Windows installs

[mjc0961]

Too many times to count. I reinstall every year or so just to keep things fresh. Probably don't need to, but I like to.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

WIn 9X and XP were roughly 6 months to 2 years, XP behaved better over the long haul but typically needed a "do over" yearly. There is nothing like a fresh windose OS.

I am in to my 17th ish month of Win7 and its looking to need a reinstall as I can not get XP mode install ><

 

[Harry Mason]

You know the cure for being forced to install Windows a thousand times?
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
Just do this once and your problems will disappear!

Linux is all up in your thread, rendering your OS irrelevant! OH, WHAT?!

 

[Naeo]

I've had to do it twice. Once my hard drive crashed and I had to get a new one and do a fresh install. The other time my dad's desktop was acting up so we wiped it and installed windows 7, but it turns out the issue was that one of the RAM modules was malfunctioning so we had all sorts of infuriating fun with that before figuring it out.

 

[viranimus]

Personally as a general rule I reformat and reinstall roughly about once every 6 months to a year. Not that it is needed, but it acts as a good way to do a clearing house and for lack of a better expression "spring cleaning"

Though through some of my reformats I have lost some data I found important and thus regretted some of my over zealous reformatting, But over all I think it works to a better PC health and understanding. I find it overall beneficial, but thats just me... Once every 6-12 months. Would do everyone a world of good.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

Meh. I only reinstall if something's gone desperately wrong. I keep my machines cleaned and performance-tuned well enough without having to periodically blow everything away.

 

[Shuswah_Noir]

I have friends who still use 2000, because they don't know how to upgrade, and don't want to.

That hurts my brain. If I found out I had friends using 2000 I'd demand that I fix it for them.

Since I upgraded to XP what feels like an eternity ago, I've only needed to reinstall once. And that was after letting someone else near my PC. Other than that, I've never had a problem. I'll upgrade to 7 when I upgrade my PC. Which could be a while away.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

3 times, all because of driver issues that couldn't be fixed otherwise.

And the problem still exists to some extent.

 

[The_Healer]

On occasion, I do, I've gone 5 years since re-installing XP and I've only had 7 running for about 13 months. I keep a pretty tight leash on how bloated they get. I need to re-install XP again as I just upgraded to Sandy Bridge, I'm contemplating just building an XP box for legacy games. I would in an instant if I could find a resonably priced DVI KVM switch.

How much is "reasonably priced"?

OT: Ah quite a few times. I work part-time in IT so its not really a big deal.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Had to? You never have to, but sometimes it's the easiest alternative if some dumbass viruses up your computer and you're also a dumbass and don't know what else to do. Luckily I know how to fix those kinds of things (now) without fuckassing around with reinstalls, so I havn't had to for years (except when I had a HD start to die). I often choose to, like when I upgraded most of my computers to Windows 7, but it isn't a necessity...though it's definately worth the trouble.

It's as simply as keeping your shit defragged (Vista and 7 do it automatically), keeping your temp files/cache clean, uninstalling rubbish you'll never use again, making sure there's nothing but your anti-virus in your startup, and running a reg cleaner every now and then and your computer will almost never start being a dumbfuck or going slow as old harry. Everyone should use CCleaner [http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner]. Everyone.

 

[Roxor]

Thanks to Windows 98, I became very familiar with FDISK. It seems odd, but I was less-familiar with it during my DOS days. Seriously, I have never had to reinstall MS-DOS on any computer I've had it as the operating system.

 

[Bobbity]

I've had Vista on this computer for three years now, and it really needs a fresh install, but I've kind of lost the discs :S

 

[redisforever]

This installation of XP has been running for two years and it's slowing down to a crawl. I already have a second installation on this PC, which I installed a few weeks ago so it can replace this one - however it collapsed after the first few driver installs, so I have to start again.

Usually XP can run for around 6 months to a year with good speed, than it starts to really slow down, after two years it's really going to hell.

Well time to install Kubuntu again. I've had one Kubuntu installation running since around 2006 - it survived two computers, at least 5 major version upgrades and it still runs like a charm. And now that KDE4 is kinda workable, no need to upgrade XP to another Windows version.

That hurts my brain. If I found out I had friends using 2000 I'd demand that I fix it for them.

I still didn't get around to UPGRADE one old computer from 98 to 2000. 2000 was actually a pretty good system. That and XP SP1. Afterward MS systems turned to shit again.

I think you quoted the wrong person. I didn't post that, but in their post, they quoted me. Oh well.

I have to say, I do think XP was the best, until 7 came out. I used to joke with my dad that installing Vista was a downgrade from anything, but 7 is like what Vista was intended to be. So far, in the year I've used it, nothing has broken, only gotten slower. (My fault, too much crap on the hard drive.)