I'm lost...given a free iMac and no idea how to clean it off.

[Triple_7]

Sister gave me an old Apple iMac and it desperately needs a good wipe of the ol hard drive but I have no idea what so ever how to go about it.  I have no disks with it, so can't bleach it or I wont have an operating system.  Would be great if I could just put Windows on it, though probably not Vista...thing is slow enough as it is   Not even sure what version of Windows would even be a good choice.  Not even sure how to access the system specs on this thing...haven't even figured out how to get my internet working on it for that matter :-/ 

Would be nice to have it working, especially if Windows could replace the Mac system.  Use it to dump all the misc. crap onto and spare this ones hard drive.

Not totally lost when it comes to Macs...had to use them when I switched schools...but I've been out of there for nearly 4 years and haven't touched a Mac since...plus school computers I never learned anything about their programing

So if anyone has some ideas to get this thing running nicely I'd love to hear them...just slower then molasses right now with all the junk on it

[charlesed]

First thing I'd be worried about is finding out the architecture. If it is as old as you make it sound, it probably has a PowerPC processor which can't run Windows natively.

I've never owned a Mac, but if I read correctly clicking on the "Apple Menu" then selecting "About This Mac" should give you info on the processor.

[Triple_7]

Took a little bit...some kinda glitch causing the mouse to act up, didn't have that earlier...tried 3 different ones to the same issue.