Reinstalling Windows

[D_Mike]

I've had my PC for 18 months or so now and it seems to be getting slower and s l o w e r with time. SO I've been thinking that I should reinstall windows and see if this makes any difference, there is a lot of crud installed on here that I don;t use.

Any tips on what I should and shouldn't do? What is the general process? (I've dug out all the CDs that came with my PC).

[GreenV8S]

I find it makes a huge difference, but you need to install from scratch. Before you start you need to export and backup all the data and settings that you want to keep, it will probably add up to a long list.

[TVRWhoa]

you need to state what type of windows you are using (Xp, Me) etc as they're all different when it comes to re-install.

Sometimes, its easier to look at add/remove programs to get rid of stuff that you don't need at start-up and those things which are running in background - have you thought about increasing your RAM, as this also makes a big difference if you are only running 128Mb or 256Mb.

[Wildfire]

Quick tip, while reinstalling, partiton the drive (if you have space) so next time you can nuke Windows without having to go through the ringmarole of backing up etc.etc.

[MarkoTVR]

Have you tried all the usual things like deleting all the temporary files, including 'Temporary Internet Files' / offline files under IE, defragmenting the drive, etc? These may not add up to much, or even make a difference in some cases, but they can help. Might sound like a daft question, but in my years doing this I've heard "Oooh, no....haven't done that" quite a few times!

Failing that, have you tried anything like CCleaner? www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
It will quite happily rip out a lot of the rubbish on your machine, but it is pretty powerful tool so make sure you've got a grasp of what each option does before you run it.....just in case! Also the suggestions of removing unused applications is good, as many may have components that Windows will load on startup.

If none of the above makes a difference, then it really is down to (maybe partitioning and then) formatting and reinstalling. Just get those backups done, as suggested, and consider partitioning the drive and keeping your data away from the system partition.

[egomeister]

MarkoTVR said:

Have you tried all the usual things like deleting all the temporary files, including 'Temporary Internet Files' / offline files under IE, defragmenting the drive, etc? These may not add up to much, or even make a difference in some cases, but they can help. Might sound like a daft question, but in my years doing this I've heard "Oooh, no....haven't done that" quite a few times! Failing that, have you tried anything like CCleaner? www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp It will quite happily rip out a lot of the rubbish on your machine, but it is pretty powerful tool so make sure you've got a grasp of what each option does before you run it.....just in case! Also the suggestions of removing unused applications is good, as many may have components that Windows will load on startup. If none of the above makes a difference, then it really is down to (maybe partitioning and then) formatting and reinstalling. Just get those backups done, as suggested, and consider partitioning the drive and keeping your data away from the system partition.

Doing all that (I also used RegCleaner in addition to CCleaner) made a big difference to my computer - well worth giving a go before reinstalling. My computer is over 4 years old now but i'm still happy how it runs!