Episode #67
Reformatting and Reinstalling Windows XP

Well I have recently downloaded a couple of trial versions of anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and they’ve pretty much been telling me the same thing, that I have a trojan horse and some spyware that needs to be taken off my computer but, I would much rather reformat to take away any errors and speed up my computer, I haven’t reformatted for 3 years now, because I feel a bit stingy about going through with it, and I think it would be a good time to do so. I have a 500Gb external hard drive I could back al l my files from my C: drive onto. I also unfortunately didn’t get a windows xp home edition disc with my computer, but the product key is on the side of the computer. Should I try to get a copy of the disc from someone to re-install windows? My main question is though, could you help me to go through with this reformatting? I also was planning on buying a anti-virus, anti-spyware, internet security package, to clean up before I reformat, but all the programs I’ve looked at, haven’t shown to much promise with ratings, what would your recommendations be? Thanx in advance for the help!!

Drew, London, ON



Whether or not the key on the side of your computer will work with a copy of Windows that you borrow from a friend is uncertain — usually the copies of Windows XP that come with computers from a computer maker is considered an OEM copy, and the keys typically don’t work well with discs that aren’t from that batch. So it might work, but it very well might not.

The problem with most commercial anti-virus programs is that they have a really heavy touch these days — they gobble up system resources, and add a bunch of “features” that people may not want on their system. Big names like Norton or McAfee may be adequate for people who just want to install and go, and who aren’t concerned about the overhead, but those who want software with a lighter touch may want to consider mixing and matching. For Anti-Virus we typically recommend the free version of AVG (free.grisoft.com) for those who want to keep things less expensive. Then, make sure you have a couple of good anti-spyware packages too, like Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/), Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoft.de), or Microsoft’s own Defender (http://www.microsoft.com/defender/

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