Foo - how often do you re-install

I'm thinking of reinstalling my windows xp MCE on a laptop that was purchased at the start of 2007. Never been re-installed. people told me i should do it every year but it is just such a hassle.

i'm just thinking that it must be getting close to a point when they stop supporting xp so i had better do it soon to get all the updates after the reinstall.

meh, you don't have to do it every year

but every year XP breaks just a little.

see, this PC with XP I'm using currently... original install date: 03/08/2006
consistent 24/7 usage for roughly 330 days out of a full year.

does it work flawlessly? nope
does it require a reinstall? nope
do I wish it ran better? somewhat

XP used to last me between six and nine months before getting so glitchy that I'd have to reinstall. Strangely enough, Vista lasted me over two years on a machine I pounded on daily without needing a reinstall. The only reason I reinstalled was for a clean install to Windows 7.

*knocks on wood* Hope W7 is similar to Vista and not requiring a reinstall after a while.

I don't reinstall because time has passed, I reinstall when something goes bad. Or I get new hardware. I don't remember the last time I reinstalled without a hardware cause (built the current computer over a year ago)

Also XP will be supported till 2014

www.apple.com

Someone had to do it.

Do you have to copy all your files and reinstall everything (software, files, etc) or can you just reinstall ht operating system?

Do you have to copy all your files and reinstall everything (software, files, etc) or can you just reinstall ht operating system?

It's most effective to completely wipe the disk clean and start over with a new partition. My theory on what makes OSes slow is little files and pieces of files that get tucked away and never cleaned out. The only way to get rid of them is to wipe the disk clean.

I will say this: OEM installs generally last for me about a year before they get unbearably slow. Installs that I do myself last a lot longer, because I don't but gigabytes of useless pre-loaded apps on it.

If you don't want to re-install, try crap cleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/. It's pretty effective and hasn't caused any problems for me.

A complete wipe and re-install will generally take me a day or two. Before hand, I make lists off all the apps I have installed that I want to keep and make sure I either have disks or can get the installers on the net. I then back up all the files I want to keep. Double check everything, then boot into DOS and wipe the disk.

www.apple.com

Someone had to do it.


Or, if you dont wanna shell out your hard earned cash for overpriced bologna,



WWW.LINUX.COM

Free. Stable. Easy to learn. Not full of icrap.

"people" are not as smrt as they think they are.

Tux FTW!

http://userlogos.org/files/backgrounds/Mafia_Penguin/Linux_XP.jpg

i'm just thinking that it must be getting close to a point when they stop supporting xp so i had better do it soon to get all the updates after the reinstall.
Check here (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectwin) for lifecycle info. It looks like mainstream support for MCE ended earlier this year, but new security fixes should be available until 2014.
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

I used to re-install every 2-3 years, but thats with me doing the initial install myself. If I bought an off the shelf computer, I'd wipe it to begin with. Keep your data on a separate partition from your OS and applications to make this easier.

My XP VM in VirtualBox was set up in March of '08. It runs fairly well, but then I only use it for MS Office and some websites that seem to only work in IE on Windows (I'm looking at you, Citibank!).

My wife's Mac... last installed with Tiger in Dec 2005. Currently on 10.4.11. She wasn't even my wife then. Still works fine, but I did have to do a little filesystem repair earlier in the year. I think she sleeps it too often instead of shutting it down once in a while.

My Linux machines... I tend to reinstall them out of amusement rather than any real need. :)

+1 on the wiping new computers right off the bat.

thanks for all the advice. i'll read up a bit on the support. it's running pretty well still but obviously not as fast as when new.

I run a W2K machine, since 2000, with no re-install. Runs as good as new.
XP since, gosh, I can't remember, early 2000s. Also runs fine. Monitor is a tad fuzzy though. :p
Vista on a laptop for almost 2 years, wife uses it daily. It also runs fine.

i have to give a +1 to ccleaner which someone mentioned before.....works excellent...and gets rid of alot of junk, small program, and FREE!

i have to give a +1 to ccleaner which someone mentioned before.....works excellent...and gets rid of alot of junk, small program, and FREE!

is it really necessary if i already use spybot?

is it really necessary if i already use spybot?

yes.

The routine outlined here can help your datamachine run well: http://securitytango.com/
It is free as well.

Windows 7 rocks.

Heres a really good plan. Install windows 2008 and hyper-v. Create a Windows 7, vista, linux, and/or windows xp virtual machine. Make periodic backups of the VHD. When you feel your OS needs a reload (probably doesn't, but whatever). Just copy back an old VHD and you are off to the races. Takes maybe an hour at most.

You could also take this approach with VMWare and Linux.

