Meet the new browser for Windows 10 and learn the basics. ![]() Windows. There are some very good reasons why you might want to reinstall Microsoft Windows. Whether it is 2. 00. XP, or Vista, the registry can become corrupted or it can accumulate settings for programs long- since forgotten, leading to sluggish performance. Or you can find yourself with a stubborn Trojan Horse. The only way to be 1. Windows. I have wanted to document the steps needed to properly reinstall Windows for a long time now. I always end up missing something after the reload and find myself scrambling to find IDs, passwords, configuration settings, or favorite Web sites lost in the reinstall. Be sure to set aside a large block of time to do the reinstall. Don't do it before a term paper is due or your business presentation slide show. A weekend is a good time. An OS reinstall is also a good time to decide to upgrade. If you want to upgrade to Vista, there are a lot of options available to you. For more information about these options and the pros and cons of Vista, please read Vista Confusion. This article focuses on Vista but the concepts apply to all versions of Window. ![]() ![]() This blog post is also available in PDF format in a Tech. Republic download. When you run the Windows Vista set- up program, you will see a window with two options: Update and Custom (Advanced). ![]() The Update option is not available when reinstalling Windows Vista. Under the Custom option, you will be doing what is known as a Clean Install. Follow these 1. 0 steps and you will, hopefully, not find yourself having to scramble for files or information that you need after the reinstall. Please Note: I have gone to great care to test and retest this documentation. It is still possible that there are errors or missing information or that I have not covered your specific reinstallation configuration. Please provide feedback in the forum if you find any issues. Before reinstallation. Document your login IDs, passwords, and settings. If you are using your browser to store the passwords for Web sites, you will be in for a rude awakening after reinstalling Windows — they will be gone. Your browser is a poor place to keep your Web site IDs and passwords. Windows 7, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 with SP1 can be installed on computers that are running the. Go to the Italian version of this page. Table of contents. Read this first. Can Service Pack 2 be installed on all XP installations? Ordering the service pack on a CD. ![]() ![]() Have you lost your original Windows Vista DVD or need Windows Vista on a flash drive and figure downloading it as an ISO image is the way to go? If you're without the. Windows Vista does not contain a Recovery Console, therefore doing a repair install like that we are familiar with in Windows XP is not possible. A Windows XP clean install tutorial including screenshots and complete instructions. A clean install of Windows XP is almost always the best way to go. Development of Windows Vista occurred over the span of five and a half years, starting in earnest in May 2001, prior to the release of Microsoft's Windows XP. Windows 10, XP, 8, 7, Vista, 2000, Me, 98, 95 and windows Reinstall, Upgrade, Repair, Refresh. ![]() One possible option is to store your information in a spreadsheet. However, if you keep your IDs and passwords in a password- protected Excel or Open. Office Calc spreadsheet, be aware that there are programs that can recover/discover the password for most . I suggest you use stronger encryption techniques to better protect Excel 2. If you do have Excel 2. Next, add your IDs and passwords. Create a row in your spreadsheet for your ISP, e- mail, Web hosting company, personal Web sites, and any other password- protected logins. This file is also a good place to keep your e- mail POP3, SMTP, and newsserver name. If you don't have Excel you can keep the IDs and passwords on a piece of paper securely locked away in a safe place or you can choose one of the software alternatives available. Robo. Form is a popular way to secure your browser login user name and password but is not freeware. Guard. ID Systems offers a product called ID Vault that is supposed to be a secure way to store your IDs and passwords — for a small price. Do not keep your IDs and passwords in a Notepad or Word document unsecured and . Export your e- mail and address book, bookmarks/favorites, and cookies. You can export your e- mail and contacts from Outlook Express, Outlook, MS Mail, and most third- party e- mail programs. I have a folder called Mail Exports under my Archive folder where I export my e- mail. You can export from the various mailboxes. Select the Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, and Drafts. Unless you have a special reason otherwise, you can exclude the Deleted and Junk mail boxes. I don't bother exporting my contacts. If I need a contact, I pull it up from an archived e- mail. You might want to export your contacts though, especially if you have a large number. I used to always forget about bookmarks for my favorite Web sites. I had to spend time searching for a favorite site after Windows was reinstalled. I made a promise that I would export my IE Favorites and Firefox Bookmarks the next time I did a Windows reinstall. You can also export feeds and cookies. Download the latest applications and drivers. There is a core set of applications that you know you will be using. One good way to identify these core apps is to