peterh

Sorry, I do not know of any workarounds other than buying a new PC with the 64 bit version included ...

As well as Visual Studio, many programs and some drivers use the .NET Framework including Paint .NET, ATI drivers, and various other apps using .NET.

The product key does NOT change. What happens is that if you change any more than three items of hardware on the PC, then you will have to re-activate your Windows XP again either over the internet or via telephone and they will give you a new activation code.

What does it say in Device Manager? Are there any yellow exclamation marks next to devices?

Yes, Heroes might and Magic 3 should work. Could be a poor quality CD thats preventing files from being loading correctly. Try cleaning the CD to fix it.

Have you tried installing the program using Compatibility mode? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279792/en-us

In the display properties you can switch the secondary to be your primary monitor before starting to play a game.

Windows and IE can store passwords in Cookies sometimes but usually in protect storage in IE 6 (IE 7 uses a different method). Versions for IE6 or IE7 are here: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/pspv.html

Install Virtual PC, Install Windows 95 or 98 (if you can get hold of it) and then Install SWR and play it! http://www.microsoft.com/virtualpc/

You graphics card is too old and slow to play Sims 2 (it certainly does not meet the minimum requirements), try the original Sims instead or replace the graphics card (if a laptop, get a new laptop to play games).

Load up Task Manager and select View enable the columns for I/O Read/Write to disk stats and then see which process is doing all the disk I/O! Then you can disable/uninstall that process...

Boot off the Windows CD into Recovery console, run a chkdsk on C: drive. Also you can try running CACLS to check the ntfs permissions which seems to have gone a bit haywire. You need to configure Everyone to have Read and Execute rights for C:\Windows and C:\Program files for starters.

You can download these drivers from http://www.driverguide.com which has a massive drive database.

Have you created an account on the Vista PC which is the same as the one on the XP machine? If not create it or just enable the Guest account to access printer.

Convert it back to Windows XP or get another PC to do the scanning...

1. Delete the NTFS partition and install Windows 98. or 2. Boot from Windows XP CD and do a Repair Install to replace missing/corrupt system files.

Maybe the server's network card needs setting to a specific setting e.g. 100Mbps/Full Duplex rather than auto-negotiate, that should improve performance.

Maybe you need to format the new partitions. No OS can 'see' an empty partition.

Very few options but the final one is to contact Microsoft themselves and tell them your Serial/Product No and see if they can send you a replacement CD (next time make a copy of it!)

What does the message actually say? Does it say you do not have DirectX 9.0c installed OR you do not have a DirectX 9.0c capable graphics card? They refer to two completely different things, one is about software (ie DX) and the other about hardware? What graphics card have you got in your PC? Min gfx: ATI Radeon 7500 , NVIDIA GeForce3, GeForce 4 Ti or Intel 915, 945, 950

What kind of wireless is it 802.11 a,b,g or n? Is it encrypted? What signal strength do you get? What IP, Router, DNS addresses do you get? Any firewall options enabled?

Boot from a Linux Live CD and use the disk management software on it to delete the partitions on your Hard disk. Then you should be able to install XP. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314458

Why not get PCI based USB card and disable the on-board USB and use that instead?

I really depends on your budget? I could recommend the £300-400 top end cards but can you afford them? I personally have a mid-range ATI X1650 card which copes with most games and media functionality.

Time for a new USB drive!