Method to Keep Windows from Deteriorating

[richc46]

Over time, Windows begins to slow down, work less efficiently, etc. I have heard that some people actually reformat once a year and reinstall everything. Well, I do not have that much patience. Hopefully, I have come up with a short cut. I would like the input of the much more informed than me, to give suggestions, and ideas.

My Idea. Take a system of image of my OS, now, while it is only 4 days old. Enjoy my computer for the next few months or for the next year. At my discretion, or when the OS begins to lose efficiency. I back up my personal files, and use Window Easy Transfer to record my settings and preferences etc.
Now, I install the OS image that was taken many months ago, then tranfer my documents, etc and then use easy tranfer to reinstall my settings etc.

Did I come up with a good idea or are there limitations and problems that I am not experienced enough to realize?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Your method would work, but I have to say that I have not noticed any deterioration in speed or efficiency due to aging installations since maybe Windows 98 or the early days of XP. Certainly not on Vista. I haven't done the habitual occasional reinstall thing in 5 or 6 years. Some of my installs were 2 years old and I never noticed any issues.

Yeah, registries can have any number of useless entries due to uninstalled programs, failed installs, etc, but I have never seen evidence that a modern processor would even blink at those issues.

If you are in fact slowing down over time, I would suggest there are other things going on that are preventable. How exactly do you notice this slowdown and what is your offhand guess as to the cause?

I assume you use good antivirus and antimalware programs and keep Windows updated for at least critical and important updates?

 

[richc46]

I bought my first computer in 2000, using windows 98. I used it until 12/08, when I purchased my present computer with Vista. Only used Vista for a year, before I installed Win7. Vista did not give me a problem, but with 98, before I knew how to do anything besides, surf the net, email and basic maintenance, I had problems with 98, slowing down, bsod, programs had to be reinstalled to because they no longer worked properly, hanging, etc. I maintained it with updates, disc clean, defrag, etc. I always used a good Virus protection, but I think it was just age that began to eat away at old 98.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

OK.

I would discard your experience with 98. Things are much improved in the last few years with XP, Vista, and now Windows 7.

My suggestion would be to make 2 image of Windows 7:

1: immediately after installation when all you have done is gotten all the available Windows updates and before you have installed applications.

2: a month or so later after you have your applications installed and everything is working well.

With any luck, you will never have to use either image. Store them preferably on an entirely different drive.

If you for whatever reason find that Windows 7 is performing poorly, you could restore one of the two images, but I would suggest that you first investigate the reasons for the deteriorating performance--it isn't natural and doesn't "just happen". I have not noticed anything like that in years.

If I am not mistaken, the built in Windows 7 imaging capabilities limit you to keeping only ONE image? If that is true, you might want to get acquainted with another imaging product like Acronis or Macrium Reflect. The latter is free and the former is often free.

 

[HammerHead]

Win 7 Image

Ignatz
"If I am not mistaken, the built in Windows 7 imaging capabilities limit you to keeping only ONE image? If that is true, you might want to get acquainted with another imaging product like Acronis or Macrium Reflect. The latter is free and the former is often free."

I agree both Acronis and Macrium are good. Although I have not been able to get Acronis fully functional on Win7 X64.

As for MS backup, it will keep more than one image if you have the sapce requirements on your target drive set up to allow room. Or at least that is what it claims. Never the less I just wrote the second image to another disk.

 

[pparks1]

I still see Windows boxes slowing down over time. There is absolutely no doubt that my boot speeds of Vista have move than doubled since I got my work laptop nearly 1 year ago. I don't have the time to reformat and reinstall all of my work stuff...even though it would make a nice difference for awhile.

Imaging is certainly a great way to go. It saves you have to reinstall drivers and reactivate the operating system. And since the "system image" utility is free with all versions of Windows 7...there really isn't a good reason to not at least use it.

 

[whs]

The slowdown of your system is a function of what you install. Some programs/functions can take a big hit (e.g. virtual Box running a couple of virtual partitions). But also security programs, sidebar and others will impact especially your boot times. With your proposed system it will be the same. After you reinstalled all the stuff that you aquired between day4 and day400, you will be back at square1. The best is to be very selective of what you install and get a system that has a lot of muscle (CPU, disk - prefer an SSD, and RAM).

 

[pparks1]

The slowdown of your system is a function of what you install.

True enough. However, lots of people install things to try and end up not really using it. Plus, they do need some apps for certain things and then don't need them again. So, that's why starting from scratch can pay off...because I wouldn't really re-install eveyrthing that I did the last time. In fact, with most things, I don't even bother reinstalling them until there is a need to run that particular application.

 

[Snufffed]

Over time, Windows begins to slow down, work less efficiently, etc. I have heard that some people actually reformat once a year and reinstall everything. Well, I do not have that much patience. Hopefully, I have come up with a short cut. I would like the input of the much more informed than me, to give suggestions, and ideas.

