A question for my dad, I swear. :) [Archive]

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ysr_racer

11-11-2004, 09:13

So my dad bought a new E Machines PC. Before he even hooked up to the internet he wanted to remove AOL & MSN (he's gone thru those nightmares before).

Instead of just going to the control panel and add / remove software he just searched on AOL and deleted everything that came up. Then he did the same thing with MSN.

When he went to restart his PC he got a popup message that said something about Windows files had been changed, it might affect the stability of Windows and to insert his SP1 disk.

He canceled the message and restarted his PC. It seems to be working fine.

Did he do any damage?

SamBuca

11-11-2004, 10:43

Yes.

pfrigm

11-11-2004, 10:47

I'll second that. Yes he did. Boot from the restore disk (I think E Machine includes one), restore to factory... reboot the machine and uninstall the RIGHT way. Never just delete files from a Windows machine unless you want a lot of grief.

lomfs24

11-11-2004, 17:14

I'll third the two seconds.

fastvfr

11-11-2004, 20:33

Yep. That approach leaves far too many hanging references to AOHell and M$N in the registry, ect.

I remove their folders and assorted dross AFTER I remove them in the CP, but not before.

ysr_racer

11-12-2004, 23:51

Originally posted by pfrigm
Boot from the restore disk (I think E Machine includes one), restore to factory...

Thanks for the info. Will the restore disk have AOL & MSN on it?

lomfs24

11-12-2004, 23:52

Originally posted by ysr_racer
Thanks for the info. Will the restore disk have AOL & MSN on it?
More than likely.