How often should I do a clean install of Windows 7?

Title says it all, just wondering how often I should do a clean install of Windows 7 on my Alienware M14X

 

Just keep it maintained. You don't need to do regular reinstallations.

 

Once. Then keep a good backup regimine going with a history of backups. Personally I have the OS and apps on one partition and data on another. I make image copies of the OS and apps one and file level backups of the other. I do the data backup daily and the the OS one when I make large changes to the apps I have (like installing some new large app, a service pack) or every 30 days. And I have a history of the last six such backups.

Gary

 

My personal experience: I first installed Win7 x64 around November 2009. It was fast and snappy. Then, this 4 months ago (October 2011), I started noticing that it wasn't quite as snappy or responsive as I remembered it. So I did a clean reinstall in December 2011.

Therefore: I will do a clean reinstall ~ every 2 years

 

depends on how you use your pc, there are times i try out a lot of apps. so i tend to reformat every 2 months to remove clutter and reinstall what i wanted to keep then make a backup.

 

I had similar experiences and doing it every 2 years helps to clean out problem as well as updated with more current drivers and software updates as well helps to improve the computing experiences. Forgot to add I do make a new image out of the last clean completed image before I update the driver and then reimage the new updates so if anything goes wrong I just reboot that last image and get things going again. But I just find that rather making new image a complete new fresh install and starting new again does help to load the most current drivers and maybe less prone to problems that were created during the images from coming back or causing unforeseen errors that one can't account for. And I do keep up with updates to Windows besides the other software updates for my various software as well.

 

I always notice how slow W7 gets on older computers after maybe a year.
Using System image is an alternative, but make sure that Windows doesn't have access to it if you want a clean install experience, otherwise it will keep on updating it (which is a good thing, it all depends on what you want from the image), so you'd better have one copy made after the reinstall on a different location, and one that gets updated.

The important thing to do is to move the image manually. Just make a copy of the folder after the first image made. Creating an image on a USB HDD won't keep the image in its original state, Windows will start updating it if you connect the HDD later.

If you still want to reinstall, do it when a new Service Pack comes, preferably with a copy that has the latest SP integrated, like the ones in my sig.

 

Keep your system clean, don't get into downloading all the crap that is out there and maintain your system, you will be alright.

 

Once. Honestly, I have had my current copy of Windows 7 installed for over a year with zero problems. As long as you maintain your system and keep it clean of crap software, you shouldn't need to reinstall Windows. I feel as if it is as fast as the day I first installed it. I am absolutely ecstatic with Windows 7 because it is an amazing OS. You don't even need to tweak it and it will run great.

Before with Windows XP, I would end up doing reinstalls every 6-8mo. I think those days are long gone with W7.

 

I though every computer became an older computer after about a year....

 

How'd you do that in 7? I had done it with XP and tried again when I got this laptop.

I enlarged D and tried to move my user account and subsequent folders to D but it appeared libraries threw it off. So I ended up reinstalling Windows and have a straight set up on C drive, with a Windows backup on a 20 GB D drive..

In another few weeks, once I have a project completed, I plan on reinstalling Windows and wouldn't mind trying again with proper instruction.

 

Yeah that's what some say, but if we're talking about how snappy Windows is, I don't care much about age.
Any dual core with at least 3 GB RAM works great, even if it's five years old, thanks to Windows 7.
The drawback is that you'll notice how old the install is after a year or so.

 

I don't move the user account, I only move the directories. My Documents, Favorites, Music, Videos, etc all have an option if you right click them to easily move them. The only "tricky" one is Outlook's PST file. Once you find it and move it the next time you open Outlook it will complain, but give you a dialog to allow you to pont to it's new location. Then close and reopen Outlook and all is well.

Gary

 

No you won't. Neither Vista or Win7 have that age issue.

Gary

 

OK I think I saw that someplace else. So it ends up D:\My Documents or D:\Documents? The libraries messed me all up and I started trying change folders to D right away so I can't recall the normal Windows hierarchy. I have My Pictures, My Music etc under my user name. What's under your user name?

I use Thunderbird and since the mail is also online it doesn't need to get backup.

 

It ends up any way you want. You get to move each directory (My Docs, My Pictures, My Videos etc.) individually to any folder name you want.

Gary

 

I won't?

I'm not saying that the reason is Windows alone, but it's far easier to use system image than trying to figure what causes the difference, no matter if it's the amount of installed programs, or just certain programs, drivers, or Windows.