How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data

The Windows XP installation CD includes an option to repair an existing Windows XP installation. Using this option allows you to reinstall Windows without losing the files, personal data and programs you already have on the system. To take advantage of it, just place the CD into your CD or DVD drive on your PC and reboot the computer.

During the installation you will be prompted if you wish to use the recovery console to repair a Windows installation. The recovery console is rather limited in its use, so just press the Enter key to proceed with the installation as you would normally.

Press F8 to continue past the Licensing Agreement.

The next screen should display a prompt asking you if you wish to repair an existing installation.  Select your Windows installation (most likely it is the only one) and press R.

This will begin the repair and reinstallation of Windows. The installation will copy files to the hard drive, reboot the system, and then proceed just like a normal installation. Follow the prompts just as you normally would any normal Windows installation.

When the installation completes, you should still be able to access all of your documents and installed programs.

Full Windows Reinstall Without Loosing Data and Programs

I personally prefer to perform a full clean reinstallation of Windows. With the clean install, the hard drive is formatted and programs are reinstalled. If you want to use this method, you can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (AKA FAST).

Click here

To use FAST, you first have to run it from the old Windows installation. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Tell FAST that you are on the Old Computer, then click Next.

Finally, select the location where you would wish to save the files.  Portable USB drives were born for stuff like this.  Be warned though, the drive may not be big enough.  Another option would be to save the settings somewhere on your hard drive first, and then move them over to multiple USB drives or burn them to CDs/DVDs.

Click Next, and wait for the files to be copied. If you have a lot of data, it may take quite a while for the process to complete.  Once it has completed, your settings are ready for the new installation.

Once you’ve reinstalled Windows, launch FAST just as you did initially to save your settings:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.  Click Next. This time when prompted which computer you are using, select New computer. Click Next.

The following screen will ask you if you have a Windows XP installation CD for creating a wizard disk.  A wizard disk can be used for loading settings from another computer. In this case, a wizard disk is not necessary since the files have been saved to another location.

Select I don’t need the Wizard Disk. I already have collected my files and settings from my old computer. Click Next to proceed.

Finally, you will be prompted for the location of the files and settings. Select the Otherradio button and browse to the location where you saved the files and click Next.

The files and settings will then be copied to the new computer. You may want to install all of the same programs you had on the old computer that you intend to use, before you run FAST. This will help to ensure that your settings will work properly with them.

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How To Create An Unattended Windows XP Disk

An unattended XP disk is a customized installation disk that allows you to perform a Windows installation with minimal effort (once the disk is created). All of the effort takes place in creating the unattended disk, but it is well worth it. With an unattended XP disk, you can preselect all of the options you wish to use for the installation.

When you proceed with an unattended installation, you do still have to manually select the drive where you wish to install Windows (during the blue screen portion of the setup). However, once you’ve done that and started the installation you can walk away, grab a cup of coffee, eat some french toast, brush your teeth, check the weather, and by the time you get back you’ll see your new Windows XP desktop.

To create an unattended disk, you will of course need a Windows XP installation disk. You will also need to download nLite. nLite is a free program that allows you to create customized XP installation disks. Customizations you can perform include the integration of service packs, Windows updates, addition of drivers, preselection of installation options, preselection of components to install, and even more.

As a first step to unattended windows setup reference, you will need to get the latest Windows XP updates for your installation disk. Which updates you will need depends on how old your installation disk is. If you have a very old disk, you may need to download service pack 3 in addition to the updates that have taken place since the release of service pack 3. In the installation instructions below, you will learn how to find out whether or not Service Pack 3 is included on your installation disk.

Launch nLite, select your language, and click Next. Click the browse button to navigate to your the location of your installation CD. You will then be prompted for a location on the hard disk to store the files for processing. Select where you want to store the files and wait for the files to be copied.

Once the files have completed copying, nLite will detect what version of Windows XP is on the installation CD. If it says the installation has Service Pack 3, then you will not need to download the service pack. Otherwise you can download the service pack here. Proceed to the next step.

Since this is the first time you’ve run nLite, you will not have any presets. Just click Nextto advance to the Task Selection page. On the task selection page, select Hotfixes, Add-ons, and Update Packs, Unattended, and Bootable ISO. If you had to download Service Pack 3 because you have an older version, select Service Pack as well.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can also include Drivers, select Components for removal, select Options, and Tweaks as well. These are more advanced options that will not be discussed in this particular How-To. Click the Next button to proceed.

If you need to integrate Service Pack 3, you will advance to the Service Pack page. Select the location of where you downloaded Service Pack 3. Once you’re done, click Nextto advance to Hotfixes, Add-ons, and Update Packs.

