When to Quit and Reinstall Windows

There comes a point in everyone’s computing life when they need to reinstall Windows. Some people do it more than others and some panic and just go out and buy a new PC. Reinstalling isn’t fun for most people. They would rather be walking on the beach, sleeping or even getting gut-shot and left for dead. But it doesn’t have to be that way if you’re prepared for this task. This means having a backup of your data, a Windows disk or a set of recovery CDs from the manufacturer. But even when you have all of that, it seem like a chore for most people to reinstall Windows. Instead, they suffer through slow boot up times, malware and system crashes until they can’t take it anymore.

There is a solution for this. By using a program like Norton Ghost or DriveSnapshot, you can reinstall Windows, your applications, your data, set the background to your little puppy, configure your Windows Mail–do everything until Windows is running just the way you like it, then take an image of that drive using Ghost, Drivesnapshot or a similar program and the next time you need to reinstall Windows all you need to do is use the new image and restore that to your computer.

Once people get use to this technique, reinstalling Windows every six months will be a breeze and your computer will continue to run fast. It is recommended to take a new image about once a year, where you can update your programs, security and data. This way your computer will stay more current with patches and other Windows Updates.

So when do you quit and simply reinstall? You quit when you system has become compromised by a virus. You quit when you notice your computer is taking forever to boot up. You quit when you’re sitting there and you have nothing better to do, because reinstalling Windows every six months is a good idea for heavy PC users. It all boils down to how much you like to “fresh computer smell.” The key is to make it easy for yourself, so when the time comes, it won’t be such a chore.