Com-Central.net

If you use Windows you know it's a matter of time before you have to reinstall your OS. I'm not knocking XP though, it's a great OS for the most part, but one of the big problems with reinstalling your OS is ALL the updates needs to be put back in and depending on how recent your copy of XP is, that may be awhile to download and install all of them.

There are two ways you can reinstall your OS with the updates on the first install...

1) Get a USB backup drive- Most everywhere the USB harddrives are cheap these days. Using a program such as Norton Ghost or Acronis will allow you to make an image file of your existing complete "C" drive making reinstalling your Image file a snap.

2) This is another way. There's a free program that will allow you to use your existing XP OS disk and let you merge files such as updates, special drivers, etc into a bootable disk. This program will also let you pick and choose programs to include or exclude. This program is called nLite and can be downloaded at THIS SITE.

Whatever method you choose, make sure you install your Anti-Virus software prior to connection to the net...

Been using nlite for a while.
nLite will also let you stream service packs into the new build, customise your install for region and what apps you want to install and you can put your COA number in as well to make the process automatic.

Rgr Kit and that's the one I've used in the past for the same thing...

It's nice to install a fresh copy of XP and have all the goodies already loaded once it's done...