UNICOWS.DLL

Question

I am working on a Dell Dimension 4300 that came loaded with Me. Recently I upgraded from Me to XP Home version. However, I have had to uninstall and revert back to Me in order to at least be able get online. As soon as I upgraded I started to receive an error message that reads - One of the library files needed to run this application cannot be found UNICOWS.DLL. After doing some research I came to realize that i must have contracted the virus when I first upgraded to XP since it does not effect Me. Even though I reverted back to Me I still get the error message. I have since cleaned up all viruses with Norton Antivirus and deleted. The error message seems to affect when I login to the internet. Online tech support at MSN said the problem would be cleared up by simply reinstalling from MSN 9 from my cd. This has not helped. Any suggestions? I am about ready to try reinstalling Me from my reinstallation cd provided from Dell. But wonder if this will help or is the best thing to try next. Help

Tonto Goldstein · Answer

Your apparent mistake was in upgrading, rather that performing a format and clean installation of Windows XP.  Use the WinXP Upgrade CD to format the current partition and install Windows XP from scratch.  Formatting will remove the virus, and allow XP to install properly.  This has been documented dozens of times in this site, and there are really no good reason to vary from this oft-proven practice.  Upgrading rather than formatting and clean installing is just plain bad news.  Forget about WinME.  Keep the WinME CD-ROM to verify that you're eligible to use an upgrade CD when installing XP, and other than that, don't ever imagine for a moment that you're going to be better off with WinME, because you're not.

Wolfin13 · Answer

Bugsdad see if this thread helps at all... http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_newusers&message.id=2969

jakobsmom1 · Answer

Can you please tell me the steps Ineed to take to format the current partition??  Iwant to try and clean install windows xp. Thank you for your help Debra

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

jakobsmom1, Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum. If you boot to the XP cd you will have an option to delete the partition and re-create another as one of the choices on the screen.

Windows General

Was this post helpful?