Windows 7 factory restore?

These are factory restore instructions for the XPS.

After you`ve restored using this method you should get an option to create restore dvds in case your restore partition ever becomes corrupted and unable to use the F8 method

1 Turn on the computer, when the Dell Logo appears repeatedly press the <F8> key until you see the Advanced Boot Options menu.

2 From the Advanced Boot Options highlight Repair Your Computer with the arrow keys and press <ENTER>.

3 Click Next >

and login to your administrator account on the computer. The administrator account is the account created the first time the computer was turned on.

4 Click Dell Factory Image Recovery and DataSafe options and follow the prompts provided.

http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-rep...

This is legal, because the disks do not have the product key. You have your own, on the side of your computer. Just type in the key on your box when it asks during installation. You may want to burn these using astroburn lite, or something similar.

Factory Restore instructions:

1: Backup all your files to cd/dvd. if possible as it's write/delete protected or a hard drive.

2: Consult your PC vendor site how to do a "factory restore". Old machines used a disk, new ones have a encrypted locked partition on the drive someplace usually called "Recovery". Try F8 upon boot> Repair Computer. Before you start, make sure the computer can't connect to the Internet. This may mean turning off your router and disconnecting Ethernet cables. You need to be on power (no battery).

3: Note that your going to lose everything, that's the object. And get the machine like it was when you bought it. (All self installed programs you'll install again from fresh sources later)

The factory restored anti-virus, Flash, Java, Reader, and all old programs on it are extremely vulnerable. These all your going to have to remove, along with the PC vendor bloatware, trial ware, games and other garbage. In your Add/Remove Programs.

If you don't do this, these old programs will get on line and do a update as soon as you boot up and your machine can get pawned as there are bots just waiting for this old software to make a on line connection. This is why you don't want any possibility of a Internet connection until they are removed and you can't disconnect from a network until you boot into Windows, so you need to turn off your router/modem, unplug any cables first, before booting into the factory restored Windows. When you clean out things, you really just want Windows, essential drivers and nothing else if possible. Enable your Windows Firewall in Security. PC Decrapifier can assist in removing stubborn programs, bloatware and the like, highly recommended. If you screw up, just do a system Restore or another Factory Restore and start over. Reboot between program removals to make sure Windows works as expected.

Install and activate the free Microsoft Security Essentials anti-malware. I advise MSE for now (change later if you wish) during doing the numerous Windows updates, as it won't interrupt to beg you for cash or updates/upgrades, also MSE will update with the Windows Updates.

4: Now get on line with a wired Ethernet connection to a fast Internet service at home, because (Vista over 200 updates, 2 days) and Windows 7 (SP1 + Win Live, a few hours) is going to take some time. Windows Update is in your Control Panel/Security or Start Menu > All Programs. Also, if some updates don't install or Windows is acting unusually slow or problematic, you might have to wait a day until your Windows version gets validated by Microsoft, then everything will work just peachy and you can continue to update.

Vista updates are going to be especially painful, just rinse, reboot and repeat over and over until you get them all and there is nothing more it will give. Check the Start Menu > Shutdown for a indicator that it's going to install updates and perform the restart.You must keep clicking the "check for updates" until it's really clear. :)

5: Once the updating pain is over, you need to do a Windows Disk Cleanup and a Defrag before adding programs. (important for speed!) This can take hours. Will make Windows considerably faster, especially Vista.

6: Optional (good for notebooks): You can head to Performance > Advanced Setting and tone down Windows eye candy. Set to custom and delete everything but four options, the thumbnails, font and box smoothing and the last one. (or Windows will look like basic XP)

7: Make sure you do a System Restore Point of this "pristine" and very fast Windows. If you have the ability to make System Restore Disks and Images to DVD's DO IT!! Save yourself having to do this again one day.

8: Now install your programs and plugins: Flash, Java, Firefox 4 (fastest and the best) VLC, LibreOffice. CCleaner. etc.., Recommended sites: Qualy's Browser Check/ Mozilla Browser Check.

9: If your computer is still slow, check the RAM. Windows 7 & Vista needs 2GB just for themselves and two processing cores or better (hyper-threaded don't count). So add more to your 4GB max (or more if your on 64bit). Check Crucial.com to make sure you get the right RAM specs for your computer. Also if you have poor integrated graphics, you'll need even more RAM.

10: Do a malware scan of the external drive/cd/dvd's before transferring files, always download new versions of programs from fresh sources so they are free of lingering malware. If all possible, use a Mac or Linux machine to scan for malware as they are much safer operating systems by default. Free ClamXav for OS X, ClamWin for Windows, Clamav for Linux. Update those malware definitions before a scan.

Good Luck! :)

There might be an F-key you can hit. It varies from computer to computer though. Check your computer's documentation (if you still have it).