8 ms·

I don't get author's complaint about reinstalling Windows every few months, imho it is completely insane. Even in the age of Win95/98 I never had a need to re-i

by Yizahi 7y ago

I don't get author's complaint about reinstalling Windows every few months, imho it is completely insane. Even in the age of Win95/98 I never had a need to re-install more than once a year maybe and I was in school at that time and all software was downloaded from shady sources. Now - there is zero need to re-install at all, I only do it when I change hardware platform completely - storage, MB etc. Same with "unsolicited popups". What are you using that does this? Windows itself shows me reboot needed popup once a few months maybe and that's about it. Some software can show it's own popup when I launch it and it is often relevant. Windows is not perfect and Linux is great (and not perfect too) but really, some complaints about Windows seems to be straight from late 90s, with custom virus packaged Win98 distributives on torrents.

ahbyb 7y ago
Windows gets a big update every few months. Those would always fail for me because I had a custom partition layout (Hackintosh) and I would have to reinstall every time. Popups? Maybe he means the new notification system that was included with... 8? I hate notifications that cover part of my screen while I use my computer/mobile, so I have them disabled. I can understand that they are annoying for some, and they are not trivial to completely disable.
- Yizahi 7y ago
  I mean, yes, there popups. But my linux installation does exactly that too, every login I get software update popup by default and if I don't want to see it I need to change options manually (and update settings in linux are far from trivial). As for bad upgrades - I had linux upgrades which failed something in the video path and I was stuck with broken X server and no GUI. And I didn't manage to repair that state even after extensive searching on stack exchange, so I just deleted everything and reinstalled. Another time I tried to install custom software and ended in a error hell of incompatible versions of libc, libtrpc etc. and it simply didn't work (it was on Debian), but at the same it worked just fine on another VM with different distributive. No OS is perfect currently.
  - ahbyb 7y ago
    Oh, definitely. Linux is worse, that's why I use Windows. Doesn't mean Windows is flawless, evidently.
- fortran77 7y ago
  You're running mis-licensed software on a wonky partition and you're complaining about Microsoft!?
  - ahbyb 7y ago
    Aha? What does Windows care if I have partitions at the end of the drive that it can't even read?
bionicbits 7y ago
Install -> happy -> slows down -> random crashes -> slows down more -> reinstall -> repeat One thing I think happens is Registry gets abused by apps and such over the years.
- Crinus 7y ago
  This is one of those 90s inspired urban tales. Even a decade old CPU can rip through the entire registry without breaking a sweat. And it is just a hierarchical database, nothing special about it. It shouldn't be very different than accessing files on the file system. (there were some bugs at the past that caused Windows Explorer to slow down but those were fixed long ago and they were just bugs with a single application, not something inherently slow with the registry itself)
  - pjc50 7y ago
    It's not the registry itself, it's using the word "registry" as a synecdoche for all the things that may be installed there. And hooked into Windows subsystems. Speaking of Explorer, one of the classic ways to end up with a Windows system that's slow for no readily apparent reason is shell extensions. Either on the rightclick menu or in the thumbnail engine. At one point I had a folder I couldn't navigate to without getting an error popup that mentioned Nvidia in it - a chain of handlers had been installed such that JPEG decoding was delegated to the graphics card, so trying to create and cache the thumbnail of a corrupt file crashed in an unrelated-looking place.
    - Crinus 7y ago
      Well yeah, but it isn't specific to registry or even to Windows, you could get that with pretty much any extensible system. In Window Maker, for example, you can set up the application menu to use a dynamically filled entry so i wrote a shell script that scan my Steam folder to fill the installed games. Any mistake there could have had a similar outcome (e.g. launching Steam every time i right clicked on the desktop or generating an endless .\.\.\.\.\.\.\. list from not skipping the . directory or whatever). KDE and GNOME have many extensions and people already complain about GNOME's performance when it comes to shell extensions.
curt15 7y ago
>Same with "unsolicited popups". What are you using that does this? Open Chrome. "Try Microsoft Edge!"
- smcl 7y ago
  For me it was OneDrive, not sure how to explain it but it felt like every N times I hit CTRL+S to save my work prompted windows to raise a "Hey, try Microsoft One Drive!" modal which stole focus from what I was doing. One way to absolutely guarantee I will never use your software is to constantly nag me about trying it.
- magashna 7y ago
  I haven't seen this beyond 1809
- aargh_aargh 7y ago
  Now with Chrome! (without the chrome)
- jdbernard 7y ago
  My favorite is that if you turn on "Focus Assist", which is suppose to suppress popups so you can focus, it creates a notification alerting you that you have Focus Assist on. Not just once, but every time you turn on your computer.
Scarblac 7y ago
Even with a paid Windows 10 Pro you get ads for games right in the Start menu. It's insane.
- Jemm 7y ago
  I have yet to see an ad in the start window. Yes it is anecdotal but maybe my experience is more current.
  - drankula3 7y ago
    I work at a MSP and install Windows almost daily. On most systems, I install Windows Professional version 1903, the latest version. On all of those, Candy crush, Skype, One Drive, Office, and a myriad of other App Store apps autoinstall. Each of those are basically ads for paid products. This is on the small business-oriented "Professional" version of Windows, mind you. Not only do they install, but they immediately fill the start menu tiles with this spam.
