|
|
Our Hot Pick: Rising Antivirus 2006 - Certified by TUV & Checkmark! Get 10% discount by entering this coupon code: ONDISCOUNT10
"FyberOptyx" <spam[ at ]bits-n-pieces.co.uk> wrote in message
news:uLNlFUuwHHA.4332[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > HI,
> After trying to reinstall Vista OEM after a format and then not being able
> to reactivate ( since sorted thanks to Microsoft)
> I am wondering how you go about reinstalling a OEM version after things
> start to crash ?
> From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
year
> when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>
> TIA
>
> Paul
>
>
A very good question, Paul!
I guess most veteran Windows users are accustomed to having to reinstall
about once a year, and sometimes oftener. And I have wondered why Microsoft
doesn't automatically register the unique CPU and motherboard serial nos.,
and skip the very cumbersome and time consuming, manual phone validation
process as long as the installation is done on a machine with the same
component serial numbers, as the previous/original installation (other
unique component serial numbers, can of course also be added to make the
check more secure, such as video card and disks)
Any good reasons why this isn't done?
Trond Ruud,
Norway
|
|
"cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" <cquirkenews[ at ]nospam.mvps.org> wrote in
message news:l7t693pt9h7qigmbgrgigimsoujq0bmkee[ at ]4ax.com...
[Quoted Text] > On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:25:05 +0100, "FyberOptyx"
>
> >From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
year
> >when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>
> I'd expect better mileage than that. Every Windows installation I've
> had and used since the original Win95, has lasted until the physical
> death of that system without having to be re-installed.
>
> Perhaps it's worth looking at better ways to set up the system?
>
>
> >--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
> Never turn your back on an installer program
> >--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
I venture the hypothesis, that you must belong to a lucky few. :-)
In these days of worms, viri, trojans and spyware swarms, you're more than
just lucky to avoid annual reinstallations, I believe. I have invested a
fortune in top rated antivirus, antispyware, defraggers and firewall
software, but have nevertheless regularly ended up with totally unresponsive
systems, that could be restored only through reinstalling, on more occasions
than I care to remember, since Win95. Registry cleaners, sometimes help, but
also seem to screw up the registry and response time, in the long run. The,
"avoid reinstalling" is a very popular sales pitch from the Linux mafia, so
I don't think my experience with regularly having to reinstall Windows is
all that special. Or... (?)
Trond Ruud,
Norway
|
|
HI,
After trying to reinstall Vista OEM after a format and then not being able
to reactivate ( since sorted thanks to Microsoft)
I am wondering how you go about reinstalling a OEM version after things
start to crash ?
From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a year
when it gets bloated and bogged down.
TIA
Paul
|
|
On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:25:05 +0100, "FyberOptyx"
[Quoted Text] >From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a year
>when it gets bloated and bogged down.
I'd expect better mileage than that. Every Windows installation I've
had and used since the original Win95, has lasted until the physical
death of that system without having to be re-installed.
Perhaps it's worth looking at better ways to set up the system?
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Never turn your back on an installer program
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
|
|
I am already having Windows Calendar crash on me quite often. Is this a know
problem or would
a fresh install fix it ?
These are the things I am talking about.
I only use windows for gaming usually so I don't have anything important to
keep. A fresh install
of windows is the easiest option for me when things start to go wrong.
Using Windows in an office environment is completely different to using it
at home.
At work, you are usually forbidden to try new software or new toys or try
some tweaks so it is
understandable that an office PC will stay lean and free from garbage. A
home PC will always need
the occasional spring clean.
I know you will probably say buy the retail version then - but I cannot stop
laughing at the asking price
for this.
"cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" <cquirkenews[ at ]nospam.mvps.org> wrote in
message news:l7t693pt9h7qigmbgrgigimsoujq0bmkee[ at ]4ax.com...
[Quoted Text] > On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:25:05 +0100, "FyberOptyx"
>
>>From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
>>year
>>when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>
> I'd expect better mileage than that. Every Windows installation I've
> had and used since the original Win95, has lasted until the physical
> death of that system without having to be re-installed.
>
> Perhaps it's worth looking at better ways to set up the system?
>
>
>>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
> Never turn your back on an installer program
>>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
>
|
|
FyberOptyx wrote:
[Quoted Text] > HI,
> After trying to reinstall Vista OEM after a format and then not being
> able to reactivate ( since sorted thanks to Microsoft)
> I am wondering how you go about reinstalling a OEM version after things
> start to crash ?
