Restoring Vista to original install?

Hey everyone,

I received a used desktop (Dell XPS 410) with Vista, and it has a bunch of software remnants I'm trying to get rid of and reorganize. I feel it would just be better to restore it to the factory setup and start fresh. The only problem is that I don't have any of the install disks.

What would be my options on how to restore Vista back to its original install?


Thank you!

 

If the recovery partition is still on the HD then press Ctrl + F11 at the same time when the blue Dell bar appears at the bottom of the screen when you first turn on the machine.

 

Yep, theres a recovery drive there. Just want to check before I do it though, will the partition still be there when I do the restore? Or will I have to create a new one?

 

Yes, the recovery partition will still be there after you've completed the restore.

After you've completed the restore then go and download SP1 and SP2 for Vista.

Support for Vista with no service packs ended April 13 2010
Support for Vista with SP 1 ended July 12 2011.
So the two Service Packs, if not included when the computer was new will have to be installed otherwise, Windows update will not work.

Vista SP1 32 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...ils.aspx?id=30
64 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=21299

Vista SP2 32 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=16468
64 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=17669