How often do you reinstall Windows?

[Chopper]

Personally, I reinstall my system every 6 months or so now I have XP, used to be every 3 under 98...

 

[Sparda_X]

Why do u re-install your OS?! Is there an advantage to do doing this? i hate to re-intall windows it takes so much time to back up and re-install.

 

[time shocker]

I do mine every 3 months. It is always good to do a format! You will see a big difference m8! Try it!
Laterz

 

[Cadfael]

I have three kids... and dispite my death threat they will insist on d/l stupid plugin for IE, or removing games by just deleteing them.

So I usually have to re-install maybe 3 times a year just to fix the mess!

 

[Martin]

I download too many betas of software and games, leading to many system instabilities, so probably once a month is sufficient.

 

[Chopper]

Why do u re-install your OS?! Is there an advantage to do doing this? i hate to re-intall windows it takes so much time to back up and re-install.

A new install of an OS means that there is no excess clutter. Not on your drive and not in the registry.

 

[Sparda_X]

But cant Scan Disk and Disk Defragmenter or Norton Doctor fix these problems for you? I dont know about the registry, but arent files and disk fragments fixed by these programs.

Anyways I think I can live with my weekly defragmaentation, Disk cleaning and scan disk. I dont have anyone deleting files without unistaling or do i install that much software in my computer so I think it would be kind of unecesary to format evry few months

 

[Chopper]

But cant Scan Disk and Disk Defragmenter or Norton Doctor fix these problems for you? I dont know about the registry, but arent files and disk fragments fixed by these programs.

The way I look at it is the registry starts to fill with useless garbage from programs past...and junk data on the drive never really gets swept away until the drive is formatted....

I'm not suggesting that I just wipe my drive and start over now and then. I do this when I need to. I do use Regedit, Chkdsk and Evidence Eliminator so my OS stays pretty lean...but over time things have a way of slowly falling apart....

 

[Anthony]

I get so many viruses, I end up having to format no matter what. And spyware is the worst! ... but sometimes even a format isn't enough.. if that is the case I usually erase the entire drive (i.e. turn everything into zeros -- not a format). And then I format it (into a fat32 usually). I do this even if I don't have any viruses just to clean up the hard drive entirely.

 

[Terry]

I like to use System Mechanic and Norton Utilities 2002 to keep the clutter down to a minimum and tidy up my registry, cookies, duplicate and unnecessary files, but they can'y get all of the rubbish. I don't add and remove a lot of software on a regular basis, so I reckon a format twice a year is okay for my needs.