For most non-techies, I guess the initial step to learning how to restore Windows XP to factory settings would be to first understand the meaning of the term ‘Factory Settings’. It’s really quite simple, ‘Factory Settings’ refers to the initial state of the computer immediately following an new installation of Windows XP operating system.

But, the question begging to be asked is why would you want or have a need to restore your computer to this state?

There are actually several reasons why you may need to restore XP to factory settings. The first and most common is the existence of stubborn spyware that your antivirus program is unable to resolve or changes that harm your computer e.g. installing a new program or making changes to the system registry.

By resetting your system to a period before the system got infected, you essentially clean it by getting rid of any junk third party software and/or resolving any harmful changes. Spyware causes computers to run slowly and sometimes behave in an annoying manner such when ads keep popping up out of seemingly nowhere.

Restore Process

To restore Windows XP to factory settings you need to perform a complete system restore. Make sure you have the original Windows XP installation CD/DVD or a restore CD/DVD if one was provided by your vendor. Restoring your system will completely delete all the data you have on your computer and it will therefore be a good idea to perform a data back-up.

To perform a back-up of the files and documents you need, go to ‘Start-Accessories-System Tools-Backup’ as shown in the screen capture below.

Follow the onscreen prompts as shown below to select the files and documents you want to back-up.

You need to have some large enough media where you will back-up your data. This could be an external hard drive or DVD.

After your data back-up is successful, you need to reboot your computer. Before you do so, insert the CD/DVD. By default, your computer should attempt to reboot from the CD/DVD and you will get an installation screen. Follow the on screen prompts to restore XP. Make sure you select the NTFS file system as opposed to FAT32 since it is more stable and allows for more advanced security features. The process should take about 30 minutes. You might be wondering why you cannot just run the CD/DVD menu from ‘My Computer’. The reason is because the XP version you are running is likely to be much newer than the installation or recover CD/DVD due to updates and service packs. If you attempt to run it in this way you will get a error message.

Partial System Restore

If you sure when you begun encountering problems on your machine, you can actually restore the settings to a period just before this date – a restore point automatically saved in the system registry. For example, you may be sure that your computer begun acting funny after visiting a certain site on a particular day. To restore the settings to a period before this date, use the ‘System Restore’ feature which can be accessed by going to ‘Start-Accessories-System Tools-System Restore’, as shown in the screen cap below.

Select ‘Restore my computer to an earlier time’ and in the next screen select a restore point that corresponds to the date just before you begun experiencing problems with your computer.

Click ‘Next’ and a system checkpoint date as shown below.

Click ‘Next’ to confirm the selection as shown below.

Follow the rest of the screen prompts to complete the process. If you got the dates right, you will find that your computer performs normally after completing this process.

Even with Windows Vista released, Windows XP remains to be a true favorite by plenty of desktop and business users. Windows XP however is a bit more vulnerable to hacks, spyware, and all kinds of malware that may possibly damage the registry. Even the most careful users can encounter these problems so preventative measures are quite difficult and the registry can crumble overtime if these problems aren’t solved, which is why we recommend the use of an XP Registry Cleaner to check your system on a regular basis.

There are plenty of good registry scanners and cleaners out there, but they can take some time depending on the size of your registry and how long you had the operating system installed without a format. Also, the fixes can be a tad risky sometimes because they are prone to errors and do not necessarily make your registry structure flawless.

But making a habit in backing up the registry regularly when the system is performing is okay could make solve damaged registry problems much faster and guaranteed. Guaranteed because you know exactly what is being applied because you are literally restoring an old configuration that works properly.

The good news in backing up a windows registry in Windows XP is that no 3rd party tools are needed. In fact, there are 2 built in Windows tools that can do the backup and restoration jobs pretty smoothly.

1. Microsoft Registry Editor

Windows XP has a program that isn’t located in your Start menu called the Microsoft Registry Editor. It is a program for advanced users to edit entries in the registry when problems arise. What most people don’t know is that there is a hidden feature in the program that can back up the full registry or back up selected areas. Before backing up the registry, make sure you have available hard disk space as the file may consume much.

Here are the steps on how to perform a full registry backup in 10 easy steps:

1. Bring up the “Start” menu.
2. Go to “Run”.
3. Type “regedit” in the textbox there.
4. When the Registry Editor loads, click the “File” menu item.
5. Select the “Export” menu item.
6. When the dialog appears, click the “Desktop” button on the sidebar so the backup saves on the desktop.
7. On the filename field, type something descriptive (preferably the date).
8. On the “Export Range” option group found below, select the “All” option.
9. Click “Save”
10. The file should appear on your desktop where you can then put it in a storage device, burn it on CD, or place it in another folder.

