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    Clean Reinstall of Vista?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by robbirzell, Mar 18, 2008.

  1. robbirzell

    robbirzell Notebook Consultant

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    With XP, I found that I wanted to do a clean reinstallation every 6 months or so to keep everything running smoothly.

    I've had my current Vista installation since 8/1/07 and I haven't noticed any slowdowns. There's part of me that wants to reformat and reinstall, but I really don't feel like I need to.

    Has anyone else found that they need to do a fresh installation of Vista the way that they used to with XP? Has anyone found an increase in performance, speed, reliability after a clean installation of Vista?

    Thanks for your input.
     
    robbirzell, Mar 18, 2008
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  2. gengerald

    gengerald Technofile Extraordinaire

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    For me that last couple reinstalls have helped sort out issues. The longest term I had was 2 weeks, so I am probably not the best source. I still plan on keeping up with the reinstalls, as fragmentation and temp files will always build up, no matter what. Besides, it gives you back that thrill of a clean slate to customize and tweak in a better/worse fashion :D
     
    gengerald, Mar 18, 2008
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  3. orev

    orev Notebook Virtuoso

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    You do not need to reinstall Vista that much (The same was true with XP. If you really think XP was that bad, then you don't remember the days of Windows 98, where you really did need to reinstall every 6 months). There is no specific time limit when you would want to reinstall. Instead, it is related to how much crap you download and install. If you are in the habit of downloading anything and everything and installing it, then you will need to reinstall a lot more often. If all you do is use MS Office, email, and browse the web, then you will probably not need to reinstall ever.

    Otherwise, reinstalling Vista is not a good thing. Vista monitors your usage and gets faster based on the collected statistics. When you reinstall, you wipe out this information so it cannot help. You also wipe out all of the search indexes and boot-time optimizations.
     
    orev, Mar 18, 2008
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  4. robbirzell

    robbirzell Notebook Consultant

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    That's a good point. I had noticed that Vista has felt better in the past 6 months, and I guess that I was attributing this to Vista updates. But, I overlooked the fact that Vista is adapting to the way that I use my computer. So, in some ways, a clean reinstall would make Vista slower (at least in the short term).

    So, I guess that I'll see what SP1 does and then see if I feel the need to reinstall afterwards.
     
    robbirzell, Mar 18, 2008
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