AboutMichael Troy Expertise I have lots of answers for problems with defrag, clock time, performance, system resources, problems with passwords, opening files, etc. I also probably know of a freeware/shareware application for anything you want to do: sharing Internet, firewalls, games, utilities, graphics, audio, etc.
Experience I am the Director of Information Systems for a large law firm. I handle all sorts of hardware and software problems for over 300 users who use Windows 95/98. I also have a home network of six computers.
3 of my programs - Info Select, Outlook Express and Quickbooks not working anymore. As I start , they will appear and disappear quickly. XP home and Firefox and some other programs are ok. The message I got after trying to restore to earlier dates (several times is
The application DLL:/windoessystem32/DDRAW is not a valid windows image. Please check this against your installation disk.
I have Spysweeper, Bitdefender working ok. I just did a reformat about 3 months ago and I really try not to through it again - was very very long task.
I tried to reformat and after the windows installation message appear and I press Install - I get a message that the version already installed on my computer is newer than the disk therefore can not install.... I still would like to solve this rather than formatting though.
Can you help here please?
Thank you, Gabe
ANSWER: Not really sure here. You might want to try to run System File Checker (Start, Run, type: SFC). But if you don't have a system CD or system files stored on the hard drive, it may not work for you. But it definitely sounds like you are having system file problems. This could be caused by malware. Spysweeper and Bitdefender are good steps but not complete solutions. If you don't have an anti-virus, you may want to try AVG, which is free.
- Mike
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QUESTION: Thank you for a quick answer. I do have anti virus by Bitdefender - found none. I will try the SFC - see it will work. however, if it won't, how can I set my system for this just in case for the next time?
Thanks again, Gabe
Answer If you have system restore set, you can try going back to an earlier restore date.
If you end up having to go back and reinstall Windows, you might want to consider getting a program like Norton Ghost, so you can image your hard drive and go back to that image if you have problems in the future.
