How do you keep your system running at it's best?

McDougal said:

Thanks everyone for the replies :)!

So basically what you're all saying is I should do one last re-install....then immediately after make an image? I think I can do that.....all my files etc. are on my data partition, so I don't need to worry about those.....all I need to worry about is my programs, which I can handle, lol. My OS partition is about 20GB.....I could easily make an image of that and store it on my other data partition. My total hard drive space is 250GB.

A quick question about Windows licenses.....from my understanding....each Windows 7 license key has a unique activation on each computer that allows you to re-install an unlimited amount of times on that specific machine? Just curious, want to make sure I don't have to obtain another license key from my subscription.....

Should you ever need to clean install, say onto a new SSD, I'd use the built-in software license manager rather than puts around with the registry to activate Windows 7. You just open an elevated command prompt (run it as administrator) then:

Type: slmgr -ipk product key number (remember to space between slmgr and the command and before the product key).

Press enter.

Type: slmgr -ato and press enter. The -ipk command installs the product key, and the -ato attempts online activation.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try it if I ever need to clean install again :)!

McDougal said:

How do you keep your system running at it's best, so you won't have to re-install for as long as possible? Your favorite software/tweaks/optimizations? Here's a list of what I like to do plus the software I install to help me out (all free stuff :)):

Tweaks/Optimizations:
1. Immediately after a fresh install/full system update, I follow Black Viper's guides.
2. Then I follow this forum's Optimize guide.
This is done before I install any software.

Software I like:
1. CCleaner
2. Wise Registry Cleaner (free)
3. Wise Disk Cleaner (free)
4. Defraggler
5. GlaryUtilities (free)
6. Advanced Disk Cleanup (built-in, not really software, cleanmgr /sageset:50, cleanmgr /sagerun:50)
7. Msconfig and disable startup items after installing all programs

I defrag/clean regularly......and only install software I need, and don't install any beta stuff.

What do you do? Have any suggestions for me?

Try to use TuneUp2012.

The main thing I do is run Microsoft updates and leave it alone. :P

whs said:

McDougal, just a little word of caution. Before you create an additional partition for the images (as I suggested above), double check in Disk Management that you do not already have 4 primary partitions on the system. If you do have 4 primaries, a 5th partition would be fatal because all partitions would be converted into dynamics. Result is that your system does not boot any more.

If your system is an OEM installation (the OS came with the computer), there are good chances that you may have 4 primaries. Those OEM took the bad habit of installing hidden partitions that you do not see in Computer - only in Disk Management. Should you be in doubt, take a snip of your Disk Management window and post it here for us to have a look.

But if you originally installed the system from an installation disk yourself, you most likely do not have that problem.

Yes, HP is quite bad about the 4 partition grab. My HP laptop has 4 Primary Partitions.

To get 5, I had to follow advice on here and other sites, to convert the C: drive to a Logical Partition, and Extend it so as to add a 5th Logical Parition, for the User Data (as long as you have a System Primary Partition on the drive).