Windows 7 64 bit v 32 bit...

[Twoyboy]

... can lick my balls.

So I got my new computer, and only a couple of hours later and I'm ready to set fire to Windows headquarters. I started setting up a bunch of things, cutomising things, anti-virus, etc and I thought I'd install a game. For reasons which don't matter right now, I tried to install Age of Pirates. It installed and restarted, then had an error while restarting and restarted again. Then when it started again, my antivirus was gone, IE was my default web browser again and FF was gone, my customisations were gone, none of my installed programs (or the new game) are still in the start menu program list, and their desktop icons have even gone.

I don't really want to do it all again, but I can see that all my stuff is in the "Program Files (x86)" directory for 32 bit programs. Is there any way I can get all my settings back? Or are they lost to the ether?

[General Zod]

I'm not sure what you're asking here. Did you do an upgrade from a 32 bit version or another version of Windows? If you didn't back up the settings you might be screwed.

[CSJM]

This can happen if you didn't restart since installing everything. For reasons unknown to man (actually, probably to prevent damage done by viruses or such) W7 does not "commit" desktop data and system settings to "permanent" storage until it has safely rebooted. I've had that problem a few times, but I don't think I ever cared to look up a solution. As far as I know, there's no way to recover them unless by a stroke of luck the OS did a system restore point when installing AoP. See if there are any restore points.

edit: he seems to mean 32-bit programs in a 64-bit environment.

[Twoyboy]

I'm not sure what you're asking here. Did you do an upgrade from a 32 bit version or another version of Windows? If you didn't back up the settings you might be screwed.

It's a brand new computer. I didn't do anything except install my game. As far as I can tell, and bear in mind I wasn't really paying attention, it has taken everything I did, shove it over into the 32 bit program files directory and start me afresh for... no reason whatsoever.

This can happen if you didn't restart since installing everything. For reasons unknown to man (actually, probably to prevent damage done by viruses or such) W7 does not "commit" desktop data and system settings to "permanent" storage until it has safely rebooted. I've had that problem a few times, but I don't think I ever cared to look up a solution. As far as I know, there's no way to recover them unless by a stroke of luck the OS did a system restore point when installing AoP. See if there are any restore points.

Hmmm, there were a few restarts early on, but I honestly can't remember if I restarted following starting to customise. So the fact that all the directories for Avira, Firefox, Age of Pirates, etc are in the other programs files directory means nothing? I just have to install them again from scratch?

[General Zod]

Windows 7 tends to put most programs in the x86 directory automatically but I've never found any problems with it doing that. Once you install stuff they should accessible from your start menu.

[Twoyboy]

Windows 7 tends to put most programs in the x86 directory automatically but I've never found any problems with it doing that. Once you install stuff they should accessible from your start menu.

OK, like I said, wasn't paying much attention to it and didn't know where the computer was putting them. But yeah, they were accessible from the start menu when I installed them, but following the error, they're all gone.

[CSJM]

Well, only if you want them absolutely properly configured. If they have "repair" options in their installers, that'll help. Most big programs frequently have "auto-repair" functions that will restore any registry keys the program should have when you run them. So try and see if they'll work, just placing shortcuts onto the desktop. Stuff like Avira should probably be reinstalled, AV software usually has "deep ties" with the OS.

[Edi]

Anything system wide (like the AV) should probably be installed through the administrator account as well.

No, your primary account is NOT the administrator account. The administrator account in Windows 7, like in Windows Vista, is deactivated by default and needs to be manually activated before it can be accessed.

Any customizations you then do to the browser or other such should be done with the account you are using.

Instructions on activating the admin account

[Twoyboy]

And my Windows activation just came back up again... after I already activated it. FFS!

Thanks guys, it's not what I was hoping to hear but at least now I have a bit more idea of how it works.

Off to reinstall stuff...

[Vendetta]

Anything system wide (like the AV) should probably be installed through the administrator account as well.

Is there any actual concrete advantage to using the Administrator account over and above simply right clicking a program that needs elevation and choosing Run as Administrator (if the program predates Vista and doesn't ask for elevation anyway)?

In all my time dealing with both operating systems I've never seen a single case where I've been prevented from making a system change where there wasn't a simple explanation like malware preventing it.

[Netko]

There are some shoddily built install programs from before Vista that basically are containers for executing their payload and do so in non-standard ways enough that they lose the security token between the wrapper and the actual installer and thus can't be helped even with "Run as administrator" - they run their content with your user token whatever you do.

To get them to run you either have to run them as the actual Administrator, shut down UAC or run the program from an elevated command prompt.

Of course, they are a few extreme edge cases which are mostly superseded by now, so no, there really is no need for Administrator. The only one I ran into was Nokia's PC Suite around the time Vista was released.

EDIT: Of course, the numbers increase if you only install programs into Program Files. If you're installing some weird crappy shit, you should put it into some other folder (Software for example) which you created with your user credentials since that lets it do what it wants with its folder.

[Edi]

The actual Administrator account is also needed if you want to remove drivers from the Windows Driver Store directories and eradicate all the driver files from the system directories. I'm not quite certain how relevant this is with Windows 7, but it is an issue with Windows Vista and I would expect the same issue to crop up with Windows 7. It's a goddamn pain in the arse to do as well, but sometimes it's the only way.

This problem can manifest when people fuck around with too many different driver versions or use nonstandard or corrupted drivers and then don't know how to fix the damage. I've not actually had to use this procedure with a customer yet, but it's come very, very close a couple of times.

Driver removal from driver store Note that step 2 seems to have something missing and you should look for oem##.inf files and then otherwise follow the instructions.

[Dominus Atheos]

Driver removal from driver store Note that step 2 seems to have something missing and you should look for oem##.inf files and then otherwise follow the instructions.

I have had to do that before and that method is retarded. The actual way to do it is "pnputil.exe -d oem##.inf", and that can be done from an elevated command prompt.