Okay . . . re "REINSTALLATION" of Windows . . .

[defendandprotect]

I've found all of my stuff --

Turns out that the windows program and a lot of other stuff was PRE-INSTALLED

on my computer --

Which is what all the discs say --

All the discs are unopened --

"ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER"

"REINSTALLATION CD
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDITON
INCLUDING SERVICE PACK 2"

And the package has a bunch of numbers all over it --

don't know which one would be the KEY . . . but I'll go to Leo when I'm ready and

try to find out --

I've moved Leo's instructions over to my husband's office computer so anytime we

want to copy the instructions or refer to them we can -- even if my computer is out.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING LEO IS SAYING ABOUT PARTITIONS . . .

WILL HAVE TO RE-READ ALL OF THAT --

But at least I've gotten this far ----


And hope that this helps anyone else wondering about their computer and their

"reinstallation CD's" . . . ???


OTOH, the info about Microsoft/Windows/Internet Explorer is very disturbing and makes

me think again of using Linux . . .

What an insane waste of time all of this is!!!

Who's profiting from all of this crap????

Another deluge on the consumer!!!

[Syrinx]

1. the windows xp key is...

Five groups of alphanumeric characters separated by hyphens. It looks something like this:

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

See one like that on there?

[defendandprotect]

3. Nope . . .I do have ...

CA - OH8412 - 60212 - 49Q - OJXO

And then each CD has numbers on it as well --

The Word Perfect CD for instance has

DP/N 0T7166 Made in USA

US-0T7166-53590-49L-7802

???????????????

[hobbit709]

2. If it was preinstalled, the key should be on the sticker

on the bottom or back of your computer.

partitioning means turning your hard drive into two or more logical drives. You can specify how much space to give each one. The advantage to that is by keeping all your data files on the D drive, if you ever have to do this again and format C drive, you will not lose the data on D drive.

[defendandprotect]

4. Loosely understand what you mean . . . but it is part of the instructions for wiping out

the existing records --

seems you have to partition???

Why complicate things --


You know I hate Microsoft and all it's products --

I have a list I was just trying to alphabetize -- about 100 items

Everything is needlessly and insanely complicated -- for what reason I have no idea!!

Still haven't gotten the list alphabetized because the instructions are so nuts!!

Used to be you hit one button -- "alphabetize" -- ???

Couldn't all be more illogical!!

[MyNameGoesHere]

5. if it came from the reseller then it is

a pre-installed version on the CD. Which usually means they inserted the cd key for you. It is a common practice.