Hey, I'm doing a straight motherboard swap on my folks computer. I know the handiest thing is to delete the ENUM folder from the registry just before shutting down prior to the swop but I was just wondering is it possible (if you know what you're doing obviously) to go into the ENUM folder and delete only the old motherboard entries rather than all hardware? Many thanks!

Doesn't work on XP. If the motherboards are very similar/have the same chipset, it is possible to just startup after the board swap and XP will detect new hardware and ask for the instal disk for any drivers it doesn't already have. There is no guarantee this will work. The recommended method is to backup, format and reinstal. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and his wife will never forgive you.

Right. Even though bios is on the motherboard, bois information is still stored on your hardrive after you format. So give it a shot but if you're changing chipsets you have as good of a chance of not formatting and reinstalling as the world being flat.

I disagree...XP is excellent at dealing with hardware changes. I've done a board swap on a couple of systems & left the existing XP install intact...different chipsets too (Via to nForce) http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/winxp.htm Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @8x210mhz 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB

I agree more with Jam. You might have to do a Repair install and probably will have to Activate again, but you probably will be OK. I normally use the ENUM key to get a nice clean reinstall. But I suspect a selective delete in the Device Manager would work ok. I assume that you are thinkin of deleting the System Devices and any onboard controllers.

I took a look at the Enum folder. It looks like it would be a whole lot easier and safer to do the deletions in the Device Manager.