Reinstalling Windows

For those who don't think Windows will go a long time without being reinstalled, I'm in the process of reinstalling Windows XP on a four year old machine for the first time ever.  (btw, the install's gone flawlessly so far, but I can't wait until SP3 or an update rollup or something...  82 updates is ridiculous)

I've also got a computer running Windows 95 which is still running the same Windows 95B install that it shipped with almost ten years ago (and running it fairly well-- the issues I've seen have mostly been hardware-related due to the computer's age).

How often does everyone else here have to reinstall Windows?  What's the longest period of time you've kept a Windows install working?

Almost never.

Even on client's PC's, I've almost never needed to re-install. On the rare exceptions, though it's always been due to disk failures, or catastrophic deletions.

But then, I'm a stubborn ol' sod...

Back in the Windows 98 days I would reformat every month or so. This is probably more down to the fact I was young, didn't really understand the OS, and destroyed it with crap like "RAM OPTIMIZER!".Windows XP and Vista, I've only ever had to reinstall it for hardware reasons, ie, major upgrades..Oh and there was that time when I first got this 939 system, and everytime I installed the nforce drivers, they installed an IDE driver that caused the entire system to fall on its (I need to watch my language) hard (im talking bios being effected after reboot) and the OS totalled.It took me around 10 installs to realise the link between it, couldn't work out why the system was only lasting about an hour into its live span and dying horribly.. turns out, about an hour in is where I always installed the nforce drivers

I reformat my system drive every three months, it's quick and easy, and is the only way to ensure you know what is running on your system, for a while at least. On XP & probably Vista you will usually notice a marked decrease in performance over about a period of six months, obviously depending on how you treat it, on Win2k this would take a while longer.

the_sombrero_kid wrote:

I reformat my system drive every three months, it's quick and easy, and is the only way to ensure you know what is running on your system, for a while at least. On XP & probably Vista you will usually notice a marked decrease in performance over about a period of six months, obviously depending on how you treat it, on Win2k this would take a while longer.

Interesting; I'm running the same install of XP on my laptop that I've had for 5 years and I haven't noticed any performance drawbacks whatsoever.  In fact, I recently installed XP on my dad's computer and noted that his bootup takes a bit longer than mine does on the laptop, even though he has much better hardware.  Nonetheless, maybe others have different luck.

Same here, the only reason why I had to reinstall windows on my 9 computers, were hardware problems

I hate having to reinstall my OS, and I avoid it as much as possible. While I agree a fresh install typically performs way better..I hate having to setup everything, tweak everything, get it all perfect again.

I run OS X and in the three years I've run it, I've never once had to reinstall the OS. Not to say that it wouldn't hurt, but I've never even felt close to needing to do it.

Before OS X (and still on the family computer), there is an install of XP that has maybe been reinstalled 3 times (over 5 or so years) and only when it's absolutly needed. The only reason for it is my family does not know how to keep a system free of sludge, you know? But is it really their fault? That's my question, should it be up to the user to keep his/her system clean? Or should it just be safe anyway (without sounding like an advertisment, like Mac OS X) ?

theshadguy wrote:

I hate having to reinstall my OS, and I avoid it as much as possible. While I agree a fresh install typically performs way better..I hate having to setup everything, tweak everything, get it all perfect again.

I run OS X and in the three years I've run it, I've never once had to reinstall the OS. Not to say that it wouldn't hurt, but I've never even felt close to needing to do it.

Before OS X (and still on the family computer), there is an install of XP that has maybe been reinstalled 3 times (over 5 or so years) and only when it's absolutly needed. The only reason for it is my family does not know how to keep a system free of sludge, you know? But is it really their fault? That's my question, should it be up to the user to keep his/her system clean? Or should it just be safe anyway (without sounding like an advertisment, like Mac OS X) ?

Installing an OS is always a chore, because it puts your computer out of action for the working half of a day, but that doesn't mean I don't do it fairly often (about once every three months or so).

I've been running Vista since it's business in November last year, and have noticed that you have much more precision in removing things from your system than you have in XP.

Whether or not the problem should be passed to the user, I agree with you that in theory it shouldn't, but that's missing the point that it's essentially impossible to stop it being the users' problem. If you install a program (like RAM optimiser) that requires a driver, then that driver is always loaded into memory, which nessisarilly slows down booting up and the speed of your other apps.

Since you could legitimately want to install drivers, and there's so many that you can't manual keep track of them or expect users to know which ones are needed and thus uninstallable, I find it difficult to see how the system might be able to take this load from the user.

Reinstalling Windows is unnecessary if you manage to clean out the registry and scan for spyware and viruses on at least an annual basis.

Here on Linux, I do pretty much the same. I use FSLint to clean garbage off my system: bad symbolic links, temp files, redudent whitespace in text files, bad IDs, etc. I also use Gconf-cleaner, which is simular to a registry cleaner on Windows; it removes old, unused, or broken Gconf keys.

I also scan for viruses, rootkits, etc. but since Fedora is so securely set on my box, I usually only worry about Windows (Wine) viruses; havent got anything yet, however.

Theres nothing wrong with bringing Windows habits to a different platform!

I actually agree that if you treat your machine right you should never really need to format, except due to hardware issues, but i like knowing exactly whats on my computer & once you set everything up so it's easy to Re-format you can do it in about 2 hours which isn't really a big deal.

I don't belive that a tool for cleaning up your system is ever going to do the job and usually take up more time and space than they get back and theres never really been one with the polish and the capabilities to impress me very much(that includes the ones the OSs hide under their hood).

I think what it's down to though, is i'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my PC to be honest, if i was too look at how much time i spend just Organising my Ffiles 'n' stuff i'd probably be appauled :/

I've lately adopted the practice that I don't install 'temporary' stuff on Windows anymore. If someone sends me a file in some ungodly compression format or something, I now run Virtual PC, download and install the compression tool in there, unpack the file, and copy it back to my real desktop. Then I just close the virtual machine without committing the changes. Though it's occasionally inconvenient, it helps keep a lot of dubious third-party applications from leaving all sorts of random garbage behind.

I have a Gateway that I installed XP on close to 6 years ago thats used constantly and I havent had to reinstall in awhile.  I just run AV, Spybot S&D, Windows OneCare and it keeps it fit and finished.

I've never re-installed windows on a working machine.

The only time I've re-installed not due to dramatic hardware changes/failure was on a machine which had been loaded with so much crap that it no longer functioned properly. But that was a school machine, and the kids had somehow been allowed to install apps on it. It was not pretty.

The closest I've come otherwise was deleting an account and re-creating it.