Vista - Help with reinstall of OS

My friend has a Hewlett Packard desktop computer that is approximately 3 years old. She is running Windows XP. All she has is the repair installation disk.

She let one of her teenage grandsons get on her computer this past weekend and now she has 2 viruses that her security program says can't be removed. She originally had 3 viruses but the one that was located in the registry seems to be gone. The other two are both located in
CSIDL_SYSTEM\uac*.dll

She chose to quarantine the files, but every time she scans it picks them up again. She is using SecureIt which is provided through our ISP. She can boot her computer but she can not get online.

We live in a rural community and the nearest computer repair shop is 100 miles away. Based on everything she's described to me I think her best bet is a reinstall of the OS. I'm asking someone to help me help her.

Would a repair installation get rid of these viruses?

Can someone tell me how to do it, or give me a link that will explain it clearly?

Any help would be so much appreciated.

Thank you

Hello Nikilet,

The needed links will help you to install the XP on your friend computer. Before you start reinstalling the OS try to get all needed drivers for the machine she has and burn them on the disc. You should find the current drivers which are on the computer in the Device Manager, so make the list of all of them and download them from this site HP Customer Care and follow the steps in these links that show how to install the XP How to Install Windows XP and How to Install XP on a SATA Hard Drive.

I hope this helps you somehow.

Cheers...

I thank you so much, but I still have a question. Both of these instructions say to insert the Windows XP cd, and that's the problem. She doesn't have one. All she has is that Repair Installation disk. I didn't think that could be used in place of the actual Windows xp cd.

Hi Nikilet

Go to Securelt web site,download there removal tool for the viruses you have, some viruses need a removal tool.

Hello Nikilet,

Well, that's a little problem, if you don't have the XP installation disc. This repair installation CD you mentioned, is it the one which your friend got along with computer from the manufacturer? If so, my guess is, that's the installation disc, sometimes the computer companies provide the installation CD under the different name. You can boot from it and check what you got. Also you can try to ask and borrow the XP cd from friends and during installation use the activation key from your sticker.