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Least painful way to reinstall Windows....

Least painful way to reinstall Windows....

Old Jul 23, 2016, 8:00 am
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Least painful way to reinstall Windows....

I still love my Lenovo X220 (especially since I put in an SSD).

But the symptons of Windows detritus are there and I know from experience that a clean reinstall would speed things up.

But I also know from experience what a painful experience that can be.

Any new wisdom on the best way to do a fresh Windows reinstall while keeping all the setting, tweaks, etc., that I've developed for my programs?
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Old Jul 23, 2016, 8:41 am
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Originally Posted by cblaisd
I still love my Lenovo X220 (especially since I put in an SSD).

But the symptons of Windows detritus are there and I know from experience that a clean reinstall would speed things up.

But I also know from experience what a painful experience that can be.

Any new wisdom on the best way to do a fresh Windows reinstall while keeping all the setting, tweaks, etc., that I've developed for my programs?
Perhaps rather than do a clean reinstall, download Ccleaner and purge the disposable stuff (that part of the process is mostly automatic). Then take a look at programs that are automatically started on boot up and disable those that you don't need (you can do this through Ccleaner as well, but you have to manually select those). Look through your installed programs list in control panel and uninstall anything you're not using. Finally, one more pass with Ccleaner, this time also using its Registry cleaner.

You'll also want to look at your add-ins and plug-ins in your web browser(s). Often there will be stuff in there that you've installed that seemed like a good idea at the time but you never went back and removed.

I've never felt the need to reinstall Windows to resolve performance issues, but I use it primarily as a host operating system for a suite of virtual machines. I do have Office and a few other productivity apps installed, but very little else.
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Old Jul 23, 2016, 12:46 pm
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Perhaps it's because I cut my teeth on Unix, but one of the (many) bad design decisions that Microsoft has made with Windows is the practice of dumping everything in the same partition as the operating system, which makes backing up your data, upgrading and reinstalling the OS far more complicated than it needs to be.

It won't help you this time, but if you do start from scratch, you might consider creating a separate partition and placing your personal programs and data there. That will greatly facilitate future reinstallations, because you can wipe the OS partition without affecting the vast majority of your data.

I have heard of programs that claim to automatically preserve settings during a reinstall, but these rarely provide details of how they work. (Even Windows itself offers a "refresh" option.) Frankly, though, whenever I must go through the hassle of reinstalling Windows to get a fresh start, I want my start to be completely fresh.
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Old Jul 23, 2016, 4:45 pm
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I load the operating system and programs on one drive and all of the data on a second physical drive.

After installing the operating system I make notes and screenshots of the repairs and fixes I make so that it will work the way I want it to. That way if I need to do it again, it goes much faster.

I recently built a new computer using Windows 10. Once Classic Shell was installed I found that only a few other changes were needed.
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Old Jul 23, 2016, 6:05 pm
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Originally Posted by cblaisd
Any new wisdom on the best way to do a fresh Windows reinstall while keeping all the setting, tweaks, etc., that I've developed for my programs?
Which version of Windows?

If 7, if you really must stick to an obsolete version, you can use the Easy Transfer Wizard to save your settings and all the stuff in your c:/ProgramData and c:/Users/[you]/AppData

If 7 and you're not set on sticking to 7, just back up (just in case) and upgrade to 10; the upgrade process IS basically a clean reinstall.

If 8/8.1, upgrade to 10.

If 10, most of your Windows-level tweaks will back up to your Microsoft account if you use one. For app-level changes, you can manually back up and restore the c:/ProgramData and c:/Users/[you]/AppData directories but that doesn't cover registry-level changes.
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Old Jul 24, 2016, 1:13 pm
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Originally Posted by mikew99
Perhaps it's because I cut my teeth on Unix, but one of the (many) bad design decisions that Microsoft has made with Windows is the practice of dumping everything in the same partition as the operating system, which makes backing up your data, upgrading and reinstalling the OS far more complicated than it needs to be.
There are many bad design decisions in Windows, and many more that are not inherent to Windows but which are design conventions with how most companies/developers write software on Windows. That is not one of them.

There is no advantage, on modern hardware, on either Windows or Linux (or legacy Unixes) of putting /home or c:/Users on a separate partition; a separate drive may make sense in some cases, although even there, it's not any easier to back up data in its own partition than in its own directory.

Upgrading in place is no different.

Reinstalling the OS is not substantially different, although the default assumption Windows makes of wiping the underlying partition is a problem with the installer (it's actually gotten worse in newer versions than older; up through 7 it was trivially easy to reinstall in-place.)

