How often do you reinstall windows?

It's that time again... games won't run.. everything's sluggish.. half of the programs run with problems.. rest half won't run at all. And well.. it's time to reinstall windows. So, my question is.. how frequently do you need to reinstall windows? My question is how often you *need* to.. i am referring to the times when your computer just won't work without a reinstall.. coz i've seen retards reinstalling windows frequently just because some useless techguy told him to do.

^^why is there no choice for once every 2 weeks?Thats more like it for me.

How the hack do u guys use your system? Don't u ever clean your system for temp files etc, it only takes 4 mins weekly using CCleaner & TuneUp utilities Registry cleaner, & perfectdisk.

Whats the point of reinstalling WIndows? I m still using Vista installed in november 2006

S

i reinstall my win every 2-3 weeks.

abtom said:
i reinstall my win every 2-3 weeks.

Do you download lot of viruses and worms?

in 6-10 mnths.....

S

@desibond-lol,i DL torr**s.
so some viruses come with them.
thats why i have to reinstall my win coz it becomes so slow.
but i wont have to do that now as i got zone alarm.
earlier i had F**NG nav 06 which FU***KED my PC.

6-10 months .. if xp is in "rot" mode then I switch to linux , then back again

gx_saurav said:
How the hack do u guys use your system? Don't u ever clean your system for temp files etc, it only takes 4 mins weekly using CCleaner & TuneUp utilities Registry cleaner, & perfectdisk.

Whats the point of reinstalling WIndows? I m still using Vista installed in november 2006

u r so not a geek...

vista i havnt re-installed since the day i first installed it maybe some 8 months ago well same is the case with xp last i re-installed was wen i bought a new hdd so that wud make it like 3 years and once re-installed ... wonder wat u ppl do on ur pc that u need to do all this

I have only once reinstalled Windows for a period of 1.8 months. That to due to virus attack. It made some unrepairable changes in registry.

A

First i wolud reinstall windows once in 2 weeks

and now I have made a clean backup copy of Windows XP with all softwares installed by using Acronics True Image and i just restore the backup when something happens

why is there no option "daily like install"

A

I reinstall within 2 months or can say in a month

coz i try my slipstreamed xp and observe any bug... if i find one then after fixing those bugs i reinstall again....

but now I have the ultimate version of xp which dont have any bug in my knowledge...

bug in the sense of s.w or updates which i integrate in xp....
I reinstall xp trice in a day when i was slipstreaming sata/raid drivers in xp

and that was the most happiest day when i find a way to install xp with pressing F6 during installation

why is there no option "daily like install"

LOL coz u no one install it daily... seems u install daily.

huh

iMav said:
vista i havnt re-installed since the day i first installed it maybe some 8 months ago well same is the case with xp last i re-installed was wen i bought a new hdd so that wud make it like 3 years and once re-installed ... wonder wat u ppl do on ur pc that u need to do all this

@gx & imav,

Why don't you guys post some tips that you follow to keep your system clean, the tools you use to keep it fast and tidy.

desiibond said:
@gx & imav,

Why don't you guys post some tips that you follow to keep your system clean, the tools you use to keep it fast and tidy.

All I use is

1) Ad muncher for blocking out ads in web pages & softwares

2) Outlook 2007 & WLMD for checking my mails, so no attachment which might be dangerous opens up automatically

3) PerfectDisk, once a month

4) CCleaner, once a week

5) Tune Up Utilities, I clean the registry once a week, & defragment the registry once a month

6) I only install what I need, & not to keen with trying different softwares. For that I use VMWare virtual machine installation of Windows XP, got 2 GB RAM here so no problem running vista & VM in it

7) All the files I save go to there respective folders. Its not hard to find anything in my computer, every image goes to Picture folder, every video goes to movies folder, Artwork goes to illustration folder etc...U never need to use the Search feature of Windows Vista in my computer.