> From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
> year when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>
I've heard of stranger hobbies, but it's your time.
There is usually no sound technical reason for reinstalling and
re-activating WinXP periodically, except on test machine.
--
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
|
|
Trond Ruud wrote:
[Quoted Text] > "FyberOptyx" <spam[ at ]bits-n-pieces.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:uLNlFUuwHHA.4332[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> HI,
>> After trying to reinstall Vista OEM after a format and then not being able
>> to reactivate ( since sorted thanks to Microsoft)
>> I am wondering how you go about reinstalling a OEM version after things
>> start to crash ?
>> From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
> year
>> when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>
> A very good question, Paul!
> I guess most veteran Windows users are accustomed to having to reinstall
> about once a year, and sometimes oftener.
Actually, no. Many of us have learned to properly maintain our
systems. The only time a re-installation of Windows is truly necessary
is after a catastrophic hard drive failure.
> And I have wondered why Microsoft
> doesn't automatically register the unique CPU and motherboard serial nos.,
> and skip the very cumbersome and time consuming, manual phone validation
> process as long as the installation is done on a machine with the same
> component serial numbers, as the previous/original installation (other
> unique component serial numbers, can of course also be added to make the
> check more secure, such as video card and disks)
>
> Any good reasons why this isn't done?
Because there is usually no sound technical reason for reinstalling
and re-activating WinXP so frequently, Microsoft saw no need to make the
process any more stream-lined than it already is.
--
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
|
|
Correct me, I'm not sure if this goes for Vista, but XP lets you
re-activate, over the internet after 120 days. Any sooner than this requires
a phone call to MS.
|
|
I will venture more than a guess since I somewhat know him.
He does not depend on luck.
Those that depend on luck for anything, not just technology and
computers, are setting themselves to fail.
Safe computer practices as well as proper use of tools such as anti
virus, anti spyware and firewall go a long way toward eliminating the
need for luck.
--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org
"Trond Ruud" <troruud[ at ]start.no> wrote in message
news:uBLQ15uwHHA.3340[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > I venture the hypothesis, that you must belong to a lucky few. :-)
> In these days of worms, viri, trojans and spyware swarms, you're
> more than
> just lucky to avoid annual reinstallations, I believe. I have
> invested a
> fortune in top rated antivirus, antispyware, defraggers and firewall
> software, but have nevertheless regularly ended up with totally
> unresponsive
> systems, that could be restored only through reinstalling, on more
> occasions
> than I care to remember, since Win95. Registry cleaners, sometimes
> help, but
> also seem to screw up the registry and response time, in the long
> run. The,
> "avoid reinstalling" is a very popular sales pitch from the Linux
> mafia, so
> I don't think my experience with regularly having to reinstall
> Windows is
> all that special. Or... (?)
> Trond Ruud,
> Norway
|
|
On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:32:51 +0200, "Trond Ruud" wrote:
[Quoted Text] >cquirke wrote in message
>> On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:25:05 +0100, "FyberOptyx"
>> >From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
>> >year when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>> I'd expect better mileage than that. Every Windows installation I've
>> had and used since the original Win95, has lasted until the physical
>> death of that system without having to be re-installed.
>> Perhaps it's worth looking at better ways to set up the system?
>I venture the hypothesis, that you must belong to a lucky few. :-)
I don't think so, because other ppl's PCs that I've built have similar
mileage. It's very rare that I've had to "just" re-install Windows,
even on a "repair" basis, let alone a full melt-down.
>In these days of worms, viri, trojans and spyware swarms, you're more than
>just lucky to avoid annual reinstallations, I believe.
One avoids catching such things, and when one suspects them to be
present, one formally cleans them up. The last is not as easy as it
should be, because MS doesn't hand you the tools on a plate; Bart
does, though you have some "assembly" to do.
>I have invested a fortune in top rated antivirus, antispyware, defraggers
>and firewall software, but have nevertheless regularly ended up with
>totally unresponsive systems
Well, something's go wrong there, then. Motherboard chipsets? Lack
of "safe hex"? Do you live in "one big doomed C:", with massive
duhfault-sized IE web cache clogging up the file system?
>Registry cleaners, sometimes help,
More likely they break things you can't fix...
>The "avoid reinstalling" is a very popular sales pitch from the Linux
>mafia, so I don't think my experience with regularly having to reinstall
>Windows is all that special. Or... (?)
