I bought on eBay a Dell Latitude C640, it had Win 2K Pro installed. But there was a promotion offered to me for $49 that included XP Pro SP3, a 40GB hard drive in the place of a 20GB one, the processor was upgraded from a Pentium 3 to 4, and the memory was upped to 512MB from 256MB. I realize it was a lot of package for the money, but I clicked onto a link (on this site), and got a virus that spread to my C:\ pagefile sys, and it was deleted by my virus protection (Avast 4.8). It was a trojan horse, the problem the file that I clicked onto was so small that I didn't have time to abort the connection (about 300kb). That all being said, this is my main issue now. I just bought a desktop from a reliable company ($199 Computer Store) and on their website they posted Microsoft's policy towards their software. If a refurbusher installs Microsoft software, then the refurbusher MUST include the copy of the software installed, not just furnish you with a COA. In fact, the original COA must be included as well. This is posted on any PC offering on their site. My problem is that I need that software to do a reinstall and they refuse to give it to me. Also, the Win 2K Pro COA should have been left on it, so that I could reinstall it without using the one that I bought. The seller of that told me to use my original COA and keep the new one for a later install, if I prefer. What recourse do I have with the buyer? Looking at Microsoft's policy, this seller could be in deep trouble. Any suggestion as to what to do would be greatly appreciated.

catilley, sounds sorta like a legal issue which may/may not be resolved to your satisfaction. The one thing you can bet on is that going that route will take a looong time. Can you use it if the trojan is wiped? If you need to clean one, Superantispyware can do the job and you can get it free @: http://www.superantispyware.com/ among other places. They have a Vista compatible version if needed. If it turns out that you need to use it, be sure to update prior to running and disable 'restore' (restart after cleaning) so it doesn't get put back. They just released a new update recently and it changes all the time. Things are in a constant state of flux. The restore thing is critical. May not be your deal at all, but won't hurt anything to try. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Sorry, I think it falls under caveat emptor

I found the answer myself. I have 2 Dell XP Pro SP2 reinstall discs, and I learned that if the system had a legal COA and as long as the motherboard had not been replaced, it would reinstall the OS. In fact, to clean up all three of my systems ( 2 laptops and a Optiplex PC, I reinstalled all systems and they all run better than before, and they all passed the VGA with no trouble. I don't understand why on a lot of forums, these discs are being knocked around. No, they are not a backup, but you get a fresh, clean system again, as long as your system was legal beforehand. Thanks to all for your input.