Keeping windows installation clean

Question

Tomorrow I am going to format my computer and install in it Win7.

So, right now my computer is full of crap and runs slow. Every time I format my computer and install windows over it I have that feeling that it runs pretty fast (at least compared to what it was before the format).

This time I was thinking of trying something new. Something along the lines of installing the big programs (Visual Studio, Office, etc) in an Administrator account, so that they could be also used by my regular user account. For all those small programs that require installation but are of dubious origin, I'd thought of installing them right in my user account. I'd then just use the standard user account for my daily routine.

My idea idea would then be from time to time to delete my user account and create another one (or something along the lines), knowing that the important installed software is in the Administrator account (I have all my data in a separation partition so that isn't a problem).

Is this a good idea?

I know I could use a VM to run dubious software in it, but my machine isn't that fast and I'd like to stay away from it if something like the idea above worked!).

I'm all ears to alternative solutions.

Answer 1

What I do is the following.

Going to the cloud:

• set up everything I want, install all necessary programs (using Ninite)
• install all missing updates
• install Microsoft Security Essentials (and never another virus scanner)
• set up Chrome with sync and Lastpass
• and of course Dropbox

If you store all your important files in the Dropbox or in some data partition, you will then have a system that you can always restore to that state without losing data or going through the process of setting it up again.

Creating a minimal image:

So, after you have installed/set up everything, get Clonezilla and create an image of your hard drive (or your Windows/Application partition) and store it on an external hard drive.

Whenever you feel your system getting slower or you installed something that broke your installation, restore it using the image you created. All you then have to do is wait for the Dropbox to sync back and Windows updates to install again.

In between, you can of course create additional images using Clonezilla.

Trying things out:

I would really advise you to use a VM for this, even if your machine isn't that fast. Windows XP should run fairly fast and as @Resorath has stated you can use it if you have Win7.

Creating a non-administrator user account for trying out things is another idea I'd support. In case something goes wrong, you can delete the profile and its data without complications for your system. Just make sure the programs you are installing aren't installed for all users (although not all of them will probably let you choose that...).

One more thing:

There's administrative software SteadyState that "locks" your hard drive to a certain state, so whenever you reboot, all changes are reverted. It would allow you to test all kinds of things, just letting the machine sleep inbetween, and when you decided that the software is okay, just commit the changes to the drive. If not, just reboot the machine. It was discontinued, there were no version for 64 bit and no Windows 7 support. However, there are some alternatives.

Answer 2

Generally large programs that are installed don't actually degrade the performance of your computer. If they don't automatically startup anything on Windows login, then there is very little noticeable performance loss.

The problem happens when you install a lot of little utility programs that take over your machine, such as

• Anti malware programs (one is sufficient)
• Specialty compressed file extraction tools
• cd burning tools
• audio/video conversion tools
• Tools that claim to speed up your machine (ironically)
• etc

Or basically anything that runs at startup, adds items to context menus, and basically junks up your system.

Basically, evaluate if you need these small programs at all. A VM really is the way to go (windows 7 pro provides a complimentary license for a windows xp VM in Windows XP mode). Launch xp mode, install your software (make sure to disable integration) and use it. Then either use the undo disk to uninstall the software or just leave it on there. That isolates those crappy little programs on an environment you can truly "turn off". I don't believe just another user account is sufficient.

Of course, nothing beats a regular operating system reload (creating a disk image of your "ideal setup", and then restoring it every couple of months works great against "Windows Rot").

And of course, you should always run with a user account anyways.