Do you still need to regularly reinstall Windows?

[3xAAA]

Growing up in as a geek in the 90s and early 2000, I often found that the performance of Windows would degrade over time, for no apparent reason. This would be resolved by reinstalling it, and I'd get another year out of it before having to do it again.

At the end of 2021 I bought myself a Dell Alienware laptop, it's my first personal computer that I've owned in a few years, and its fantastic, I wish I had done it sooner.

But over the past few months I can't help but feel it's quite a bit slower than when I bought it, and I'm wondering if the old characteristics of Windows are coming back to haunt me.

I don't actually have many things installed, and I use it more as a glorified web browser or expensive photo storage unit.

Installed I have BF5, Office, WhatsApp, Spotify, and a few of the Dell applications that came with it.

I've disabled none critical applications from starting up and I don't have a virus scanner running 24/7, and all the latest drivers are installed.

So is the degraded performance all in my head, or is it still a thing?

[megaphone]

Yes it is still an issue, not as bad with newer versions like win 10 and 11, but still an issue. I recently rebuilt a sloooow win 10 laptop, removed all the crud and put a fresh install of win 10, it is now flying again.

[Griffith4ever]

Not in my world. Win 10 on an SSD, speed never changes year on year. I install lots of programs and games. Recently upgraded but last install ran with no slowdown for a good 6 years.

It's all in the SSD I imagine.

[Brainpox]

It does happen yes. As programs/drivers install/update/uninstall they often leave traces behind. Uninstallers often don’t bother with registry entries or clearing up references to apps to launch on startup. Windows seems to add more background services in every update. The speed of modern drives and CPUs means the effect is not as bad as it used to be but compare a fresh install to one that’s 3 years old and there will be a difference.

[dundarach]

Yes

No

Depends

What do you do, how often is it done, what's it installed on, is it causing a problem.

[eeLee]

Windows does benefit from being reinstalled no matter what. The incremental updates leave a system less clean no matter if you never install and remove software.

If you don't install much, I'd say you can do a system reset and install clean, downloaded fresh. My primary machine can be back up and productive in less than 2 hours when I do this.

It is in no way as bad as it used to be with spinning drives and fragmentation but the wear levelling on SSDs is not perfect and a reinstall helps with that too.

[gus607]

This PC had Windows 10 installed seven years ago & still going strong & as fast as ever.

[bigpriest]

It's a bit of a myth unless you install lots of 3rd party software or have a failing spinny hard drive. Anti-virus is the main culprit or any security software that monitors your PC.

[Narcisus]

I still remember my Win 8 key ! Fresh install of Win 11 once in 3 years but only because I was messing with hardware.

[Sheepshanks]

I guess it’s one of those things that’s easy if you’re doing it all the time, but as a one-off it’s a right faff getting everything working again - things like wireless scanners I always seem to get working more by chance than anything else. And folder structures that have evolved and might not be ideal but you’ve got used to them.

[130R]

No it won't "degrade" on its own. Users just think that because they install a bunch of apps that slow the system down then reinstall windows without those apps ..

[FourWheelDrift]

3xAAA said:

Do you still need to regularly reinstall Windows?

No.

Just make sure if you are using an SSD to have Optimise drives turned off. SSDs do not need to be optimised/defragged. Windows search "defrag" and turn off scheduled optimisation.

[OutInTheShed]

I'm not convinced either way.

I could believe that a fresh install of win10, updated once seems better than an old install that's be updated weekly for 6 years.
Likewise the applications may be better freshly installed latest versions.

But given a reasonable PC with SSD and ample memory, I could equally believe you won't notice the difference.

If the PC has any old or obscure hardware in it, then make sure you know what drivers you need.

[WrekinCrew]

FourWheelDrift said:

No.

Just make sure if you are using an SSD to have Optimise drives turned off. SSDs do not need to be optimised/defragged. Windows search "defrag" and turn off scheduled optimisation.

Windows has known about SSDs for years and optimisation does an SSD trim operation rather than a defrag. No need to turn it off.

[eeLee]

WrekinCrew said:

Windows has known about SSDs for years and optimisation does an SSD trim operation rather than a defrag. No need to turn it off.

exactly right. Turning it off on an SSD can have adverse effects.

with the density of modern SSDs, the wear levelling (trim) sometimes does not work well and this usually results in the machine feeling slow. A reinstall is a free way to fix it, also running tooling like SpinRite will fix it (but $)

[QJumper]

I haven't reinstalled Windows 10 since first installiing it, several years ago.

Reinstalling Windows and all the other programs I need is a pain in the arse, so what I've always done is install Windows and all updates, along with any programs I need, and then take an image of the drive. That way, if I ever do find things slow down, I can just reinstall a clean image in around half an hour.

Whilst ever things are running smoothly and quickly I usually take a fresh image every few months, so I can revert to a working one with all the latest updates.

[FourWheelDrift]

eeLee said:

also running tooling like SpinRite will fix it (but $)

The current version of Spinrite v6.0 was released in 2003. No one should be buying or using something that old these days.

https://storm-et-al.com/index.php/2022/11/20/opini...

[captain_cynic]

megaphone said:

Yes it is still an issue, not as bad with newer versions like win 10 and 11, but still an issue. I recently rebuilt a sloooow win 10 laptop, removed all the crud and put a fresh install of win 10, it is now flying again.

This, Winrot is still a thing, plus if your system ever gets properly compromised, it's the only way to make sure it's clean afterwards.

However the rate of rot has decreased significantly as you've mentioned so now you only need to do it every 2 years instead of every 6-8 months with Windows XP (yes, I am that old).

[3xAAA]

Thanks for the variety of opinions.

I'll go ahead with the reinstall, as it'll be an opportunity to eliminate all the Dell bloatware, at the very least.

[Griffith4ever]

captain_cynic said:

you only need to do it every 2 years instead of every 6-8 months with Windows XP (yes, I am that old).

What a load of... rot.

Every 2 years. WTH are you doing to your computer? Mind you - if you thought it needed doing every 6-8 months on XP too I can only assume you a) have some pedantry issues b) click on every link and install prompt you ever see :-)