Product recovery involves repairing an existing installation of Windows. A repair installation can be used to repair damaged and corrupt settings and files while leaving all your data and programs intact.

The advantage to performing a repair is that you do not need to re-install any applications, restore any data, or reconfigure any of your settings. The downside of this type of installation is that it does not clean up your system at all. In other words, it does not remove any clutter that has accumulated on your computer.

The basic steps for performing a repair are as follows:

1. Boot your computer using the Windows XP CD.
2. When prompted press Enter to install Windows XP.
3. After pressing F8 to accept the End-Use License Agreement, setup should detect your existing Windows installation.
4. Press R to begin the recovery process.
5. Setup will copy the necessary files to your hard drive and then reboot.
6. Do not press any key to boot from the CD-ROM this time. Instead let setup continue.

After the repair is complete, be sure to reinstall the latest service packs and updates since they will have been removed during the repair process.