Saving OS GUI settings across reinstall

sierrabravo said:

I am using Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit. The system has been running unchanged (except for regular updates from Microsoft) for several years and thus collected a lot of "garbage"and I wish to reinstall it from scratch.

I am severely visually impaired and, as a consequence, need a screen magnifier (ZoomText). I have made many customizations to "tame" the Windows 7 GUI so that it can be used with the screen magnifier. This taming process took so much time that the prospect of redoing it is sufficiently daunting that I've avoided the reinstallation for over a year and a half. Are there files or registry settings or something that I can save before reinstallation and apply them subsequent to it so that I can restore all or most of the customizations to the GUI after reinstallation?

Does it run slow and you think a clean install would help speed it up or is it OK and you just feel it is time for a Clean Install. If the PC is running smooth, leave it along.

Maybe we could help you with that instead of doing a clean install, but if you would like to do one, everything you would need is in this tutorial:

Clean Install Windows 7 <---Custom built PC

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 <--Factory PC (hp, dell etc.)

Try the Driver Sweeper, link below my sig.

Sure, I made a tutorial on it. I like ccleaner a lot.

CCleaner - Delete Junk Files

It seems crazy at first, but read everything slowly and take some time and it will all make sense.

You have tried the screen magnifier tool in windows 7 correct? Have you ever tried the text enlargement tool?

Click Type in the search box "make text" and then under the results that pop up click make text and other items larger or smaller. Try the largest setting. Then click "apply". You then have to log off and log back in to apply the changes. Should help you out. You can also adjust the browsers zoom size. Look in the settings in your browser under view or some other similar wording.


Anyways to answer your question, yes I would tell the average user to stay away from the registry cleaner but everything else is fine. Click run cleaner and your done. You can also check mark additional items to clean, but if you don't know what they are or understand it, just leave it alone.

Also, see the tools section to manage things like how many startup programs you have easily. You can easily disable programs from starting up with the pc, as well as seeing a list of all of them. Don't know what the entry is? Google the name of it.