How often do you reinstall Windows?

When I have an issue I feel a reinstall may solve or its a new build. Doesn't happen very often these days as Win 10 is fairly decent and I tend to keep things organised and tidied up.
 
Only when absolutely necessary. My current install is less than a year old but then so is the PC it's running on. My previous machine was running a well-used Windows 7 install which was in-place upgraded to Windows 10 it still ran flawlessly and performed well.
 
Only when it's needed really or troubleshooting.

My work pc is from 2013 and never had a os re install since I got it and that's on windows 7
 
I've not regularly reinstalled or had a reason too since Windows 9x until I started running some Windows 10 systems some of which I've had to do periodic reinstalls to solve issues with file explorer or the start menu becoming unresponsive or other issues.

My two main systems have been running the same installs of 7 since 2012 and 2013 without problems.

Windows 9x I had setup to automate restoring to my working environment as painlessly as possible as sooner or later something would gunk up the registry or do something silly to system files, etc.
 
back in the xp days when I was buying new rigs every 18 months it would get a fresh install then. Now days hardly ever ive just upgraded from 7 to 8 to 10 on the same build from 5 /6 years ago
 
billysielu said:
Only when there's a reason to:
- New build
- Something's seriously broken
- To pass on an old PC to someone else

Otherwise "it aint broke don't fix it".
Click to expand...
(emphasis mine)

Oh if that were only the case.

That's just the problem. I view the endless Windows slowdown to very much inhibit my ability to use the machine, which lands it squarely in the "seriously broken" category.

Ever since Windows 3.11WFW I've been told that Windows machines simply "don't slow down" that it's entirely all the software I install, or some virus. This is, as far as I can tell, an enormous crock.

So to answer the OP's question:
1. Every year or so I want to.
2. I procrastinate and end up doing it every 3 years or so.

My XP installations, for instance, were likely the most bulletproof of all the Windows rev's I've had experience with (Entirely my own opinion, and of course, subject to multiple factors, so who knows if it truly was).

Contrast this with Linux, where I install it, and it never ever seems to behave any differently. And this is no mere confirmation bias. It's just not a complaint anyone hears. Note: I'm not a fan of capitalism killing free software, but my background is in Unix, so it's pretty much home to me.
 
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Err

think the current install dates back to a then new and very expensive Samsung 120gb ssd that was bleeding edge at the time. Think it was initially a win 7 then upgraded to win 10 install at release


Full new rebuild and a switch to nvme next week so will be a clean install on that as it’s probably a good idea rather than just copying everything from ssd to a new nvme
 
Recently Since changing around to Amd then Back to intel then windows preview builds ect, it feels so snappy again might have to start doing it every 3months doesn’t take long at all with data on other partions.
 
I have only reinstalled windows 10 once, when I replaced the hard drive, however I do run the system file checker every couple of months which usually finds a couple of corrupted files.
 
Rarely ever, I'm contemplating doing it now though. My PC was left off for 18 months and when I've been using it again it blue screened a few times during windows updates due to driver conflictions. It hasn't blue screened since but I'm getting random CTD's even after testing each component at stock settings with excellent temps. Nothing in the event log either.
 
billysielu said:
Only when there's a reason to:
- New build
- Something's seriously broken
- To pass on an old PC to someone else

Otherwise "it aint broke don't fix it".
Click to expand...

This. I keep my PCs pretty clean and tidy SW wise and I’d only reinstall the same OS version if something the current partition was beyond saving.
 
FireTwo said:
Recently Since changing around to Amd then Back to intel then windows preview builds ect, it feels so snappy again might have to start doing it every 3months doesn’t take long at all with data on other partions.
Click to expand...

How did you manage to pull that off?.....Seriously, speeding this process up would help quite a bit.

All of my kids' game data is saved on a different drive than C: is used for, but it still requires a full install of everything just to make sure that the registry is ok. Don't the GUID's change between installations too?

I can hand crock the Steam installation to find the previous datasets, but I've never found a way around the problem that the programs themselves need to be individually (oy!) installed because of how intensive the registry is modified for every. single. thing. in. windows. ARG!

Is there a utility that you use to automate this?
 
billysielu said:
- New build
- Something's seriously broken

Otherwise "it aint broke don't fix it".
Click to expand...

These days thats more or less it for me. W10 isnt really my main OS anymore, I use Linux mint for my daily drive computer and have done for about 5 years, That gets reinstalled every 6 months when a new version is released (Mint 20 is due next month)

Last reinstall was 8 months ago when I built my R5 3600/B450 Tomahawk MAX rig. I don't use it that often (only when my daily drive rig is not up to the task & I need more POWAH! :p ;))

It's not like the old days of W98 without its service packs, when you had to download a 3rd party firewall like Zonealarm before connecting to the internet, because it didn't have its own firewall back then, when you did connect to the internet to do its updates, you'd get a pop up box saying something about having to reboot, & when you did a virus got in. So because of that, format/reinstall which could take hours due to the speed of 'spinning rust' :mad:

Things are different with SSD's & fast internet speeds nowadays.
 
I tend to re-install from full every major supported release (what was xx09 now H2). xx03 / H1 is consumer edition testing to iron out the bugs ready for the max supportable release in H2
 
Never, because it is not necessary if maintained well. My OS runs as fast and reliable as a "new" install at all times. I don't even shut down, it's on 24/7 (main OCd editing/gaming/media rig).
 
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