you need to
return to an earlier month and click return. You then tab around the
calendar to find an appropriate date. You can practice this on XP without
actually committing yourself to a restore.

I've only seen ME once (and that was enough for me).

Oh dear. Win Me is a superset of Win 98SE and with the correct drivers
far more stable, and a subset of XP. SCANREG /RESTORE being carried over
from 98SE and system restore being the base on which that in XP was built.
--
Mike Maltby



jep wrote:

I have not seen the machine I'm just going by symptoms that my
sister-in-law told me. We will be in their area over Christmas and I
was going to try to mess with it then. Neither she nor her husband
are particularly computer literate so I don't that they really know
what the problem is. Without a cursor, can I easily get to the
system restore screen? I've only seen ME once (and that was enough
for me).

That certainly sounds like that should do the trick. Thank you for your very
detailed instructions.

"Mike M" wrote:

Boot to Safe Mode and you will most likely see a cursor after which you
should be able to run system restore. If that fails some other
possibilities include:
a) Boot to a DOS prompt using a Win Me boot floppy (use option 2 or 3) and
then at the A:| DOS prompt enter
SCANREG /RESTORE
which will then offer you five dates from which to choose to restore the
registry. Provided the system hasn't been used much since tee problem
started one of those five dates should be from before the infection.
b) Using a boot floppy edit and edit C:\Windows\system.ini so that with
the floppy removed you boot straight into system restore.
The edit you need to do is as follows:
edit C:\Windows\system.ini
and replace the line
shell=explorer.exe
with one reading
shell=C:\windows\system\restore\rstrui.exe
Save, remove the floppy and reboot. This should now take you into system
restore.

You should now hopefully be able to tab your way round the buttons and
select a restore point to use. The interface here is much as in XP. The
initial screen has the same two options, to restore or to create a
checkpoint. By default it opens with "restore" selected (as it does in
XP). Either tab to Next and click return or use Alt-N to select restore.
You will then have to tab to the back arrow on the calendar if you need to
return to an earlier month and click return. You then tab around the
calendar to find an appropriate date. You can practice this on XP without
actually committing yourself to a restore.

I've only seen ME once (and that was enough for me).

Oh dear. Win Me is a superset of Win 98SE and with the correct drivers
far more stable, and a subset of XP. SCANREG /RESTORE being carried over
from 98SE and system restore being the base on which that in XP was built.
--
Mike Maltby



jep wrote:

I have not seen the machine I'm just going by symptoms that my
sister-in-law told me. We will be in their area over Christmas and I
was going to try to mess with it then. Neither she nor her husband
are particularly computer literate so I don't that they really know
what the problem is. Without a cursor, can I easily get to the
system restore screen? I've only seen ME once (and that was enough
for me).