Will Clean-Installing My Computer Make It Run Faster?

[gregrocker]

Or...

Make a Repair CD from any Windows 7 computer in Backup center, or download and burn from here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html

 

[Wandering Flame]

well i did a factory restore with the help of a dell rep...hope everything goes well for me. Had the factory restore menu looked exactly the way it did on the dell tutorial i would be greatly satisfied...but I'm fine...oh and lol @ the free trial of Mcafee restarting...does that mean I have mcafee for another 15 monhts? wow lol or does it just continue from where it left off...I think it's the former.

 

[gregrocker]

Thought you wanted to do a clean reinstall. You can clean up the bloatware programs you don't want using Revo Uninstaller Advanced mode. This will get to the leftover registry entries and files.

Best to remove a bloated AV like McAfee, replace it with lightweight free AV like MS Security Essentials or Avast.

After removing bloatware and installing your programs, use a state-of-the-art cleaner like CCleaner "Run Cleaner" and Registry tab, plus the Auslogics Defraggers (all free) to clean and order your HD for best performance.

Be sure to also check that no freeloaders are starting with the computer besides AV and any gadgets you run. Unless you absolutely need them open when you start up, they suck up CPU and RAM for no reason. I uncheck everything in msconfig>Startup tab except AV and Gadgets/sidebar/stickynotes.

 

[Wandering Flame]

Because I'm not so adept in this stuff...and don't even know what I want for that matter, I often stick with the system that is pre-configured for me, by the company I payed $608.45....I'm basically worshipping someone I give that kind of money to.

 

[gregrocker]

Well it's good to get your full year's tech support and warranty out of them for what you pay. During that time you can learn more and progress to clean installing when/if you want it more responsive.

Most tech supporters clean reinstall every year, although with built-in Backup Imaging now you only need to do the install once, then capture it soon after in a saved image which can be reimaged onto the HD or a replacement in 15-20 minutes flawlessly.

 

[Wandering Flame]

Oh and is it true the McAfee usually screws things up? Like games and movies?

Will temporarily turning it off while playings games and such, be AS IF I removed it? Meaning when mcafee is turned off, will it not interfere with games and movies? That is, if mcafee normally does this kind of interference.

 

[gregrocker]

MacAfee is one of the bloatware programs I'd uninstall using Revo Uninstaller - Advanced tab.

Use MS Security essentials or Avast free programs which are lightweight and unintrusive.

 

[Max Peck]

By the way Max, how did you rebuild your machine? How did you get the necessary drivers back on it? I guess you have Windows 7 like me. Maybe you can teach me something I don't know...for instance, as I said above, some drivers that come on the Dell drivers discs, apparently don't even work and Dell told me it's because I happened not to choose a certain laptop spec, or something like that, but I could be wrong.

Flame,

Sorry for the delay -- I haven't worked this forum into my routine just yet.

I reloaded from the disk provided with the system (Windows 7 Home Premium) but this time I excluded a few of the items they had installed such as McAffee. I don't care much for the heavy-duty virus scanner suites.

As for the drivers - Win7 handles most of it by itself except for a handful of things that Dell provided for it's WebCam and stuff like that. It wasn't all that involved, really. Seven does a better job detecting hardware than even XP did.

I'm not certain exactly what it was that hosed my system originally, though I haven't installed the Windows Mobile stuff this time. I did have some initial problems with that stuff on the first go 'round - but I don't know if that introduced the instability or not. However I do install a lot of stuff - I do development work on this machine so it has to be pretty reliable. This time I'm having no trouble at all so it's obvious that it wasn't a hardware issue.

One thing I would suggest you do, though. After you get your system up and running, make a system image. That way if something goes wrong you can get back a good working environment without having to go through a "rebuild" again.

-Max

 

[CommonTater]

Even a little bit? I have a Windows 7 laptop, Inspiron 1545 by Dell. I heard they aren't the best system tweakers and pre-install are sorts of stuff that makes the PC run a bit slow.

What if I clean install my Windows 7, then add all the drivers for my service tag on my laptop, and my programs? Will that make it run even a little faster?

Thanks.

From a slightly different perspective...

No, doing a reinstall with all of Dell's criap included wont gain you a thing... However doing a true clean install, with freshe formats and the appropriate setup afterwards may just surprise you...

I'm constantly amazed how many people run their systems totally on default settings when there is so much personalization and optimization available...

 

[Wandering Flame]

Well, I'm personally not so fond of imaging, because I heard say if your computer is at a desirable state and you wanted to image it, wouldn't you need a device that can hold all its data? 85 gigs is what all my personal data takes up. I don't really have a device that can save that (I guess an imaging device is like a backup storage device in that, it has to save up to the same amount of data, only difference is, it re-insalls the OS and all the settings as well).

By the way, I knew what was causing my lag and problems. I just disabled most of the stuff on startup.

That potato watching tv is hella hilarious.

 

[Max Peck]

Well, I'm personally not so fond of imaging, because I heard say if your computer is at a desirable state and you wanted to image it, wouldn't you need a device that can hold all its data? 85 gigs is what all my personal data takes up. I don't really have a device that can save that (I guess an imaging device is like a backup storage device in that, it has to save up to the same amount of data, only difference is, it re-insalls the OS and all the settings as well).

By the way, I knew what was causing my lag and problems. I just disabled most of the stuff on startup.

That potato watching tv is hella hilarious.

Glad you fixed it.

Imaging is no problem - just buy an external hard drive for it. I just bought a 500GB iOmega to handle that. I keep system backups (including an image) and all my VM's on there. With all that it's only half full. If this machine dies for some reason I can get it all back operational in a very short time that way.

-Max

 

[Wandering Flame]

I appreciate all here for trying to help.