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Reader Linus Huang
asks: I have an old
Windows XP Pro laptop which I want to give to an acquaintance. How could I go
about safely deleting my data and all other localizations while leaving the OS
intact and the system immediately usable? Unfortunately I don’t have the XP
installation discs (I acquired the system from a used computer store) so I
can’t just wipe the hard drive and reinstall XP from scratch.

There’s no 100 percent
foolproof, super-reliable way to do what you’re proposing without wiping the
hard drive, but since you’re giving the computer to a friend, I think we can
get you close. Here’s what I recommend you do, step by step. (All of the tools
mentioned here are free.)

1. Run anti-spyware applications, including Ad-Aware and Spyware
Doctor (both free; get Spyware Doctor in the Google Pack, just unselect the
other options), in their most secure modes. This will help delete any
personally identifiable tracking cookies.

2. Uninstall everything you can. Getting rid of applications (especially third-party web
browsers like Firefox) is a good first step (just use the Add or Remove
Programs control panel), as uninstalling will often take with them
personalization information. It will also make it easier to delete data files,
which we’ll get to in a moment. Don’t remove anything critical for system
operation, like the touchpad driver.

3. Delete data files. Hopefully most of your data is in the My Documents
folder, but scour the hard drive, especially the C:\ root directory and the
C:\Documents and Settings directory for wayward files. Next search through the
C:\Program Files directory and delete any remnants of programs that you
uninstalled in step 2. Just delete the whole folder. This is the most important
step, so spend time on it.

4. Delete Internet Explorer user data. Microsoft offers a series of tutorials on how to
delete cookie files no matter which browser you have. Assuming you’re running
IE7, though, you’ll want to purge all user information (especially stored
passwords) using the Tools > Delete Browsing History function. Just click
Delete All to scrub it away. Though not a problem with modern browsers, you
should also run an index.dat hidden file remover as discussed in this post,
just in case.

5. Run CCleaner. This will scrub the registry for you, removing as much
personal data as possible along the way.

6. Delete all user accounts except one. Do this in the User

Accounts

control panel.

7. Look in the Start Menu for the "My Recent
Documents" folder. Clear this folder by following the instructions on
this page.

8. Empty the trash.

9. Wipe free space. Use BCWipe (see screenshot)
to scrub out all the free space in the drive. This way, files you deleted won’t
be able to be recovered.

You’re finally done!

This is indeed a pretty
involved process and, as discussed, there’s no guarantee it will get every
single shred of personal data off your system. It’ll get most of it, but
probably not everything, so it’s a good idea to make sure you can’t hunt down
an XP installation disc or a system restore disc before doing this all by hand.
You could also try installing an Ubuntu Linux
operating system instead, which would leave the computer perfectly operable,
just not with Windows.

Source: Yahoo