Computer help forum: Cleaning up a used computer

...it depends on what software CD's came with the computer.. If you've got the Windows XP CD AND the legal keycode, then place the CD in the CD drive, restart the computer and reinstall XP using the instructions in the link below:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/sp2installxpcdoldhdd/indexfullpage.htm

AFter XP is installed, then install all of the program software of your choice, antivirus and other security software, word processing utilities, etc. Once that's done, enable your firewall, then get on the internet and IMMEDIATELY go to the Windows Update site and install all updates EXCEPT for the Windows "Genuine Advantage Notification" tool.. The "Windows Genuine Advantage Validation" is required for using Windows Update and when first using the site but the "Notification Tool" part is not.
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If you don't have a Windows XP CD or the computer "Recovery CD", then you'll need to remove files manually by searching the folders you have listed and uninstalling unwanted programs in the "Add/Remove Programs" section of the Control Panel. It would also be a good idea to purchase a copy of Windows XP or create a Recovery CD, just in case the computer crashes.

Hope this helps.

Grif

Thanks for the advice. This is first day using any forum and as I am thinking about passing my computer on and getting a new one, I was a bit worried about what to do with my present hard disc i.e. keep it and install new one before getting rid of computer or trying to wipe it clean. Heard a lot of scary stories about people being able to recover personal data from "cleaned" drives.

Other than reinstalling the operating system, you can delete most of the stuff that a previous user has done. Create a new user for yourself. Also create a seperate user account with administrative priviledges to make sure you have the permissions to perform later steps. With the administrative account, delete the previous users. Look in C:\documents and settings and make sure their profile is deleted. The profile contains the bulk of what a user does, their settings, etc. Now uninstall all the programs the previous users have installed. It's not as clean as a fresh installation, but it will serve the majority of what you want without reinstalling. If you have the option, reinstalling the operating system is by far the best way to clean out what another person has done to it.