On laptops, I dual boot ubuntu and windows 7. For everyday stuff like email and browsing, I go linux. For windows specific, I reboot into windows.

You can also just image your entire hard drive. DriveXML works pretty well when run from a BartPE disc.

You can also just image your entire hard drive. DriveXML works pretty well when run from a BartPE disc.

Not nearly as flexible and fast as using a VM platform. I can switch between loads, recover system state, backup and restore images within minutes.

Not nearly as flexible and fast as using a VM platform. I can switch between loads, recover system state, backup and restore images within minutes.
do those VM's assume a standard hardware setup? I do some gaming and not using the proper drivers for my video card would probably kill the performance. I've only used VirtualPC 2007 with a win98 VM though, maybe an XP install would be different.

is it really necessary if i already use spybot?

They do completely different things. Spybot is looking for spyware and viruses, CCleaner is looking for old files that windows left lying around on your drive like a 2 year-old.

You could also try cleaning out the inside of the case. Make sure the fans are all clean, and it isn't an overheating thing.

do those VM's assume a standard hardware setup? I do some gaming and not using the proper drivers for my video card would probably kill the performance. I've only used VirtualPC 2007 with a win98 VM though, maybe an XP install would be different.

They do, at least for VirtualBox. You have a couple different options for NIC and USB controller, but the display is only one software driver. Not sure if it goes direct to hardware or through the host OS, though. I certainly haven't tried gaming on a VM, but as the last games I cared about were SimCity Classic (which DOSBox works fabulously for) and Gunship 2000 (which I don't have and wouldn't play w/o a joystick), I doubt I would have the same problem with gaming performance in a VM. :)

a big +1 to ccleaner.

I did have and have used regularly other registry cleaners and my mcafee has a maintain computer tool which is meant to clean up stuff, but ccleaner found broken links to programs i had uninstalled 2 years ago.

good stuff.

Huh? I've been running Vista since it was released in January 2007 and had my current system around 9 months before that running on XP. So figure my previous system ran XP from October 2001 until I replaced the system with my current one around the Spring of 2006. Never needed to reinstall. Somebody find that advice in Microsoft's documentation 'cause I've never seen it. Unless you are experiencing some specific issue, that sounds like one of those old wives' tales to me. Windows 7 will be going on soon so I guess my Vista installation will have lasted more than 2 1/2 years without a reinstall.

Well, the frequency of re-installs really depends upon the usage pattern. If you buy a computer and load many 1-2 more software packages, like a game and an accounting package, and never add anything else. Your computer will probably last 10-years without mis-behaving, crashing frequently, etc (yes, I've had computers last that long without needing to re-install). Which would then require a clean re-install.

However, if you download stuff from the internet, load the latest and greatest games every week. Upgrade the hardware and plug in 37 USB devices at a time (and yank 'em out 10 at a time without ejecting from Windows first). Then chances are very likely you'll need a clean install every couple of months. YMMV...

Anyone who has to reinstall with any regularity is loading crap onto their machines. My current machine is at least 7 years old. Previous one was pushing 8 when I got rid of it. My machine works a lot better than a lot of new computers despite the fact that it has a fraction of the processing power and memory. I want to get a new computer, but frankly the one I have works well enough I can't justify it.

I've never reinstalled an OS ever, except for when I did support. Then I did it all the time for people who effed up their machines

Guess I've been lucky. My home desktop has been running XP since 2001 with no problems. Thinking maybe I'll start backing up stuff just to be safe since it sounds like I'm kind of on borrowed time.

Anyone who has to reinstall with any regularity is loading crap onto their machines. My current machine is at least 7 years old. Previous one was pushing 8 when I got rid of it. My machine works a lot better than a lot of new computers despite the fact that it has a fraction of the processing power and memory. I want to get a new computer, but frankly the one I have works well enough I can't justify it.

I've never reinstalled an OS ever, except for when I did support. Then I did it all the time for people who effed up their machines

The only time I HAD to reinstall was when my laptop hard drive died suddenly. I do it periodically because it keeps the computer running faster. It also means that software I never use doesn't get re-installed, so it keeps things a little cleaner as well.

So I'll repeat: when I reinstall an OS it's not because I absolutely have to, it's because I WANT to.

I've found that the times that I had to reinstall XP were after a major hardware change, such as a new graphics card. Then I'd have strange issues for a while (like the machine not shutting down, the box randomly hanging and no logs in any event viewer, and other crap like that) until I would eventually just get tired of it, back up my documents and rebuild the machine. Thankfully, Vista has been a lot better in this department, and I've yet to do some major hardware upgrades under W7.

Only thing I miss about XP is that with my volume license key (no, not a pirated one) is that I can just image a machine, and not worry about activation.