This will shut your computer down and then restart it. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD ROM and then select to restart from the start menu. If you are confident that you can safely lose EVERY PIECE OF DATA on this computer and you have backed up any data of any value to a totally separate box or media, let's continue.
Make sure all your valuable data is backed up to a burned CD on a separate disk or another PC. Please see my other article that covers which specific files you may wish to backup by hand. I would also recommend you have backed up your other files that you may wish to keep. Please make sure you do have a legal copy of Windows XP and your Windows XP CD Key for installation. The prerequisites for this article are pretty straight forward.
The purpose of this article is to hold your hand through installing Windows XP on a new computer or even reinstalling it on a current system that just needs to be reloaded for whatever reason. Installing Windows XP may or may not be something you have ever done or are even familiar with doing.