8 ) I don't use any anti virus which helps in keeping the system fast. Who needs an AV.

9) Frequent Windows Update.., software patches & driver updates.

10) Most important, Common sense

11) Registry tweaks as needed, with those features I don't need disabled via services.msc & Group Policy Editor.

gx does a lot more than i do :lol:

just know what ur installing and the source from where ur installing like i know a lot of my frenz download stuff from limewire now if u observe a lot of music and vdo search results turn up with files of sizes in kb which are 100% viruses so chk wht ur downloading

use a good av and when i say that i am saying norton and mcafee suck use nod32 or avast and keep them updated ... using a pirated av means ur already compromised and add to that the fact norton and mcafee dont detect a lot of viruses i use windows firewall & defender and on gx's recommendation i am using ad mincher as of now

e-mails - chk them online and then download them .... most sites now have very good filters but still dont download all ur mail and chk the atachments see online and then download

besides that as gx said disable all that u dont want .... in my case i dont disable everything because my dad or some relative fren will come and ask for something

other than that just know where ur clicking

I remember how happy and curious when I saw the message - You are going to run windows for the first time - in win 98 install. But after installing Lin and messing up with the win partitions (8 yrs back) I saw the same message more than 5 times on the same week

Its fun to reinstall and re-partition often when we learn etc but once we start working and when 'time is money' its not that fun.

@gx_saurav

Lier, lier lier

Either you forget things very fast or you lie a lot

Don't you remember installing Vista at 2.00 AM on your birthday ? That was in Sep !!!

@iMav

Yes, I think you are right

gx does a lot more than you do lol

iMav said:
e-mails - chk them online and then download them .... most sites now have very good filters but still dont download all ur mail and chk the atachments see online and then download

I forgot to mention. I don't download emails directly in my Outlook. I first download only the email headers which take usually 100 kb of 60 mails. Then I select what I need to download to this computer & delete what I don't need.

din said:
@gx_saurav

Lier, lier lier

Either you forget things very fast or you lie a lot

Don't you remember installing Vista at 2.00 AM on your birthday ? That was in Sep !!!

, thats beyond the scope of discussion of this thread. besides...I installed at someone else's computer

No, no, according to iMav's theory, nothing is beyond the scope of the thread.

And topic is "How frequently do you need to reinstall windows?" and not "How frequently do you need to reinstall windows in your PC ?"

which theory is that u want to talk abt all that aur naam mera le rahe ho waah waah

someone is pwned :lol:

who

bhai daaru billi ke haath mein hai aur chadi aap ko hai :lol:

@iMav

LOL, now don't get mad, was just kidding only.

When I came back to Thinkdigit after a long break we had a small fight like I asked u to stick on to some topic (I think it was some Vista thread that gone to Karan Johar etc etc

) and you told me the discussion will go wherever we take it.

Eventhough I objected at that time, I agree on that now

me not mad

i know that is why i told u threads go here there everywhere

and wen i say everywhere i mean everywhere

Stop spamming guys.

V

Hello!

When I bought my newcomputer with winXP preinstalled, after six months, when my system refuse to boot I have to call the Vendor..He has taken the hard disk saying that the hard disk was worthless, since it attacked by boot sector virus.. that was my first lesson in Windows kindergarden... after replaced by new hard disk it happened to be frequently from 3 to 5 months.. after dual booting with fedora and Suse it happened to dragg at least 7 to 10 months( it seems linux automatically dosfsck it and correct the problems if any but not wholly..
Next stage is When I purchase this compaq laptop with windows VISTA, and it didn't survive not more than One month.. Other Linux OS are working beautifully, even my children who love Windows Games, and strangulated me whenever I mess with Windows XP, are now not worrying with windows anymore, because they found Ubuntu , and mandriva distros are more interesting so they are probing it,so without reinstalling Vista with my recovery cds, I kept Vista in the BSD ( not Blue Screen Death but Black Screen Death, in Vista expect the black screen announing some files are corrupt or missing reinstall or contact...blah..blah..) So there is no question of reinstalling Vista now..

with regards,
vaithy

H

Its been 4 years since I installed WindowsXP, never did it again, except when I upgraded my cpu to a C2D, didn't even re-install then, just connected the hardware, XP refused to boot, did a quick repair and all was well. I don't even have any antivirus installed much less any other bloatware.

