How often do you reinstall windows?

[manifesto]

Everytime a service pack is released.

+1

[gameboy1977]

I do remember that one...

I do remember that Windows Me was so wrost ever! I remember that I used Norton on Windows Me, but it got mess up and lost everything files. I had to reformat the hard drive, and reinstall Windows Me, but a few months later... Windows Me got problem often due to MSN explorer was hacked by someone who removed my favorities in MSN explorer then I got Windows XP.

in 2003 spring, I got new PC without windows XP. I got pirate copy of Windows XP for one year until I bought new copy of Windows XP from bestbuy store. one year later... it got mess up. I had to reformat the hard drive. until Jan 2005 my pc hard drive got mess up due to bad virus from porno website by my exgf's brother use it.

I do reformat the hard drive and reinstall the Windows XP when the problem comes up on depend times.

I got new PC with Windows XP Media Center 2005 in 2007 maybe.

I bought new PC with Vista in Fall 2008 later until June 2009, I killed Vista off, because I hate vista so much which it is same as Windows Me. I had to install Windows 7 RC1 on new PC. It does worked very well.

I will buy new Windows 7 before it expire in March 2010.

That is all.

Gameboy

[dtytfyiutiufg]

Normally when I feel the system is "dirty" or "sluggish". Depends a lot on what I do as well though, my main laptop gets used for many different things and so gets reinstalled quite often (every couple of months) whereas my netbook has only ever been installed once in the past year and it still works great :)

[dingl_]

lol why are any of you reinstalling Windows after 6mo? is your OS getting slow, cluttered? whats up, really

Windows does not need to be reinstalled over and over and over again

i'm using a Windows OEM install (cleaned up by myself) from back in mid 2008 and guess what?

no need to reinstall/format what have you, its faster than it was when i opened up this laptop for the

very first time and turned it on. Windows does NOT get sluggish, not if maintained properly

believe i even recently saw an article somewhere saying Windows does not require a reinstall, its a Myth

and it is just that, a myth.

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

the only time one would need to reinstall are the obvious, hardware failure or some software wrecks your

PC and its just not worth the time trying to troubleshoot

to answer the question how often do i reinstall Windows? when im trying something new, guess

Windows 8 will be that next new thing

[+Warwagon MVC]

lol why are any of you reinstalling Windows after 6mo? is your OS getting slow, cluttered? whats up, really

Windows does not need to be reinstalled over and over and over again

i'm using a Windows OEM install (cleaned up by myself) from back in mid 2008 and guess what?

no need to reinstall/format what have you, its faster than it was when i opened up this laptop for the

very first time and turned it on. Windows does NOT get sluggish, not if maintained properly

believe i even recently saw an article somewhere saying Windows does not require a reinstall, its a Myth

and it is just that, a myth.

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

the only time one would need to reinstall are the obvious, hardware failure or some software wrecks your

PC and its just not worth the time trying to troubleshoot

to answer the question how often do i reinstall Windows? when im trying something new, guess

Windows 8 will be that next new thing

[urjoc]

I mostly never re-install windows, because most of the times it takes less time to solve the problem than configuring everything back.

I had to do it on one of my computers last month, the OS was about 5 years old and the reason why I had to do it was a major change in hardware configuration.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I only re-install Windows if my system is completely buggered up by a virus - which it probably won't do anytime soon.

Otherwise I will just leave it be. It doesn't need to be perfectly clean and fresh - as long as it works fast enough, software like Ccleaner and jv16 will do the trick.

[Gotenks98]

Every 6 months or a year for me. The computer doesnt feel clean without a nice format every now and then. Ever since imagex its been alot easier to do this because now I can just inject drivers and updates so windows is always fresh without having to download updates and drivers. Myth or not I still do it because I dont like a dirty computer.

[qdave]

I reinstall it about once a year.

[Crazysah]

Every year or so I reinstall. Basically when I feel my computer has gotten a little slow and too many applications have been installed.

[d4diesel]

since getting vista. Never had to reinstall. The only install i did so far in the last three years would be to do a full install for windows 7.

as someone else mentioned earlier, dont install poorly designed software or junk and you should be fine. Also, I use Altris SVS to try out software if needed and can easy remove complete trace of them if needed.

[kizuran]

I reinstall approximately every 4-6 months. It keeps the install running smoothly & playing nicely with 3rd party apps. :pinch:

[ilev]

0 times in the last 9 years with Thinkpad A31p and XP. 2 times image restore after replacing the internal hard-disk (one failed after 4 years, second time after replacing for a bigger HD)

The laptop runs smoothly 24/7 (I never shut it down) from the start. No crashes, no viruses... The screen has been replaced once.

They don't build them like this any more :-)

Edited December 31, 2009 by ilev

[IrfanL]

Once in last 3 years. I am running Windows XP Pro SP3.

[Soldiers33]

whenever im bored or feel that the system is slowing down.

[Jimmy0]

Only when installing a new OS.

eg. XP > Vista > 7

[JT1985]

For the systems I have I use True Image to image 1) After first install of whichever OS and after all (current) updates/drivers have been applied and 2) after all software is installed.

Only have these images as a 'just in case' measure though i think if you need to keep installing and uninstalling software you should either be running a virtual machine for such purposes or have a dedicated box for testing. Makes things far easier and keeps your data safe should the worse happen.

Although it is tempting to keep trying different software (and rewarding should you find something truly useful) I often find it to be a waste of time and done very much on a whim. Ah catch 22.

[ChrizzMan]

I tend to "wipe" my systems clean every year (or so) and reinstall the operating system(s) in question, however I will only do so with Windows. I have yet to reinstall Mac OS X on my MacBook or MacBook Pro. For some particular reason, I have never felt the need to do so.

[+kpo6969 Subscriber¹]

Once (or twice) a year now that Win7 is here.

[wahoospa]

Only when something really messes up.

[neeldenn]

I think I never had any OS longer on a HDD than 6 months :)

[(Spork)]

1 time a year or unless its needed

[metallithrax]

I re-install when I feel it's necessary. I re-installed beginning of December after a couple of years use.

[Pikey]

Every 3 or 4 months here .. probably due for another one about now!

It's almost therapeutic ..

[alisalem]

I haven't reinstalled since my upgrade to Windows 7. I usually reinstall when something goes wrong.