A shitload of questions about XP home

[Phuquit]

As a last resort to remove some malware that was taking over my pc, I tried to boot from my XP cdrom.
I have all the technical know-how of a jellyfish, and it seems I've restored my OS to its factory settings.
I still have all my files on my HD, but I haven't a clue how to restore the settings I've been using for nearly a year. I understand that sane people regularly create restore points, and back-up their HDs, but this is me we're talking about.

1. How the crap do I disable those annoying "Messenger Service" pop-ups? - Solved

2. During the XP installation, I was asked what sort of keyboard I use. Being one of Her Majesty's subjects, I selected "UK", but certain symbols are not where they're supposed to be. My keyboard has the @ symbol above ' but in order to use it, I have to press shift 2. I've tried to re-install the driver, but that hasn't worked. Any suggestions? - Solved

3. I tried to access Mozilla from the shortcut in the program folder, but it wouldn't run. So I downloaded it from their home page. Since the destination folder was the same, I figured my bookmarks and saved passwords would be preserved, but - you've guessed it - nada. Is there any way of restoring them? - Solved

4. Is it possible for me to restore my XP settings to what they were prior to the installation today? - Solved

5. If the answer to 4 is "no", will I have to re-install every sodding program on my pc?

Please help me - I'm desperate :(

[Nickything]

To get rid of Windows messenger:

Go to Start | Control Panel | Performance and Maintenance | Administrative Tools.
Double-click Services.
In the Services panel, select Messenger
Right-click and select Stop to turn off Messenger.
Right-click and select Properties. (You can also simply double-click Messenger).
From the Startup Type drop-down list, select Disabled
Click OK.

[Santo]

2. During the XP installation, I was asked what sort of keyboard I use. Being one of Her Majesty's subjects, I selected "UK", but certain symbols are not where they're supposed to be. My keyboard has the @ symbol above ' but in order to use it, I have to press shift 2. I've tried to re-install the driver, but that hasn't worked. Any suggestions?

3. I tried to access Mozilla from the shortcut in the program folder, but it wouldn't run. So I downloaded it from their home page. Since the destination folder was the same, I figured my bookmarks and saved passwords would be preserved, but - you've guessed it - nada. Is there any way of restoring them?

4. Is it possible for me to restore my XP settings to what they were prior to the installation today?

5. If the answer to 4 is "no", will I have to re-install every sodding program on my pc?

[/QUOTE]

2.- Try using an international sort, that should work if your keyboard is not made specifically to your country, i know Brit symbols are tricky ;)

3, 4 and 5.- Not much you can do here, if you didn't backup, you have to reinstall, refind, rebookmark, reset cookies and all those nasty things, i do have a suggestion, once you have all your pc the way you like it, find a nice backup pice of software, and make a backup so next time those nasty nasty malawere make their way in to your pc, you put that back up disk in and voila.

Sorry i can't be of more help.

[Phuquit]

Thanks Nickything and Santo.

I pretty much figured that 3, 4 and 5 were no-hopers, but I had to ask.

As for question 2, I'm still unsure how to instruct my pc about my keyboard's design. It worked just fine before, but I don't seem to have the option to re-configure the keyboard layout type...

[Dymond]

In the words of Albert6 Einstein..your screwed LOL

Actually though you said you reinstalled..Do you have access to your old stuff?? another partition, backed up to another drive..anything? I can tell you were your Mozilla shortcuts are. As for the programs there is alot more to them that install files, there are DLLS and registry entries also added and since you reinstalled the OS, you will have to reinstall them programs too, although you may bet away with seeing some of your old settings come back after the reinstall depending if they stored them someplace other than the registry.

As for the keyboard only thing I found was the 'Keyboard' control panel and the Regional and Laguage settings.

[Santo]

Ok, Phu, to change your keyboard settings, go to the control panel, and find region and language and open them, go to the language tab, and there is a detail button, click it, there you can change the languaje of your input device or keyboard, try different settings, there is two settings, the actual languaje and the distribuion of the keyboard, you should find what you need in there.

[Dymond]

Ok, Phu, to change your keyboard settings, go to the control panel, and find region and language and open them, go to the language tab, and there is a detail button, click it, there you can change the languaje of your input device or keyboard, try different settings, there is two settings, the actual languaje and the distribuion of the keyboard, you should find what you need in there.


*Woot*

I Knew I was close!

[Phuquit]

Everything is more-or-less as it should be now.
I still have to update the registry, and and re-install some key software, but I'm million times happier than when I started this topic :)

Thank you to everyone who has contributed - especially to Dymond.

[Dymond]

Please tell me you didnt play around with the registry

If he would have it would have been with me..I've logged more miles in the registry than Microsoft developers! I do this for a living Smokie so he was in safe hands.