Reason is very simple, I use Linux for everything except gaming online which I've been doing everynight for the past 3 years on Windows.

gx_saurav said:
..............

8 ) I don't use any anti virus which helps in keeping the system fast. Who needs an AV.

........

Wht? Not using a AV and still running well for years? Do u use ur PC?

^don't be astonished...he has a god sent PC

^ne! he removes viruses manually by handpicking

well i too dont remmber wen avast alarmed me its more a precaution than a necessity as long as u know where ur clicking u dont need an av also

and there are many users on our forums itself who also dont use an av

iMav said:
and there are many users on our forums itself who also dont use an av

Yeah like me. ;-)

gx_saurav said:
How the hack do u guys use your system? Don't u ever clean your system for temp files etc, it only takes 4 mins weekly using CCleaner & TuneUp utilities Registry cleaner, & perfectdisk.

Whats the point of reinstalling WIndows? I m still using Vista installed in november 2006

saale kitna jut balata hai tu... nark mein jayega

praka123 said:
^ne! he removes viruses manually by handpicking

as if he's picking vegetables in market.

.... ah yeh raha "Aalu"... arre "pyaash" kaha jale gaya

I Installed Windows XP (Without any service packs) in 2005 and updated it with SP1 in January 2006. . . and installed SP2 in June 2006, since then no major updates expect few security patches. . the system runs as smooth as silk . .

S

i also didnt use any AV till yesterday.i had to reninstall my win every 2-3 weeks.but now i am using zone alarm.i think it will make my windows last long.

@gx_saurav-yaar,vista from nov 06?how cud it last so long?Vista is so crappy to last even 2 months.

@gigacore-mann,which system cleaners,antivirus u use?

Why wont some guys wont use AV ?

^to prove their faith in their religion pioneered by el Billgateso owned microsoft.
but they do have AV's.plain lieing!

Its been almost 2 years since I installed XP on my PC and its been running smooth since then...
Before that I messed up my HDD by not properly installing linux so had to format...
I never "reinstalled" windows because it became slow or anything like that...
Viruses dont sneek into my system thanx to NOD32!

@abtom: vista is no more in beta :lol:

S

but it is not as reliable as XP.And it has less driver support.

^pss...they(future microsoft employees in the forum 3 ppl) dont like this comments.

@ abtom, i was using NOD32 AV till the end of 2006, now Avast. And using TuneUp Utilities for tweaking purpose. and most importantly i'll perform few TIPS AND TRICKS that is published in Digit magazine.

abtom said:
but it is not as reliable as XP.And it has less driver support.

driver support yeah older hardware u need to download huge files but other than my sound card (on board intel 865gbf mobo) i didnt need any driver everything all softys everything work fine

and stability vista is as stable if not more

been using for a long time

Using an anti virus and anti-spyware etc is not a bad idea at all.

No virus even without using those are pure luck.

Clicking something is not the only way to get infected.

When we are in a working enviroment, there are lot of chances virus can attack, like the emails we download, the files we download etc etc. It is not possible to check each and everything every time.

When we have enough time, like we are sudents, and win reinstall is not a problem at all AV is not a big deal.

But when data is precious, time is money and when we do some very important work, if PC is infected by some virus it will not be fun. I had bad times and I know it very well.

I also agree installing AV does not protect PC 100%, its like wearing helmet while driving bike. Majority of te people die in bike accidents due to head injury but helmet is not a 100% life saver.