I'd consider it very poor mileage (unacceptably poor) if my system's
installation failed to last several years, or could not be saved
through maintenance.
OTOH, you will get purveyors of flaky kit that hide behind "everyone
knows Windows needs to be re-installed once a year" when the stuff
they build out of bottom-scraper components falls on its ass.
>------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope
>------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
|
|
On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:29:03 +0100, "FyberOptyx"
[Quoted Text] >I am already having Windows Calendar crash on me quite often. Is this a know
>problem or would a fresh install fix it ?
"When in doubt, just re-install" eh?
>These are the things I am talking about.
Me2. Folks who don't bother to troubleshoot things, and destroy thier
installations to fix trivial fluff. If Calender falls over all the
time, I'd just stop using it and find something else.
>I only use windows for gaming usually so I don't have anything important to
>keep. A fresh install of windows is the easiest option for me when things
>start to go wrong.
Except it isn't going to "fix" very much. Whatever's causing your
meldowns will prolly just happen all over again, until you figure out
what it is... I'm not seeing any hardware diags here, for example, nor
even a half-assed attempt to exclude malware. Also, if you're
overclocking, you can expect flakiness from that.
>Using Windows in an office environment is completely different to using it
>at home.
Using it at home is different, too - perhaps more so than at the
office. At the office, everything's on the server, and the desktop
system isn't yours and only has the employer's choice of software,
etc. so there's not much loss to wipe and rebuild it.
At home, a single PC represents the user's entire PC infrastructure -
no magical server with pro-admin'd backups, etc. so you really do want
that system to survive (unless you have abysmally low standards).
>At work, you are usually forbidden to try new software or new toys or try
>some tweaks so it is understandable that an office PC will stay lean and
>free from garbage.
Quite. These are skills you can practicve at home,. too.
>A home PC will always need the occasional spring clean.
Destroying hte installation isn't a "spring clean".
>I know you will probably say buy the retail version then - but I cannot stop
>laughing at the asking price for this.
Retail version? No, that would be a complete waste of money, offering
little or no value over a decent (generic) OEM OS.
Then again, if you have the same low standards when buying new PCs as
you do when using and maintaining them, you'll end up with brand-name
stuff from dumb retail, crippled by lack of a decent OS disk set.
Which is where we came in...
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Tech Support: The guys who follow the
'Parade of New Products' with a shovel.
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
|
|
cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) wrote:
[Quoted Text] > On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:29:03 +0100, "FyberOptyx"
>
>> I am already having Windows Calendar crash on me quite often. Is this a know
>> problem or would a fresh install fix it ?
>
> "When in doubt, just re-install" eh?
>
>> These are the things I am talking about.
>
> Me2. Folks who don't bother to troubleshoot things, and destroy thier
> installations to fix trivial fluff. If Calender falls over all the
> time, I'd just stop using it and find something else.
>
>> I only use windows for gaming usually so I don't have anything important to
>> keep. A fresh install of windows is the easiest option for me when things
>> start to go wrong.
>
> Except it isn't going to "fix" very much. Whatever's causing your
> meldowns will prolly just happen all over again, until you figure out
> what it is... I'm not seeing any hardware diags here, for example, nor
> even a half-assed attempt to exclude malware. Also, if you're
> overclocking, you can expect flakiness from that.
>
>> Using Windows in an office environment is completely different to using it
>> at home.
>
> Using it at home is different, too - perhaps more so than at the
> office. At the office, everything's on the server, and the desktop
> system isn't yours and only has the employer's choice of software,
> etc. so there's not much loss to wipe and rebuild it.
>
> At home, a single PC represents the user's entire PC infrastructure -
> no magical server with pro-admin'd backups, etc. so you really do want
> that system to survive (unless you have abysmally low standards).
>
>> At work, you are usually forbidden to try new software or new toys or try
>> some tweaks so it is understandable that an office PC will stay lean and
>> free from garbage.
>
> Quite. These are skills you can practicve at home,. too.
>
>> A home PC will always need the occasional spring clean.
>
> Destroying hte installation isn't a "spring clean".
>
>> I know you will probably say buy the retail version then - but I cannot stop
>> laughing at the asking price for this.
>
> Retail version? No, that would be a complete waste of money, offering
> little or no value over a decent (generic) OEM OS.
>
> Then again, if you have the same low standards when buying new PCs as
> you do when using and maintaining them, you'll end up with brand-name
> stuff from dumb retail, crippled by lack of a decent OS disk set.
