Andrew McLaren

"Christian" <groups.observer@googlemail.com> wrote
> I had some problems with Vista Ultimate and re-installed the OS. It
> was afterwards that I realized a tv card was the source of all
> problems. I removed it, and now I want to reset my computer.
> Basically, by renaming the relevant new Windows folders and replacing
> them by those from the "C:\Windows.old" folder Vista setup had
> created.
> P.S.: Another problem I have is that the start menu lists all program
> folders but no files/shortcuts in them. Any idea as to why?

Hi Christian,

Unfortunately, this is an extremely unreliable way to get back to your old
Vista installation. For a start, in Vista many of the system "directories"
are in fact junction points - like soft links, in Unix. You can't just copy
them back and forth, without carefully noting where they point to.

By far the most reliable way to get a stable Vista configuration again, will
be to back up your user data to a safe location, then do a clean install of
Vista from scratch.

The idea of the "Windows.old" directory is to make sure that no valuable
files are deleted during the upgrade process; but it doesn't really give you
a copy of the old installation which can be easily restored back into a
working installation again.

The reason you don't see any icons in the Start menu is probably that
"C:\Users\All Users\Start menu" is a actually junction to
"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu". Until you get C:\ProgramData
back in action, the Start menu won't work. This is just the first of many
issues you may encounter, with the procedure you are currently trying.

If you want to keep hacking at restoring the old installation out of
curiosity, or sheer stubbornness, than by all means - go for it! You'll
probably discover many things about the inner-working of Windows. But if you
just want to get a reliable Vista system up and running, then a clean
re-install will be the quickest and most reliable solution.

Good luck,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au