Determine differences between two computers running Windows XP?

Question

I have a program which I try to run on two computers. On one computer, it works fine. However, on the other computer, it hangs while attempting to create a USB channel. I do not have the ability to look inside the program. What is the best way to determine the differences between the two machines?

Answer 1

dxdiag will give you information about the specific minor versions of XP you're using. From there, I'd build two virtual machines, upgraded to the specific versions of windows.

From there, begin installing software one-by-one on the failing machine until you can reproduce the error. If this doesn't work, you might have a hardware issue, and then you're really SOL.