How do you keep your Windows install clean and nice?

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mdf

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#191636 11-Feb-2016 10:29

Time for a clean Windows install (this one to deal with some persistent driver issues).

I was wondering how others keep their Windows installs clean and nice. Since I've known I had to do a clean install for a while, I've taken the opportunity to download and install various kinds of one-time-use stuff that otherwise just clogs up my system (for example, I wanted to flash CM onto my phone - that required the ADT a long with all it's assorted dependencies, mainly Java).

How do others deal with this? Say I had a "main" and a "dev" profile (one for daily driving and the other for one-time/experimenting), then deleted the dev profile periodically, would that work, or would that potentially not undo all the registry changes?

BoydHQ

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#1490230 11-Feb-2016 10:35

Having a second profile wouldn't delete the registry settings if they were machine based rather than user base.

For me i've got a second machine that i use for non critical stuff so if i need to install any one time use apps or any applications i'm trying out then i use that.

Another option would be a micro instance virtual machine from Amazon. Free for the first year but generally that will just be server OSs.

nathan

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#1490234 11-Feb-2016 10:41

Don't install crap

If you want to install crap or browse dodgy sites, do it in a VM

VM lets you roll back, save state etc

geekiegeek

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#1490236 11-Feb-2016 10:45

nathan: Don't install crap

If you want to install crap or browse dodgy sites, do it in a VM

VM lets you roll back, save state etc

This.

timmmay

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#1490258 11-Feb-2016 11:22

I do nothing. I don't install a lot of stuff, but Windows has historically needed to be reinstalled every 2-3 years regardless of what you do. My guess is it's the huge number of updates, but when you create a new install it has to apply many of them anyway - unless it just applies a roll-up.

1101

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#1490265 11-Feb-2016 11:39

mdf:

I was wondering how others keep their Windows installs clean and nice.

Simple.
Dont fiddle with it, dont install a bunch of apps, dont download from CNET etc ,dont install bogus cleanup apps
dont let other people use it (play with it)
Install basic AV only, not all dancing all singing AV that includes a bunch of crap & plugins in the AV package

In reality, you dont have a lot of choice.
Even a MFC printer is a 300Mb++ software package(why !!) that has alot of stuff loading on startup , including what is only advertising & sometimes spyware
Many programs add something to run in the background , and some add stuff into the scheduled tasks
Some basic Driver packages are sometimes via a software install only, installing more uneeded apps added that autorun on startup.

Oriphix

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#1490284 11-Feb-2016 12:11

geekiegeek:

nathan: Don't install crap

If you want to install crap or browse dodgy sites, do it in a VM

VM lets you roll back, save state etc

This.

Pretty much this.

robjg63

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#1490297 11-Feb-2016 12:25

VMware player is free for home use.

Virtualbox is free too.

I prefer VMware player myself - but both do an excellent job.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

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mdf

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#1490301 11-Feb-2016 12:35

1101:

In reality, you dont have a lot of choice.
Even a MFC printer is a 300Mb++ software package(why !!) that has alot of stuff loading on startup , including what is only advertising & sometimes spyware
Many programs add something to run in the background , and some add stuff into the scheduled tasks
Some basic Driver packages are sometimes via a software install only, installing more uneeded apps added that autorun on startup.

Yeah, this is what I was more getting at. I like to think of myself as at least passably competent on this side of things and usually think twice before hitting "install". I will even go so far as to 7zip set-up files to try and get drivers manually rather than installing the default bloatware. But it is hard to avoid. For example, Chrome is my preferred browser, but even Google now insists on its own software updater.

If you're in a "must install something" situation, "don't install crap" doesn't take you very far. Like I said, I had a situation where phone = borked. The *only* way of achieving my desired outcome (phone = not borked) was to install ADT. The only way to install ADT is to install JDK. JDK didn't like my computer for some reason and it took quite a bit of fiddling to get going. Once all that was done, phone was de-borked pretty quickly and easily and normal service could resume. But expunging JDK (cf. just uninstalling) was a beyond me (and a clean install was scheduled anyway so I didn't try too hard).

From some of the other comments, it sounds like a virtual machine is the way to go in this sort of circumstance. I've never used this though, so would appreciate suggestions (Google suggests VMware or Virtual Box might be good places to start). In particular, is there a quick and easy (ish) way to get a VM instance up and running? As someone else suggested, once upon a time I kept an old PC for experimenting, but if you weren't using it that often, you usually spent the first 30 minutes (or more) letting patches etc. install and upgrade. I don't really want to reinstall windows from scratch every time I was to use a VM unless there is no other option.

mdf

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#1490302 11-Feb-2016 12:36

robjg63:

VMware player is free for home use.

Virtualbox is free too.

I prefer VMware player myself - but both do an excellent job.

Thanks. Will try these out. Either I failed reading 101 or was writing my last post while you posted.

Sideface

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#1490303 11-Feb-2016 12:37

timmmay: I do nothing. I don't install a lot of stuff, but Windows has historically needed to be reinstalled every 2-3 years regardless of what you do. <snip>

IMHO 2 or 3 years is too long.

I do a clean install at least once a year - shouldn't be necessary, but it works, and saves work in the long run.

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Geekzone

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#1490324 11-Feb-2016 13:08

DO. NOT. INSTALL. THINGS. YOU. DON'T. NEED.

Even if they are blinking.

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nathan

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#1490353 11-Feb-2016 13:31

mdf:

robjg63:

VMware player is free for home use.

Virtualbox is free too.

I prefer VMware player myself - but both do an excellent job.

Thanks. Will try these out. Either I failed reading 101 or was writing my last post while you posted.

Do you have Windows 10 Pro?

If so you have Hyper-V and I'd recommend you use that.

control panel, add/remove Windows components