Reinstalling/repairing Windows XP

Yes, folks, I've been having fun and games sorting out Mrs C's
laptop. I spent a good part of Saturday doing a repair job on
Windows XP, reinstating the wireless internet connection and
putting back a lot of addresses onto her Outlook Express,
followed by a full Norton anti-virus screen (which gave the all
clear). However, all that work was of little use, unfortunately.
No f.....g use, at all.

Today, I put on and ran the free AVG anti-virus software, having
disabled the Norton one .... and lo and behold! ... a bloody Trojan
virus, which had slipped through the Norton defences. Having
"deleted" that one, I backed up some of Mrs C's documents and
photos onto a flash drive (the Nero CD burner had been disabled
by the virus), and then went back to reinstalling Win XP from the
recovery disc we'd been supplied with.

There was a lot of stuff about partitions in the reinstallation
procedure, with dire warnings of what might happen if I did one
thing or another. So I've been back on the internet on our main
computer, to get some more info. I found this site on Google,
which gives a step-by-step guide for newbies like me, with the
screenshots I've been looking at for the past few hours -- very
helpful.

I've also just had a look at edt's comment (many thanks again,
edt), about trying out some different anti-viral software, AVAST,
which I'll download tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow morning, I'll be jammin' with a couple of mates, followed
by a pub lunch with them, which will make a refreshing change to
looking at computer screens all day. As I've said from time to time,
"It's a hard life being retired". It's sooo difficult to fit everything in
... I'll have to go on a time management course.