I have an annoying problem
I recently re-installed windows xp to my computer, hoping that this wold clear it out completely. I used the least destructive option however.
now the computer still think old programs are installed, so when i try and intall for example, acrobat reader, it won't because it says the program is already installed, and when I try to un-install the old program, it cant do that either. What can I do??

Hi,

If you want to clear it ou completely you need to format the hard disk. Boot off your Windows XP CD and choose the option to format the driver which currently has XP installed on it (probably your C: Drive) Then do a clean install of XP onto the drive once formatted.

I don't have an XP disc I just have a recovery disc and the format option on there is what caused this problem, is there any other way you can help me?

the recovery disk should still work .. try installing partition magic 8 or so and split your hdd into another partition and copy all the data to the new partition you want to keep now reboot the pc and boot off the cdrom then delete the c:\drive partition then recreate it and choose to format it ... I'd advise formatting it using NTFS instead of FAT32 and continue with the normal install.

If you dont have partition magic download a free evaluation copy.

Hope this helps