[SOLVED] How to deleted old Win 7 files after reverting to XP?

Last year, I installed W7 RC and when it commenced to shut down at the beginning of this month I managed, after a lot of trouble, to revert to XP Pro. Although I am now using XP satisfactorily, there are still hundreds of W7 files that I cannot delete. Can anyone tell me how to remove these unused and unwanted files please..

You'll probably have to to do a fresh clean install of XP to get rid of all those files and reformat the hard drive.

You might also try booting into Safe Mode with the F8 key and see if you can delete the files from there.

which files? More than likely you'll have to do a clean install of your XP version to really clear them out. Your not going to go with the final release of windows 7. There have been some changes to it since the RC version.

Are they not on another partition or hardisk?
If so, format it.

Thanks to all for the advice regarding removing W7 files when reverting to XP. I have established that this cannot be done. It is not permitted. However I now have another problem. I have a laptop with W7 which uses IE 64 bit version only. I am unable to access the BBC iplayer with it. I have installed Javascript and also the flashplayer. But it is the 32 bit IE that is also required. Any suggestions please.

If you have your reinstall or retail disc for XP, you can do a full format, and reinstall XP Pro with no problem. I have done so on many occasions. It will fully erase all of Win 7's leftovers. Just backup your drivers.

32-bit version of MSIE8 is installed on a Windows 7 x64 system by default. It's somewhere there in your programs menu.

Thanks to all for the advice but an XP disc will not operate over the W7 RC. MS does not allow this for some unknown reason. The space occupied by W7 extinct files cannot be recovered and formatting is not an option. XP was re-installed by the back-up that was required before W7 RC could be downloaded. Regarding the other matter of 64 bit IE. W7 is installed with this version and thanks for the information of how to obtain the 32 bit version.

If formatting is not an option due to feared loss of data, you could use something akin to Partition Magic to resize the existing partition and move your valuables to a new partition temporarily, then format the system partition, install Windows XP, move documents back, and remove the extra partition.

[edit]
Nevermind, I think I misread what you were after. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "it is not permitted." Are these W7 files located on their own partition? Or did you install XP on the same partition as W7, and it simply took over the partition and left the old Windows, Users, etc folders there, and won't permit you to remove them? Maybe you need to use Take Ownership on those folders, and change file permissions before you can remove them. Although it's been so long since I've used XP, I don't remember if it even understands Vista/7 permissions...

Oh how I miss the olden days when you could just use attrib to change file permissions and erase whatever you wanted, without Windows telling you what you can or cannot do with your own damn computer.

As I have already stated,Windows 7 RC was a free download of W7 Ultimate last year. It begins to expire from March until June this year. After I posted my appeal for information to remove the W7 file,I located the Microsoft instruction for the procedure to revert to the previous OS. It clearly states that the W7 files cannot be removed. The method for the reversion is to use the back- up of the OS that was required before the W7 RC Ultimate could be downloaded. The original XP pro disc will not do this for you..Thank you for your trouble.