How often should Windows be re-installed?

[tuxfan]

Its obvious that after some time every Windows system becomes so heavy that it requires some re-installtion for optimum performance. How often should this be done for Win98 or WinXP?

[d]

mmm......that's a first...i'm running windows xp for nearly 3-4 months continously and everything is honky-dory for now...besides don't really think it should become uhh.."heavy" if you defragment it and run utilities like norton's disk doctor and windoctor. but i guess if you have to, how frequent...would depend upon how u use your comp....like if you spend 7-8 hrs on the net each day and load it with cookies or just use it to listen to music and play games.....

[alib_i]

It can totally be avoided .. why do you want to reinstall windows ??
Just
# keep cleaning your registry (there are hell lot of programs for that),
# keep cleaning prefetch (delete all files in the directory)
# keep defragmenting ( obvious suggestion )

Its possible to avoid reinstalling windows all the way !
Reinstalling windows is such a pain .. not the OS itself .. but then you have to reinstall ALL programs ( AV,Firewall,Media Applications, Codecs, etc ,etc) everything. And once you do that .. the system becomes as slow/fast as it earlier was.
Of everything you do .. the above listed things are most imp. .. keep doing them. No need to reinstall.

-----
alibi

[digen]

Re-installing windows ? whats that?
Sorry but I dont feel comfortable with re-installing windows every now & then plus as alib_i has mentioned it can be totally avoided.
I'll add more ...

1.Keep it updated to the latest patches.
2.Keep it malware free
3.Keep your AV updated & scan periodically.

If apart from this re-installing windows is still a concern to you & you need the feel of a clean install then I suggest using a disk cloning program such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost.
Perform a clean install,install all the things you need & make a image of it.Store the image on a different partition or burn it on optical media such as CD/DVD.

Restore it whenever you feel a sluggish performance.Works in a jiffy.Ofcourse all the things that you add later after the image has been made will be lost.But I assume you store documents & important files in different partition.

P.S: The last time I did a re-install was when my RAID array had gone kaput.Other than that its been more than a year & still going strong.

[kalpik]

Hmm ill give a suggestion. When you format, install all the necessary things (AV etc) make an image through Acronis TrueImage! Then the next time u feel like formatting, just restore the image! It just takes 10 mins!!! Try it! Its amazing!

Well i format (restore the image) at least 4-5 times in a month! I like to mess with my system a lot though! I've probably tested 80% of the software out there! Hehe.

[Sourabh]

Sticking to the question in discussion, I re-install windows every 15-20 days. Max would be 30 days before a reinstall.

After all it doesnt take much time to install a slip streamed XP setup when you have the setup files on your hdd itself. Besides i dont mind installing it all over again, kinda like it too. I frequently format and reinstall the XP on the C: drive and have a savior XP in spare always which is pretty clean and password protected, just in case something goes wrong somewhere.

[SWEET SNEHA]

The longest time that my WinXP lasted without a reinstallation was 6 monts.
After that i hv to reinstall it in every cpl of mnths

[Charley]

I do it frequently. Now cos of the BSNL unlimited d/l and u/l my disk is full so i need to get another one and clean the old one.

haven't installed it from March 2005

[Charley]

If i dont reinstall it often. Then I get all sorts of c rappy errors like kernel,mshtml,winet, so on...

[Vishal Gupta]

I reinstall my windows XP, whenever I got something new to slipstream into its Setup using nLite

Like I reinstalled it when I got IE 7 BETA.

And whenever I installed too many s/w to check their functionality.

Usually my windows XP is reinstalled after 1 or 2 months regularly

[kato]

i invariably end up screwing so have to reinstall every one month .I dunno but it happens atleast every month

[Thor]

Its been 8 months...
I'm happy with wot I hv rite now...
1.regular registry Cleaning and Registry Defragging..
2.Disk Defrag...
3.Cache Clean...
4.Disk Checker....

Yahooo!

[bizzare_blue]

I too have to reinstall my XP every month as i try out new softz n in the course keep screwing XP......

[tuxfan]

Well, I have been running a Win98SE system since last 2 years. But had to change MoBo, Processor, etc in between. The system is so slow and buggy that I have to restart 2-3 times to see desktop :roll: I removed and reinstalled all the drivers, but that didn't work. So a clean re-install seems the only alternative. Mandrake on the same system runs pretty smoothly. So hardware has no problem.

I have another system wherein I have a very typical problem. I am at my wit's end and can't solve it and I can't live with that problem as well. From the replies that I got from Deep, alibi_i and digen there, I can say that I am still far from solving the problem. If it doesn't get solved a re-install will be the only alternative on that system too.

[djmykey]

I never reinstall, format and install thats the best thing actually coz if the problem is solveable by reinstall then I can solve it without reinstall (most of 'em). And I never format until I really $creW my windows.

[shivaranjan.b]

I reinstall my system every month....

[goobimama]

I haven't reinstalled XP since July 2004. I only had to do a reinstall when I had to replace my motherboard, but it was just a normal reinstall, not a fresh installation. All this because I use Firefox. Before that it was like everyone else, every month...

Some stats say that the Average Windows user reinstalls after 5 months while the Average Mac user reinstalls...never. Only reinstalls when there is an upgrade...

[navjotjsingh]

Originally Posted by djmykey

I never reinstall, format and install thats the best thing actually coz if the problem is solveable by reinstall then I can solve it without reinstall (most of 'em). And I never format until I really $creW my windows.

Same here with me. My XP SP2 is now 10 months old - without any problems. Working just fine.

[~Phenom~]

i reinstall my XP every month or a max. of two months.

[anandk]

i have been using the same xp for over 6 mnths now, and its as good as new; inspite of SO MANY installs/uninstalls/trials/etc. 6 mnths back, i messed up royally, hence had to reinstall.

tweak it to optimize it.
clear pc junk files
clean registry
compact registry
defrag hard disk.

for this i use ace utilities, tune-up utilities, system mechanic, cacheman, ms bootvis, driverheaven tunexp 1.5.

[mako_123]

I generall reinstall it after a month