2. System Restore

Windows XP’s System Restore tool can also perform a full backup along with other settings outside the registry so choose this option if you wish to have a more solid backup. It is important to have these scheduled so that the restoration process won’t cause many problems. Keep in mind that System Restore must be turned on first and if your System Restore is disabled, enabling it will consume a portion of your hard disk space so if you don’t like this method, stick to the Windows Registry method.

Backing up the system using System Restore is pretty easy and can be performed by doing these 5 steps:

1. Bring up the “Start” menu.
2. Go to “Run”.
3. Type “%SystemRoot%system32restorerstrui.exe” in the textbox there. If it asks you to turn on system restore, click “Yes”. Remember that enabling System Restore eats up some hard disk space.
4. When the System Restore loads, click the “Create a restore point” and then click “Next”.
5. On the next page, give the restore point an appropriate name and then click “Create”.

In most cases, the Windows Registry method should do the job. Whenever you install or remove new software, try performing additional backups to give you a more recent recovery path in case the Windows Registry gets corrupted. For even more secure measures, you can try performing both methods in backing up the registry since both are fairly easy to do anyway. The registry is the heart of your system and keeping backups on the side can save you much time and even avoid the need in reinstalling Windows if a problem arises.

Sometimes you find yourself in the position of needing to manually edit the Windows registry for some reason, if you are in this position, then this article can show you how to do it. However, it is always advised that if you do not know what exactly you are editing, and what affect it will have on your system, you should not manually edit the registry and are best advised to run a Windows Registry Cleaner on your system instead.

The Windows Registry Basics

The Windows registry is at the heart of the Windows operating system. It is a large database which contains information on how your system works and all of the hardware and software installed on it. The registry talks with the Windows operating system every time you ask your computer to do something for you. Without the registry, Windows will not run and your computer will not boot-up.

The registry resides within the operating system and is for the most part hidden away. However, when you need to edit it you can see it by going to “Start”.

->Run
-> and typing in “regedit.”

This command brings up the registry database for you and allows you to make changes.

Because the registry is used by Windows to make you computer run, any changes you make are not always reversible if you do the wrong thing. You will notice that the registry does not give you the option to save or undo your changes, this is because any changes you make take effect immediately. Because of this, it is imperative that before you attempt to change anything that you are sure what the outcome will be.

Backing Up the Windows Registry

The good news is that you can make a backup copy of the registry just incase you ever need to restore it. To do this you will click on File->Export in regedit. This will give you the option to copy your registry. Make sure that you export it with a name you can remember and to a location that you can easily find! Click on the “Save” button and then go to the location you saved the file to and make sure that it is there.

Always backup your registry file before making any changes!

Windows Registry Structure

The registry contains five locations which are called “hives.” Within each hive are folders which are called “keys.” Within the keys are “sub-keys” which are known as “values.” You can easily see that there are thousands of keys, subkeys and values in the registry.

The five hives of the registry are:

* HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
* HKEY_USERS
* HKEY_CURRET_CONFIG

Windows Registry Navigation

To navigate in the registry you simply click on the hive on the left side of the regedit window. This will open up the directory on the right side of the window; this is the same process as navigating around in the Windows Explorer.

Making Changes to the Registry Values

To make changes to the registry values, simply navigate to the value you want to change by expanding the tree on the left, and make your edits on the right side of the window. It really is that simple!

Restoring the Registry if Something Goes Wrong

If something goes wrong while you are editing the registry, you can restore it using the backup file you made earlier. Thankfully, every time your computer restarts it writes a copy of the registry as a backup. If you have changed the registry and your machine will not boot, then allow it to boot to “Last Known Good Configuration” and it will rewrite its copy of the registry for you. If your system is simply unstable, then you can go back into regedit and click on File->Import and import back in the copy of the registry that you made. This will restore your system to the point before you edited.

As you can see, editing the registry is not for the faint at heart. However, as long as you are reasonably sure of what you are doing, and you backup the registry first, you should be fine.

If you would like to download a free registry cleaner, we recommend the use of PC Health Advisor, as in our tests this is the best performing repair tool on the market.