There are two types of installations - an upgrade/repair install and a
clean/pristine install that you do to a formatted system drive which is what
it sounds like you want to do. An upgrade/repair install will not get rid
of any malware or bad programs. When you do a clean install you must
reinstall all your applications even if your program files folder is on
another drive because they still need to be registered in the registry of
the installation. Any data or files stored on a drive different than the
system drive where the operating system is installed will be intact since a
clean install involves formatting only the system drive. Be sure you are
formatting only the system drive and always keep backups of any data you
value to offline media such as cdroms or DVD just in case. If you are using
XP Pro and have encrypted any files with EFS you must either decrypt them
first and/or backup your EFS certificate/private key to a password protected
..pfx file that is stored on external media before you do a clean
installation. You can not do an installation of the operating system without
reboots. I don't know where you got that information.
Be sure to backup/document any important data, my documents, emails, address
book, IE favorites, mail account configuration, newsgroup configuration, and
tcp/ip configuration before you do the install. I would also backup your
user profile under documents and settings. After you finish installation and
before you install anything I would install the service pack [download first
and burn to a cdrom] you are using and make sure your computer is protected
by a firewall BEFORE you connect to the internet. If you use only a software
firewall be sure to have a copy of your firewall software before you start
installation or you can enable the XP built in firewall. Then go to Windows
Updates and install all the critical updates your computer needs. Then
install your antivirus program, configure it for automated weekly full
system scans, to scan all email, enable live monitoring, and make sure it is
current with the latest definitions. Then you can start installing your
other applications. Finally restore any data that you need to from backup
but scan the backup media for viruses first. Also scan any other drives on
the computer for viruses. If you do not have a spyware program then download
something like AdAware SE and scan your computer weekly or when you suspect
problems for spyware making sure that you update it's definition files
first.
Then what I do after a clean install and before I ever browse the internet
is to use a image program like Norton Ghost [comes with Systemworks Pro] to
create an image of my system partition and either store it on another drive
or burn it to DVDs or both. That way if I have a problem with malware or
corruption I can restore my base installation in a matter of minutes instead
of having to go through all of the above. See the link below for details on
how to do a clean installation of XP. --- Steve
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp --- XP clean
install.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx
--- Protect Your PC tips.
