newbie with littered up computer

[moonwork]

Please don't holler (or faint) until you read it all....

Admittedly... I am someone that likes to turn on the computer and it work... without any reason to know why it works.

Admittedly... I have 2 sons that like music and you can only imagine where they got songs from... and many other programs.

Admittedly... I may have royally screwed up by wanting to clean up the computer.

It's running XP Home (upgrade)...please don't ask about motherboards or anything inside without telling me how to find it (very slowly tell me)...I only know it has openings where I can put in CDs, DVD's, Floppies and Zips.

Like a good mom I said I could take off all the old programs and clean off the major (and I do mean major) amount of downloaded music/programs.

I was running Norton's that automatically updated daily. It appears that several downloads brought nasties with them that have given me headaches over and over.....sooooooo I thought it would be easiest to just reinstall XP and get rid of all the old garbage and start with a nice clean computer.

Ok, those of you that haven't fallen to the floor groaning "how could she", here's the rest of my blues....

Not only did it bring all the old files over that I wanted to disappear, it doesn't show them on the add/remove program listings...they are on the "c" drive listing. I am afraid at this point to try and remove them. I have "clicked" on them ... some work, some don't.

How can a simple newbie mom get a clean computer (without buying a new one thank you...)?

Type slowly and clearly.... I get lost easily.

Thanks

[Detritus]

Hello, what brand of computer, and do you have the original disks that came with the system.

[bailey]

the fastest way to fix that is to do a restore to a date when you know it was running good, like before you did the updates, and all should be working good again,
this is one of the great features of xp that I like so much.
it has saved a lot of problems.

[moonwork]

Wish I could tell you...

The computer came from a friend. He had it made at a computer store so it isn't a "brand"

I do have the XP upgrade disc and the ones for my scanner and printer ... no others though

[moonwork]

Thanks Bailey for that suggestion.... the stuff has been gaining strenght in numbers for over 1 1/2 yrs so the restore is outta the question.

[bailey]

restore points are only created when something has been added or changed with the system,
its worth a try, if it don't work, you can always go back.
also did you think od doing a repaire install, that will fix a lot of things too without loosing data

[moonwork]

well, for giggle, I tried to do a restore... but since I already reinstalled xp I don't have any restore points.... (warned you I royally did it)

[bailey]

ok, well that did take care of that idea pretty good.

so you just want to get rid of the downloaded music, thats no problem just delete the folder there in.

I would also disable norton utilites for the time being, it will fight everything xp wants to do.
when in safe mode, do a good check for errors, this will fix any bad files,
do a complete defragmentation.
do a good virus scan with another free program that can be downloaded from the internet called avg it will catch the others don't.
run a program called spybot, it will search the hard drive for any spyware.
download and run adaware, it will search the hard drive for any advertising pop up adds and remove them.

with the exception of installed programs like kasa that should be removed the very first thing, you should have a pretty clean system now

is this too much

[moonwork]

all that is good....

I have removed the programs that I know... it's all the programs that have names that are meaningless to me that I can't remove cuz I don't know what they are. I don't know what are "good" necessary files and which are bogus ones.

I want to get rid of the everything and start from scratch....There are so many programs that have only been "deleted" with lingering files I'm sure. Since I can't use the add/remove function all I can do is go to the list on "c" and hit delete.

I have the program disks that I want to put back and my data that I want burned off also...sooooooooo there is nothing on here that I want to keep.

[bailey]

ok do you have the xp cd and the cd key