can i make my computer as new

hi is there a way to make my pc revert back to how it was the day i bought it
there is so much stuff on it thanks to my 2 kids and wife and i really dont know what to do . so i thought of wiping everything off except the os so i cant format the hard drive . i am not a total beginner but please do not make it to techy or a link to a site that can help me

thanks in advance for any help

 

If you have your XP disc, just boot up to it and choose to do a quick reformat and then install.

 

no i dont have one it was bought pre loaded

 

you can bring it to bestbuy and have geek squad do it... they will just take the cd key off your computer and reload xp on it for cheaper than it would cost to buy it again.

 

There should be an F key that when pressed during the boot process, brings it back to factory condition. F2 is a popular one, F8 is another. It depends on the make.

 

huh? i think thats just to get into bios setup and system restore to last known good config. unless ive missed something...

 

Use add or remove programs to get rid of programs unneeded.
Do a disk cleanup and diskdefragmenter.

And your pc should be good as new

 

nice replies with regards to add /remove done that and defrag. The clean up im after is to get ridof everything but the os, think of 2 kids messing about on your pc for 2 years and all the rubbish that will have piled up . Bestbuy never heard of i'm in uk is that a usa brand. The f answer i think is on the right track but f8 does just go into bios but i have heard that there is a way to reset the pc to the day i walked out of the shop with it . thanks any way

 

Just a query,what is the model and number of your PC.

Normally when an OS is pre-installed there is a function that lets you make copies of the OS for just so a situation.http://smileydatabase.com/s/109.gif

 

See? That's why every help forum on the internet requires that every poster gives all the system spec's for their PC, so those trying to help are not left playing 20 questions and wasting a lot of valuable time.

Is it even a name brand PC or was it home-made?
Most major brand PC's for the past few years, have a restore partition on the hard drive and some key combination at boot will take you into that restore area and run the restore program. Which key to press is shown on the first startup screen after power-on.

Other brands, give you the option to make restore disks during the initial setup on the PC. I just set up a new Compag desktop PC for a customer of mine, and I took the time to make the three System Restore DVD's, because I knew they would never do it. rolleyes

I find PC's like yours all the time, totally corrupted and with NO restore partition or restore disks or original XP CD. It takes some time to clean out all the junk and bring the PC up to good operating condition again, but hey, that's what I do for a living, so I'm getting pretty good at it.
Even for a well trained tech, it can take several hours to do the job.

The first thing to do is scan for Spyware, Trojans and Viruses.
I use only FREE programs for this effort.
AVG 8.0 FREE and Spybot Search & Destroy would be my first two programs to install and run.

Then you want to UN-Install all the programs that you don't want and that will uninstall by windows Add/Remove programs applet in the control panel.

The go into Windows Explorer and look at the Program Files folder. Remove folders for programs that were not removed in the previous process.

Windows own "Disk Cleanup" is pretty good at getting rid of all the junk files.

Of course, that's not the whole story, but a very good place to start.

Try it!

Happy Holidays!
Shadow :cool