Prevention is always better than cure - no boasting will save our PC from virus.

din said:
Using an anti virus and anti-spyware etc is not a bad idea at all.

No virus even without using those are pure luck.

Clicking something is not the only way to get infected.

When we are in a working enviroment, there are lot of chances virus can attack, like the emails we download, the files we download etc etc. It is not possible to check each and everything every time.

When we have enough time, like we are sudents, and win reinstall is not a problem at all AV is not a big deal.

But when data is precious, time is money and when we do some very important work, if PC is infected by some virus it will not be fun. I had bad times and I know it very well.

I also agree installing AV does not protect PC 100%, its like wearing helmet while driving bike. Majority of te people die in bike accidents due to head injury but helmet is not a 100% life saver.

Prevention is always better than cure - no boasting will save our PC from virus.

me and gx have given some tips go thru them will be helpful

D

i somtimes install xp 2 times a day
due to my frequent xperiments i hav to do this

S

lol,u r crazzy.
2 times a day????

rohan said:
It's that time again... games won't run.. everything's sluggish.. half of the programs run with problems.. rest half won't run at all. And well.. it's time to reinstall windows. So, my question is.. how frequently do you need to reinstall windows? My question is how often you *need* to.. i am referring to the times when your computer just won't work without a reinstall.. coz i've seen retards reinstalling windows frequently just because some useless techguy told him to do.

I understand!

parak123 said:
^ne! he removes viruses manually by handpicking

lol, I guess thats his one of the very few jobs on PC! Look below for more of his tasks on PC! Must say thats a nice time pass and must agree with the priest that working on windows is like a hi-fi exam of ur aptitude!!

All I use is

1) Ad muncher for blocking out ads in web pages & softwares

2) Outlook 2007 & WLMD for checking my mails, so no attachment which might be dangerous opens up automatically

3) PerfectDisk, once a month

4) CCleaner, once a week

5) Tune Up Utilities, I clean the registry once a week, & defragment the registry once a month

6) I only install what I need, & not to keen with trying different softwares. For that I use VMWare virtual machine installation of Windows XP, got 2 GB RAM here so no problem running vista & VM in it

7) All the files I save go to there respective folders. Its not hard to find anything in my computer, every image goes to Picture folder, every video goes to movies folder, Artwork goes to illustration folder etc...U never need to use the Search feature of Windows Vista in my computer.

8 ) I don't use any anti virus which helps in keeping the system fast. Who needs an AV.

9) Frequent Windows Update.., software patches & driver updates.

10) Most important, Common sense

11) Registry tweaks as needed, with those features I don't need disabled via services.msc & Group Policy Editor.

Crapware all around, installed on yet another crapware!

no wonder u guys cant use windows :lol:

@iMav

I have gone through all the points you / gx mentioned. Thanks for that. Most of them already came in somemagazines, Digit I think ?

Anyway as I mentioned, it is not a 100% safe method and it varies from person to person.

For example - for a student, it does not matter at all, install , partition, reinstall - no problems. Data ? Nothing is important

Normal working guy in some office - Less usage of internet for work, emails can be filtered or need not install something, need not download much - well and fine, again AV does not matter much

But for some it really matters.

For example - I can't chk webmail everytime before downloading emails, can't use IMAP either. It downloads directly. So theres no guarantee that it has no virus.

My clients ask me to download files from their server, I can't tell them - hey, I will not download those, whats the guarantee that it has no virus ? - I download it and if my AV catch it, good, else nothing can be done.

Before (IE was not that safe then) clients used to ask me to check sites in IE (normally I use mozilla / FF) and I had to chk sites in IE which was more prone to attacks etc.

I am sure aV helped me a lot and installing AV is not a foolish idea at all. Almost all software companies I know use good AV in their systems. When data is important, AV is also inevitable.

And yes, I paid for my AV, not a pirated one.

@To all who reinstall every 2-3 months:

Are you guys crazy or what??

