How to clean an XP pc for donating, but keeping OS?

[RogerThornhill]

I have 3 perfectly good xp desktops that I want to give away, but if I wipe the HD there is no OS, and 1) purchasing Windows 7 for each is not cost effective, 2) Windows 7 probably has resource needs exceeding my existing PC. Does anyone know how I can clean the registry of each PC(of course after removing my personal data files - which I know how to do without wiping the entire HD) to make it donate-able? Or do you know it can not be done?
I hate trashing theses perfectly usable desktops.
Please no lectures about XP - works just fine for many of us. Not interested in converting them to LINUX, thank you.
The OS's were all updated just before XP support ended, so reinstalling xp on each PC from my original discs will mean all the MANY subsequent updates are no longer part of the OS.

 

[giantbucket]

if you're going to donate it, then it's very likely that whoever takes it would want to do their own clean re-install of WinXP anyways. or they may take it just for the parts and not care about how wonderful WinXP is for someone else (just like you don't care about how wonderful Linux is for someone else). don't assume you're donating them to another version of yourself.

but you could simply try running CCleaner a few times on each machine until it doesn't find new stuff to clean out. i've only used it a few times, but it needed 3-4 runs to get to a "i can't find anything more to purge out" state.

 

[RogerThornhill]

Actually, I'm planning to donate to some folks who are not "another version of" me, but who can certainly use a working(even if older pc). They would hardly be in a position to install anything, much less a clean version of xp. Probably scanning old photos, converting and editing audio interview cassettes, that type of stuff - at which XP works fine. I'm not planning to donate for it to go on a shelf and be scavenged for parts - that's always an option, of course.

I didn't think of using ccleaner to depersonalize - haven't used it in a few years.
Another option that I did not even think was possible: Clean install from discs AND add updates from MS. I mistakenly thought the updates were unavailable as of April of 2014. Turns out there are no new updates being created, of course, but MS says the existing updates(all few hundred) are still available online for download.
That's another, albeit time-consuming, option. I just lose all apps and acquired drivers. I know some folks like to clean install periodically.
Anyway, my question was technical, not philosophical, and I will probably try your technical ccleaner approach. I appreciate your input, sir.

 

[giantbucket]

might also be a good idea to grab a system image before you do too much "cleaning" just in case you overclean and need to put some info back on. i haven't played with XP in a while so i don't know if it's possible to grab an "updates rollup" to then distribute to all three machines.