Tom's Life Bits

Fred Langa By Fred Langa

If you're one of the many Windows Secrets readers who's charged with managing multiple PCs — and I bet you are — you may be juggling a half dozen or more Windows installation CDs and DVDs.

Here's how to stay sane while making sense of the different setup discs that shipped with the systems.

Which setup CD goes with which PC?

Have you ever ended up with a fistful of setup CDs without a clue as to which discs came with which PC? I sure have, and so has Geoff Nicholls:

• “Your [Feb. 12] column, “Retrieve a lost product key for Windows XP,” was very useful and partly solves my problem, having found the key for each PC.

But, like many of your subscribers, I look after multiple PCs and have stored all of the discs in the same place over different generations. Is there a way to find which disc relates to which PC? XP Pro vs. Home is easily sorted, but does a key apply to a certain service-pack level as well?

Here's some good news: product keys aren't that restrictive, and sorting out your setup discs may be easier than you think. In fact, you may not even need most of them!

First — just to be clear — a Windows product key is generally supposed to stay with the PC it was originally installed on. The key doesn't change with normal updates and service packs. It remains in force for the life of the OS on a given machine.

Now consider that all PCs running the same version of XP — or any version of Windows, for that matter — draw from the same pool of original code and updates. With one exception that I'll mention in a moment, your installations of XP Pro, for example, are essentially the same as mine and all others everywhere in the world. We have different licenses and keys, but the core OS code is more or less interchangeable.

Because all systems running the same version of Windows use essentially the same code, it doesn't matter where that code comes from. That, in turn, means the setup CDs for a given version of Windows will work on any PC. Indeed, Microsoft's standard end-user policy is “one PC per license,” not “one PC per setup CD.” The license and product key go with the PC, not with the setup disc.

It's even 100% legitimate to create your own custom, fully up-to-date XP setup CD for each version of Windows and use that disc for reinstalls on any PC that has its own separate and legitimate product key for that Windows version.

That's what I recommend you do. Create one fully up-to-date “master” setup CD for each version of XP and use those masters for all your OS reinstalls. (See my Dec. 18, 2007, column, “Slipstreaming simplifies Windows reinstalls,” for information on creating master setup CDs.) When asked for the product key during a reinstall for a given version of XP, just enter the original key for the version of Windows that came with that specific PC. It works and it's 100% legit.

There's one caveat: the OEM setup disks that ship with new PCs (which often carry vendor-specific branding) may contain drivers unique to the machine the CD shipped with. This usually isn't a huge deal, because Windows will use generic drivers if brand-specific drivers aren't available. After a generic reinstall, simply browse to the vendor's site and download whatever custom drivers the PC may need. You can avoid this minor hassle by keeping these branded OEM setup CDs with the PCs they came with.

Remember, for normal end-user versions of Windows, it's “one PC per license,” not “one PC per setup CD.” A setup CD for a given version of Windows can be used on pretty much any PC that has its own separate, legitimate Windows product key. You can use my setup CDs and I can use your setup CDs. As long as we keep our product keys separate and use them only on the PCs they're associated with, we're golden.

Resuscitating a dead System Restore applet

Danny Cope's PC has lost its ability to use System Restore to create restore points.

• “Could you give me 'Dummies'-type help to fix my XP System Restore? It no longer works. It seems the 'restore points' are still being created, but [the system] will not actually restore.”

You haven't given me a lot of information to work with, Danny, but here are some of your options:

First, try disabling and then re-enabling System Restore. To do so, click Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance (in Category view), System. In the System Properties dialog box, click the System Restore tab and check the Turn off System Restore option.

Reboot and go through the same steps again, but this time, uncheck the Turn off System Restore option. This process should clear out your old restore points and give System Restore a fresh start.

If that doesn't work, try running the Restore/Enable System Restore script from the Kellys-Korner site. (Look for item 278.) In addition to the Restore/Enable System Restore script, the item includes an Undo script. Obviously, you want the former.

If you're still System Restore-less, the System File Checker, sfc.exe, may help by ensuring that all your system files are up-to-date. (See MS Knowledge Base article 310747 for more info).

Finally, Microsoft's optimistically named article, “Windows XP System Restore Is Easy to Use,” may help you track down any glitches that the above operations fail to resolve.

A 'fix' causes more problems than it solves

Mary Smith-Markell offers this comment on the tip “A fix for Windows' broken installer utility” in my Feb. 26 column:

• “If you do a repair install of Windows XP, you might find out that Automatic Updates stop working, as explained in this Knowledge Base article.

    "It's also possible that the resolution in the above KB article may not fix things. The first time I did a repair install with my XP Pro w/SP2 CD, I had to manually re-register my regsvr32 files (wuapi.dll, wuaueng.dll, wuaueng1.dll, wucltui.dll, wuweb.dll, wups.dll and wups2.dll.)"

Good tip, Mary. Thanks!

Yes, several of Window's own repair/maintenance tools sometimes cause new problems. For example, running the Disk Cleanup tool in Vista can break the Hybrid Sleep and Hibernation feature. If you need help re-registering your regsvr32 files, you can read about and download the patch in KB article 929846. That fix pertains to all Vista versions, not just Vista Enterprise — despite what the page says.

Storing complete CDs/DVDs on a hard drive

Weldon Schultz's interest was piqued by a recent item:

• “In 'What do external drives do best?' [from the Feb. 19 column], you said: 'The drive is so big that I've even copied many of my installation CDs and DVDs to it.'

    "Can you explain how to copy an installation CD over to an external HD?"

Sure, Weldon! There are two basic ways to do this.

The first is to copy the entire contents of the CD or DVD. Say you have a CD with your favorite software on it — let's call it “Weldonware2009.” Create a new folder somewhere on your giant hard drive named Weldonware2009. Pop your CD into the drive and choose 'explore' (don't select 'open' or 'auto-run').

Next, highlight the files in the root directory and the top-level folder(s) on the CD and drag them to the Weldonware2009 folder you just created on your hard drive. That's it. You're done! In most cases, you can now install the software from the external hard drive just as if it were on the CD; there's usually a setup.exe program or equivalent in the top-level folder.

Sometimes, installation software is configured to run only from a CD or DVD, either for technical reasons or for copy-protection purposes. In such cases, you have to use the second approach: make an ISO copy of the disk and store that copy on the hard drive. (“ISO” is short for “ISO 9660,” a nearly universal CD format defined by the International Standards Organization.)

Every CD/DVD–burning suite I know of — including those from vendors Roxio, Nero, and Ashampoo — have utilities to create an ISO copy of a CD or DVD. For example, Ashampoo offers the excellent Burning Studio Free (more info). Just search the help files of your CD-burning program for information relating to ISO copying.

Ashampoo Burning Studio Free Figure 1. All good CD/DVD-burning tools — including Ashampoo Burning Studio Free — let you create ISO image files of your application discs.

When you burn the ISO copy to a blank CD or DVD, the resulting disk will be functionally identical to the original. Even better, “mount” the ISO image directly using special software to create a virtual CD drive. Virtual CD software makes your system think it's seeing a real drive and lets you use the ISO file exactly as if it were a real, physical CD.

Microsoft offers a small, free, unsupported program called Virtual CD ROM (see Softpedia for info and a download). The program is designed for XP, but with a little fancy footwork, it'll run in Vista as well. Because it's an unsupported tool, you'll need to go to third-party sites for instructions. Two good resources are MakeUseOf and Charles Sterling's MSDN blog.