The last time I installed WinXP was on Nov 18, 2006 to be exact. I don't see any degradation in speed. I don't think I will reinstall Win for another 6 months atleast.

And I don't perforam any maintenance either.

Junk file cleaning - about once every 2-3 months.
Recently defragmented HD after more than 6 months.
No anti -spyware
Just 1 AV. Last virus def update, 1 month ago.
6-7 hrs of internet browsing everyday.

@blackpearl

Nothing wrong in installing win frequently.

When we learn PC, we experiment a lot. Installing lot of things, messing up with partitions etc etc. When we have time, it is fun and it worth at the same time.

din said:
Normal working guy in some office - Less usage of internet for work, emails can be filtered or need not install something, need not download much - well and fine, again AV does not matter much

But for some it really matters.

For example - I can't chk webmail everytime before downloading emails, can't use IMAP either. It downloads directly. So theres no guarantee that it has no virus.

My clients ask me to download files from their server, I can't tell them - hey, I will not download those, whats the guarantee that it has no virus ? - I download it and if my AV catch it, good, else nothing can be done.

Before (IE was not that safe then) clients used to ask me to check sites in IE (normally I use mozilla / FF) and I had to chk sites in IE which was more prone to attacks etc.

I am sure aV helped me a lot and installing AV is not a foolish idea at all. Almost all software companies I know use good AV in their systems. When data is important, AV is also inevitable.

And yes, I paid for my AV, not a pirated one.

hey im not against av im just saying that av is more precautionary measure and yeah u need to have it when working in a network i use it on all my office machines even though not all our used for data transfer but i have them on all the machines and as far as ie is concerned ie's lack of security or vulnerablilty has never been a cause for my concern in office at hoome or anywhere else

Yes, thats right.

Prevention is better than cure - Always

You won't believe but it is the truth. When I had Windows XP till March'07 I had to reinstall it almost every 2nd day!!!!!! Bloody and Nonsense windows. Thooh. I will spit on it. It is a Donkey. The most worst thing in this world.

Please don't take my comments seriously. I have a very BAD experience with Windows, which made me talk all this nonsense about Windows.

din said:
Using an anti virus and anti-spyware etc is not a bad idea at all.

No virus even without using those are pure luck.

Clicking something is not the only way to get infected.

misconception

only worms can attack without executing(thr network), u only need a firewall in windows nothing more.
Last time i reinstalled was jan 07, no problems till now even after numerous program installation its still doing fine.

V

Dear The Unknown!!!
Your statement is very nasty.. why did you see only the negative thing..
Did you think, if your Windows work perfectly,and without any virus attack, you will say such things..You'll not learn to try some alternative OS such as Linux..u still sing for M$ forever..I am actually a accountant, I don't know any thing about computer when I bought my first PC, the shock given by Windows push me to the Linux world..Now I am verymuch thanful for Windows and its CEO Steve Ballmer,who is giving such nice publicity for Linux..
with regards,
Vaithy

^the unknown is a fedora dual boot user

din said:
@blackpearl

Nothing wrong in installing win frequently.

When we learn PC, we experiment a lot. Installing lot of things, messing up with partitions etc etc. When we have time, it is fun and it worth at the same time.

there is this file system fragmentation(not a problem in unix fs's) though ntfs became better in Vista even.also the decaying binary protected registry due to update or due to pirated/cracks or installation&uninstallation of apps etc.
this all leads to ur system literally crawling.this is well known as "Windows Rot"
as in rotten

afair M$ even recommends a reinstallation before 6 months or so.

guys do all ur experiments in VMware or virtual machine.

my mom's machine once in 4 months

mine once in 2 months.....i switch between server & XP.....& its fun .....

VMware is nice but i try it the old way....just like the feel of cleaning the mud of your bike & happy to see it sparkling & shiny

praka123 said:
^the unknown is a fedora dual boot user

NO!!!!! I am only a Fedora User. I HATE nasty windows.

