Why reinstalling your computer annually is a good idea

Reinstalling your computer may sound like a scary task, particularly if you have never tackled it before. You have spent quite some time getting it to the current state, you may not have the installation media for all of the programs you have installed and it can take at least an entire day to bring your computer back into a semi-usable state after doing so, however there are significant gains that can make it worth the effort.

Every time you install a program onto your computer it invariably leaves a trail of files and folders, however it is the unseen parts of a computer program that leads to the sluggish computer you may now be experiencing. There are registry entries — you may have seen your virus software mention them. If you uninstall software that you tried but did not like, some of these entries may stay in a broken state which is is the biggest reason why computers slow down. The other is services that run on your computer that may be left behind after the software is uninstalled. Some software sits in your system tray, in the services and may be in the startup process each contributing to slowing your machine down.

The biggest gain you will get from uninstalling your computer is a clear desktop — usually the desktop contains files, screen shots, maybe some photos. As the desktop fills up, this also contributes to slowing your machine down and generally cleaning it up when it gets full can be a daunting task. The easy fix for this is to move anything that isn’t a shortcut onto a pen drive. You could also do this for files in your “Documents” folder, “Photos”, “Videos”, “Music” and particularly “Downloads”. Doing this will free up space that can be used by the operating system to optimally run your computer.

Few people are aware that the operating system uses part of your total free disk space to run programs, so if your hard drive is getting full, then the space available to the operating system is reduced and your computer slows down.

At least once a year when you have some down time is a good time to spend a day taking care of your computer. We expect a lot from our machines and having them in optimal running order will ensure that they perform well which is particularly important when your computer is your primary work tool. So if reinstalling is to daunting, cleaning up some of these items can help your computer to run more efficiently.

There are many instructions and tutorials online that guide you through the process of reinstalling your computer, however if you are not brave enough to try yourself, it will be worth paying a professional to do this. They will have the tools, knowledge and experience to help ensure this is a smoother process. It can be daunting the first time, however each time you do it you become more proficient and the process becomes faster. The key steps to ensure this is a smooth process are:

1. Find out what software is currently installed on your computer. This is found under “Programs and Features”. Usually I take a screen shot of this list and save it to my external hard drive/pen drive and use this list to decide whether the program is still needed.
2. Make sure you can download the software that you use frequently from a website — most software vendors have copies of the software that you are running that you can download, including the operating system. If you have not touched your downloads folder, many of these will be there from when you first installed them.
3. Make a backup of your existing files — this not only ensures you have a copy somewhere but also ensures that you can get your files back if your hard drive fails. You can back up your files using “Windows Backup” or “Time Machine”
4. Double check that your backup included your emails, your bookmarks and the folders that you personally created.

Once you have backed up, and know what programs you wish to put back on your computer, you have come a significant way towards re-installation. You may be happy with the speed gains just from going through the four steps above, however if your computer is still sluggish after doing them it is definitely time to consider a reinstall.