Windows 7: Reinstall from system image--Newbie question

Hello. This is my first post to Seven Forums though I have been a fan for a while.

My computer has been acting unstable and slow and the usual maintenance procedures (defrag, registry cleaning, etc.) haven't helped. I want to do a Windows reinstall from a system image, so here is my newbie question: does the system image preserve all of the problems, and if so, are the problems reinstalled with it?

Thanks for your expertise!

A system image is an exact copy of your current system. Problems, slowness, and even malware will be copied and restored.

Best to do an image of a clean new system (called a vanilla image) Then add your apps.

it depends when you made the system image - if the problems were there before the image, then they will get saved along with it.

if however the problems only started showing themselves long after the image, then you should be good to restore.

as usual, zigzag3143 has it right, and the best time to make an image is soon after activating a new install, before you start adding all sorts of potential risky stuff to windows.

Thank you both. I assumed that was the case, so now I wipe it clean and reinstall a zillion apps. Oh, well....