Digg up a del.icio.us desktop

When you uninstall an app, the uninstall process typically removes all files installed on the system as well as all entries added to the registry. I say typically because we know that's not always true. Some entries and files do get left behind. Keep in mind that in some cases, they're supposed to be left behind. Windows coding standards dictate that a package leave behind any files added or modified by the user. It's been a while since I perused the standards in detail, but I'm pretty sure that applies to registry entries as well. Regardless, we're talking microscopic digital "dust", nothing more. A couple extra DLLs left lying in your system directory (the most common place files are left behind) amounts to at MOST a meg or two of extra DLLs over the course of a couple of years. As for registry entries, again, the amount left behind by poorly written uninstallers is negligable at best.

There are two cases where these might make some performance impact: extra ClassIDs left behind might slow down DCOM operations due to an excessive search list and extra DLLs in your path increase the time it takes to find the right DLLs. But, the performance impact because of 5 or 6 or even 5 or 600 extra entries or DLLs would be imperceptible, even with a stopwatch on today's systems.

There is a simple reason why your system appears snappier after doing a reinstall: everything that was set to autoload has been removed. Eventually, though, you get to the point where all of that stuff is back and you have to reinstall again. Wouldn't it be easier to spend the couple of minutes a month it might take to do some basic maintenance than spend a weekend, or even half a day, reinstalling everything?

Being one who will install and test every application that fits a type before settling on one, and also doesn't reinstall his OS ever, I can tell you that those statements are completely false. As an example, just this weekend I got fed up with BitTornado and decided to find a better bittorrent client. I installed about 5-10 of them before deciding to go with Azureus (being a Java app, it's good awful slow and resource hog, but it has all the features I wanted, but found lacking in other apps). Since it's typically started before going to bed, resource usage is a non-issue. That's how I find the software I use. According to these "reinstall is necessary" theories, I should need to reinstall my OS every 15 minutes, yet after a year and a half this machine functions no differently than it did when I first set it up (aside from having a better bittorrent client, of course. )

Another example would be my test server at home. I installed Windows 2000 server on it the day the OS RTMed (December 15th, 1999. My birthday, I tell everyone it was a present from Bill). I just replaced the machine a couple of months back with new hardware. That install was over five years old and saw more action than most desktop systems (it served as my game console, media center PC, home automation server, Quake/Half-Life/etc server, webserver running both Apache and IIS, etc, etc).

Most people believe Greenland is approximately the same size as Africa because that's how it looks on their maps, but that don't make it true. "Common" knowledge is no substitute for REAL knowledge. Most Joe Users reinstall pretty regularly because they've been trained to do so by people "who are good with computers" and OEM vendor support which is staffed by people "who are good with computers". Joe User doesn't tweak his system, hell, most barely even maintain a usable Start Menu. Whenever they have a problem with their computer, they call their OEM who tells them to stick in the restore CD and reboot. Voila! Problem fixed! I took that hammer out of my bag a LOOOOOOONG time ago when I decided it was too much trouble. It's that fundamental misunderstanding of how Windows, and computers in general, work that perpetuates myths like this.

 

You might have a point mate but you can't deny that reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling your OS leaves you with a clean, zippy, and ready-to go machine You might not generate the clutter that makes people like me and others reinstall, but I sure as hell do and will continue to reinstall my OS as long as it remains a viable option to me

 

Shareware programs in particular leave hidden stuff behind so you can't just remove, wipe the directory and reinstall for another 30 days trial. One advantage of the clean reinstall is that you can.

I've noticed things are much better now than in 9x days, when old programs would install old versions of dll system files and generally be allowed to mess up if you didn't run SFC regularly.

I can. After a clean install of XP and a few dozen programs, Norton found a few hundred orphans cluttering up the registry.

And four programs have installed different Java Runtime Engines; XP/IE, my HP printer (despite claims it checks for any existing JRE), Starry Night, and me, with the latest version for Firefox that IE is happy to share. Time for some more sharing of resources.

 

I'm having trouble finding a decent weather widget for konfabulator that uses a UK soruce, like the bbc site or met office data. The ones i find seem to use american sources which are just woefully wrong consistantly.

 

If I'm honest you ask why I reinstall reguarly, I've answered the question. If you want to carry on trying to convince me otherwise that's your call, but I'm afraid it's on as deaf ears as my argument is to you.

Without having to explain my life history, me and pretty much everyone else with whom I work in the industry tried it your way at some point and it never works as well as you would like it to, especially on systems which get a lot of use. I appreciate you have the patience to go through it with a fine-toothed comb and pick out the grit, but I just don't have time to go around cleaning up after applications which don't obey the rules.

Spending 30 mins reinstalling once every 6-8 months saves me a lot more time than pawing over the nooks and crannies of my system trying to find something which shouldn't be there. Besides the fact of course, it's just satisfying after a fresh install.

You stick with the way you think it works, I'll stick with mine and we'll call it quits.

 

It is, but if you can do it in under an hour you're cheating with a ghoster.

A real re-install gives you chance to totally re-organise your directory system if, like me, you spend a lot of time under the hood or just insist on keeping your CDs in genre + alphabetical order.

Icons are for wimps.

 

takes like 20mins to get to a new desktop if that, then mabye another 20mins to get most of the basic apps installed, after that i just reinstall stuff as and when i need it
easy to do it in under and hour

 

Well I don't count the actuall CD install phase as I'm just letting that run..

 

Another reason to reinstall.

But we're waaaaay off-topic here as the thread was about Windows desktop customisation, which I have done after reading that and I enjoy messing around with it

 

who cares why someone reinstalls!? much to my dismay, i'm unsubscribing - i'm tired of coming here for something way too far off topic.

 

Thank you for finally convincing me to use RSS...