The real problems are the tight binding of user settings to the registry, using globally unique user IDs without an easy way to recreate them, and the lack of containerization of apps as typically installed.

The former isn't an issue at all on Unix-like operating systems (no similar system object to the registry, although that comes with its own minuses), the second is handled better on Unix (although it comes with its own difficulties in managing accounts across machines; NIS and AFS anyone) and the last is every bit as much a problem on most versions of Unix as it is on Windows (and in both cases, in the MODERN versions of the OS, it's the fault of the application developers and not of the OS.) Any time an application requires root access to install on Unix/Linux-- and that's an awful lot of them -- you know that's a sign it's doing something that won't be easily backed up from /home. Indeed, there isn't even a good convention about where to put system-level other apps: /usr/local vs. /opt ?

you might consider creating a separate partition and placing your personal programs and data there. That will greatly facilitate future reinstallations, because you can wipe the OS partition without affecting the vast majority of your data.
That's a downright dumb thing to do for programs; in general, non-trivial programs will have installed things to WinSXS, to the registry, and possibly to C:/Program Files/Common Files/ and then won't work.

I have heard of programs that claim to automatically preserve settings during a reinstall, but these rarely provide details of how they work. (Even Windows itself offers a "refresh" option.)
For systems-levels settings, and for Microsoft Office, Windows Easy Transfer on Vista and 7 worked pretty well.

Frankly, though, whenever I must go through the hassle of reinstalling Windows to get a fresh start, I want my start to be completely fresh.
In general, I recommend it; short of that, doing a refresh install (running an "upgrade" to the same version in place) is usually the next best step.
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Old Jul 24, 2016, 9:07 pm
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Ok. Strangely enough, this being my first post here, I am not going to talk about airplanes, lol.

Your best bet for a "reset" of Windows, is to use the Windows System File Checker tool. To use it, open your run function (In Windows 7 it is click on the Windows Start Button, select run), type in the following: "SFC /scannow" (without the quote marks) then hit enter.

Here is the official Microsoft Page about this.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833

That command will repair and/or replace all corrupt Windows files without having to reinstall.

I have no idea which version of Windows you have, but just research the above and you should find out if, and how well it will work for your flavor of Windows.

Hope it helps.
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Old Jul 25, 2016, 7:54 am
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Originally Posted by Neonbozo
Ok. Strangely enough, this being my first post here, I am not going to talk about airplanes, lol.

Your best bet for a "reset" of Windows, is to use the Windows System File Checker tool. To use it, open your run function (In Windows 7 it is click on the Windows Start Button, select run), type in the following: "SFC /scannow" (without the quote marks) then hit enter.

Here is the official Microsoft Page about this.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833

That command will repair and/or replace all corrupt Windows files without having to reinstall.

I have no idea which version of Windows you have, but just research the above and you should find out if, and how well it will work for your flavor of Windows.

Hope it helps.
SFC won't run from a Run prompt except on systems with User Account Control disabled*. You have to open an elevated command prompt and run SFC from there. The linked page has complete instructions.

*It's a very bad idea to disable UAC.
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Old Jul 25, 2016, 8:58 am
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sfc /scannow is often worth doing.
(For those stuck, for some awful reason, on XP, it's worth doing very frequently. On XP, this will often ask for the install CD.)

On Windows 10 (or 8/8.1, although there's no reason to run either anymore) there is another step which should be run first, and which while time consuming improves the odds of being able to do the repair tremendously.

Its:
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:wim:d:\sources\install.wim:1
(the latter assuming your install DVD or ISO is mounted as D:\ )

