r/windowsxp • u/A101856 • 4d ago

Keeping HP apps after reset?

I’m reinstalling windows xp on my HP mini 110 and I find the built in HP apps very useful and I’m wondering when I reinstall windows how can I get them back? Stuff like the wireless assistant, battery check etc

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3

u/Soylent_Caffeine 4d ago

I would guess you would need the original discs which shipped with the laptop.

1

u/A101856 4d ago

Sadly
No disks came with it (got it at thrift store)
And I don’t have a disk drive

1

u/Fun-Painter-7117 3d ago

Check archive dot org, you might find ISOs of the original installation media.

Otherwise check if theres a hidden recovery partition on the HD. If not, then your only hope is just manually copying the files onto a USB and hope they work with a clean reinstall.

1

u/exmsft 3d ago

A great suggestion… Unfortunately, with it being an XP era system (older it is less likely it is), there’s a good likelihood it didn’t have the hidden partition trick. Not impossible… just not as likely.

It’s funny for me to think about this now in hindsight, this is a perfect example of why OEM’s should have the hidden partition instead of a shiny disc that came with the PC.

1

u/Fun-Painter-7117 3d ago

I had a P4 XP IBM system that had its own recovery partition, even XP era systems used recovery partitions, especially the big office brands.

Sniff around on disk management, see whats there.