If you ever find yourself in a bind and need to get something in Windows Vista fixed, a repair reinstall is usually your last resort however I’ve never seen this NOT work. A repair reinstall does a complete refresh of the installation of Windows Vista on your machine. It preserves your settings, files, folders, and program installations. (It’s documented here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html)
The problem is that it leaves behind a lot of residual file ‘turds’. If you ever have to do this, be sure the check the following to free up any disk space you may be wasting otherwise:
- Windows Vista SP1 Disk Clean-up Tool
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/windows-vista-sp1-disk-clean-up-tool/
- $INPLACE.~TR and $WINDOWS.~Q folders for in Windows Vista
The $INPLACE.~TR and $WINDOWS.~Q folders are more-or-less garbage and can be safely deleted. If you don’t feel comfortable deleting them outright, fire up the Disk Cleanup utility (click Start and type Disk), select the Files discarded by Windows upgrade item, and then click OK.
- c:WindowsPanther
Delete this folder. It is part of SYSPREP and where one puts their UNATTEND.XML file to control setup of the first post-SYSPREP boot. It’s not necessary post-repair install.
I recovered something like 5GB of disk space after deleting the above folders. Disk Clean Up freed up 1GB, $INPLACE/$WINDOWS’s deletions released 3GB of space, and Panther’s deletion released another 1GB.
kurtsh
Kurt Shintaku's Blog 