Cleaning my pc.

[Strider]

I've been letting my girls use my pc as I have a laptop. I'm thinking of going back to it though, but it's full of crap and slow as he'll. What's the best way of cleaning it up without losing windows office etc?

[abigsmurf]

Delete your c:\work\other\important\backup folder first

Defragment, uninstall as much as possible, delete as many files as possible go into the registry and clean up the start up.

Really though the best option will be a format though

[Strider]

would a format not lost windows though I got this pc from PC world about 2 years ago and it didn't come with any discs for vista etc. It was all preinstalled.

[averybluemonkey]

You can get the Windows license key from one of the registry settings and then use any Vista disc as far as I'm aware. Can't remember which regid it is though, worth checking on MS support.

[Sane]

Usually when PC's come like that they have the windows files on a separate partition so you can format/reinstall from there. Try going into the setup menu when the PC starts up.

[huxley]

You can get the Windows license key from one of the registry settings and then use any Vista disc as far as I'm aware. Can't remember which regid it is though, worth checking on MS support.

Carefull doing this as a retail disc and the oem key may not play nice.