John
Fri Feb 20 08:54:38 CST 2004
I never said that the process was easy, I just said that it was
definitely worth it. When Sean wrote that he was considering a fresh
reinstall, I assume that he is technically savvy enough to accomplish
the task. I know that *I* am, since I do it once or twice a year on my
own system and do it on a regular basis for others. Not only that, but
I regularly communicate in my favorite newsgroup with lots of other
people who do likewise.
As for all the updates well, I (personally) don't go that route
since I take other steps to make security patches unnecessary. I don't
like some of the changes to my system that have occured as a result of
previous MS "upgrades". YMMV.
Still, I haven't had a virus in about 7 years (I've only ever had
one virus infection and it was the Happy99 virus, which I removed
without any trouble) and my browser of choice has never been
"hijacked." Spyware and adware are likewise non-existant on my system.
There is, of course, that patch for Millennium Edition's System
Restore that you refer to, and a download link to it is located here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290700
Why would you try to discourage somebody from having a clean registry
and hard drive? Yes, it's difficult to format and then reinstall an OS
and the applications, but with preparation (get your drivers in a
pile, backup data, etc.) it's not really a job that's beyond the
average user's skill level. After all, *I* can do it.
...maybe you can't???
Jim Holmes wrote:
> Lets have a moment of silence for poor Sean. Assuming he has IE6 and
> reinstalls ME, think of the endless happy hours he will spend trying to get
> his system to work. Of course, his system restore won't work right either
> because he doesn't have the proper patches, and the time spent downloading
> and reinstalling the critical updates.... Jim
>
> John Corliss wrote:
>> Sean wrote:
>>
>>> After a few years of usage, my registry is very cluttered
>>> with invalid and outdated stuff. Someone told me that
>>> instead of reformatting my harddisk, I should just
>>> reinstall windows.
>>> Any comments? Yes/no? If so, how?
>>
>> Yes. You should actually do this at least once a year. Also, bear in
>> mind that along with a cluttered registry, you probably have lots of
>> "orphan" dll and other files scattered here and there. After doing a
>> total reinstall, your system will run faster and a multitude of
>> mysterious problems will disappear. Besides, it's an opportunity to
>> *not* install unneeded programs.
>>
>> Go for it. I do it once a year myself. But first, make sure you write
>> down settings and back up files.
--
Regards from John Corliss