How often do you reinstall windows?

[ZakO]

Never, I do install trials/other misc software that I intend to uninstall at some point into a virtual machine though.

[yxz]

3 months

OCD :shifty:

[sundayx Veteran]

Never.

[soumyasch]

Back in the XP days, it always hit me with the getting-slower-with-time bug (or design deficiency, or whatever). I had to reinstall every six months or so. Tried imaging the hard drive back then, but discovered that after restoring from image, the softwares would be so out of date that it would hardly be an effort-saver. Since that realization, I use regular backup copies of my data for planned formats, but still maintain images for unplanned faults.

With Vista however, didn't feed the system get slow with time and never had to reinstall. By the time Windows 7 released, I was so used to a system that had everything set up in perfect tune with my needs that I wrestled with myself for about 3 weeks over whether or not to go through the hassle of cleanly installing Windows 7, and then spend eons setting it up the way I like it. Finally, Windows 7 won over my laziness.

[battletech]

Everytime a service pack is released.

[Zain Adeel]

i dont get it.

I think u dont need to reinstall windows after Vista came out.

yes i used to reinstall every 3months when i was on XP..

but my vista never slowed down.

i used my install for 3 years i think.

or so.

And i didnt install Windows 7 again either :)

[Growled Member]

Once every release. I then make an image with Acronis and apply it if I screw something up. I don't experiment as much as I once did but I still do some.

[SyntaxError]

Usually every six months or so. However on my Windows 7 machine i want to let it go a year or so just to see how well it holds up.

Same here.

Back in the XP days, it always hit me with the getting-slower-with-time bug (or design deficiency, or whatever). I had to reinstall every six months or so. Tried imaging the hard drive back then, but discovered that after restoring from image, the softwares would be so out of date that it would hardly be an effort-saver.

I feel the same way about imaging the install, plus it seemed like the image file would go corrupt while sitting on a spare hard drive, or the dvd it was on would mysteriously become unreadable just when I needed it.

I've since moved to using almost nothing but portable software so I never have to install or set up much of anything

Lifehacker did an article on this subject just days ago.

http://lifehacker.com/5435523/you-dont-nee...ndows-heres-why

While it's all good advice, and I've been doing it for years, in XP's case it doesn't matter as it still slows itself down over time no matter what the user does or doesn't do and the article fails to mention that.

Time will tell if the same holds true for Win7.

[Sean2989]

My god, please tell me that when you install a fresh system it is from a image backup? I didn't realize people actually do completely clean installs after a first round of installs with a new OS. I was creating a good image with core utilities and programs of the OS back in the Win2k days. I do for the most part understand a fresh install upon getting a new OS... not really sure if there is a benefit for service releases anymore though.

No kidding since the disk imaging was included in Vista. I have 3 machines that I have images of each computer with all the drivers and what not. All I have to do is run Windows update on my System and away it goes. On my Main machine I havent installed a fresh until Windows 7 hit RTM.

[Prosidius]

Maybe every 2 years or so just to clean it up and stuff.

[Tech-nerd]

I do a clean install just to clean up clutters and it feels new, not always due to slowing down.

[The Rev]

Once every six months usually.... Sometimes just cuz I'm bored...... :-p

I mean, i got my copy of 7 in September, and i JUST reinstalled it the other day, but only cuz I made a new bootable windows 7 USB key, and i wanted to see how much less time it would take to install it on my system (10 whole minutes less!)

If it wasn't for that, i would have had no reason to reinstall.

[daniel_rh]

It used to be every 6 or 12 months but now is about every 12 to 24 months, mostly because of hardware upgrades

[thealexweb]

Every couple of months, usually to try Windows 7, release it's just not very good and go back to Vista again.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Every couple of months, usually to try Windows 7, release it's just not very good and go back to Vista again.

Thanks for trolling!

[thealexweb]

Thanks for trolling!

Sorry for going off topic but its an honest opinion, I try every few months to use Windows7 but after a few weeks I go back to vista, all I was doing was explaining why I go back to Vista.

[Ikshaar]

Used to be every year or so. The person saying you do it wrong if you do so, obviously forgotten how XP works. Unless you don't install anything, it becomes bloated - by design.

Now I have 2 computers side by side. A clean XP with only one purpose playing THE game I play, and a Linux machine for everything else and to keep all important files: musics, video, documents...

[Madoshi]

with my computers, re-installs are only done if absolutely necessary because i hate re-installing everything and getting used to a "new" Windows desktop. because lets face it, things are never quite the same as you had them before a format/install :(

[Max Veteran]

As little as possible. My old XP/Vista setup lasted probably a good 4 years.

I only format when too much stuff starts to go wrong to the point of where its unfeasable time-wise to fix. Its an entire days work to do it on this machine and add back in the programs I need. I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 on this machine to save time - but when 7 SP1 comes out I'll probably reformat.

[Tech-nerd]

a lot of people say they reformat with a new sp, but why?

do people upgrade sp every time is a fresh install?

why don't u just upgrade the sp, isn't that easier?

one thing I noticed when I upgraded sp, it took 4 hours!

[Fraud OS 11]

Not since XP arrived. I also check the event log daily. But had to do some Windows 7 and Vista reinstalls (lots for Vista before and even after SP1).

[battletech]

a lot of people say they reformat with a new sp, but why?

do people upgrade sp every time is a fresh install?

why don't u just upgrade the sp, isn't that easier?

one thing I noticed when I upgraded sp, it took 4 hours!

Multiple reasons. In my case I create my own custom installation disc where I slip-stream the sp into the base installation, as well as the majority of the programs I use. Usually only takes a couple hours to reinstall everything.

Fire and forget....

[Jim K Global Moderator]

original XP installation on my notebook that I bought it 5 years ago. Runs great without issue. On the desktop...the same install stays on until I upgrade the motherboard (every 3-4 years). Only exception being that I recently installed Win 7 on my XP desktop.

Personally I have never understood the whole reinstall every 6months to a year thing. If everything is running smooth then what is the point. During Win 95-ME days...I noticed a gradually degradation over time...but not post XP days

[Growled Member]

a lot of people say they reformat with a new sp, but why?!

A lot can go wrong with a SP. If you reinstall and then apply the SP it might be that there is less that can go wrong. At least, that was my thinking in the past when third party software was allowed to change system dlls. Now, it might not be true.

[Solid Knight]

I have Windows 3.1 on an old 486 which is the original install.

I have Windows XP SP3 on a computer I built four years ago. I reinstalled once on that machine about two years ago.

I had Windows Vista on my laptop which was the original install until I reformatted it with Windows 7.

In my experience people seem to whine about their system performance after installing all their applications. They remember the increased performance when it was just a fresh install but as their apps start to pile on over the course of several months they see a degradation in performance. Many people don't even bother to shut off the services and start up items and opt to reinstall. Then of course there are the disorganized people who seemingly go out of their way to duplicate the functions of each program they have. Like I'll go on somebody's computer and see WinZip + WinRar + 7-Zip + PeaZip and wonder what the hell they are thinking. Finding multiple chat applications running is pretty common too. You'll have some poor fellow oblivious to the all-in-one chat applications running AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and some other service at the same time.