[Hero Kid]

I don't need to check all that stuff to notice that my Windows 7 setup was getting slower and slower as time went on.
For me, it's always noticeably faster after a fresh install which I normally do every 6 months.

I think it's to do with more and more process running from installing more and more crap. I accept there is probably other ways to fix it but I've found it to be much easier just to re-install.

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

I don't need to check all that stuff to notice that my Windows 7 setup was getting slower and slower as time went on.
For me, it's always noticeably faster after a fresh install which I normally do every 6 months.

I think it's to do with more and more process running from installing more and more crap. I accept there is probably other ways to fix it but I've found it to be much easier just to re-install.

I'm thinking that it's a combination of both placebo (A new/refreshed computer always feels faster) and the cleaning of processes.  It's not a bad thing to clean it off every 6 months, it's just not as necessary as implied..
 
By the by, best way to trim services/processes: msconfig.  Just open your Win7 start menu, and type msconfig, and hit enter.  There, you see services (just hit the checkbox to hide Microsoft Services, if you're worried about killing needed ones) and startup (feel free to delete/uncheck ANYTHING here, including Microsoft/Windows stuff.), among others you don't need to interact with.

 

[Shike]

Quote:

I don't need to check all that stuff to notice that my Windows 7 setup was getting slower and slower as time went on.
For me, it's always noticeably faster after a fresh install which I normally do every 6 months.

I think it's to do with more and more process running from installing more and more crap. I accept there is probably other ways to fix it but I've found it to be much easier just to re-install.

To some people that may be the case . . . those with enough experience and significant amounts of data though find it to be the exact opposite.
 
I think I could explain this relatively easily with a car analogy:
 
A fresh install is like a car with no to very few amenities - no AC, sound system, power windows, anti-lock breaks, etc.  You install the items you want, but obviously the more you install the more effort it takes.  With age though the car itself has been run and needs an oil change.  Rather than learn to do it yourself or pay someone else to, you go to the dealer and trade the old car in for one in the exact same condition save the oil and the fact it's stock.  You install all the above items again only to repeat the cycle by never addressing the real problem - the oil.

 

[ayz]

LOL what

 

[Hero Kid]

Explain it relatively easy... I don't think so.

 

[Shike]

Quote:

LOL what

Says the guy that insults my reading comprehension. 

 
Quote:

Explain it relatively easy... I don't think so.

 
Easy enough for me . . . I don't see what's so hard here

Basically you rather exert effort in areas other than where the problem exists.  You're installing all sorts of stuff which takes effort, eventually you accumulate garbage and require maintenance, rather than do that you replace it with a new installation (stock) and install everything again.  It's like modifying a car till it has everything you want, but when oil change time comes around you tell the dealer "here, I want the exact same car with the same miles but with fresh oil.  Oh, those mods/improvements I made don't matter - I can take stock and do them over again".  For whatever reason the dealer obliges your asinine request, and that's the end of it.  Repeat every six months.
 
I really don't know how to simplify it in terms of the obligatory car analogy more than this.  If you treated your car like you treat your PC it would be in a junk yard - you refuse to learn maintenance but won't pay others to perform it.  Reinstalling is like trading everything you've done on it for the theoretical oil change - something rather minor.  If all you did was change a knob on the console the oil change would be harder, if you replaced the whole engine with a better one the oil change would have been easier.

 

[ayz]

that is the worst analogy i have ever heard

 

[Hybrys]

Yeah, you're just overcomplicating things...

 

[maverickronin]

Makes perfect sense to me.  Maybe you need to be a car guy too, in order to get it.
 
Let me simplify a little bit.  Reinstalling windows every 6 months is like replacing your engine regularly instead of changing your oil regularly.  It's more work, but even though you do it less often, its a lot more work overall.

 

[Hero Kid]

I fail to see how putting a disc in a drive and pressing next a few times is hard work...

 

[Shike]

Quote:

I fail to see how putting a disc in a drive and pressing next a few times is hard work...

The OS install itself isn't - it's installing various other programs again.  If you have 300GB+ in software and data to install and move around it becomes substantially harder/time consuming.
 
To be put bluntly:
 
If you only word process and surf the web - don't really install or DL anything substantial - a format is easier.
 
If you install tons of games, spend time configuring various decoders, tweak tons of settings, download tons of material - the format becomes more work as it's presumed you'll want the same configuration again.
 
 
I'm guessing you're not a car person since car analogies don't seem to work for you.  To be put simply though, regular maintenance is a relatively mild task.  If all you do is install Windows and two programs, the maintenance would be harder (maybe, difference of opinion but we'll say it is for argument) that just a format and reinstall could be easier.  If you have the 300+ gigs to move around and restore, the maintenance is substantially easier (less time consuming) than doing the install + bringing everything back to where it was before.

 

[Sumflow]

No viruses, no fear!

 ​

Quote:

Hybrys   Why did you buy a Macbook?

 

[Shike]

Quote:

No viruses, no fear!

 ​

http://www.securemac.com/
 
and
 
http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/home-it/23941-mac-hacked-in-under-10-seconds-at-pwn2own
 
Give Apple is good at fixing virus/trojans/worms as they occur overall, but there's still chance of getting nailed with a zero day exploit - even on a Mac.

 

[SemiAudiophile]

Quote:

Quote:

I fail to see how putting a disc in a drive and pressing next a few times is hard work...

The OS install itself isn't - it's installing various other programs again.  If you have 300GB+ in software and data to install and move around it becomes substantially harder/time consuming.
 
To be put bluntly:
 
If you only word process and surf the web - don't really install or DL anything substantial - a format is easier.
 
If you install tons of games, spend time configuring various decoders, tweak tons of settings, download tons of material - the format becomes more work as it's presumed you'll want the same configuration again.
 
 
I'm guessing you're not a car person since car analogies don't seem to work for you.  To be put simply though, regular maintenance is a relatively mild task.  If all you do is install Windows and two programs, the maintenance would be harder (maybe, difference of opinion but we'll say it is for argument) that just a format and reinstall could be easier.  If you have the 300+ gigs to move around and restore, the maintenance is substantially easier (less time consuming) than doing the install + bringing everything back to where it was before.

 
Why go through all that trouble? Just use a ghost image. 

 

[Shike]

Quote:

 
Why go through all that trouble? Just use a ghost image. 

A drive image would (debatably) be effective after a clean install and getting a few applications you want setup - but if you keep imaging while using it you'll pick up the same stuff which would under Hero Kid's opinion would require a format.  You'd have to perform maintenance regardless of a drive image, because the image has the same garbage the original accumulates every time you back it up.
 
If you want to save time beyond an OS reinstall and your most basic apps (browser, office suite, minor stuff) it makes some sense.  However, applications can get outdated too so without updating the image the things also found within the image can become obsolete.
 
That's why regular maintenance + imaging for backups makes the most sense to me.