I am already 3 hours deep of my weekend time trying to resurrect Windoze XP (Xtra Polluted) from its now threatened partition on my MacBookPro.
This began with login errors like
“winlogin.exe- unable to locate component– failed to start because ole32.dll was not found”
Well that is utterly useful information and gives me a clear sense of what I need to do next, eh?
So I have been rebooting in Safe Mode (same results, same errors).
Then I have tried the WinXP start up disk which offers this useful access to “Recovery Console”, which is no console at all except for a DOS command screen and a listing of things like FIXBOOT, CHKSYS, and other more clearly labeled and understandable programs.
But to even get that far, it kept asking me for an administrator login, which I had no recollection of ever setting up. My ususal passwords all failed. Rebooted again, Ran Google on my other laptop.
Silly me, Windows XP home Edition has a blank Admin password. Geez, that was clear to me.
Got no where with the DOS tools. Threw my hands up and decided I was going to rebuild from scratch, which is the resort Windows sends you when you realize TABTTDWMT (There Are Better Things To Do With My Time). So I booted from Windows XP CD, and started yet again.
Lo and behold, when I aimed so set up, there away an offer again to repair Windows. Was this ther same black DOS hole? What the heck, my afternoon was gone, I tried it again, and it looked promising. A blue screen appeared, a yellow bar progressed across, and I got the similar screens again on my fist set up. Windows was going to take 35 minutes to do its thing.
And it was 12 minutes in when I get all this warnings about unsigned logos for Intel hardware. I started clicking OK through them (you would think Intel and Microsoft know each other, eh?). And then IT happened- total mouse freeze up, no keyboard command or three finger salute would do a damn thing.
So for the 9th time today, I was yanking the power supplies to kick Windows in the arse again.
I am giving it more more try before I totally wipe the partition from my lovely Quartz desktop.
I cannot accept by any iota any quad colored Windows fan claiming operating system moral superiority (not that I ever did, by Windows stinks, stinks, stinks, stinks…. and no one commenting will shine any light on this one. Windows is an wretched parasite, a bad joke, a horrible burden on the world, and freakin’ farce.
Whaddya say to that, Dr Glu?
&#$^#&ing Update: It froze again. As I type, I am yanking battery again for the 10th time, and deleting the entire fetid partition that Windows occupied, and will spray my computer with Lysol to get rid of the emanating stench.
Last Update: More than 9 hours later, I am staring at that butt ugly green grass hill on my WinXP desktop. The installations is done. Now, should I mess anything up by actually using this OS? (I am dl-ing FireFox, Audactity, Second Life, installing printer drivers, yadda blaadda, zadda)
You have my sympathies! Why don’t you load Ubuntu Linux 5.10 on a partition and be done with Windows? Do you really need it?
Dr. Glu here. I started with DOS 3.3 many light-years ago, so cryptic stuff from that corner doesn’t throw me so much, though I do get angry when things don’t work correctly.
I do not, though, claim moral superiority for DOS or WinXP or any operating system, though I remember OS/2 and AmigaDOS fondly. 🙂
Perspective, CogDog, perspective. Try to install OSX on a Windows machine. Ah, okay, that’s a violation of the OSX EULA. Guess we won’t know what kinds of blue screens that would cause.
Really, the thinking behind these two platforms is essentially different. Apple does a near-complete lockdown and gets to “it just works,” with “it” defined entirely by Apple. IBM/Windows is completely open-standards and gets healthy CPU competition between Intel and AMD, highly commoditized and cheap and plentiful user-installable upgrades and peripherals from many different manufacturers, and a significantly cheaper bottom line (though Apple is doing better these days). But the diversity breeds certain opportunities for chaos and hair-pulling. Windows machines think of applications as running on their platform. Macs think of apps as part of their platform–the app is the platform, almost. I wouldn’t claim superiority for either idea, but they do think of the end user experience rather differently. And I’ve never understood the logic behind ejecting a CD-ROM by dragging it to the Trash icon, just as I’ve never understood how any user would expect to shut down Windows by clicking on the “start” icon.
Now what does that have to do with your current woes? Maybe not much. Since Apple doesn’t support WinXP on their machine (that of course would be clean contrary to everything their business plan insists on) even though they do make it possible to install WinXP, I think you’ve fallen between two stools. All I can say is that I do not myself routinely have the troubles you describe, though I have had my share of Windows woes.
Hang in!
Hah. Linux zealots call us Windows users names when we can’t find our way through bash, so I wonder what they’d say when you cannot find your way through a CMD console. LOL. I’m envious…