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Thread: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

  1. #33
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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Quote Originally Posted by ysluxus View Post
    No. Whatever you do, how can you be sure that other softwares, even including Windows, won't leak your privacy?
    100% sure. Well, encrypt everything in sight, and airgap network.

    Or, don't put anything you don't want leaked on your computer in the first place. For some data, that works for me.

    Short of that, you can't be sure. You can take precautions, you can be very careful, but sooner or later it comes down to an element of risk, versus either the loss of functionality and additional hassle/cost of those precautions. And that is a balance we all have to decide on for ourselves.

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    I never buy pre-builts anyway so every build/upgrade is a clean install for me and other's I build for.

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Yes, always have and always will. Next question!

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Yes, when the machine requires Windows. Ideally I would use Linux on everything!

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    ALWAYS CLEAN INSTALL!

    I hate any software designed to 'make your PC faster', 'clean your registry' and even anti-virus software. Every few months between projects I perform a clean reinstall of Windows mainly to keep the system running at it's best but also to prevent any possible resource hogging processes. I like to keep the OS feeling as clean and fresh as possible.

  6. #38
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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Quote Originally Posted by ysluxus View Post
    No. Whatever you do, how can you be sure that other softwares, even including Windows, won't leak your privacy?
    For sure. But, why pile more crap on top of the crap you already have? I'll deal with Windows because gaming (currently), and the main software I use requires it (unless I want some horrible work around nightmare with 'Wine' or whatever). But I don't see the need to add more crap to it...

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    In the time before the great gift of SSD was bestowed upon us, yes every 3-6 months. But now only when I get a new SSD (at least every 2 years, typically every 3 or more).

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    My laptops and PC all get a clean install of windows every 6 months or so. With SSD's and Windows 8 it take less than 20minutes from pressing "boot from USB" to being in windows 100% working again. Run ninite to get 95% of the apps I use back on and finished in 30min.

    No data I want to keep is kept on my main drives so I can do it whenever.

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Depends. With Windows7 I always did. With the various Windows8 devices though it was more difficult because the hardware only came with a ****ing (fill in your own swear word) "recovery disk" and in one case not even that - you were expect to burn your own disk. Given that those devices were for other people (who were obviously eager to use them) I didn't get the time to "do it properly".

    With my Windows and Linux boxes though these were, and will be, done as clean installs, (desktop went XP->7, laptop as XP->Ubuntu 9,11,12.04LTS). So for my desktop, when Windows10 comes out then I'll be doing the usual install-clean-copy-and-recover-data. With my laptop (main machine at the moment) I'll be putting on a clean Ubuntu 14.04LTS after backing up my data in the current 12.04LTS. Yes, I know I CAN just upgrade, but a fresh-install is a great excuse for cruft removal.

    What'll be interesting is if I Windows10 my wife's laptop (old). That started out with a Dell Vista install (hateful), then got a Window7 fresh install (much much better) and I've got to wonder if I can Windows10 it. Laptop got SSD'd and W10 is supposedly better at using these.

    The other thing I'd like is some method to "capsulise" apps. Basically be able to grab app, system config and local config appropriate in one, easily-recovered, archive. As it is I've been doing my installs so far by using Microsoft's "Migrate my computer" method, which seems to work reasonably well.
    Last edited by crossy; 22-02-2015 at 01:46 PM.

    Career status: still enjoying my new career in DevOps, but it's keeping me busy...

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    For desktops 'yes' by default, because they're self-builds. For laptops? 'No' because it's a Thinkpad, so has effectively no bloat to start with.

    Consumer laptops aren't worth bothering with for many reasons, only one of which is bloatware.

  11. #43
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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Oh, god, yeah. Always.
    My HTPC: Linky

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Every time. Never upgraded windows in my life and don't want to.
    Better to Burn out than Fade Away
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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Let the pre-installed things do their stuff, then copy all of the drivers out (Double Driver) in case the manufacturers website is even worse than they normally are, then do the clean install.

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Always. Was really please when my recent lenovo came with freeDOS as it made it even easier!
    Trust

    Laptop : Dell Inspiron 1545 with Ryzen 5500u, 16gb and 256 NVMe, Windows 11.

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Always buy clean laptops or PC's at work for fresh installs so no useless crap

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    Re: QOTW: Do you 'clean install' Windows on your PC/laptop?

    Quote Originally Posted by edzieba View Post
    For desktops 'yes' by default, because they're self-builds. For laptops? 'No' because it's a Thinkpad, so has effectively no bloat to start with.
    Somebody's not been paying attention to the news this past week.

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