take a look at your desktop and Start menu. You can save an image of your desktop to a non- system folder and use that as a guide to reinstalling your core apps. You can also look at your installed programs in Programs and Features located in the Control Panel. I have a logical drive named Documents and on that drive a folder called Downloads. I keep all my apps and drivers downloaded from the Internet there. These add up in a hurry. To keep it organized, I have a lot of subfolders including one for Apps and one for Drivers. Once you have a list of your core apps, download the latest versions from the Internet and save them to your \Downloads\Apps folder or a non- system folder of your choice. Some of your core apps may be on DVD, CD, or even floppy. Pull out your media and set it in a stack ready for reinstallation later. Download the latest version of your favorite anti- virus software. I like Alwil Software's Avast! The free home version includes real- time protection for e- mail, instant message, Web browser, Outlook Exchange, and four other types of real- time protection. If you can, download a file containing the latest virus definitions. How do you know what drivers you will need? There are two basic types of drivers. I separate them here because updating them is usually handled differently: Motherboard Specific Drivers - Auto Update. System and Chipset (usually Intel)Onboard Sound. Onboard Video (some motherboards)Onboard LANMany motherboard manufactures and computer vendors have an application that will check all the motherboard- related drivers to see if they are current. If your manufacturer or vendor provides this type of application, go to their Web site and download the latest version now. If you don't have access to an update utility, you have to manually identify the motherboard- related drivers that you will need: Other drivers - Manual Update. Sound Card (if your computer has a sound card)Video Card (if your computer has a video card)Modem. RAID (Intel Matrix RAID, JMicron RAID, or other if you have a RAID- controller card)Other Unique Devices. If you do not already know the type of video card, sound card, modem, RAID, or other unique devices in your system, you can identify them by opening the Device Manager (Figure A). If you are running RAID, you will need to have the driver file available on a floppy disk or CD if installing XP or previous versions of Windows. You also need to know the exact driver/controller name — Intel 8. GR/GH SATA RAID for my system. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista recognizes your hard drives during setup and you can get your RAID drivers from there. I don't have a sound card in my system, but if you do, expand the Sound, video and game controllers item to determine the sound card installed in your computer. Mike Smith has put together a handy Windows Reinstall Checklist (PDF) that you might want to print and use. After identifying the drivers you need to install, download them and save them to a non- system logical drive. Do not pull them from old floppies or CDs unless you are sure that new drivers are not available. Housecleaning and backing up your data. Now is the time to clean up your hard drive by deleting unneeded or unwanted files. Cleaning up years of accumulated files that you no longer need or want is no fun. If you want to make it less of a chore, you can start a week or more in advance of the reinstall. Spend one or two hours each day deleting the files you are sure that you want to send to the great bit- bucket in the sky. This is also an excellent time to do a thorough anti- virus scan of all your drives. You don't want to back up infected files. Then do a full backup, which is easy for me to say, right? You can spend hours doing a full backup, but this is a good investment of your time. Back up anything that you don't want to lose. It is especially important if you are one of the unfortunate ones without a Windows OEM disc or a vendor reinstall disc. Many computer vendors put the Windows setup and installation files on a separate partition or folder on the hard drive. If you have a vendor built computer, Windows Reinstall - OEM Computers is a must- read. If you will be reinstalling Vista on a different partition, you will need almost 1. GB of free space minimum on a logical drive/partition to load Vista. I like to create a partition of 3. GB for the 3. 2- bit version of Vista and 4. GB for the 6. 4 bit version. Do a full format of the logical drive/partition that will be your new system partition so that you will have a clean Vista- ready partition. Warning! If you will be dual booting using XP and Vista,do not use XP to create the partition that you will install Vista on. For a very helpful guide to issues dual booting XP and Vista please read Dual Booting Windows Vista & Windows XP by Bert Kinney. Service packs. As of October 2. SP3 for XP and SP1 for Vista. There are five ways to retrieve and install the latest service packs. Some of these methods reduce or eliminate your risk to security vulnerabilities. Some are alternative methods you can use if you are having problems installing the service pack from Windows Update. If you are not concerned about either of these two issues, you can skip this section entirely and move on to item 6. There are five ways to get the latest Windows service pack: Download it via Windows Update. Download it from the Microsoft Web site. Order it on CD/DVD disc.
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