>
> Which is where we came in...
>
>
>
>> --------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
> Tech Support: The guys who follow the
> 'Parade of New Products' with a shovel.
>> --------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Been reading through this thread and finding it quite interesting, so
here's my half bits worth - for what it's worth. I've been using Windows
since the awful (good?) 3.0 days, and have run just about every version
since. I am an early adopter - I know, I just can't help myself, and my
machine serves for work, play, kids, etc, so it gets a really good
hammering. Currently I am running Vista Home Premium OEM on a machine I
built for it, and have had Vista on, off, and on again. Why? Because one
piece of vital software was unhappy on Vista, and I jumped the gun. (I
know, I know - stupid, stupid, stupid!)
So I had to revert for a few weeks until the sw manufacturer caught
up.Vista reinstalled and activated over the internet without hesitation
the second time, so maybe Redmond do keep some sort of record of the
machine itself.
The point is that, even with the hammering the machine gets, even to the
point of having to be brought to a controlled (???) crash on one
occasion to shut the damn thing down, I have never found an OS that is
as robust as Vista. As an old Windows hand I too am used to the good old
annual reinstall. But I really don't think Vista is like that - even XP
was pretty good.
But I really really miss the thrill of reinstalling every year - sigh!
--
Peter in New Zealand. (Pull the plug out to reply.)
Collector of old cameras, tropical fish fancier, good coffee nutter, and
compulsive computer fiddler.
|
|
"FyberOptyx" <spam[ at ]bits-n-pieces.co.uk> wrote in message
news:uLNlFUuwHHA.4332[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] > HI,
> After trying to reinstall Vista OEM after a format and then not being able
> to reactivate ( since sorted thanks to Microsoft)
> I am wondering how you go about reinstalling a OEM version after things
> start to crash ?
> From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
> year when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>
> TIA
>
> Paul
Hi, Paul
I too have the problem of my system getting mucked up by who knows what. I
play with a lot of shareware and whatever interests me, some of which is of
dubious origin.
On WXP, I came up with a fairly reasonable solution. I reinstalled the XP
system multiple times, using different options, without activating, until I
found the mix of options I wanted. I then reinstalled one more time, this
time interupting the process by inserting a bootable floppy just before the
system did its last reboot during the installation. This allowed me to run
Norton Ghost from floppies; I make a compressed image of the hard drive
which fit nicely on one CD from which I can easily restore the system to
this "first boot for the user' state. This version requres activation. I
made another ghost image immediately after activation, which of course does
not require reactivation when reinstalled. I have not yet tried this on
Vista, but I think it should work.
-Paul Randall
|
|
On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 Peter in New Zealand <peterbalplug[ at ]xtra.co.nz>
NZ, eh! Haarzit! North, South or West Island? <g>
[Quoted Text] >Been reading through this thread and finding it quite interesting, so
>here's my half bits worth - for what it's worth. I've been using Windows
>since the awful (good?) 3.0 days, and have run just about every version
Hey, me2. I remember Windows 3.0 ...
>Currently I am running Vista Home Premium OEM on a machine I
>built for it, and have had Vista on, off, and on again. Why? Because
>one piece of vital software was unhappy on Vista
That's been an issue for the last 6 months; it's only now that "new"
DVD writers are shipping with a bundled Nero (7 Essentials, they never
did fix 6 Express) that works.
Well I hope it does; you have to let it "install DirectX 9c" and some
of the forum posts still don't seem too charmed with it. When
discussions go into 10-digit build numbers, it's a bad sign...
>So I had to revert for a few weeks until the sw manufacturer caught
>up.Vista reinstalled and activated over the internet without hesitation
>the second time, so maybe Redmond do keep some sort of record of the
>machine itself.
That's good to know! I've been disturbed to see so many posts about
Vista's activation pulling the trigger out of the blue, and also
refusing to re-activate when the system's been "just" wiped and
rebuilt, so it's good to hear a case where it's worked as hoped.
>The point is that, even with the hammering the machine gets, even to the
>point of having to be brought to a controlled (???) crash on one
>occasion to shut the damn thing down, I have never found an OS that is
>as robust as Vista. As an old Windows hand I too am used to the good old
>annual reinstall. But I really don't think Vista is like that - even XP
>was pretty good.
As I say, I haven't found any of them too crash-happy, even since the
original Win95. XP's been the most solid (too early for me to tell
with Vista) as one would expect, given the more conservative NT design
goals (it doesn't have to let the "DOS rowdies" run, so it shouldn't
be surprising that there are less fights inside the club).
