What did my mom do to her desktop?

gregrocker said:

You can do that if you have the Recovery Disk set, then immediately after it starts go to Windows Updates to Check for Updates, install all Important and Optional to get the latest drivers and patches that makes your system run better.

However the factory install is the worst install of Win7 one can have. I'd do the much better Clean Reinstall Windows 7
so Win7 is not loaded down with all the bloatware.

Are there programs that came with the PC that your Mom uses? We can help you find these to include in the Clean Reinstall.

I used the recovery disks that she has and it couldn't install the OS or something like that.

update: When I put the 3rd and final disk in it gets to like 78% then a message pops up saying "ecovery manager could not restore your computer using the factory image. Please contact hp support. Error code:0xe0ef0003

It's really, really easy.

crashhat said:

So how difficult is it to do a clean install?

There is nothing you need to do other than answering the questions.

Nope, that's a common mistake -

Follow Greg's tutorial step-by-step and you cannot fail.
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

If my daughter can do it, anyone can

crashhat said:

I have a 4gb flash drive, do just download the iso and put it on the flash drive?

That flash drive would be too small anyhow.