best way to 'completely clean' my windows 7 install without actually formatting?

snow patrol · 19 Dec 2013 at 08:47

hi all,

i'm going to be loaning my uncle my pc system whilst i live elsewhere for a while. It's got windows 7 installed, and obviously given that i've been using it on and off for a couple of years it has various programs and chrome etc that has passwords stored on it.

unfortunately i've lost the win7 install disk so i'd rather just make the OS as 'fresh' as possible, and remove as many traces of my fingerprint as it were, from the system. (i'm not talking about dodgy stuff hah!)

what's the best way to do this?

EdwardTeach · 19 Dec 2013 at 08:57

You can download a w7 iso and just use your existing licences key to perform a clean install. I believe there are a few programs that can tell you your licence key if you have lost the case.

bledd · 19 Dec 2013 at 09:12

Create a new user account, delete your own.

That will be 'enough' if giving it to a relative.

KIA · 19 Dec 2013 at 17:21

EdwardTeach said:
You can download a w7 iso and just use your existing licences key to perform a clean install. I believe there are a few programs that can tell you your licence key if you have lost the case.

This. OP might want to zero the free space if he's paranoid.