    - jsgo 7y ago
      I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure those autoinstalls are placeholders. If you go into add/remove programs, they're around ~120kb give or take. I think this goes along the lines of the "Office" install that would come with Windows 7 or 8 installs where you click it and it tries to rush you through the process of acquiring Office.
      - sixbrx 7y ago
        That seems to be right in line with parent calling them advertisements.
        jsgo 7y ago
        The parent (unless we mean further up chain) didn't call them advertisements, but stated that they are store apps that auto install. There is certainly a placeholder there so they are for sure advertisements, but I don't believe you could take this fresh install, take away internet access and click on Candy Crush and start playing it while on a flight. You'd need to download the actual app first.
pjc50 7y ago
> Same with "unsolicited popups". What are you using that does this? Probably refers to the "notification center" in the bottom right next to the systray.
cm2187 7y ago
Plus between chocolatey, having the data sync-ed with a Synology NAS, and making the effort of finding the command line for all my customizations of windows, I have deploy scripts that means I am operational in less than 30min.
ubermonkey 7y ago
"Now - there is zero need to re-install at all, I only do it when I change hardware platform completely - storage, MB etc." This isn't true. It's routine for goofy conflicts even within MSFT's own stack (Office + Windows + whatever) to put you in a place where reinstalling Windows is the easiest fix. Plus, if you install and uninstall lots of software (e.g., if you work at a software company), C:\Windows just gets bigger and bigger over time. The only way to reclaim that space is to wipe & reinstall.
- Yizahi 7y ago
  I do plently of install/uninstalls of MS software - office re-install, office upgrade, MSVS install/uninstall (all of this due to other reasons, not because it was "slow") and I don't see any regressions because of this, including on my older work laptop with 3 years old continuous Win7 install. As for size of Windows dir - it not "leftovers" from uninstalls (but they exist too of course), it is a feature of Windows and 95% of it is a Windows updates, all chain of updates is stored locally and can't be safely deleted (according to MS engineers). Yes, it grows very big, especially if start point was older version/SP of Windows. In extreme cases, e.g. installing release version of Win7 and then updating to all service packs and updates will cause it to increase by 15-20Gb. But it is a known expected "feature" and it doesn't slow your PC, only clutters your c:\ partition. And re-install will not reclaim this space, it will be taken again immediately as soon as updates arrive on your fresh install of Windows. If by chance you a talking about clutter of 3rd party apps, then it is not a windows problem. E.g. some drivers like to keep older installers in appdata, some apps keeps backups of data there - worst offender is Garmin updater, which creates 12Gb backups every map update. That's not Windows issues.
  - ubermonkey 7y ago
    It grows very big even if you start with Win 10. Honestly, it's indefensible to have a 30GB Windows folder.
- WorldMaker 7y ago
  Office hasn't had goofy conflicts with Windows since it switched to App-V-based installs nearly a decade ago (just after Office 2010, IIRC). (3rd Party Extensions to Office may still do dumb things, but the base Office install itself won't.)
aaron_m04 7y ago
> I don't get author's complaint about reinstalling Windows every few months, imho it is completely insane. The author is not claiming it's necessary, only that they like to reset their computer to a known good state.
- rf15 7y ago
  the basic OS install is rarely what you would consider a "good state" (unless you have superficial use cases, maybe). That being said, I'm surprised people don't use recovery points/custom windows Install images more. (especially in a business environment when installing multiple computers) They can save you a lot of pain.
  - pixelbath 7y ago
    The author also said they take an image of their "good state" and revert to that, not that the OS is in that state by default.
NikolaNovak 7y ago
Agreed. Windows ME taught me a lot of storage, backup and organizational skillsets, because I did have to refresh it every month. Literally. For two years (yay for Norton Ghost). To your point however, since Windows 7, I really haven't had a need to refresh any of my or family's systems. It does take me ~10min to get rid of some junk upon new install, but only because I'm pedantic. In reality the couple of pre-installed things don't bother me. I don't really know about "ads". I don't see them as screensaver (just nice rotating landscapes), and again, once I uninstall initial Start Menu games and crap, I don't see them there either. Really, the most annoying thing is that I have to persuade it several times I've tried Edge and am making my choice with Firefox :P
celticmusic 7y ago
Windows eats itself slowly over time, and it requires reinstalling to right the ship. I don't know why this is the case, but it's been the case since the 95/98 era atleast (I don't have experience previous to these). A reinstall isn't required, but it absolutely runs better once you do so. The only improvement I've seen is that generally it will take longer before windows needs a reinstall. It's possible you just don't realize how much performance/speed you've lost over time.
sgtnasty 7y ago
Well, I had to re-install Windows 7 many times due to what I believe is VisualStudio. After many updates it just fills my hard drive with the library redist packages etc. Then things stop working correctly. When I got a new machine for Windows 10 I didnt not install Visual Studio, no more problems so far.

