How can I make sure that the OS on a computer is a full install, not an upgrade?

A

adri1456

Gawd
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Jan 15, 2004
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I'll be going to my cousin's house this friday to see if I can somehow figure out why they're computer is running slow (I'll see what's "slow", and try to fix that).

She doesn't remember if she bought the computer with XP or it was upgraded from a prior OS, so if I do a reformat and the OS was upgraded, then I'm screwed.

Is there any way to determine if an OS was upgraded or clean installed by the manufacture? I probably won't have any internet connection (they want to solve this problem before getting cable) so I can't post here until I get an internet connection.
 
It's likely slow because of spyware or disk fragmentation or simple having too much junk software installed.. I'm not exactly sure how to check, outside of asking the owner...

She doesn't remember if she bought the computer with XP or it was upgraded from a prior OS, so if I do a reformat and the OS was upgraded, then I'm screwed.
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Why? As long as you have the CDs you can still install with an XP upgrade disk. It will just prompt you for the original media you are upgrading from.
 
Check the %windir% for a winnt32.log, if it's there, and it says upgrade it was an upgrade. If it's not there it's probably a clean install.
 
If you right click "my computer", and go to "manage".............open "local users and groups"......select "users". On the right you will see the accounts......if its an upgrade, it will say on one of them "account upgraded from windows 98/me".
While your in there, I would right click the guest account, go to properties, and check off " account is disabled", and ok.
 
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