brykken,

Without your Windows CD there is no way (legally) to reformat your machine. I have heard rumors of people reformatting with a Windows CD borrowed from a friend, which is a violation of the Microsoft licensing agreement, but I can't confirm this. Realistically, you should consider buying a copy of Win98 SE (if that is your operating system) while they are still available.

As far as the installed programs that you neither need nor want, just go ahead and uninstall them (do not delete them, use the uninstall function of Control Panel|Add/Remove Programs). As far as reinstalling anything that might require it, without the original CDs you are pretty much out of luck.

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