I just bought a used ibm thinkpad running XP PRO. It came with a whole lot of junk on it. I’m thinking it was used at one time by a large company and then either sold or given to the employee. When it boots up a window asking me to press alt-control-delete appears. Then it asks for a user name and password. I’m given the choice to log on to two networks and the laptop. I don’t have the name or passwords to the two networks, but I do have administrator rights to the laptop. Also there is some business orientated software installed and old word and excel files from like 2003. I would just like to get rid of all of this stuff. The laptop came with no software or boot discs. I would really just like to keep the OS. I was thinking of using a different OS and just formatting the whole thing, but I have a copy of office 2007 that I want to install. Is there a magic reset button that brings it back to factory settings getting rid of third party software and files and extra users? Thanks.
Ps: I just thought of this. How do I know there aren’t any lurking viruses and trogons? I ran AVG free on it and it came up clean, but I would like to be extra safe.
You weren’t given the OS disc? That’s not good. There may be some way to restore it to factory settings; if you hit one of the F keys during boot-up (F2, F7, or F12 I think are the common keys) one should drop you into the BIOS setup, and there may be an option to restore factory defaults there.
If you had the OS disc, or at least an OS disc, one of those keys I mentioned ought to bring up a boot menu, and you could choose to boot to the CD, where it would format the hard drive and re-install Windows.
If i has an OEM XP Pro licence sticker on it you can use any OEM xp pro disk to reload it clean. you should be able to find drivers on the manufactururers website. Burn them to a cd before starting the reload.
it does have a oem xp pro sticker on it but all i have is a xp home disk from last year when i installed it on my desktop. i don’t suppose that would work?
Nope. XP Home and XP Pro are not interchangeable. And it sounds like you’ve already used the XP Home license on a different computer so you won’t be able to install it on the laptop.
It’s also possible that a generic XP install disc won’t work with the IBM-specific license number on the laptop, but if the install disc comes with a license, it’s a moot point.
Shoot me down in flames if I am incorrect in this but I believe that the XP license permits it being installed on a fixed computer and a mobile one - worked for my son in law anyway.
You may therefore be able to legally install your XP Home on the laptop too.
If you can, I’d think you’d want to completely reinstall the OS (or a new OS) anyway. God knows what ghosts of software past are clogging it up, and sucking up performance.
All you should have to do is obtain an OEM XP Pro CD from anywhere. The key on the sticker is valid. OEM licenses stay with the computer indefinitely. When XP asks you for the product key, use the one on the sticker. The only thing to keep in mind is you may have to use phone activation.
i know this is true with windows office. i’ll have to dig out my XP home and give it a try. that way i can just boot and nuke the computer clean and start from scratch.
Actually, I recently installed my son in law’s copy of a Presario Laptop XP disc onto a (cabbaged) desktop Presario and it all went swimmingly, never even asked for the installation key or activation.
Both machines are working perfectly and have been validated and updated.
May be as they are both Presario’s of a similar vintage.
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