How often do you reinstall Windows?
- Thread starter Cromulent
- Start date
All normal partitions yes, not necessarily recovery partitions put on there by OEMs.
I've not had a bloatware laptop in the last 5 years whose recovery partition doesn't show up. That partition tool is literally diskpart in gui format.
Caporegime
The last re-install was when I bought an M2 for my C: drive, to be fair, Win 10 is the only version I've had of Windows that - so far - hasn't needed a full reinstall due to any kind of issue/screwup,which seemed a fairly regular occurrence on the older versions such as Vista (Yuk!) & 7, for me its been extremely stable, prior to that I had to reinstall 10 once but that's because I'd pushed my O/C way too far and over time I think it got corrupted beyond repair.
My current install has been running fine with a permanent O/C for well over a year.
My current install has been running fine with a permanent O/C for well over a year.
UGH, I have a win10pro installation that is around 3 years old, and I'm regretting not squashing it and restarting the universe. Always takes over a day.
There are two things regarding this endeavor that I hate:
1. Figuring out where all the game storage is. Everything, even with Steam, seems to be craftily hidden in obtuse areas, or at least this was the case 3 years ago. I crock together a script to handle this, but the number of games I've given my kids is legion, and heaven help the stability of our universe if things go missing (lol).
2. Dealing with people insisting to me that Windows doesn't really slow down and it must be my fault. LOL. That weird stance has been going on forEVER. As a software engineer for 4 decades, I've seen windows from the very beginning and even pre 3.11WFW slowed down to a crawl over time. Contrast that with Linux, which never ever slows down, but comes with it's own set of legendary nightmares.
I'm looking for a gaming backup application that can help. Basically, bridge the gap between Epic/Steam/bla/bla/and bla/ delivery engines.
Any ideas?
There are two things regarding this endeavor that I hate:
1. Figuring out where all the game storage is. Everything, even with Steam, seems to be craftily hidden in obtuse areas, or at least this was the case 3 years ago. I crock together a script to handle this, but the number of games I've given my kids is legion, and heaven help the stability of our universe if things go missing (lol).
2. Dealing with people insisting to me that Windows doesn't really slow down and it must be my fault. LOL. That weird stance has been going on forEVER. As a software engineer for 4 decades, I've seen windows from the very beginning and even pre 3.11WFW slowed down to a crawl over time. Contrast that with Linux, which never ever slows down, but comes with it's own set of legendary nightmares.
I'm looking for a gaming backup application that can help. Basically, bridge the gap between Epic/Steam/bla/bla/and bla/ delivery engines.
Any ideas?
Associate
- Joined
- 29 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 698
As I've said before, get some disk imaging software, get EVERYTHING the way you want it, then every ~6 months you wipe and re-do from the image. No slowdown. Everything as you want it. If you miss a bit of software you re-do from the image, install said software, and re-make the image. Takes away so much pain!
Man of Honour
What are you doing to your OS that needs this 6 monthly cycle of absolute faff (even with disk images considered)?
As mentioned before, I am running the same Windows install since Vista, just in-place upgraded with each new version and kept on top of monthly maintenance and file/registry cleanups of orphan data. Machine is as smooth as a fresh install still and as can be for a SATA SSD (20s cold boot to desktop etc).
As mentioned before, I am running the same Windows install since Vista, just in-place upgraded with each new version and kept on top of monthly maintenance and file/registry cleanups of orphan data. Machine is as smooth as a fresh install still and as can be for a SATA SSD (20s cold boot to desktop etc).
Associate
- Joined
- 29 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 698
I work with a LOT of beta software, for work, sometimes it's ok, sometimes it HOSES my OS, hence the need for rapid re-installs. I find imaging to be the most time efficient, to get back up and running for the next version of software
Soldato
Hard to know your usage, but it sounds like a prime candidate for using virtual machines for testing the beta software, or a second install which is reimaged with a base image before each new beta version, keeping it away from your core Windows install.
There's no way a Windows install slows down noticeably these days with normal usage. Small drop offs on a stopwatch or specific benchmarks perhaps, but not to the degree you're describing.
There's no way a Windows install slows down noticeably these days with normal usage. Small drop offs on a stopwatch or specific benchmarks perhaps, but not to the degree you're describing.
Last edited:
I've been hearing that same "these days" statement for decades. The problem is, "these days" never arrives.
Yeah, I appreciate that having once been an avid Ghost user many moons ago, but the kids will have roughly 6 months of accumulated information in that time, and some of their games more resemble creative design than games (Kerbal Space Program, Rimworld, From the depths....) I've tried in the past to have each game "point" to a safe data-only location, and each has their own rules for that, and the last time I experimented with that (2 years ago) it ended in disaster.
Each game delivery engine (note, not game engine, but game delivery engine or whatever you call it) has its own rules, and some of the Steam games don't even follow steam rules (and use their own locations), and I have to deal with games all over the place from Epic, Steam (which criss-crosses over through other manufacturers....learned that one painfully), etc., etc.
Sorry, I must be missing how it's so easy it is for others to manage. I'll feely admit I'm dense on this topic if it helps.
You almost certainly know this already, but keep in mind that certain "upgrade in place"s are actually full re-installs in disguise.
Back when NT 5 was rebranded to Windows 2000 (~1998) and included versions for home use, there was no way for any part of the prior software to be saved properly. It was an entirely new code base, and even the registry structure was completely different. So if you upgraded in place from anything prior to and including WinME (GodhelpyouwiththatPOS) to anything Windows 2000 or later, you had a full reinstall, not an in-place upgrade.
Last edited:
Soldato
I'm one of those who used to reinstall Windows 95/98/ME (yes I used it) and XP every few months, but in all honesty from Windows 7 onward I haven't seen any point. From a real world perspective I can't tell any difference between a week old Windows 10 and one which is a year old, so long as it's a semi decent PC.
Man of Honour
I have a few tools that have been reliable for all these years, CCleaner Portable being one of them but the portable version which has always stayed true to the original CCleaner of old. You can still download the latest CCP and it gets updates to support newer applications etc too which is good. Here's the folder of shortcuts I use:
I knew this for the more legacy versions of Windows but in-place upgrade was certainly an upgrade Vista and above as everything remained as was that I'd installed as well as registry entries that were there previously for specific applications etc. The old version of Windows was also imaged to a Windows.old folder during the process and kept by Windows for 30 days should you wish to roll back. This is fro my experience at least anyway, since Vista all the installes I have done on a new version have been upgrades and it's always kept everything I had before. The only time this was not possible was when I went from 32bit to 64 bit, but that was from XP to Vista.
Soldato
My previous Windows install lasted from the release of Windows 10 until the end of December last year. During thet time it saw two motherboards, three CPUS, and two GPUs (one AMD, one NVidia). I only reinstalled when what was later diagnosed as a bad RAM slot started causing BSODS and corrupted everything. Windows is pretty resiliant to hardware changes these days.
That's interesting. I thought you were supposed to reinstall Windows when changing the MOBO/CPU.
Soldato
Definitely not needed for CPU alone. Motherboard used to merit a reinstall but these days windows detects the new hardware and automatically restarts a few times to install the new drivers.
Man of Honour
I had Win 10 when it came out and only re-installed about 3 months ago.
The previous install had become a mess with things failing and an installation of Sophos so I could WfH made it worse (it ended up I didn't need to install it).
I now have the OS/Software I want and installing anything new will be very rare.
The previous install had become a mess with things failing and an installation of Sophos so I could WfH made it worse (it ended up I didn't need to install it).
I now have the OS/Software I want and installing anything new will be very rare.