My Idea. Take a system of image of my OS, now, while it is only 4 days old. Enjoy my computer for the next few months or for the next year. At my discretion, or when the OS begins to lose efficiency. I back up my personal files, and use Window Easy Transfer to record my settings and preferences etc.
Now, I install the OS image that was taken many months ago, then tranfer my documents, etc and then use easy tranfer to reinstall my settings etc.

Did I come up with a good idea or are there limitations and problems that I am not experienced enough to realize?

Deteriorating is due to FRAGMENTATION... DEFRAG often.

 

[pparks1]

Deteriorating is due to FRAGMENTATION... DEFRAG often.

It could be, but it might not be. My personal experience with defrag is that in 90% of cases, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. The reason it slows down has more to do with startup applications and windows components that get installed in my case then defragmentation. For others, there experiences may be different.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Hammerhead:

I thought I read some months ago that Home Premium and below will only permit one image and it must be on a local drive, but Pro and Ultimate can handle multiple images and allow you to put them on a network??

I haven't confirmed that as yet and haven't checked it out since retail versions were released.

If Home Premium can only do a single image, that would be a letdown.

 

[richc46]

Hammerhead:

I thought I read some months ago that Home Premium and below will only permit one image and it must be on a local drive, but Pro and Ultimate can handle multiple images and allow you to put them on a network??

I haven't confirmed that as yet and haven't checked it out since retail versions were released.

If Home Premium can only do a single image, that would be a letdown.

I checked on my Home Premium. You can copy to HD, CD/DVD or External HD, but not to finger drive.
You can have more than one copy.

 

[noyb]

Over time, Windows begins to slow down, work less efficiently, etc....

My Idea. Take a system of image of my OS, now, while it is only 4 days old. Enjoy my computer for the next few months or ....

Now, I install the OS image that was taken many months ago, then tranfer my documents, etc and then use easy tranfer to reinstall my settings etc.

Did I come up with a good idea or are there limitations and problems that I am not experienced enough to realize?

This is true in XP .. I assume W7 will be no different.
I'm a believer that nothing tunes up a computer .. or fixes what may ail it .. Better than a fresh install.

We have about the same idea

My procedure started with a fully loaded Fresh install ..
then I made an Acronis backup.

The next time .. I will recover to the last fresh install .. update it ..
and make a new Acronis backup for the next time.

A problem will be your personal Data ... (I have mine in a different partition)
All I have to do is replace the System partition.

The confusion will be in understanding the difference between the System, System configuration stuff and you Personal Data.

Actually .. I have my next Fresh restore in a HDD in an external enclosure .. ready to run.
All I have to do is Swap HDDs
I can copy things I need to do to it .. Like addresses. favorites ..etc .. to the desktop ..
and keep the Data updated .. (a Backup)

I never backup my Working System .. You just never know what junk it's collected.

 

[H2SO4]

Over time, Windows begins to slow down, work less efficiently, etc....
...

This is true in XP .. I assume W7 will be no different.

It's only true if you define "Windows" as "your entire computing experience, including all software which currently calls your machine 'home'".

Windows itself does not slow down at all. Why would it? Disregarding the effect of updates which may subtly alter behaviour, Windows is just code which behaves the exact same way today, tomorrow, or in the year 2381.

Installing apps and various add-ons takes its toll. That AV driver wants to inspect all I/O activity, and in doing so it introduces delays. The new office suite wants to pre-load some stuff into a process which runs automatically at startup in order to speed up document opening and rendering. The internet "download manager" sticks its nose into every download, even if it's not obvious, Just In Case It's Needed. And so on.

However, even the combined effects of multiple non-default add-ons which are functioning well is usually not what causes people to reinstall in exasperation. Instead, what drives them batty is that broken software component which is causing a 30sec delay at logon time, or the one which periodically makes everything freeze for 9 seconds, or the one which makes shutdown take 37 minutes, all for reasons entirely inscrutable at end-user level.

Hence, the OP's original statement would perhaps be more accurately paraphrased as:

"Over time, a home user is quite likely to pick up one or more performance-degrading add-ons whose modes of failure are too complex for them to troubleshoot..."

 

[Taliseian]

I did something similar, but I have my system set up specifically for this.

First off, I partitioned one of my drives into a System and a Data drive. Also, I've added other drives to the system since then.

Next, I do a clean install of Windows 7. The only thing I do is activate it. I don't install any drivers and during the install process I make sure that Windows Update is turned off.

Then, I make an image of the installation using Acronis and save it to one of my other drives.

This way when I feel the need to do a clean start, I just use Acronis to restore a clean install of Windows that has been activated. Since drivers change and are updated over time, I can do driver installs without the need to remove older drivers first.

The only disadvantage are the apps/games that need to be installed. I play some game that don't have registry entries or make the entries the first time they're played. Other games and apps I'll have to install, but its really very minor in this way.

Also, anything that can be saved to another location are saved onto one of my other drives or backed up (in the case of games I'm playing) when I restore my install.

Since I've started doing things this way, I never worry about when or if I need to reformat. I just backup a few things and restore a clean, activated OS whenever I need to.

Hope this helps......


T