Well, back to the original topic, did you try simple things like a cleanboot (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=310353 for XP- just make sure to hide those Microsoft services, and, just between you and me, leaving those ".ini" files alone might not be a bad idea; there are other equivalent articles for the other O/S's, of course, except for Win 2000) or disabling the antivi (make sure you are firewalled before trying either of those steps- the plain-jane XP firewall would do for a short haul like an attempted dom2 installation)?
Antivis, in particular, can cause all sorts of problems, especially if you have it configured to be restrictive- Norton Internet Security, for example, can change the permissions of certain key registry keys, so that user-initiated programs (or, for that matter, just cracking-open regedit and trying to edit certain keys) will fail. Also, the tried and true method of installing from a flat (copying the whole disk to a directory on drive 'c:' and running the installation from there) could weed out a wonky CD drive (new computers tend to get dropped/trampled/played ping-pong with in transet, so they often arrive as
broken computers) or, alternatively, a CD so fancy and fast it outruns the installer.
Finally, if it's a new computer, make sure your manufactured didn't screw you with a "user friendly feature" like a pre-partitioned hard-drive with a 500 meg "c:\ drive" or a pre-made user account with limited permissions- I kid you not, I've seen companies sell computers with setups like these, thinking all the time that they are making things easier on the buyer.
I know most of this is pretty basic, especially considering how computer-literate most of this forum is, but I just had to bring it up, since 90% of the time, the basic stuff is the bread-and-butter of getting past most problems. I mean, no need to track down the specific problem .dll file or registry key, when you can just shut down most of the crude in the background with a cleanboot and take out the problem program/process purely through colatarol damage!
BTW, a spyware sweep with a good program (links to a few good ones can be found at
www.microsoft.com/spyware ) might not hurt as well. Spyware are the devil- they aren't as mean as viruses, but they are often much more subtle, and put up just as much of a fight when you try to remove them...
Anyway, just a few simple suggestions from a less philosophical, more pratical perspective!
Re: Please help
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