I bought a new computer this morning. It came with Vista Home Premium
pre-installed, and no discs. The guy at PC World said I'd be able to
generate Recovery Discs from the PC.

By mistake, I installed Windows 97. This seems to have caused some serious
problems, even though I have now uninstalled it.

1. Clicking on the Mail and Fax icon in the Control Panel brings a message
that says I have insufficient memory, and need to close some windows, even
though I have hardly any open.
2. The Outlook icon has disappeared.
3. I cannot back up my data. The process gives the message: Backup failure,
Catastrophic Failure 0x8000FFFF.

None of the restore points is earlier than the Office 97 installation. So
how can I repair this mess without having to buy a new copy of Vista, and
one on CDs?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete

"Peter Phillips" pfphillips wrote in message
...
I bought a new computer this morning. It came with Vista Home Premium
pre-installed, and no discs. The guy at PC World said I'd be able to
generate Recovery Discs from the PC.

By mistake, I installed Windows 97. This seems to have caused some serious
problems, even though I have now uninstalled it.

1. Clicking on the Mail and Fax icon in the Control Panel brings a message
that says I have insufficient memory, and need to close some windows, even
though I have hardly any open.
2. The Outlook icon has disappeared.
3. I cannot back up my data. The process gives the message: Backup
failure, Catastrophic Failure 0x8000FFFF.

None of the restore points is earlier than the Office 97 installation. So
how can I repair this mess without having to buy a new copy of Vista, and
one on CDs?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete




Use the manufacturer recovery process. If you do not know what it is, visit
the computer manufacturer website and find out.

Alternatively, go back to PC World and get them to do it..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default...help&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

Office 97 is not compatable with Vista:
http://forums.techguy.org/business-a...-97-vista.html

There is no "Mail & Fax" icon in Vista Home Premium's Control Panel. There
is no fax program with Vista Home Premium. The only icon is "Mail"

Outlook is no longer available in Vista. It has been replaced by Windows
Mail.

You should have a recovery disk with your pc. Dell, Toshiba, etc. have
disks to reset your computer to the way it was when you bought it - unless
you bought a custom machine.

You can't generate a recovery disk unless you have a commercial file/backup
restore program (usually one that backs up the HD image) or you have a
Windows Vista installation disk.

Try running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt. ALL
PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES-right-click on command prompt and choose "Run as
Administrator." This will scan your windows component files and repair any
that may have been replaced by your 97 installation or other faulty
processes.

If that doesn't fix it, you may have to find a way to restore your
computer's OS back to factory. I'd see what the PC World store could do for
me.
__________________________________________________ _______________________________
"Peter Phillips" pfphillips wrote in message
...
I bought a new computer this morning. It came with Vista Home Premium
pre-installed, and no discs. The guy at PC World said I'd be able to
generate Recovery Discs from the PC.

By mistake, I installed Windows 97. This seems to have caused some serious
problems, even though I have now uninstalled it.

1. Clicking on the Mail and Fax icon in the Control Panel brings a message
that says I have insufficient memory, and need to close some windows, even
though I have hardly any open.
2. The Outlook icon has disappeared.
3. I cannot back up my data. The process gives the message: Backup
failure, Catastrophic Failure 0x8000FFFF.

None of the restore points is earlier than the Office 97 installation. So
how can I repair this mess without having to buy a new copy of Vista, and
one on CDs?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete

Outlook was never available, unless you bought Office, lol.
It was Outlook Express.
--
Mad Mike


"Mike" wrote:

Office 97 is not compatable with Vista:
http://forums.techguy.org/business-a...-97-vista.html

There is no "Mail & Fax" icon in Vista Home Premium's Control Panel. There
is no fax program with Vista Home Premium. The only icon is "Mail"

Outlook is no longer available in Vista. It has been replaced by Windows
Mail.

You should have a recovery disk with your pc. Dell, Toshiba, etc. have
disks to reset your computer to the way it was when you bought it - unless
you bought a custom machine.

You can't generate a recovery disk unless you have a commercial file/backup
restore program (usually one that backs up the HD image) or you have a
Windows Vista installation disk.

