[Ripshod]

I have a 3-year-old HP desktop. It came with Win98 and I later bought XP to upgrade. I'm buying a new computer and I want to give the HP to my ex-wife. (She's really a nice person - a whole different subject.)

I have already saved everything worth saving to CD. I want to wipe the disk clean and give it to her as a virgin system. I have my genuine XP disk but I don't know how to go about it. The disk's start menu doesn't have a 'start over' option but it seems that it shouldn't be that hard to do if you know what you're doing.

The XP disk is version 2002 and I know I'll have to install SP2 and probably update IE to the latest version (that's a separate upgrade, right?) and I'll probably install Acrobat Reader. I have broadband and she'll be on cheap dialup, so it's a lot easier to download apps before she gets it. What else should I download to make it more usable for a person who's even less computer savvy than I? She won't need lots of bells and whistles, but I don't want to forget something that she'll need for basic computing and net surfing.

BTW - she will also receive the XP disk and I will do the hookup at her house and install her printer for her. Yeah, I'm a nice guy.

Thanks,
Jerry
Knoxville, TN