mcallisb

If you can find a copy of the Windows XP Pro CD you can use that media to install the product as long as you use your license code found on the bottom of the laptop. I am not sure if there are differences in the OS between XP Pro and a corporate edition but if there are you would be in violiation of license agreement. Basically, when you buy software from Microsoft your key is what you need to prove that you are licensed to use the software ... the media is just the tool to put it on your system. Hope this helps.

I've found Norton to be a headache while using and trying to unistall. I suspect that since the uninstall went badly and that you tried to manually remove it by deleting the leftover files you may have accidently deleted something you shouldn't have. Personally, in this case I would probably repair windows so that you get your system functionality back. I disagree with cluberti about contacting Symantic since you did try and manually remove the files (I think it would have been a good suggestion if you hadn't done it). If after you repair windows and you get all of your functionality back I would recommend trying to find another Norton disk and reinstalling it then trying to uninstall it again. If this isn't possible I'd try to remove all the registry entries (which you should be able to find online) that point to Norton and disable all the services that may not have been removed (i.e. msconfig startups + in services) . The problem with this method is that you'll always have little bits of Norton kicking around. To address your concern that this occured because of a virus or not having A/V software. As I said above it seems highly likely that you may have caused damage to your OS either by a faulty uninstall or the deleting afterwards. If you are concerned about not having A/V software you might try Avast! which has a free home edition and I find that it runs fairly well. Good Luck.

mce = xp home I believe

Maybe I am missing something here. Why don't you just format your HD? Put in the XP CD and then let it run its course? XP will be painfully slow on that system though.

Thanks guys, You've given me a few things work with ... as soon as I get the laptop in my greedy hands again I'll give the suggestions a shot and then report back with what I find.

Hi Guys, I've never seen anything quite like this before. On a Laptop running Windows XP Pro a client is trying to change their adminstrative password. There are two very easy ways of doing this ... using the User Account information in the Control Panel or by logging in, pressing CTRL ALT DEL -> Change Password. Using either of these methods we get an error "Windows Cannot Change Password" ... most unusual. I tried to change the password under computer management using "Set Password" but changing the password in that way leads to stability issues and I couldn't risk the crash. Anybody, have any thoughts? Ben

Hello, I was hoping that somebody may have encountered something similiar or had some thoughts on what may be the probelm. Basically, MSWorks 8.0 is used to keep track of client information. The sistuation is this: Two new computers have replaced two older computers in the Office. All necessary information was migrated off of these old machines onto the new machines. The old machines were suffering a problem where a local copy of the database would vanish from the folder it was saved in, or the most recent data inputed into the database would go missing. I have no explanation as to why this would have occured. It was my hope that the two new computers would remedy this problem. It did not. There were some network changes however that are worth mentioning. Instead of keeping a local copy of the database, it is stored in C:\Root on a different computer. All business information is now being stored in this location to simplify back-up's, information sharing, etc. Unfortunately, on the new computers, with fresh copies of all software the problem has reared its evil head. Does anybody have any thoughts on why the database would revert to an older version or vanish completely? Something not related to a Microsoft product but perhaps still related to the problem is an issue that has suddenly cropped up with Simply Accounting. Simply worked fine on the old computers, however, on the new computers it is not. Simply, will "sometimes" not allow a second user to log (simply is set for multi-usermode) on giving the following errors "Invalid user name and password" (the UID and Pword are correct) or "Another user is modifying the data try back later". I know that Simply uses the Jet Engine does MSWorks? If so are there any thoughts on why there would be problems with these two programs? Does MSWorks allow simulatenous editing of a database (ie. User 1 & 2 can both be making changes -- intuitively it seems it shouldn't). I mention this because both people can access the database at the same time, and it seems that the second person making the connection should get the "view read-only option". I'd appreciate any thoughts you could provide, Ben