Getting rid of old computer question

Oh goodie!!! Somewhere I can go and ask questions without feeling so stupid. Here goes!

I'm getting a new computer next week and will be giving my old one to a friend. I know that before I do this I should "clean" my old one. My question: Is there a fairly simple and quick way to do this and at what time do I do it. Guess I can't obvioulsy clean it while I'm still using it. I did ask this question on a computer forum and got back an answer that told me to use a "recovery" disc but I felt so dumb I didn't want to write back and ask "What's that"?

I have a PC running Windows ME.
Thanks all for any help you can give.

Barbara "Mupcat"

When you bought your computer, it should have come with a recovery CD. It restores the computer to the state it was in when you bought it. I don't know how it works exactly, but it wipes out anything you did, downloaded, saved, and leaves only what was there at the time of purchase.

I would make copies on disks of all files you want to keep, and then run the recovery CD. My computer is ME, and the CD says "Recovery CD."

You could copy all the files you want to save on to a disc, and uninstall and reinstall Windows ME if you still have the Windows ME CD.

Thanks Vadar and bren.1-- That sounds simple enough if I don't screw it up in the process. I know I no longer have the recovery disc since my computer was infected with one of those horrible viruses about 2 years ago. It completely destroyed everything and the guy who rebuilt it for me is no longer around and I know I never received everything back from him. Not sure about the ME disc, but I'll look. Hopefully this will take care of it.
Barb