Try running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt. ALL
PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES-right-click on command prompt and choose "Run as
Administrator." This will scan your windows component files and repair any
that may have been replaced by your 97 installation or other faulty
processes.

If that doesn't fix it, you may have to find a way to restore your
computer's OS back to factory. I'd see what the PC World store could do for
me.
__________________________________________________ _______________________________
"Peter Phillips" pfphillips wrote in message
...
I bought a new computer this morning. It came with Vista Home Premium
pre-installed, and no discs. The guy at PC World said I'd be able to
generate Recovery Discs from the PC.

By mistake, I installed Windows 97. This seems to have caused some serious
problems, even though I have now uninstalled it.

1. Clicking on the Mail and Fax icon in the Control Panel brings a message
that says I have insufficient memory, and need to close some windows, even
though I have hardly any open.
2. The Outlook icon has disappeared.
3. I cannot back up my data. The process gives the message: Backup
failure, Catastrophic Failure 0x8000FFFF.

None of the restore points is earlier than the Office 97 installation. So
how can I repair this mess without having to buy a new copy of Vista, and
one on CDs?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete

Mike, most PC Manufacturers include on the Hard Drive a Recovery Partition,
in case of System failure.
That contains a factory Image of the OS, and the OEM's garbage.

You make the Recovery Disks from there, following the Maker's instructions
from their User Manual, their website, or contacting them.
It has been like this for years.
Dell supplies disks apparently.
You can obtain disks from the others, like HP, Acer, etc, for a nominal fee.
--
Mad Mike


"Mike" wrote:

Office 97 is not compatable with Vista:
http://forums.techguy.org/business-a...-97-vista.html

There is no "Mail & Fax" icon in Vista Home Premium's Control Panel. There
is no fax program with Vista Home Premium. The only icon is "Mail"

Outlook is no longer available in Vista. It has been replaced by Windows
Mail.

You should have a recovery disk with your pc. Dell, Toshiba, etc. have
disks to reset your computer to the way it was when you bought it - unless
you bought a custom machine.

You can't generate a recovery disk unless you have a commercial file/backup
restore program (usually one that backs up the HD image) or you have a
Windows Vista installation disk.

Try running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt. ALL
PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES-right-click on command prompt and choose "Run as
Administrator." This will scan your windows component files and repair any
that may have been replaced by your 97 installation or other faulty
processes.

If that doesn't fix it, you may have to find a way to restore your
computer's OS back to factory. I'd see what the PC World store could do for
me.
__________________________________________________ _______________________________
"Peter Phillips" pfphillips wrote in message
...
I bought a new computer this morning. It came with Vista Home Premium
pre-installed, and no discs. The guy at PC World said I'd be able to
generate Recovery Discs from the PC.

By mistake, I installed Windows 97. This seems to have caused some serious
problems, even though I have now uninstalled it.

1. Clicking on the Mail and Fax icon in the Control Panel brings a message
that says I have insufficient memory, and need to close some windows, even
though I have hardly any open.
2. The Outlook icon has disappeared.
3. I cannot back up my data. The process gives the message: Backup
failure, Catastrophic Failure 0x8000FFFF.

None of the restore points is earlier than the Office 97 installation. So
how can I repair this mess without having to buy a new copy of Vista, and
one on CDs?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete

Thanks to everyone for their input on this problem, eventually solved by
going back to the factory settings.

For the record, I think what happened was this. Office 97 comes with
internet access programs. These conflicted with the OS. Some of the funny
results included:

a "Mail and Fax" icon in the control panel, which couldn't be accessed
an "Outlook" icon on the desktop, which also couldn't be accessed (and which
disappeared when I did a complete uninstall)
the backup data facility wouldn't work.

My problem now is that I would like to install just the Word and Excel
programs from the Suite (because the latest versions of Office are hugely
expensive). Obviously, I'll do a Restore to a Point first, in case any other
incompatibilities emerge. But surely the risk of this is very low.

Does anyone have any input here?

Thanks again.



"Mike Hall - MVP" wrote in message
...
"Peter Phillips" pfphillips wrote in message
...
I bought a new computer this morning. It came with Vista Home Premium
pre-installed, and no discs. The guy at PC World said I'd be able to
generate Recovery Discs from the PC.