A

Gigacore said:
guys do all ur experiments in VMware or virtual machine.

I am totaly agreed mate, but sometimes it wont works as what u expect

coz i am trying to slipstream sata/raid driver in xp, when i finish and install on vmachine or vpc... dere it runs fine... on vpc it detects my sata hdd but while installing on hdd , it gives problem....

so for experiment we cant trust vpc for everything....
for application and so on its ok , but for os ,trust lavel is only 99%

Kiran_tech_mania said:
Wht? Not using a AV and still running well for years? Do u use ur PC?

Yup...just some common sense, that it. Who needs an AV

, Virus are already over hyped.

saale kitna jut balata hai tu... nark mein jayega

I hope U know that we MVPs got Vista long before normal people got it in Jan 2007

it has less driver support.

Out of the box, Vista supports 50k hardwares out there. Much more then Windows XP, & with each passing day driver support is only getting better.

If you have a hardware with Windows XP driver, then 95% chances are that u can use that with Windows Vista too, except for Creative Sound cards & AMD/nVidia graphics card. They need vista compliant drivers.

@ iMav

Although I m using Creative Audigy LS sound card (Audigy 1) but 865GBF's onbaord sound card is working fine here with vista out of the box.

When we are in a working enviroment, there are lot of chances virus can attack, like the emails we download, the files we download etc etc. It is not possible to check each and everything every time.

Plz read again, there are only 2 ways a virus can come into a computer

1) Internet - > I use outlook & when I check my mails, I select to download only the headers & not the whole mail due to which I can delete which ever mail I don't need without even downloading it to my computer, directly from yahoo & gmail.

WLMD already has this feature turned on by default. It downloads a mail only when u open it.

2) CD, DVD, Pen drives etc -> I have autorun disabled here. I simply right click on the drive & select open, to check whether it is infected by those autorun virus or not. If it shows an "Install" link in right click menu, then it means it is either a virus or autorun software. In this case, I simply right click & select open & manually click on the real setup.exe or whatever file i need.

I don't use default Icons supplied by Vista for file type icons, so if a virus based exe file has icon of say a rar file, then I know its not a rar file cos I m not using the default RAR icon.

3) I download only from trusted sources like betanews. filehippo, download.com etc

@ mediator

Do u even know what PerfectDisk, CCleaner & Tune up utilities are

For example - for a student, it does not matter at all, install , partition, reinstall - no problems. Data ? Nothing is important

Yo, nothing like that.....do u know how important porn collection is for a student

For example - I can't chk webmail everytime before downloading emails, can't use IMAP either. It downloads directly. So theres no guarantee that it has no virus.

What IMAP U use? Can't u just select to download the headers. Try WLMD.

Almost all software companies I know use good AV in their systems. When data is important, AV is also inevitable.

See, an extra layer of precaution is good...but not always required if U know what u r doing with computers.

System restore & volume shadow copy in Vista is good, but I don't need them cos I know what i m installing etc

afair M$ even recommends a reinstallation before 6 months or so.

A Plain FUD form Lingeek & Window haters

VMware is good, even I use a VM XP installation for those Apps which only run in XP, or when I need to test something. If anything goes wrong, I simply "restore" the VM image.

Main toh jab bore hota hu tabhi maarta hu jyada samajh mein aa raha hai kya reinstall maarne ki baat kar raha hu.

But seriously once in 2 months.

