How often do you reinstall Windows?

I was a hardcore WinAmp user but in 2016 caved and switched to MusicBee. It's awesome and offers everything Winamp did but way better organisation of music if you have everything id3 tagged correctly. I did not but used MusicBrainz Picard to automatically detect albums, titles and then set the tags for them and now I have a system that's just epic for when I listen to local music.

Normal view:

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Small view:
MusicBee_2020_small.jpg


Compact view for always on topness :cool:
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Ref the Question; since Win 10 and my newish build, I don't.
It seems to fix itself in a couple of days, especially after Updates.
So- tolerably happy :)
 
I've been running the same mobo / processor combo since 2011 (i5 2400). Other than upgrading to windows 10 somewhere along the way, it's been the same OS install since it was built.

Can't say I've noticed any slowness.
 
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".
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This. I installed W10 onto my NVME SSD when I bought my i7 6700K Black Friday deal in....November 2016. Not formatted or reinstalled since AFAIK. Although rather weirdly there are system files from before that date.
 
I don't actually reinstall due to speed issues, I do it for tidiness. For example if I used an application or something that I no longer need, after a few of these build up I just reinstall the OS. It is not required but I actually enjoy it and it's not exactly a big job.

I just hate remnants of applications or folder structures no longer needed.
 
I only reinstall Windows as a last resort as I keep all my programs, docs, music, pics and games on the same 2TB SSD as a single partition. To reinstall all my programs and get them back to the way I want them takes at least a full day. I tend to keep my drives as tidy as possible while doing a full drive clone of my OS drive to another HDD once a month as not much changes. Think the last clean install I did was over 2yrs ago but can't remember what I reinstalled for :)
 
I don't normally reinstall windows but I now have an issue and will need to reinstall.

The recent Windows 10 update has broken my Alienware, it will not load windows. It is stuck in a loop at boot up where it continually tries to back out a change.

It is an Alienware laptop that originally came with Windows 8.1 and I then upgraded to Windows 10 when the free upgrade was available. Therefore I assume the licence is for 8.1.

What is the best way to boot and reinstall Windows 10 ?
 
If you sign in to windows with a microsoft account, you should have a digital license attached to the laptop. Just do a clean install skipping any options to enter a product key and it should activate when you sign in again.

You can check beforehand by checking your MS account online. There will be a "manage devices" page somewhere.
 
marc2003 said:
If you sign in to windows with a microsoft account, you should have a digital license attached to the laptop. Just do a clean install skipping any options to enter a product key and it should activate when you sign in again.

You can check beforehand by checking your MS account online. There will be a "manage devices" page somewhere.
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Thanks, I have logged into my MS account and can see the offending device. It doesn't show the Windows serial number but there is a backup partition on the machine, assuming I can get to the point of restoring from it.
What is the best way to get a clean install started or being able to access the backup partition ?
 
I don't really know anything about recovery partitions but I doubt it's much use since you've upgraded. I can't say for sure though??

Being the nerd I am, I'd create a bootable win10 USB stick but of course you'd need another working windows machine for that. I'd then zap the hard drive completely but you might to use the diskpart command line tool. Have you used it before?

edit: I'd try and grab version 1909 of windows 10 just in case the latest 2004 really does have issues with your machine.
 
marc2003 said:
I don't really know anything about recovery partitions but I doubt it's much use since you've upgraded. I can't say for sure though??

Being the nerd I am, I'd create a bootable win10 USB stick but of course you'd need another working windows machine for that. I'd then zap the hard drive completely but you might to use the diskpart command line tool. Have you used it before?

edit: I'd try and grab version 1909 of windows 10 just in case the latest 2004 really does have issues with your machine.
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I do have another Win 10 machine so will be using that. In fact, that is what I am using to write this
 
As @marc2003 said, put the Windows 10 installer on a USB stick, boot from it, use diskpart to completely clean the drive you are installing onto, then install Windows 10.

Boot up from the USB stick and when it asks for your language press Shift + F10 to bring up a command prompt. Then type in diskpart and list the disks by typing in list disk and make sure you identify the right drive. If your disk is drive 0 (normally is), type in select disk 0 then clean to erase everything from it.
 
darael said:
As @marc2003 said, put the Windows 10 installer on a USB stick, boot from it, use diskpart to completely clean the drive you are installing onto, then install Windows 10.

Boot up from the USB stick and when it asks for your language press Shift + F10 to bring up a command prompt. Then type in diskpart and list the disks by typing in list disk and make sure you identify the right drive. If your disk is drive 0 (normally is), type in select disk 0 then clean to erase everything from it.
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Thanks I will give it a try and let you now how I got on
 
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I only reinstall if I start to see a notable slowdown, I know some people that do it every 3-6 months but I don't see the point in that.
 
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