That is how it's supposed to work. However, depending on the age of the PC, that could mean hours and hours of doing updates to your operating system. In addition, it will require reinstallation of all programs you added, so you better make sure you have all of those disks (and associated key codes), as well as the download locations of any programs you installed via the Internet. Then you would have to re-load all the stuff you saved to media, and hope that you had found it all before you restored the system. This can be a lot of work.

Why don't you tell us more about what system you are running, what the computer specs are, and what particular symptoms you are having. There may be less time-consuming alternatives than what you are contemplating.

If you have Win7, not that big of a problem with 1 service package and those updates since that pack but if you are running winXP, there are 3 large service package plus many updates since that third package was brought out..

Mlou, restoring a computer to factory defaults is a bit time consuming but once done you can be very pleasantly surprised.

As noted, gather all your program CDs and save any pertinent data. Then double check to ensure you have it all.

If this is XP you only need to install SP3 afterwards, no need for SP1 or SP2. After that there are currently about 107 updates to install which depending on the speed of your computer and internet connection may take 90 minutes or so. You might consider downloading SP3 beforehand and burning it to a CD, that way it can be installed with the internet connection disabled for protection. I also keep Microsoft Security Essentials on a thumb drive to be installed after SP3 (it will not work without SP3) so that once I connect again I am relatively safe. Which ever anti virus program you use try to have it saved already so it can be installed soon after re-installing Windows.

Have the internet connected during the initial install so it is found and set up.