Windows XP tune up

[Mr. LL]

I really hate it when I have to rebuild my OS because it takes so long to back everything up and then reinstall all my app and build the same folder structure I had set up before.

What suggestions do you all have to fine tune your system to prevent the need to rebuild? My system seems like it is laggy doing basic stuff even though I make every effort I can to keep it clean.

Here is what I currently do to keep things in order as much as I can......
1. Ad-Aware scans
2. Spybot scans
3. MS Anti spyware scans (just started using this)
4. Nortons, runs checks all the time
5. Highjack this, CS/CW? shredder
6. CCcleaner for the registry
7. Scan disk and defrag all the time
8. A few other utilities that check for highjacks and virus problems
9. Removed most items from MSCONFIG startup but maybe 5 or
so needed items
10. From what I can tell the services that are set to auto are okay and need to be running.

What else can I do to clean up my system and get it back to normal without rebuilding? After I first rebuilt it it worked fine for a while with all the above programs installed and ran regularly.

 

[Osiris]

Customize your install with everything you can think of, just the way you like it with all your programs and make an image using Norton Ghost.

 

[EricB]

or drive image 7

 

[Mr. LL]

I used to just image my OS but I ran into the problem of the image file being too big. I guess I could try to get it setup before installing apps and media.