Rick Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Ok, my parent's desktop PC has seen better days. There is nothing wrong with the hardware as far as i know, and it's not a bad spec either but there is so much crap on it causing problems - i just want to remove all the software/documents etc etc so i'm left with Windows and nothing else.What would be the best way forward to get to that point? There's nothing in XP that allows you to do that is there? Will it be easier to format it and reinstall windows? or is there a better method?Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.Rick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highvoltage Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 If you've got 'crap' on it, then formatting is your friend.Even if you were to remove all the programs, you'd be stuck with little ghosty bits that they leave behind and stuff. Registry entries, hidden and system files etc. Spyware and viruses leave a lot of stuff behind that slows your PC down too...So yeah - reformat it. It's pretty easy, and the whole process of formatting and resinstalling windows shouldnt take you more than an hour and a half or so. The speed you experience afterwards is worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_Sense_Of_Rage Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 It's called the Microsoft® Windows ® R3 System® - Retry, Reboot, Re-install.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>LOL plug and pray.... I think you actually have it backwards....if you want your comptuer to run great, its Windows that you need to get rid of, not everything else Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_Sense_Of_Rage Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 It's called the Microsoft® Windows ® R3 System® - Retry, Reboot, Re-install.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>LOL plug and pray.... I think you actually have it backwards....if you want your comptuer to run great, its Windows that you need to get rid of, not everything else <{POST_SNAPBACK}>UbuntuImo the most user-friendly linux distrobution. And completely free. I've actualy ordered it on cd-rom on their site. Completely free of charge.Still, you usualy need a bit more of computer insight then with Windows.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I didn't know about that version, looks good.Imagine that, having a computer that does what you want it to do and not what Windows wants it to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_Sense_Of_Rage Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 It's called the Microsoft® Windows ® R3 System® - Retry, Reboot, Re-install.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>LOL plug and pray.... I think you actually have it backwards....if you want your comptuer to run great, its Windows that you need to get rid of, not everything else <{POST_SNAPBACK}>UbuntuImo the most user-friendly linux distrobution. And completely free. I've actualy ordered it on cd-rom on their site. Completely free of charge.Still, you usualy need a bit more of computer insight then with Windows.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I didn't know about that version, looks good.Imagine that, having a computer that does what you want it to do and not what Windows wants it to do... <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It's also the highest ranking distrobution on Distrowatch.But if you're a linux fan, you do have to unlock the root account in order to do some things the advanced linux user would want to do. It's locked by default. But there are great guides for that on the net. I haven't tried it myself yet, but a collegue of mine managed just fine and he said it was pretty easy.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Actually under Mandrake you can log in as root without shutting down or logging off completely as user. It can be set up to prompt for a password when you try to access things that root owns exclusively. When you're done, it logs you out. Somewhat like fast user switching that's built into XP, except this version in linux actually works correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highvoltage Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 It's called the Microsoft® Windows ® R3 System® - Retry, Reboot, Re-install.LOL plug and pray.... I think you actually have it backwards....if you want your comptuer to run great, its Windows that you need to get rid of, not everything else UbuntuImo the most user-friendly linux distrobution. And completely free. I've actualy ordered it on cd-rom on their site. Completely free of charge.Still, you usualy need a bit more of computer insight then with Windows.I didn't know about that version, looks good.Imagine that, having a computer that does what you want it to do and not what Windows wants it to do... Imagine having a computer that doesn't give me runtime errors every 5 minutes........Oh wait - I have Windows, not Linux. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack99 Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 high and username are right but if you don't feel like spending time on reinstall you can go disable programs and services that autostarts.*Go to START-->Run...*Type "msconfig"*Uncheck entries that is not needed on the Services and Autostart tabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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