by Yizahi 7y ago

ahbyb 7y ago

Windows gets a big update every few months. Those would always fail for me because I had a custom partition layout (Hackintosh) and I would have to reinstall every time. Popups? Maybe he means the new notification system that was included with... 8? I hate notifications that cover part of my screen while I use my computer/mobile, so I have them disabled. I can understand that they are annoying for some, and they are not trivial to completely disable.

Yizahi 7y ago
I mean, yes, there popups. But my linux installation does exactly that too, every login I get software update popup by default and if I don't want to see it I need to change options manually (and update settings in linux are far from trivial). As for bad upgrades - I had linux upgrades which failed something in the video path and I was stuck with broken X server and no GUI. And I didn't manage to repair that state even after extensive searching on stack exchange, so I just deleted everything and reinstalled. Another time I tried to install custom software and ended in a error hell of incompatible versions of libc, libtrpc etc. and it simply didn't work (it was on Debian), but at the same it worked just fine on another VM with different distributive. No OS is perfect currently.
- ahbyb 7y ago
  Oh, definitely. Linux is worse, that's why I use Windows. Doesn't mean Windows is flawless, evidently.
fortran77 7y ago
You're running mis-licensed software on a wonky partition and you're complaining about Microsoft!?
- ahbyb 7y ago
  Aha? What does Windows care if I have partitions at the end of the drive that it can't even read?

bionicbits 7y ago

Install -> happy -> slows down -> random crashes -> slows down more -> reinstall -> repeat One thing I think happens is Registry gets abused by apps and such over the years.