Semi-full instructions at:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...or=-2147217396
although the exact, annoying, format of the "/source" option requires some interpretation.
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Old Jul 25, 2016, 12:05 pm
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Originally Posted by nkedel
Which version of Windows?
...
If 10, most of your Windows-level tweaks will back up to your Microsoft account if you use one. For app-level changes, you can manually back up and restore the c:/ProgramData and c:/Users/[you]/AppData directories but that doesn't cover registry-level changes.
I had a Windows 10 update that seemed to cause deteriorating performance. I was a little nervous to try it, but I went with the Windows repair feature -- can't remember the exact name, but the one that leaves all of your files, etc., untouched -- and it was remarkably pain free. I still had to reinstall non-Microsoft programs and tweak some settings, but it did a remarkable job of fixing the performance issues I'd previously encountered. (See my Travel Tech thread from a few months ago, where several posters thought I was on the verge of a hard-drive failure, didn't have enough RAM, etc.)
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Old Jul 25, 2016, 6:31 pm
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Originally Posted by chgoeditor
I had a Windows 10 update that seemed to cause deteriorating performance. I was a little nervous to try it, but I went with the Windows repair feature -- can't remember the exact name, but the one that leaves all of your files, etc., untouched -- and it was remarkably pain free. I still had to reinstall non-Microsoft programs and tweak some settings, but it did a remarkable job of fixing the performance issues I'd previously encountered. (See my Travel Tech thread from a few months ago, where several posters thought I was on the verge of a hard-drive failure, didn't have enough RAM, etc.)
That's "reset" -- it works remarkably well, and essentially does a clean install over the old copy of Windows.
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Old Jul 25, 2016, 10:00 pm
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Originally Posted by chgoeditor
I had a Windows 10 update that seemed to cause deteriorating performance. I was a little nervous to try it, but I went with the Windows repair feature -- can't remember the exact name, but the one that leaves all of your files, etc., untouched -- and it was remarkably pain free. I still had to reinstall non-Microsoft programs and tweak some settings, but it did a remarkable job of fixing the performance issues I'd previously encountered. (See my Travel Tech thread from a few months ago, where several posters thought I was on the verge of a hard-drive failure, didn't have enough RAM, etc.)
Here's the directions: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...fresh-reset-pc

I've had to do it a few times. Generally would get it started and then go get lunch and run errands.
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Old Jul 26, 2016, 11:58 am
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Originally Posted by cblaisd
I still love my Lenovo X220 (especially since I put in an SSD).

But the symptons of Windows detritus are there and I know from experience that a clean reinstall would speed things up.

But I also know from experience what a painful experience that can be.

Any new wisdom on the best way to do a fresh Windows reinstall while keeping all the setting, tweaks, etc., that I've developed for my programs?

While this won't help you this time, you may want to look into something like Acronis True Image Home.

You go through the pain of reinstalling Windows, all your programs, tweak everything the way you want it and then you use this to make a disk image which you put somewhere you won't loose

The disk image is a copy of everything on your hard drive exactly as it stands at the time the image is made. In the future, if you need to do it again, just restore the image and then you just need to update Windows and anything else to bring you back to where you are right now.
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Old Jul 26, 2016, 4:46 pm
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Originally Posted by nkedel
There are many bad design decisions in Windows, and many more that are not inherent to Windows but which are design conventions with how most companies/developers write software on Windows. That is not one of them.
We can agree to disagree on this point: For me, it is inherently better to segregate the programs that are installed with the OS from the ones that I install myself. That works best for me, but by all means, do what works for you.

Originally Posted by wr_schwab
While this won't help you this time, you may want to look into something like Acronis True Image Home.

You go through the pain of reinstalling Windows, all your programs, tweak everything the way you want it and then you use this to make a disk image which you put somewhere you won't loose

The disk image is a copy of everything on your hard drive exactly as it stands at the time the image is made. In the future, if you need to do it again, just restore the image and then you just need to update Windows and anything else to bring you back to where you are right now.
This is a great idea that I completely forgot to mention: Imaging the installation can save a load of time on reinstalls, especially if you do it after all the Windows updates are done. I currently use Macrium Reflect, which offers a free version.
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Old Jul 26, 2016, 8:52 pm
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Originally Posted by mikew99
We can agree to disagree on this point: For me, it is inherently better to segregate the programs that are installed with the OS from the ones that I install myself. That works best for me, but by all means, do what works for you.
If Windows programs were actually written to support that, it would be a good thing. But the vast majority of Windows applications aren't, and in particular a lot of the really big ones fail utterly when one tries to do so with them.

Of the other stuff I install, mostly all small enough that there's no point in backing up the installations even if it could be done safely; half of them lack automatic updaters and one gets the bonus of getting newer versions at the same time. Since they're small, 90% of the benefit could be kept by just keeping the installers around in a folder.

I'm sure you can produce some counterexample of a non-small application where it survives a separated backup of just data/programs, but off the top of my head the only examples I can think of are games.

This is a great idea that I completely forgot to mention: Imaging the installation can save a load of time on reinstalls, especially if you do it after all the Windows updates are done. I currently use Macrium Reflect, which offers a free version.
Windows 10 (and 8/8.1) both install so quickly on modern hardware that it really doesn't seem worth the effort, and they're pretty good about keeping update ISO versions out every couple of months with 10.
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