How to uninstall WinXP?

[ITlover]

I have heard that we can uninstall WinXP from Add/Remove Program

I was surprized to know that ,is it true? How can we uninstall it from Add/Remove Program?

Is it the WinXP SP2 instead of WinXP that I heard about?

[RJ]

You can only uninstall XP from Add/Remove Program if you didn't do a clean install, but an upgrade.
Let's say you had Windows 98 installed and performed an upgrade to XP. Then you can uninstall XP from Add/Remove programs and thus go back to 98.

Same applies to XP SP2 (or any service pack).

In any other case, like a clean install, you cannot uninstall the OS itself.

RJ

[ITlover]

Thanks for clarifying ,by clean Install I think you mean installing winxp in a blank HDD, please correct me if iam wrong.

Can I uninstall winxp after I have reinstalled it ?

[EzyStvy]

Clean install means blank hard drive.

As stated above, you can Only unistall it IF you upgraded from another version AND selected the option to keep the previous OS.

[ITlover]

Do we get an option of keeping the win98 version after upgrading?

I'll try it soon.

[glc]

You also have to leave the drive FAT32 after an upgrade to be able to uninstall it. If you convert to NTFS you have closed the uninstall door.

[ITlover]

Glc,

Thanks for your information, so this is the disadvantage of NTFS.

[glc]

I don't see that as a disadvantage. Why would you want to uninstall XP and revert to 98 anyway?

[ITlover]

Originally Posted by RJ You can only uninstall XP from Add/Remove Program if you didn't do a clean install, but an upgrade. Let's say you had Windows 98 installed and performed an upgrade to XP. Then you can uninstall XP from Add/Remove programs and thus go back to 98. Same applies to XP SP2 (or any service pack). In any other case, like a clean install, you cannot uninstall the OS itself. RJ

Their is no such feature of upgrade for SP2 is their? , as far as I remember we can uninstall it if we have downloaded it from a microsoft website and installed it in the computer.

We cannot uninstall SP2 if it has been installed from WinXP CD if it is built in the WinXP CD.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

[ITlover]

I was reading WinXP step by step guide from Microsoft and I came across a section where it said how to speed up the process of copying files from CD to HDD.

It said that we should have smartdrv.exe tool during WinXP installation to speed up this files copying process from CD to HDD. It says that if we donot have this tool, then we can add its name in startup disk in Autoexec.bat file and in Config.sys file.

I want to know that if we have a backup of WinXP Folder in any of our partition and if we install winxp from the backup while having winxp startup floppy disk in floppy drive then will my file copying process accelerate if smartdrv.exe file is available in the startup disk?

Or it is only useful if we install winxp from cd?

I hope my questions are clear.

[EzyStvy]

We cannot uninstall SP2 if it has been installed from WinXP CD if it is built in the WinXP CD.-> Correct

Smartdrv runs by default when booting off a Win XP cd...

If you were to install XP from a DOS prompt, you would want to "Launch" SmartDrv before starting the XP install.

[ITlover]

Ok, so can smartdrv.exe be used if we want to install winxp from a winxp backup in our system?

How do we launch it, do we simply have to insert the startup disk in floppy drive and boot the system from it or do we have to do some additional stuff to launch smartdrv.exe?

[ITlover]

Their must be smartdrv.exe file in WinXP CD?where can I find it ? Is it available in I386 folder?

[ITlover]

Yes , I have done it , I have found the smartdrv.exe program in Win98 and WinME backup folder in my Computer.

Can I copy this smartdrv.exe to my startup floppy disk?

[EzyStvy]

YES you may copy it.

Once you boot off the floppy startup disk type SMARTDRV.EXE to launch it.

[ITlover]

Than after typing smartdrv.exe ,do I just have to enter the path of installation from winxp cd in dos prompt?

Meaning this :

i386\winnt.exe (enter)

Can I do unattended installation by using smartdrv.exe?