By mistake, I installed Windows 97. This seems to have caused some
serious problems, even though I have now uninstalled it.

1. Clicking on the Mail and Fax icon in the Control Panel brings a
message that says I have insufficient memory, and need to close some
windows, even though I have hardly any open.
2. The Outlook icon has disappeared.
3. I cannot back up my data. The process gives the message: Backup
failure, Catastrophic Failure 0x8000FFFF.

None of the restore points is earlier than the Office 97 installation. So
how can I repair this mess without having to buy a new copy of Vista, and
one on CDs?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete




Use the manufacturer recovery process. If you do not know what it is,
visit the computer manufacturer website and find out.

Alternatively, go back to PC World and get them to do it..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default...help&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

"Mike" wrote in message
...

Outlook is no longer available in Vista. It has been replaced by Windows
Mail.


Outlook has NEVER been available in ANY version of Windows. You mean Outlook
EXPRESS which is NOT the same as Outlook.

Office 97 is not compatible so don't try installing _any_ part of it.
You could use Open Office, it's free. Use Google to search for it.
If you need Word and/or Excel viewers they are available for a free
download at Microsoft's website.
Office 2007 Home & Student can be obtained online at reasonable
prices...check eBay, Amazon etc.
That comes with Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote and Word plus various tools.


--
Ex_Brit

::*-Peter-*::
Toronto, Canada
XP Pro SP3 & Vista Ultimate SP1
P4 HT @ 3.0ghz, 4gb DDR, 700gb HDD

Thanks for these tips. Advice followed. Best wishes.


"Ex_Brit" wrote in message
...

Office 97 is not compatible so don't try installing _any_ part of it.
You could use Open Office, it's free. Use Google to search for it.
If you need Word and/or Excel viewers they are available for a free
download at Microsoft's website.
Office 2007 Home & Student can be obtained online at reasonable
prices...check eBay, Amazon etc.
That comes with Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote and Word plus various tools.


--
Ex_Brit

::*-Peter-*::
Toronto, Canada
XP Pro SP3 & Vista Ultimate SP1
P4 HT @ 3.0ghz, 4gb DDR, 700gb HDD

Answer posted at the bottom

"Peter Phillips" pfphillips wrote in message ...
Thanks to everyone for their input on this problem, eventually solved by
going back to the factory settings.

For the record, I think what happened was this. Office 97 comes with
internet access programs. These conflicted with the OS. Some of the funny
results included:

a "Mail and Fax" icon in the control panel, which couldn't be accessed
an "Outlook" icon on the desktop, which also couldn't be accessed (and which
disappeared when I did a complete uninstall)
the backup data facility wouldn't work.

My problem now is that I would like to install just the Word and Excel
programs from the Suite (because the latest versions of Office are hugely
expensive). Obviously, I'll do a Restore to a Point first, in case any other
incompatibilities emerge. But surely the risk of this is very low.

Does anyone have any input here?

Thanks again.



"Mike Hall - MVP" wrote in message
...
"Peter Phillips" pfphillips wrote in message
...
I bought a new computer this morning. It came with Vista Home Premium
pre-installed, and no discs. The guy at PC World said I'd be able to
generate Recovery Discs from the PC.

By mistake, I installed Windows 97. This seems to have caused some
serious problems, even though I have now uninstalled it.

1. Clicking on the Mail and Fax icon in the Control Panel brings a
message that says I have insufficient memory, and need to close some
windows, even though I have hardly any open.
2. The Outlook icon has disappeared.
3. I cannot back up my data. The process gives the message: Backup
failure, Catastrophic Failure 0x8000FFFF.

None of the restore points is earlier than the Office 97 installation. So
how can I repair this mess without having to buy a new copy of Vista, and
one on CDs?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pete




Use the manufacturer recovery process. If you do not know what it is,
visit the computer manufacturer website and find out.

Alternatively, go back to PC World and get them to do it..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default...help&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

Yes the True Office Suites are expensive, but Office for Home and Students is under $150

However, try OpenOffice* which is free (a large download) It can be configured to load, save files that match MS Office.
It looks like, and acts like, Word, Excel, Power Point.

*Some Wal Mart stores had the OpenOffice disk for about $20 to save you the download effort.