Crinus 7y ago
This is one of those 90s inspired urban tales. Even a decade old CPU can rip through the entire registry without breaking a sweat. And it is just a hierarchical database, nothing special about it. It shouldn't be very different than accessing files on the file system. (there were some bugs at the past that caused Windows Explorer to slow down but those were fixed long ago and they were just bugs with a single application, not something inherently slow with the registry itself)
- pjc50 7y ago
  It's not the registry itself, it's using the word "registry" as a synecdoche for all the things that may be installed there. And hooked into Windows subsystems. Speaking of Explorer, one of the classic ways to end up with a Windows system that's slow for no readily apparent reason is shell extensions. Either on the rightclick menu or in the thumbnail engine. At one point I had a folder I couldn't navigate to without getting an error popup that mentioned Nvidia in it - a chain of handlers had been installed such that JPEG decoding was delegated to the graphics card, so trying to create and cache the thumbnail of a corrupt file crashed in an unrelated-looking place.
  - Crinus 7y ago
    Well yeah, but it isn't specific to registry or even to Windows, you could get that with pretty much any extensible system. In Window Maker, for example, you can set up the application menu to use a dynamically filled entry so i wrote a shell script that scan my Steam folder to fill the installed games. Any mistake there could have had a similar outcome (e.g. launching Steam every time i right clicked on the desktop or generating an endless .\.\.\.\.\.\.\. list from not skipping the . directory or whatever). KDE and GNOME have many extensions and people already complain about GNOME's performance when it comes to shell extensions.

curt15 7y ago

>Same with "unsolicited popups". What are you using that does this? Open Chrome. "Try Microsoft Edge!"

smcl 7y ago
For me it was OneDrive, not sure how to explain it but it felt like every N times I hit CTRL+S to save my work prompted windows to raise a "Hey, try Microsoft One Drive!" modal which stole focus from what I was doing. One way to absolutely guarantee I will never use your software is to constantly nag me about trying it.
magashna 7y ago
I haven't seen this beyond 1809
aargh_aargh 7y ago
Now with Chrome! (without the chrome)
jdbernard 7y ago
My favorite is that if you turn on "Focus Assist", which is suppose to suppress popups so you can focus, it creates a notification alerting you that you have Focus Assist on. Not just once, but every time you turn on your computer.

Scarblac 7y ago

Even with a paid Windows 10 Pro you get ads for games right in the Start menu. It's insane.

Jemm 7y ago
I have yet to see an ad in the start window. Yes it is anecdotal but maybe my experience is more current.
- drankula3 7y ago
  I work at a MSP and install Windows almost daily. On most systems, I install Windows Professional version 1903, the latest version. On all of those, Candy crush, Skype, One Drive, Office, and a myriad of other App Store apps autoinstall. Each of those are basically ads for paid products. This is on the small business-oriented "Professional" version of Windows, mind you. Not only do they install, but they immediately fill the start menu tiles with this spam.
  - jsgo 7y ago
    I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure those autoinstalls are placeholders. If you go into add/remove programs, they're around ~120kb give or take. I think this goes along the lines of the "Office" install that would come with Windows 7 or 8 installs where you click it and it tries to rush you through the process of acquiring Office.
    - sixbrx 7y ago
      That seems to be right in line with parent calling them advertisements.
      - jsgo 7y ago
        The parent (unless we mean further up chain) didn't call them advertisements, but stated that they are store apps that auto install. There is certainly a placeholder there so they are for sure advertisements, but I don't believe you could take this fresh install, take away internet access and click on Candy Crush and start playing it while on a flight. You'd need to download the actual app first.

pjc50 7y ago

> Same with "unsolicited popups". What are you using that does this? Probably refers to the "notification center" in the bottom right next to the systray.

cm2187 7y ago

Plus between chocolatey, having the data sync-ed with a Synology NAS, and making the effort of finding the command line for all my customizations of windows, I have deploy scripts that means I am operational in less than 30min.

ubermonkey 7y ago

"Now - there is zero need to re-install at all, I only do it when I change hardware platform completely - storage, MB etc." This isn't true. It's routine for goofy conflicts even within MSFT's own stack (Office + Windows + whatever) to put you in a place where reinstalling Windows is the easiest fix. Plus, if you install and uninstall lots of software (e.g., if you work at a software company), C:\Windows just gets bigger and bigger over time. The only way to reclaim that space is to wipe & reinstall.

