"Destructive Reboot" anybody know how to do it?

I don't think H20_MAN can help with this one, but I suspect Timber will be along shortly.

Hoping so...

What? There's a destructive robot on your computer? I'd try to get rid of that if I were you.

Apparently, it reformats the hard drive and let's you start from scratch, so it's like a brand new computer that's as fast as the day you got it. She's got it so chuck full of BS, and doesn't need any of it, it just seems a lot simpler than going through the rigmarole of scum ware removal.

Just boot the computer from her CD.

When it asks what you want to do, have it reformat and do a clean install of the OS.

If she wants it the same as when she got it then use the restore disks which should have all the programs you get but never need.

the Windows XP CD?
(and thanks for answering)

Yep, the windows XP CD.

Be warned, installing an OS can take an hour or more.

You will also lose all her settings for video, sound, etc. Timber may have a better way to do it.

Ok. I changed order in CMOS so CD came first, didn't work... so I disabled Hard Drive, and now it "windows setup"... is that all there is to it?

Does it matter if I choose
NTFS File system (quick) or
Fat file system (quick) or
Ntfs file system or
FAT file system ?

Hope not, because I went with the NTFS (quick)

NTFS is the way to go. "Quick"is prolly OK too. Sorry I wasn't quick enuff to find this party. You shouldn't have much trouble, though, as long as the install CD you're using is intact and legitimate. Once you do get the OS and the drivers installed, and get Windows re-validated/re-activated, you should immediately set to updating the whole thing ... including drivers.

Might not be a bad idea, since you're starting with a clean slate, to check the machine's vendor site to find out if there's an updated BIOS available. The machine's vendor also is the first place to look for updated drivers; often a vendor will have a specific, proprietary driver for stuff like sound or video ... definitely worth checking. Make sure there's a current antivirus, firewall (Windows' own firewall is better than nothing, but not by much), and anti-yuckware solutions in place before doing any web surfing, eMail checking, or chat/messaging.

As soon as the machine is set up, fully updated, and functioning properly, its not a bad idea to clear System Restore, empty all caches/temporary files and the the Recycle bin, defrag the machine, and establish a fresh, known-good "Clean" restore point (holler if you want help with any of that).

Thanks Timber. I know the windows and office software is all good, or assume so, because it was in the original package, unopened. One issue: It no longer seems to recognize the wireless card, even after I installed the software. It shouldn't matter that I don't have a wireless network set up, should it? I don't know what to make of that. I know the card was working, though crawling, before the switch.

I take it this is a laptop? Is there also an ethernet network solution?

Doubt there's anything wrong with the card, whether its a laptop or not, but since there's gonna be giga updating to do, it'd be nice to just get that out of the way, get everything else sorted out, then get into whatever might be the wireless card's problem. One thing I would try right off the bat though would be (assuming I had appropriate backup versions handy) uninstall all drivers/software for the card, and "remove" the card in Device Manager - a reboout after doing that, and reinstalling any necessary drivers/software not added via device discovery on boot, might be the ticket. Its also possible updated drivers for the wireless card are available - I'd look into that, too.

Yep. Laptop. The power light blinks, but the signal one does nothing, and it just shows a X across the "bars" as if there were no card at all. I'll try your suggestions tomorow. Thanks again.

Uninstalling the Wireless Card did the job. No sooner did I uninstall and reboot; windows "found new hardware".

One last question (hopefully); When I reinstalled the operating system, it seems to have created a second OS. Do I now need to Delete the first (that actually comes up second in line during restarts)? And if so, how?

There is two approaches for this, but ill explain one way..

1.) Right click on "My Computer".. go to properties..click the "Advance" tab..and click the "settings" button down by "Startup and Recovery."

2.) Click the edit button.

3.) Boot.ini should come up in notepad. First I recommend clicking file, then save as.. and save it as "boot.old" to make a copy of the original just in case if anything goes wrong. (Which it shouldn't, but if it was to at least you have backup.) Then close notepad.

4.) Click edit again. (The reason why I had you close it was because any changes you would have done at that point would have only been for the "boot.old" file, but you need to be able to edit the actual file. So when you reclick the button, it opens the current boot.ini file)

5.) you should see something like this in that file.
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

if you see two different ones in there like that, remove the second one, the whole line..so that all is left is

"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect"

then click file, save and restart.