I have a compaq presario (about four years old now) and it came with xp home edition. As of late it has been running very slow and acting 'sluggish'. My questions: 1.) is it difficult to "erase" everything and start over from scratch? (with just windows) 2.) what do I need to do this? 3.) is it possible to put xp pro in instead of xp home? I would say that I am somewhat versed with computers and understand most basic computer terms. Thanks.

You Compaq should have a recovery partition that can be reached from the POST screen. You can use that to restore the PC to factory conditions.

Yes this is true. I'm sorry I didn't include that in my original post. I've tried the system recovery and it doesn't help. I think my PC has too much stuff on it (unused programs, old files, a bunch of 'packaged software', useless junk). I've tried to delete unused programs and files with add/remove. I would like to "start over" without buying a new PC. I can backup files/pix beforehand. Is it possible to 'wipe the slate clean'? Do I have to buy a new hard drive and install xp pro or can I delete home edition and the partition on the exsisting drive?

I'm not talking about System Restore within Windows. I'mtalking about the Recovery partition you access BEFORE Windows loads. This partition holds an image of the hard drive as it came from the factory. So it returns the system to the way its was when you first got it.

OK. What do I do to get to that? Do I start from the BIOS screen or somewhere else?

Shut down the computer.
As soon as you turn it on, start tapping the F 11 Key.
This should open the recovery option.
Choose Advanced Options / Destructive Recovery.
This will erase and reformat the computer back to out of box condition.

I think this will work on your compaq.

Opps, I forgot to mention, if you want to save anything, be sure to back up first.

Once you do this, there will be no way to get anything you had on there before the recovery.

Does this reboot it with everything that was packaged with it (demo software, crappy games, and whatnot) or just with windows home and nothing else?

Again it restores the hard drive to the way it came from the factory. It restores an image of the drive that the factory puts on it.