Intended For Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows Me Windows 98

Since some new versions of Windows install new file systems, in addition to replacing most, if not all the program and support files, it is recommended that you simply reformat your hard disk in order to completely remove whatever version of Windows you've just installed.

Hint: if you're about to install a new version of Windows, it's a great idea to do a full backup of every file on your hard disk before you actually perform the upgrade. Details on backing up can be found in the Annoyances books.

Written by: Annoyances.org
Last updated: Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Previous discussions about this article:
(open a message to see applicable responses, if any)

• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 98?' (peter: Thursday, September 13, 2001)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 2000?' (Brenda: Wednesday, October 31, 2001)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 98?' (Lee Lengden: Friday, November 2, 2001)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 98?' (Jay: Tuesday, November 6, 2001)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 98?' (Arbab Shahnawaz: Thursday, November 22, 2001)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows xp?' (stephanie: Tuesday, December 18, 2001)
• [Windows 95] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (John Dinger: Friday, December 21, 2001)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Shiv: Saturday, December 22, 2001)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Shiv: Tuesday, December 25, 2001)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows XP?' (john: Monday, December 31, 2001)
• [Windows ME] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Whoosh!: Thursday, January 3, 2002)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (matthew walsh: Sunday, January 6, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (SRJ: Thursday, January 10, 2002)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (John: Saturday, January 19, 2002)
• [Windows ME] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (WR: Monday, January 21, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windowsxp (robin: Thursday, February 14, 2002)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I reboot Windows 98?' (Sean: Thursday, April 4, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows XP on dual OS?' (Jean Paul: Thursday, May 23, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (J Celuch: Tuesday, July 9, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (jon: Saturday, August 3, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (terry: Wednesday, August 7, 2002)
• [Windows XP] 'How do I uninstall a 2nd Windows XP?' (Baze: Wednesday, August 14, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (dracs: Wednesday, August 28, 2002)
• [Windows 98] Please help me. (izlude: Tuesday, September 10, 2002)
• [Windows 95] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows95?' (Jamie: Saturday, September 21, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (andre Delemarre: Friday, September 27, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (alan price: Friday, October 11, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows xp??' (king: Monday, October 21, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Alan: Sunday, October 27, 2002)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Matthew: Sunday, November 3, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Amardeep Singh: Wednesday, November 27, 2002)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (frank: Wednesday, January 1, 2003)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (shane: Sunday, January 5, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows2000 professional (Dione J: Tuesday, January 7, 2003)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Claudette: Tuesday, January 14, 2003)
• [Windows 95] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (covie jason lewis: Sunday, February 9, 2003)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 2000?' (Lance E Sloan: Wednesday, February 12, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (james: Tuesday, February 18, 2003)
• [Windows XP] how do I get rid of this win xp setup when I start my computer after uninstalling windows xp? (tony: Thursday, February 20, 2003)
• [Windows 98] How do I remove windows 98 completely from DOS, without reformating? (Daes: Saturday, February 22, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Uninstall WinXP for Downgrade to Win98SE (Clint: Monday, February 24, 2003)
• [Windows 95] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Anthony: Sunday, March 16, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (hemant: Thursday, March 27, 2003)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (elise richards: Thursday, March 27, 2003)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (wayne shensky: Saturday, April 19, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (James: Tuesday, April 22, 2003)
• [Windows XP] uninstall windows xp (chris mccoll: Sunday, April 27, 2003)
• [Windows XP] 'How do I reformat window xp?' (ivan: Tuesday, April 29, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (George Ferris: Friday, May 23, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Billy Gates: Tuesday, June 10, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Michael: Friday, July 18, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Michael Nguyen: Saturday, July 19, 2003)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows2000?' (yasmin: Friday, August 8, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (anita: Saturday, September 13, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (lee: Saturday, September 13, 2003)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Alx Pena: Saturday, September 27, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (daniel: Tuesday, October 7, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Stanley dickie: Tuesday, November 11, 2003)
• [Windows XP] how do i uninstall windows xp pro (kell: Wednesday, December 3, 2003)
• [Windows 98] 'How do I uninstall Windows98 from dos?' (christian m: Friday, December 5, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Linda: Tuesday, December 16, 2003)
• [Windows XP] How do I uninstall Windows XP, when it is installed twice (Lionel Barbier: Sunday, December 28, 2003)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (alan ritchie: Tuesday, January 6, 2004)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I reformat the hard disk? is the hard disk the c-drive? (rayaaromin: Sunday, January 11, 2004)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (rayaaromin: Monday, January 12, 2004)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows Me?' (Justin Rhodes: Wednesday, January 14, 2004)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall one of the Windows XPs?' (popeye: Thursday, February 12, 2004)
• [Windows 2000] 2 versions of win2k - only need latest! (Djean: Sunday, February 22, 2004)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 2000 from Windows ME?' (Chris: Sunday, February 22, 2004)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (yongk: Monday, February 23, 2004)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (thomas: Monday, May 24, 2004)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Taylor Hopper: Wednesday, May 26, 2004)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Charles L. Radliff: Friday, June 25, 2004)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (andy: Monday, July 5, 2004)
• [Windows 98] uninstalling windows from DOS (Gretchen: Sunday, August 15, 2004)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Chris Nickel: Friday, September 24, 2004)
• [Windows 2000] installing 98 (josh: Tuesday, September 28, 2004)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (monaque: Wednesday, October 27, 2004)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (monaque: Thursday, October 28, 2004)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Dave: Thursday, October 28, 2004)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (jfa1: Friday, November 19, 2004)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Adonis: Monday, November 22, 2004)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Ladybug2cute: Saturday, January 1, 2005)
• [Windows XP] How do I go from XP back to Win 98? (S. Bangert: Monday, January 24, 2005)
• [Windows 98] i deleted windows 98, by accident, don't have the install anymore, can i retrieve? (doug: Wednesday, February 9, 2005)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (chris: Wednesday, February 9, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows xp?' (tom: Wednesday, February 9, 2005)
• [Windows 98] Answer to: How do I uninstall Windows (L337 Kr3w: Monday, February 28, 2005)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Di: Thursday, March 24, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (jack: Monday, May 9, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Suadi: Wednesday, August 24, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Bryan: Sunday, August 28, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Morgan: Saturday, September 17, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Wayne: Monday, October 17, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Tony: Saturday, October 22, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Richy: Thursday, December 1, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall WindowsXP?' (Troubled Child: Monday, December 26, 2005)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Nizami: Monday, January 9, 2006)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Kak: Friday, March 3, 2006)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'Can I install windows after completely wiping my computer' (Tim: Tuesday, June 6, 2006)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (KZ-241: Wednesday, July 5, 2006)
• [Windows XP] Uninstall Command Prompt Error (Chris: Sunday, July 16, 2006)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Dave Gibson: Tuesday, September 12, 2006)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Herbert Johnson: Thursday, October 12, 2006)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (cristina: Monday, January 1, 2007)
• [Windows Server 2003] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows 2003 standard edition? (fred escala: Sunday, January 7, 2007)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Joe: Monday, January 22, 2007)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Paul: Wednesday, August 15, 2007)
• [Windows XP] Question about 'How do I uninstall Windows?' (Richard LaBar: Monday, March 3, 2008)