Whenever I've seen XP crashing a lot, it's been due to some fairly
hard reason, usually hardware. I've seen software issues blow up
Win9x in "system BSoD" ways more often than XP.
One key to happiness in Win9x is uptime - don't leave a Win9x PC
running for days on end, rather shut it down and let it restart so
that it can clean out the resource heaps, etc.
>But I really really miss the thrill of reinstalling every year - sigh!
Until Vista, I used to build PCs the old-fashioned way, i.e. doing a
(very mildly automated) interactive install of the OS, etc. So I was
not short on the joys of installing from scratch.
With Vista, I've been using WAIK to capture and apply installation
images that are already set up the way I like. This works better in
Vista than older NT, given there aren't HAL issues etc. that bind an
installation to particular core hardware and drivers.
In fact, the standard Vista install is just a particular WIM image.
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Tip Of The Day:
To disable the 'Tip of the Day' feature...
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
|
|
(it doesn't have to let the "DOS rowdies" run, so it shouldn't
[Quoted Text] > be surprising that there are less fights inside the club).
>
I just had to chuckle when I read this. Your dry sense of humour is very
refreshing, and I love the description - so true!
--
Peter in New Zealand. (Pull the plug out to reply.)
Collector of old cameras, tropical fish fancier, good coffee nutter, and
compulsive computer fiddler.
|
|
"Paul Randall" <paulr901[ at ]cableone.net> wrote in message
news:uUBJEM0wHHA.4736[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
[Quoted Text] >
> "FyberOptyx" <spam[ at ]bits-n-pieces.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:uLNlFUuwHHA.4332[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> HI,
>> After trying to reinstall Vista OEM after a format and then not being
>> able to reactivate ( since sorted thanks to Microsoft)
>> I am wondering how you go about reinstalling a OEM version after things
>> start to crash ?
>> From past experience with Windows, I have had to reinstall about once a
>> year when it gets bloated and bogged down.
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Paul
>
> Hi, Paul
>
> I too have the problem of my system getting mucked up by who knows what.
> I play with a lot of shareware and whatever interests me, some of which is
> of dubious origin.
> On WXP, I came up with a fairly reasonable solution. I reinstalled the XP
> system multiple times, using different options, without activating, until
> I found the mix of options I wanted. I then reinstalled one more time,
> this time interupting the process by inserting a bootable floppy just
> before the system did its last reboot during the installation. This
> allowed me to run Norton Ghost from floppies; I make a compressed image of
> the hard drive which fit nicely on one CD from which I can easily restore
> the system to this "first boot for the user' state. This version requres
> activation. I made another ghost image immediately after activation,
> which of course does not require reactivation when reinstalled. I have
> not yet tried this on Vista, but I think it should work.
>
> -Paul Randall
>
Just popping back into this thread with a curious observation. Was using the
computer earlier today with Home Prem OEM on it and when it resumed from
hibernation a little balloon politely informed me that activation had
completed satisfactorily, and thank you very much. Ahem! It's been activated
a few weeks now. So did it decide to de-activate for lunch and then
reactivate, just to play a joke on me? Or does Vista periodically recheck
its activation status and confirm if it's still OK?
Whatever the reason nothing's changed on the machine. Same hardware, and
everything's working just fine as usual. But it did give me a bit of a
start, expecially after reading some of the posts to the Vista groups about
activation issues.
I'd just love to hear what anyone could offer on this one, but p-l-e-a-s-e
don't anyone tell me to install Ubuntu. Been there - tried that, over a year
ago, and frankly it looked sweet but didn't suit my needs.
Anyone?
--
Peter in New Zealand. (Pull the plug out to reply.)
Collector of old cameras, tropical fish fancier, good coffee nutter, and
compulsive computer fiddler.
|
|
Bruce Chambers wrote:
[Quoted Text] >> A very good question, Paul!
>> I guess most veteran Windows users are accustomed to having to reinstall
>> about once a year, and sometimes oftener.
>
> Actually, no. Many of us have learned to properly maintain our
> systems. The only time a re-installation of Windows is truly necessary
> is after a catastrophic hard drive failure.
>
Yep. Maintain your system properly is the key thing to do.
Clean registry, defrag hard-drives and so on once a month if you
download and fool around with "oh so cool" programs :D
And delete the programs you dont need. And your life with computer is
easy :)
|
|
|