Aging XP

[PVR]

I have a 4 years old laptop with WinXP/2. Things have started to go wrong.
My Outlook Express often stalls out but this may be an interaction with my
MalWare suite (CA Security Center). I have tried to install the most recent
Google Earth but the install stalled out. Google Earth installed OK on my
tower (XP) and on my wife's Vista laptop. These are just 2 examples.

Question. Is it possible to reinstall XP from my distribution CDs which came
with the laptop without loosing my settings or installed programs? I could
export/import my Registry but this might just reintroduce the old problems
to the new installation.

Peter.

 

[VanguardLH]

I have a 4 years old laptop with WinXP/2. Things have started to go
wrong. My Outlook Express often stalls out but this may be an
interaction with my MalWare suite (CA Security Center). I have tried to
install the most recent Google Earth but the install stalled out.
Google Earth installed OK on my tower (XP) and on my wife's Vista
laptop. These are just 2 examples.

Question. Is it possible to reinstall XP from my distribution CDs
which came with the laptop without loosing my settings or installed
programs? I could export/import my Registry but this might just
reintroduce the old problems to the new installation.

Laptops rarely come with retail versions (and their install CDs) of
Windows. The recovery CDs are often images which wipe the partition or
they do a fixed install that puts the partition in the delivery-time
state. You will probably lose everything in that partition.