I had the same problem with my wife's laptop, and asked the same question,
but never really got a decent answer. What I've gathered is that it depends
on the type of computer you have and how it is set up. It also depends on
how much you're willing to lose.
On a table-top computer I have, I simply went to the add-remove program
section and uninstalled XP. There was a back-up version stored on my hard
drive which automatically re-installed. I had to reinstall drivers for a
lot of my programs afterwards, but it did clean a lot of things up.
WARNING, I've learned that computer set-up is different from model to model,
and that function may not work, and may delete everything. I had a full
version of XP OS on CD-ROM, so I wasn't too concerned. Worst case, I could
simply reinstall XP from scratch, and there wasn't much on the computer I
couldn't do without. Most computers, however, don't have full copies of XP
as backup.
My recommendation is to first try a "restore." That re-sets your computer
configuration to a past point in time where the computer was running fine.
Click "Start," hover over "all programs," go to "accessories," then "system
tools," and select "system restore." Follow directions.
Good luck!
Max
