In July 2009 I had to reinstall Windows on 5 computers due to an antivirus false positive that hosed the existing Windows installation. Here are the steps taken to fix:

• Installed a new copy of Windows on the same partition. I can't recite the exact steps, but basically we ended up installing a new copy in C:\Windows2 without reformatting the partition.
• Installed the Dell drivers from the CD that came with the computer, plus some of the other software CDs as appropriate
• In some cases (Ruth, for instance) had to download newer video driver to get proper display resolution for widescreen monitor

• Added SysAdmin local user with standard admin password; made sure it was in local Administrators group

• Under System control panel, Advanced, Startup & Recover, Settings, edited boot.ini file to mark old Windows install as "BROKEN". Changed time to display list of OS's to 5 seconds.

• Joined computer to FEFC domain

• Added "<Computer>Admins.G" group to local Administrators group

• Turned on Remote Desktop Access
• Turned off simple file sharing
• Upgraded to WinXP SP3 (installer on Y:\Software)

• Reinstalled Office 2003 (installer & license keys on Y:\Software), and applied SP3

• Depending on the computer, reinstalled software like NSpire, Quicken, Church Helpmate, etc., and set up file shares
• Installed free AVG antivirus. This is a temporary step, as I think Microsoft is planning on releasing free antivirus (Security Essentials) later this year that we'll probably switch over to.
• New "All Users" profile is at "C:\Documents And Settings\All Users.WINDOWS2". Copied over some of the start menu items from the old "All Users" profile (like Firefox, etc.) that don't need to be reinstalled
• To copy user profile over from old to new Windows install, did following steps:
  • Using the user's password, log them in. This creates a new profile folder, for example: "C:\Documents And Settings\olueth.FEFC"
  • Log out as user. Log in as myself.
  • Back up the new profile by renaming to .bak

  • Copy the user's old profile to the new, using "XCOPY <old> <new> /O/X/E/H/K/C", where old is "C:\Documents And Settings\olueth" and new is "C:\Documents And Settings\olueth.FEFC"

  • Now log out and try logging in as user. Everything should look & work ok, including Outlook.