I reinstalled my operation system i got vista for a few reasons, (i backed up the files) and when it finished installing it i was kinda surprised because there like was nothing there, just empty computer, the desctop only had the recycle bin, the add/remove program in controll panel had NO programs what so ever lol. When i first bought my computer there were some programs, like those wind tangent games such as the pengiun game, polar bowler, that boat game, etc. It also had microsoft works, big fix, mcafee, you know all that shit, but now as i reinstalled the thing i thoguht that all those things would come back, are all those things just for one time only and when u reinstall theyre gone? Btw i have gateway gm5454e vista.

firstly unless you backed up the data on a separate hard drive or partition it will be deleted when you format the hard drive during the OS installation.

those starter programs are not part of the OS they are something the companies put on the computer before its shipped out. when you install just the OS they will not be there.

and to answer your other thread yes you can just format+install OS again to get rid of viruses and stuff.

on a side note some computers use a restore partition which will make it how it left the factory. if you used a disk for the OS you will just get the OS.