QUESTION: I am interested whether you could give me advice of how to clean out my computer by re-formatting the Hard Drive and starting fresh again. I've done it once before about a couple years ago before I sold my old computer to a friend. My current computer will be running Windows XP Home edition but I thought before I upgrade and add new, or at least freshly installed, software and hardware that I'd like to clean up my hard drive first. Finally I thank you for your consideration.

ANSWER: You are correct in thinking that by far the best way to clean up your hard drive is to re-format and then to clean install your operating system.

Windows XP Home or Professional editions will mostly do it for you, including the format of the hard drive. Techies (who are completely comfortable with what they are doing) do this from time to time just to clean up the old bits of code, viruses and improperly uninstalled program remnants that accumulate as a consequence of use.

Of course, before you wipe the system drive, all personal documents, your e-mail address book and any files you want to keep etc. will have to be gathered together and saved on external media (zip's, cd's etc.) because they'll be cleaned out too. Use the Files and Transfer Settings Wizard in XP to gather them together before you wipe the HDD.

Start by booting from the XP CD. If your copy of Win XP Home is an upgrade version, early on in the process you will need to pop in for qualifying purposes an original of an earlier Windows Operating System CD such as Win98, Win98SE or Win ME.

Once the new install is in, set-up your Internet connection you can now go online and Activate Windows with Microsoft. This should be no problem if your copy of XP has never been previously Activated or if it has been more than 120 days since it was last Activated.

Download and incorporate all the Windows Updates. This can take a while even with DSL unless you can get a copy of Service Pack 1A on CD. The newer copper coloured XP CD's incorporate this already. I brought a brand new computer up to date two days ago. Even though it was fresh out of the box there were 33 updates available some of which have to be downloaded separately although many of them can be downloaded and installed in batches. Windows Update guides you through all this and you can hardly go wrong with the process. Make sure you download from the same Windows Update site any driver updates that they tell you are needed. Often this can make the difference between a piece of hardware working or not.

Install a current virus checker, download all the latest virus definition files and set it to auto-update. Also download and run a good spyware checker like Ad-Aware 6, as well.

Create clearly labelled Restore Points before every stage in case something goes wrong.

If you were able to collect your previous data using the Files and Transfer Wizard now you can now re-install all your previous items. Re-install applications. I find that to do the job properly including adding peripherals and the usual applications on an average computer takes me a few hours - but it is always worth doing. Let me know how it goes.

QUESTION: I have a Compaq computer running Windows XP that came with the Microsoft Works package. While this package comes with a number of great programs such as a word processor, a calendar, address book, database and money management, it does not have Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

Whenever I receive e-mails and attachments with extensions of .doc, or .pps, I cannot open them. For now I forward them to my office computer which runs Office2000 and am able to open them there. But that's not very convenient.

Also at times, I receive email attachments with just a small x in a box where a picture should be. These cannot be forwarded. I get a message telling me that the pictures are missing.

Is there a way to open these attachments without having to purchase the Microsoft package containing Word and PowerPoint? That package is quite expensive.

ANSWER: Every copy of MS Works that I have ever seen includes some version of MS Word since it's not much good without it. I think it is more likely that the one on your computer has become corrupted or that it was only a partial install. Do you have the software cd's still? Perhaps you could uninstall and re-install MS Works and get at least the extra facility needed to open Word .doc files. Files of the .pps type are recognised by Power Point and would be opened by this industry standard presentation software product if it was installed on your computer. Power Point is often a standalone product so I'm not too surprised that it apparently didn't come included with your version of MS Works. Concerning your missing downloaded photos; are you receiving any other types of attachments or are all attachments being stripped off your incoming e-mails? Here is the way to make sure that the current free Microsoft e-mail client, Outlook Express 6, will allow you to receive the attachments to your e-mails. In Outlook Express go to the main ‘Inbox' screen and on the toolbar at the top under Tools Options go to the Security tab and uncheck the box next to ‘Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus.'

You should now be able to open attachments. Certainly it will no longer be a setting on Outlook Express itself which is blocking the attachments. Of course this means that if an attachment does contain something undesirable it will now get through so you'll have to use your judgment about what you open. Another possibility is that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has an (over) active spam filter that is catching your e-mail photos. Since your e-mail originates outside Bermuda I can't help you but you can contact them and ask them if they can help or shed some light on the problem. Windows XP has very basic photo manipulation software included, certainly enough to open a .jpg, .bmp or.gif image file.

James W. Lapsley of ComputerWorks, specialises in PC repairs, upgrades and advice for the home and small office user. ComputerWorks welcomes your questions and comments. Send your PC questions by e-mail to computerworks@logic.bm or by phone to 293-0992.