Need Desktop Help

[Grey Belnades]

I recently bought a new (not new but used) desktop and its been working pretty great but I recently took advantage of it by downloading Ares and downloaded a bunch of songs to my mp4. The problem is that now my desktop is slow and I want to delete everything so I can make it "new" but I really don't know how to do that and I want to be careful with this computer to make sure I don't break it like my last one so can anybody help? >.>

 

[Zolga Owns]

What do you mean delete everything?
All the music?


Do you just want speed up your machine?
If so look into getting a new RAM card for it.
(Which I can help you pick out if you want)

 

[Grey Belnades]

What do you mean delete everything?
All the music?


Do you just want speed up your machine?
If so look into getting a new RAM card for it.
(Which I can help you pick out if you want)

When I mean everything, I mean everything so that I would have to install Windows XP

 

[Mugquomp]

You're computer probably came with one or more CD's with Windows XP on them. Find those CD's, put the first one in the disc drive, restart your computer and boot from the disc. Follow the instructions to reinstall Windows.

That or something similar should work for what you're asking to do. But you'll loose all of your programs and data that wasn't originally on the computer.

 

[Sp133n]

Actually, if you want EVERYTHING gone, you assure you have your reinstall disk ready for Windows XP, and you run a drive wiping program that runs passes of 0's or random numbers over the drive, and boot from the CD and reinstall Windows. Just reinstalling Windows isn't as effective. However, I don't reccomend wiping the computer. Have you taken the simple steps?:






1)Download and Run CCleaner:
-Download CCleaner
-Run Cleaner with all checked
-Run Registry with all checked

2)Download and run Auslogics Disk Defragmenter
-Download and let it run on your drive

3)Uninstall old programs
-Yes

4)Delete unused desktop icons
-Hey, it's a good habit =P

5)Install and use Google Chrome =P

At least do the first 2, they're a definite help, and require no prior knowledge or much effort.







More advanced, you can:

1)Run msconfig
-Start>Run
-type "msconfig"
-Goto startup
-Look after the last slash in the Location column to find the name
-look it up on http://www.processlibrary.com/
-If it says it's unecessary, and you feel you don't want it, disable it


Hope I helped?,
Sp133n!

 

[RipN]

Actually, if you want EVERYTHING gone, you assure you have your reinstall disk ready for Windows XP, and you run a drive wiping program that runs passes of 0's or random numbers over the drive, and boot from the CD and reinstall Windows. Just reinstalling Windows isn't as effective. However, I don't reccomend wiping the computer.

Running a program to rearrange the O's and 1's on the computer is NOT necessary. DBAN is an example of a program like this that does wonders, but not needed unless you're trying to hide something from the FBI (yes... even the FBI can't find anything on your computer if you wipe it with DBAN - German Standard - 7 times through leaves everything impossible to get off. U.S. Govt - 3 times leaves everything oh most impossible to get back) or sell the computer to another person and don't want to get them any chance to get any of your information back. In most cases, a clean wipe of the hard drive and install is the best case to restore the performance back to your computer. Another thing you may want to do is if you do download music, download them to a separate hard drive (get one in there if not already) and run a virus scan on it before opening it. There can be hundreds of embedded trojan horses, worms, viruses in a single song and that doesn't only take a toll on the computer, but it can take a toll on your personal information also.