How do I fix the "help" I just got from Microsoft?

[Bubba]

Gotta love it. Just tried to download Halo2 on my system and everything went Haywire. When I tried to run it, I got a message that I needed to have Vista to run the program. When I tried to uninstall it it said I needed to have Vista to run the program. Silly me THOUGHT I was running Vista the whole time..... SO I go from the DVD and get to the Live site to register where it tells me my key is no good. Time to call Microsoft............

SO the dude gets on and I give him control and he starts slashing and burning his way through the program to get it uninstalled. Gets down to the registry and slashes and burns his way through that. Ok, he says, put the disk in and I'll show you how to install a program, (arrogant SOB). Put the disk in and immediately we get an error message that there are now files missing. "Some important files needed to run this game are missing from the installation directory" is the direct quote from the message error. I somehow doubt he was able to delete files from the DVD so I'm thinking Attila slashed and burned his way maybe a bit to far into my registry lol. Long and short of it is that it's beyond his level and someone will get back to me on Monday. IE, it's Saturday morning right now in India and none of the engineers will be back til Monday. So here's MY thought.............

I just created a restore point so iff my "thought" turns out to be a bad one I hit system restore and I'm back to where I am at this very moment. So.........

Can I not just hit system restore and go back to where I was BEFORE I installed the Halo? If I do, will that take care of the new admin account he added to my computer? Will it replace all the stuff he may have erased from my registry that he SHOULDN'T have erased? I'm a little fuzzy on system restore because it says it leaves the documents and stuff alone, but what about programs and extra added Admin accounts? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

LOL Methinks thata no one is here this fine Friday night and I'm gonna get impatient and slash and burn my way through a system restore.

Oh, Mr. Brainiac also decided that maybe I had too much memory so he adjusted what windows can see. Will that go back to it's normal value if I do a sys restore as well?

 

[Brink]

Hi Bubba.

LOL, what a mess.

Make backups of anything you do not want to lose just in case you have to end up resorting to a clean install to repair Attila's slash and dash special.

I would try doing a System Restore to a point before you installed Halo. From there you can remove any left over non system files that were not removed from what Halo or Attila added.

Hopefully that will get you back to square one again.

Good luck to you,
Shawn

 

[Bubba]

Man, there is nothing on this box that I can't lose except maybe some bookmarks I got off this site. Since I got them off this site I know where to find them, so if I lose everything I lose everything. 12 re-installs or 13 re-installs, what's the difference lol. I look at it as I'm getting faster breaking it down and piecing it back together every time.

Alrighty then, since you say that what I want to do can be done I'm gonna give it a whirl.

Thanks again.

 

[Bubba]

Update: It went slicker than owl snot. Got my restore back to where i was replacing my realtek drivers (updating I mean) right before I loaded Halo2. Finished my drivers (again lol) and the Halo installation went off without a hitch this time. Of course now when I try to activate it says my product key ids invalid but I'll deal with that later. Of course to be SURE the installation went OK i had to beta test Halo for 3 or 4 hours......... While playing I remembered how crappily done that game is compared to GOOD FPS's..........

When I was finished, before bed, I ran the Defrag: There was 12 GB's of difference after Habib's "help" was removed and then 2 GB's worth of junk removed which the disc cleaner. Heck CC cleaner found about a GB after I had run those two.

I need to check on what he left behind that didn't get gone from the restore and tools were done, but if I don't spend time with my family wifey is going to have me drawn and quartered. LOL you wouldn't believe how much time I have spent on this place trying to work my way through the 900,000 some threads. There is just so much good info here. Anyways, I'll be back way late tonight to post any questions I can't find answers for on getting rid of the rest of my wonderful "microsoft help" session.

 

[Brink]

Bubba,

You will probably just need to do a phone activation to get your Vista activated again. I would wait until you got everything finished and running smooth first though. Within 30 days of course.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/84488-activate-vista-phone.html


On some items, you may need to take ownership of them first before you can delete them.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html

Hope this helps for now. See ya later tonight.

Shawn