[jaredigital]

i was talking to this guy the other day who develops voice-recognition software for Windows... anyways, he said that he reinstalls Windows (98, i believe) every 3 months. he was pretty adamant about it... said it is the only way he keeps his system crash-free.

so what... is this a good idea? i've never heard of such a thing. it kinda makes sense, but wouldn't you lose a bunch of settings and get files rewritten? seems like it'd be a pain in the butt to do that every 3 months.

[The Neoracle]

It depends on how you have your system set up, If you had like 2 or 3 internal drives, no problem.  But if you have everything on 1 partition on 1 drive, all your settings and everything would get overwritten yes.

[Vetritus03]

first thing: i wouldn't do it to my own machine.

second: i wouldn't tell anyone to do this except if the computer wasn't bootable and reinstalling is the only way to get someone to a "usable" GUI to back up data.

third: some settings might be lost, but windows does use the same system registry, but does overwrite system files.  if those files have been updated... such as... installing a new IE version or other service pack/patch, you can be up a creek.
if he's worried about system files and replacing them, Win98 has a tool built in for that task.  start -> run -> SFC  System File Checker.  it searches the system folders looking for deleted or other wise changed system files.  it shows you the change and the new file version compared to the one originally installed from the Win98 CD.  pretty cool.  it lets you skip over it, replace it, or update the windows database to reflect that that file is "ok"  still, you have to pay attention to the file's version numbers so you don't replace a newer file with an older.

fourth: i'd recommend formatting and reloading about every 6 months.  that'll make sure you don't have issues.  if you know what there is to back up and such you can reload and have all your documents restored very quickly.  in Xp you can export the "system state" before you reload and restore this and it'll restore ALL your settings... wallpapers... favorites... etc.

[Quizzical]

I try to do that.
I find it does help.
After a while, after installing and uninstalling many programs there is plenty of rubbish lying about your system, its nice to clear this out and know its all gone.
As said if you only have one partiton it is a bit of a pain, its a good idea to partition your sys and puty all your documents on another partition for many reasons, but lets not go into that.
IMHO it is worth it.
Another way to do it is to install your OS very carefully and the main OS programs and tweaks, then take a image of the system to CD-RW, as long as you dont do any upgrades, you can just restore to the fully tweaked and nicely installed system.
But thats just what I like, a nice clean OS, im a kinda perfectionist.
Whatever you like, its up to you.

[JainDough]

other than the fact that i wouldnt recommend having win 98 in the first place i certainly wouldnt recommend reinstalling every three months.

you would lose alot of personal settings, plus if you've, "tweaked" windows none of the features you had to hack your own box for(having to do that just to get what you want out of your OS is reason enough not to be using windoze) will be left.

[Vetritus03]

what?  are you a Mac user Jain?

[JainDough]

i am a very unwilling windows user itching to install linux, but this isnt my 100% my comp until i move out (and take it with me hehe) and everyone is extremly computer illiterate around here so they'd be in tears if i took their precious windows away from them. (i dont want to run a dual boot system just for their windows dependent asses)

[Vetritus03]

oh god.  you said the "L" word!  

*runs away yelling and shaking his fists in the air at some absent OS god...*

[JainDough]

by OS god i assume you're talking about the Great and Majestic Linus Torvalds :)

hmm...That reminds me i need to refresh that vial of goats blood on my altar to Mr. Torvalds

[Vetritus03]

i've already sacrificed my quota of bulls to Herr Gates many moons ago...

[The Neoracle]

Weirdos.

[jaredigital]

everyone knows it's called Lunix. duh. :rolleyes:

thanks for the replies... i hear a resounding "no" to my question. i'll follow the advice of my peers.

[supersloth]

Lunix w00t!