Windows 7: Setting up to install Windows.. already installed..

Okay, so stupid mistake by me. I let the um, oobe? folder to be enabled (or shown, whatever it is) in the System32 folder so I can edit the Login screen. Wellll, stupidly, I decided to mess around with the files, one of them being a setup.exe (or one of the .exe/.msi files) and it decided to install, well, it failed, no biggie. So I start up, and... everytime, after the "Starting Windows" and the login screen, it decides to take a few happy hundred seconds to tell me "Setup is preparing to install Windows.. Please wait" or some special stuff like that. So I messed around more, only making Windows unusable for a time being until I fixed that. So now it's just doing that stupid screen. It doesn't do anything, but it makes boot time increase by.. a lot. Any help? Thanks.

Probably the easiest way, try a system restore, then try a system image then try a repair install with your Windows 7 Disc. I think the system restore will work, if you roll back to a point prior to your problem. The same holds true for system image.

I hope I understood your problem correctly. Basically, your installation is always installing.

Heh, that would be nice if I actually could restore that long ago. I probably should turn on System Restore at some point. And basically, kind of. It just keeps saying it is, though it's not doing anything. It's just a stupid "notification" type of thing. But I'd like to keep the whole "reverse system/restore/reinstall" out of the way.

Bump. Apologies if this isn't allowed.

I don't understand your statement. You'd like to "keep out of the way" the one thing that could help you fix what you messed up? In that case, I guess you can reinstall Windows.

Well uh, I mean I'd rather not do it. I'd like to just fix the problem without affecting other things, ya know?

That is what system restore could have done for you....

Well, since I don't have it, let's work toward a DIFFERENT way.

You posted this thread 5 DAYS ago. You could have installed Windows literally 10-20 times in that time. Why not bite the bullet and just DO IT?? It's not a very lengthy process. In the time it takes to discuss this back and forth, you'd have been done with it. Learn when to not push a bad position.

I don't like taking the easy way out of things. I want to learn what made this happen and what it did. I want to actually fix it, without just taking the option of "just reinstall." I could do that for every problem I have, but why would I do that? That doesn't help learn about it at all.