Comments on: How to restore Windows XP to factory settings

By: mando

mando — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:55:32 +0000

Will writing programs like MS word still be in the computer once it is restored to factory settings?

By: rob

rob — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:02:48 +0000

I have a Gateway about 6 years old … does not have any factory restore built in. I tried F8, F10, F11 and also Alt with the previous Fkeys – did not work. Any more options I can try? how about software? any good ones I can buy? thx (I have XP SP3)

By: Jackie

Jackie — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:36:31 +0000

Have a Dell XPS M140. Hard drive had to be replaced, therefore, the ctrl F11 does not work. Any other suggestions on how to get the computer back to factory settings?

By: George Garcia

George Garcia — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:16:54 +0000

brayden: Try system restore on safe mode. if not go to msconfig and do a diagnostic start up. If you can get the computer to start up, try to down load Spybot.

By: George Garcia

George Garcia — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:13:49 +0000

I have found that when restoring Windows XP in a Dell, you have to set your Bios CDROM as first on the boot order.

You may have to get rid of the os option. You can do that in control panel/system/advance/start up and recovery set the time to 1 second and the annoyance will be minimal.

By: Jean

Jean — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:34:30 +0000

I tried restoring my Dell windows xp to factory setting but the cntr+F11 doesn’t work. What’s should I do? Thanks

By: JMT

JMT — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:19:50 +0000

I tried taking my PC back to factory settings by using the four Windows XP Home SP1 System Recovery CDs that came with my computer.

It goes through all four CDs and looks like it’s installing everything, but at the end, it won’t start Windows. I saved all of my files to an external hard drive, so that’s not a worry, but I can’t get the computer to work at all except for repeating the “install” process over and over.

Any ideas?

By: Rachelle Campbell

Rachelle Campbell — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:01:18 +0000

I have a virus on my computer and it won’t let me go to any microsoft sites, it will say Bad URL and won’t let me download anything from Microsoft! i want to set my computer back to factory settings to remove the virus. i did it once before but, can’t remember how! i have windows vista

By: J

Mon, 03 May 2010 05:16:26 +0000

If I restore my computer, will i have to reload my printer software and word processor software and antivirus software, etc?

By: brayden

brayden — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:14:48 +0000

my acer notebook has just download a defense software call personal security and it locks down all my programs except windows explorer and wont allow me to do a system restore, what do i do, and my parents will kill me if they find out

By: andre

andre — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:04:15 +0000

i have spyware on my windows xp computer. it loads but restarts so i can’t log in. how do i restore my computer without logging in?

By: luke

luke — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:01:45 +0000

I’ve lost my Windows taskbar and its not coming back. Should I do this to reset Windows?

By: Siva

Siva — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:39:52 +0000

Thanks for share this article and useful information. I run a small company and had to restore a PC to factory settings. Your instructions helped.

By: gerardo

gerardo — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:31:26 +0000

Hi, I have a big problem. My hard disk crashed and I bought a new hard disk, but the people at the store told me I need to format the new hard disk. But my computer has a licensed copy of Windows XP and if I start with a new disk, how will I be able to install Windows XP without the old license?

By: cody

cody — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:56:53 +0000

I don’t know what these other people did but your suggestion worked flawlessly the first time and was very easy to execute.