Clearing old XP

Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast

  1. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #1

    Clearing old XP


    I have a friend who has bought an old XP machine form the education department and we cannot get rid of the boot up process > agreement . ID + password > them departments' desktop logo or whatever you call it.

    Can someone give us an idea on how to get rid of this rot and just have it start normally in Windows.

    Or have we got to format it and try and get a copy of XP which I guess will be nigh impossible. The machine dates from 2005 and is really just for the kids to play around on.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #2

    The only thing I can suggest is to ask the folks it was bought from for the info. I think you'd need the password to create a Password reset disk.
    Is it the system BIOS that has a password?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Ok


    Sorry Britton I don't know what the go is with the BIOS I just see it start with an agreement screen > Enter > ID > already there) > password and then to the Department of Education screen with the stuff I have added to it.

    I suppose it's a small thing but just annoying that you hae to go through that process.

    Anyway my friend is going to ask the school principal next week what the go is as I would have thought that they would have cleaned the machines before selling them on as most go overseas for whatever. Anyway my mate is disabled and can't afford to have the HDD formatted and buy another XP disk - if you could even so Ill just put on some apps for him MSE (no security on) , CC, MBAM, Defraggler, and enable the firewall as none of this has ever been done and rip out the 2003 Works and put my 2007 Works in for him at least it's reasonably usable eh??

    It was quite an experience to clean that much dust out of a machine - enough to fill the air intakes and the CPU cooling fins were solid - how it didn't catch fire is beyond me. Anyway we'll see what this principle has to say at least it's cleaner and running faster than before - nearly 900MB of rubbish and the reg was full of unused items - such a mess. But if he can put up with that screen it's usable.

    Hey but thanks for your reply I'll have a look at what it has in the way of BIOS after some tea - your help much appreciated you're a gentleman and a scholar!!.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 351
    Windows 7 pro 64bit. (SP1)
       #4

    I think it should be ok to do clean reinstall of windows xp with same license, of course you will need media (that match, please dont forget that not only home and pro is different but for windows xp oem and vl media is different) and cd key if its an oem there should be sticker on the pc.
    if the bios is custom made then there could be a problem
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 354
    Vista Ultimate 32 bit, Win 7 Pro 32 bit, Win 7 Pro 64 bit
       #5

    Easiest way is replace the HDD, save a lot of messing about.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 4,466
    Windows 10 Education 64 bit
       #6

    Have a look at the boot.ini file. Look for > /bootlogo /noguiboot < at the end of
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
    If those two switches are there you won't see the normal windows XP boot screen, instead you it will display the BOOT.bmp file. The boot.ini is a hidden file in the root of the active partition. BOOT.bmp would be in the Windows folder. I'm not sure this is what they did but its easy enough to check. BOOT.bmp would be the logo you see on bootup. Just remove the /bootlogo and /noguiboot. The boot.ini can be opened and edited in notepad. The agreement window/box was likely set with the group policy editor, gpedit.msc. If I have time latter on today I'll fire up my XP box and see if I can find it in gpedit.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Ok


    alphanumeric said:
    Have a look at the boot.ini file. Look for > /bootlogo /noguiboot < at the end of
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
    If those two switches are there you won't see the normal windows XP boot screen, instead you it will display the BOOT.bmp file. The boot.ini is a hidden file in the root of the active partition. BOOT.bmp would be in the Windows folder. I'm not sure this is what they did but its easy enough to check. BOOT.bmp would be the logo you see on bootup. Just remove the /bootlogo and /noguiboot. The boot.ini can be opened and edited in notepad. The agreement window/box was likely set with the group policy editor, gpedit.msc. If I have time latter on today I'll fire up my XP box and see if I can find it in gpedit.
    Thanks apha am a complete no brainer when it comes to reg stuff - thing is it starts with the normal Windows XP screen then goes off into the department windows. But I'll have a look anyway.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Alpha


    I have it up now the notepad reads in Save a Back Up copy of Boot.ini > inder "Start Up and Recovery" > System Startup click Edit pas:-

    [boot loader]
    timeout=3
    default=multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition1\WINDOWS="Microsoft windows XP Professional" =nexecute=o


    In the small window it states in default operating systems

    "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

    This is just a bit of what I can see am I in the right spot??
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 4,466
    Windows 10 Education 64 bit
       #9

    OK, if you see the normal Windows XP boot screen they didn't edit the boot.ini file. What they probably did was turn off the welcome screen. When you do that it displays a background image. The image that is displayed is stored in the registry under [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop], look for the Wallpaper key. The entry on the right will be the background and its location. It will be something like C:\Windows\ xxxx.bmp If this is what they did turning the welcome screen back on should get ride of it. Another option is to edit the reg key and change it to a wallpaper you want to see instead. The option to turn the welcome screen back on should be in user accounts in control panel.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
    Thread Starter
       #10

    OK


    Ok alpha I'll try that and see what happens
      My Computer


 
Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 00:19.
Find Us