Unrequested changes to Internet Explorer

[#1]

Be very careful
It could muck up your dual boot

[#2]

I think you can be fairly confident it will muck-up your dual boot.  However you should be able to fix it again afterwards by booting from the Windows 7 installation disc and repairing your installation.

[#3]

You were both correct it did muck up the dual boot. Worse than that, XP Repairgot as far as just past "Do you want to Register XP" to the desktop showing, but the  mouse (a USB device wont work at all) and the keyboard (also USB) only partially works (Tab, ESC, etc). The desktop is a very low quality (the 768x632 or what ever the figures should be and whatever the are called). It also went into trying to recover an HP dll file (for my printer I presume). Nothing I tried would get me any further than that point, so I had to power down the pc and reboot. The reboot without repairing, just took me back to the same point, poor video, no mouse, and partial keyboard. I tried running repair again, but that just got me to where the install states that Windows will try to improve the video automatically. At that point it just stopped. gain, eventually I gave up and this time tried to clean install where I chose not to reformat the hard drive, but that has got to this Windows will set the video automatically, and it has stopped again.
I'm not sure what to do now. If in a couple of hours I am still waiting for Windows to set up the video, I will stop again, and try to install Windows 7.
Its just as well I am being philosophical at the moment. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know what they are.
Thanks

[#4]

Have you got any files and folders on the hard drive, that you want to keep?
Have you got a method of storing those files and folders? E.g.  spare HDD.... big memory stick...
IF yes to both.... get a copy of Linux Mint downloaded, and burned to DVD...
run the Linux mint on the DVD... then recover your folders and files to the memory stick... spare HDD...
Then format the original HDD and re install W7.... and XP if you must as dual boot....

[#5]

I have already backed up my data files to an external hard drive. As for the data files on the internal hard drive, they are on a separate partition. I have three partitions - C: has or had the XP OS, 😧 has the data files, and E: has the Win 7 OS. I have a list of all the other process software (Zone Alarm, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc) that is on the C: drive, so I should be able to re-install them, assuming I can get XP working again.
If not, and I dont understand why I cannot get XP re-installed, I will try to get Win 7 going again, and load all the process software on the Win 7 partition.
Eventually, I plan to go to just Win 7 - that may happen sooner than I wanted.
Regards

[#6]

Quote from: penneck

I dont understand why I cannot get XP re-installed,

The most likely explanation is that your hard disk drive is faulty and a proportion of the files copied to it end up corrupt.  You can test this theory by booting from one of your installation discs and running the full five-stage chkdsk on your XP partition.

[#7]

I've given up on XP, and am reinstalling what processes (Mailwasher, Thunderbird, Google Earth, etc) on the Win 7 partition.
All went well until I tried to install CutePDF Writer. That tried to install 'secure.conduit.com' but I spotted where I could prevent that. However some unexpected downloads got through including a Norton security program, but I managed to get all of these uninstalled. The only problem now is an icon called Live PC. I don't know where that came from nor how to get rid of it, so if you know please respond. In the meantime I am going to search on Google for the answer
Thanks

[#8]

Where the hell did you get CutePDF from then? I just downloaded the CutePDF setup program, and it doesn't contain anything besides CutePDF writer. There aren't any options. There's a license to accept, then there's just an install button.

[#9]

I thought I had gone to the pukkah site, but perhaps not.

[#10]

According to Uninstall Programs in Control Panel, it says CutePDF Writer 3 published by Acro Software Inc
As an aside, I seem to be timing out on this site in about 3 minutes - where can I adjust this?

[#11]

The site I got CutePDF Writer from was CutePDF.com