Yizahi 7y ago
I do plently of install/uninstalls of MS software - office re-install, office upgrade, MSVS install/uninstall (all of this due to other reasons, not because it was "slow") and I don't see any regressions because of this, including on my older work laptop with 3 years old continuous Win7 install. As for size of Windows dir - it not "leftovers" from uninstalls (but they exist too of course), it is a feature of Windows and 95% of it is a Windows updates, all chain of updates is stored locally and can't be safely deleted (according to MS engineers). Yes, it grows very big, especially if start point was older version/SP of Windows. In extreme cases, e.g. installing release version of Win7 and then updating to all service packs and updates will cause it to increase by 15-20Gb. But it is a known expected "feature" and it doesn't slow your PC, only clutters your c:\ partition. And re-install will not reclaim this space, it will be taken again immediately as soon as updates arrive on your fresh install of Windows. If by chance you a talking about clutter of 3rd party apps, then it is not a windows problem. E.g. some drivers like to keep older installers in appdata, some apps keeps backups of data there - worst offender is Garmin updater, which creates 12Gb backups every map update. That's not Windows issues.
- ubermonkey 7y ago
  It grows very big even if you start with Win 10. Honestly, it's indefensible to have a 30GB Windows folder.
WorldMaker 7y ago
Office hasn't had goofy conflicts with Windows since it switched to App-V-based installs nearly a decade ago (just after Office 2010, IIRC). (3rd Party Extensions to Office may still do dumb things, but the base Office install itself won't.)

aaron_m04 7y ago

> I don't get author's complaint about reinstalling Windows every few months, imho it is completely insane. The author is not claiming it's necessary, only that they like to reset their computer to a known good state.

rf15 7y ago
the basic OS install is rarely what you would consider a "good state" (unless you have superficial use cases, maybe). That being said, I'm surprised people don't use recovery points/custom windows Install images more. (especially in a business environment when installing multiple computers) They can save you a lot of pain.
- pixelbath 7y ago
  The author also said they take an image of their "good state" and revert to that, not that the OS is in that state by default.

NikolaNovak 7y ago

Agreed. Windows ME taught me a lot of storage, backup and organizational skillsets, because I did have to refresh it every month. Literally. For two years (yay for Norton Ghost). To your point however, since Windows 7, I really haven't had a need to refresh any of my or family's systems. It does take me ~10min to get rid of some junk upon new install, but only because I'm pedantic. In reality the couple of pre-installed things don't bother me. I don't really know about "ads". I don't see them as screensaver (just nice rotating landscapes), and again, once I uninstall initial Start Menu games and crap, I don't see them there either. Really, the most annoying thing is that I have to persuade it several times I've tried Edge and am making my choice with Firefox :P

celticmusic 7y ago

Windows eats itself slowly over time, and it requires reinstalling to right the ship. I don't know why this is the case, but it's been the case since the 95/98 era atleast (I don't have experience previous to these). A reinstall isn't required, but it absolutely runs better once you do so. The only improvement I've seen is that generally it will take longer before windows needs a reinstall. It's possible you just don't realize how much performance/speed you've lost over time.

sgtnasty 7y ago

Well, I had to re-install Windows 7 many times due to what I believe is VisualStudio. After many updates it just fills my hard drive with the library redist packages etc. Then things stop working correctly. When I got a new machine for Windows 10 I didnt not install Visual Studio, no more problems so far.