(recently installed windows)ma comp is so badly screwed up coz of my experiments on it(even though exp's dont have any relation to dates [date.cpl]... )its still screwed up... that i cant even change my date directly... aaaahhhh...

i need to change my date in DOS, can u believe this

ab ye mat puchna kya exp hai

gx_saurav said:
@ iMav

Although I m using Creative Audigy LS sound card (Audigy 1) but 865GBF's onbaord sound card is working fine here with vista out of the box.

i hope u remmber the gtalk/yahoo problem

vish786 said:
(recently installed windows)ma comp is so badly screwed up coz of my experiments on it(even though exp's dont have any relation to dates [date.cpl]... )its still screwed up... that i cant even change my date directly... aaaahhhh...

i need to change my date in DOS, can u believe this

ab ye mat puchna kya exp hai

kya experiment hai bata na?

offtopic : new harry potter avatar

D

once in three months...yarr koi permanent solution nahin hai kya....grrrrr

^^Make an image of the drive after installing essential softwares after clean install and use that whenever you want to clean format...

whenever i feel bored ..

Varies (for me and for everyone for sure!). Its been almost 1 year now since I've reinstalled Windows on my dad's system. But then hardly any new software is installed on that system. So if you don't fiddle around too much with the system (like play around wid drivers, install/uninstall too many software or change hardware and the system is well protected by av+firewall) reinstallation is almost never necessary.

But on my lappy I inevitably hafta reinstall every 4-5 months or so due to all the software I install and remove (can't use VMware as performance takes a hit). A bloated system32 and registry make windows crawl. No matter what cleaning tools I use its not possible to remove 100% junk. It slowly aggregates and finally brings down the system to its knees.

BTW, yester for the first time in about 6 years my system had an infection by the mspowerpoint.exe (the gmail virus coded by one of the esteemed members of this forum!!!). All the security measures were taken yet the infection. No AV was able to remove it anyways as its not detected by most I believe.

I guess I'll be installing an AV in my Laptop. I don't remember when was teh last time I had an AV. But I guess its time I say Hi to some AV after an era! As din said, it offloads some work from the user. Tho, its not correct to say that now you haf an AV do anything and everything and yet be safe!

hey IRD.. KIS detected it on my system ..

You lucky guys. Guess what. I have to manage 9 Windows machines in my Dad's office. Imagine the number of times i have to reinstall! And at least you guys are a little geeky, the people using the PCs in the office are normal people!

Of course, both my Macs, not even once. The iBook had a disk crash, but besides that nothing.

I haf no idea why KIS did not detect it. I haf made a BartPE CD made wid KAV. Definitions are updated to Sept. last week. This also has the latest version of stinger, ClamAV and avast. None detected.

gx said:
@ mediator

Do u even know what PerfectDisk, CCleaner & Tune up utilities are

You think I never used such trash? They r only a bunch of space hungry apps meant to somehow improve an OS that was not given 'out of box' stabilty and solid improvement and has 'out of box' loaded crapwares such as registry and disk-defragement!

Like I said 'out-of-box' windows is nuthing but a trashware, so end-users like u arm it with such apps also called crapwares, as windows is windows and is bound to get slow and crappier over the time!

Ur use of perfectdisk is a solid proof that u dont trust in disk defragement and hence another proof how windows is loaded with 'out of box' crapwares! Its a pity that MS dint give a 'tuned' OS that its users have to use apps like 'tune-up utilties'. We have to 'learn' so much if we do it by gpedit, services.msc!

And then ccleaner....WTH!

It seems that u dont do any useful work on ur PC, but only keep cleaning it regularly like its some kinda showpiece! *www.smileyhut.com/confused/g.gif

infra_red_dude said:
I haf no idea why KIS did not detect it. I haf made a BartPE CD made wid KAV. Definitions are updated to Sept. last week. This also has the latest version of stinger, ClamAV and avast. None detected.

So here it goes. Same detection problem! The same powerpoint.exe virus. My AOL didn't detect it. At last Antivir did the job for me.
For more details check this thread: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70324

I think your scenario was also same.

Q. How often do you reinstall windows?

A. 1. Never on my HP Pavilion (original OEM XP), till date never had system slowdowns or other problems.

2. Quite often on my new system, Pirated XP Pro.

explorer crashes every now & then, crashes when i select "Restart" from Start Menu...

going to re-install again in few days.