geez, I sympathize with the issue. I got a Compaq with XP, they told me at the Staples store that it would require me to prepare my own recovery disks, and that it would be 3-4 disks.
it actually took 11 cds!!
what a load of bundled crap there must be on board. even what I see looks cluttered.
there are so many bars and icons eating up the screen.
a workspace seems to be the last thing on the industry's mind. and easy-to-manage systems are against the industrie's principles
as Kimmo suggests, a clean single cd XP will be my next move.
I've been told I can demand this of the Manufacturer, in this case Compaq?