Click the Insert button (in nLite, not on your keyboard) and navigate to the location of the update pack. Click Next to proceed to the Unattended settings. In order to avoid any interaction with the installation (other than selecting/formatting the hard drive in the blue screens), you will need to update the following:

• General Tab: Set Unattended Mode to Hide Pages
• General Tab: Enter your Product Key
• Users Tab: Password for the Administrator login (or check Blank password)
• User Tab: Add a new User and set the password (or check Blank password)
• User Tab: Set the Autologon to the new user you just added
• Owner and Network ID Tab: Computer Name
• Owner and Network ID Tab: Workgroup
• Owner and Network ID Tab: Full Name
• Owner and Network ID Tab: Organization
• Regional Tab: Timezone

Once you’ve updated those settings, and any others you would like to update, click Next. Continue when prompted if you would like to start the process. When the process is complete, click Next to proceed to the Bootable ISO section.

Under Mode, select whether you want to Create an Image or perform a Direct Burn to a CD. Direct Burn is probably the easier choice, because nLite will write it directly to disk. When you’ve made your selection click Make ISO. If you decide to burn to an image, use your favorite image burning software to write it to a disk.

That’s all there is to it! Just take the disk, pop it into the target machine, boot it up, select where you want to install/format, and then go take a little walk. Upon your return, your machine will have a fresh installation of Windows XP running on it!

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Password-Protect an Excel Spreadsheet

Adds a password (%reTG54w) to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

PowerShell

$comments = @' 
Script name: Set-ExcelPassword.ps1 
Created on: Friday, June 29, 2007 
Author: Kent Finkle 
Purpose: How can I use Windows Powershell to 
Password-Protect an Excel Spreadsheet? 
'@ 
#----------------------------------------------------- 
function Release-Ref ($ref) { 
([System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject( 
[System.__ComObject]$ref) -gt 0) 
[System.GC]::Collect() 
[System.GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()  
} 
#----------------------------------------------------- 
$xlNormal = -4143 
  
$xl = new-object -comobject excel.application 
$xl.Visible = $True 
$xl.DisplayAlerts = $False 
  
$wb = $xl.Workbooks.Add() 
 
$ws = $wb.Worksheets.Item(1) 
$ws.Cells.Item(1, 1).Value() = get-date 
 
$a = $wb.SaveAs("C:\Scripts\Test.xls",$xlNormal,"%reTG54w") 
$a = $xl.Quit() 
  
$a = Release-Ref($ws) 
$a = Release-Ref($wb) 
$a = Release-Ref($xl) 

Verified on the following platforms

 

Windows Server 2008 R2	No
Windows Server 2008	No
Windows Server 2003	No
Windows 7	No
Windows Vista	No
Windows XP	No
Windows 2000	No

This script is tested on these platforms by the author. It is likely to work on other platforms as well. If you try it and find that it works on another platform, please add a note to the script discussion to let others know.

Deletes every other row in a Microsoft Excel worksheet.

Deletes every other row in a Microsoft Excel worksheet.

PowerShell

$comments = @' 
Script name: Delete-EveryOtherRow.ps1 
Created on: Sunday, September 02, 2007 
Author: Kent Finkle 
Purpose: How can I use Windows Powershell to 
delete every other row on an Excel worksheet? 
#http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213610/en-us 
'@ 
#----------------------------------------------------- 
function Release-Ref ($ref) { 
([System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject( 
[System.__ComObject]$ref) -gt 0) 
[System.GC]::Collect() 
[System.GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()  
} 
#----------------------------------------------------- 
$xl = new-object -comobject excel.application 
$xl.Visible = $True 
$wb = $xl.Workbooks.Add()  
$ws = $wb.Worksheets.Item("Sheet1")  
$2d = new-object 'object[,]' 20,1  
# Fill an array so we can put the numbers into Excel all at once. 
for ($i=0; $i -le 19; $i++) { 
    $2d[$i,0] = $i + 1 
} 
$r = $ws.Range("A1:A20")  
# Put the array into the sheet so we have something to work with. 
$r.Value() = $2d  
$y = $false               
# Change this to $True if you want to 
# delete rows 1, 3, 5, and so on. 
$i = 1 
$r = $ws.UsedRange 
$cnt = $r.rows.Count 
# Loop once for every row in the selection. 
for ($x=1; $x -le $cnt; $x++) { 
    if ($y -eq $true) { 
        # ...delete an entire row of cells. 
        $a = $r.Cells.Item($i).EntireRow.Delete() 
    } 
    Else { 
        # ...increment $i by one so we can cycle through range. 
        $i++ 
    } 
    # If ($y is true, make it false; if $y is false, make it true.) 
    $y = -not($y) 
} 
$a = Release-Ref($r) 
$a = Release-Ref($ws) 
$a = Release-Ref($wb) 
$a = Release-Ref($xl) 

Verified on the following platforms

 

Windows Server 2008 R2	No
Windows Server 2008	No
Windows Server 2003	No
Windows 7	No
Windows Vista	No
Windows XP	No
Windows 2000	No

This script is tested on these platforms by the author. It is likely to work on other platforms as well. If you try it and find that it works on another platform, please add a note to the script discussion to let others know.