HELP - Programs not 'associated' with Windows

[roger04]

Hi all,

Sorry I dont know what is the right word to use besides 'associate'. Here goes my problem...

Recently I've edited my kernal wrongly, so when I on the pc I get the blue screen after OS logo. I had no choise but to uninstall and reinstall windows. Now my C:\Program Files aren't 'known' by windows for example I can't open the programs and I have to reinstall them one by one.

Any idea where is the infomation about the programs installed on windows? or I've deleted it? Any other suggestion?

Thanks

[MCT]

they are in the registry, but what u should do instead of modding your original kernel is add a switch 2 the boot.ini line that has your OS on it

/kernel=mykernel.exe

placing mykernel.exe in system32, so it doesnt touch the original 1

also, when u reformat, if things are that badly messed up, dont do an upgrade/reinstall over old OS (sounds like u did)

EDIT: -fixed a typo in post

[roger04]

Yup, I'll do that next time..

BTW, I didn't reformat, at 1st I repair the Windows using Win XP Pro CD. After I did that I couldn't create a new connection to the internet, dont know why. So I decided to uninstall windows and reinstall.

Do u know where in the registry can I get em?

[MCT]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\.classes i think

when u said repair windows, what did u do 2 repair it? used recovery console? or installed windows over itself (like i said above)?

[jrzycrim]

If you uninstalled Windows (not sure what that means exactly) and then re-installed, the registry entries for your 3rd party applications are gone.

[MCT]

uninstalled Windows

that sounds 2 me like he done an upgrade, where windows is in add remove progs.

[roger04]

No it isn't upgrade. If it is then my programs would function normally.

Here's again what I did, I inserted Win XP Pro Corp SP1 then chose install fresh new windows without formatting. So what they did was to remove previous windows and install windows XP..

I guess the old registry is gone too....

[MCT]

ya, like i said, u just overwrote windows with itself, & if your pc is badly messed, it wont help, u need 2 reformat & go fresh

[homiebrah]

Simple fact:

1. Install an OS on top of an OS with no format is not uninstalling anything. Registry is replaced with a new one, and all association to programs is lost.

2. Installing an OS after a format is not unistalling anything.

If you machine dies, reloading an OS on top of itself may restore the OS, but all of your proggies will still have to be reloaded as well. Better to format and install, as there leaves no bothersome Windows dingleberries behind...