Your HDD cleanout checklist

[Tzalix]

So, this weekend it's time again. Time for a complete wipe of the HDD, clean install of OS and whatnot, you know how it is. Stuff starts to slow down, you find yourself constantly deleting small things so you can push more crap in there, and sooner or later it's just time to start from scratch. So, I'm right now gathering installers for software that I want to have ready as soon as the OS is installed, and that got me curious, what does your HDD cleanout checklist of need-to-have software look like?

This is what I've gathered so far:

Drivers(of course)
Anti-virus(AVG for me)
OpenOffice
CCleaner
Chrome
DAEMON Tools
Adobe Reader
iTunes
Mouse, keyboard and headset software
Paint.NET
Skype
uTorrent
Winamp
WinRAR
VLC

[vesseblah]

- Daemon Tools is no longer needed with Win8, it has built-in ISO mounting
- Windows version of iTunes is crapware
- 7zip is totally free archive management program, don't need WinRAR with it's registration nagging

In addition Dropbox client, ventrilo/teamspeak/mumble and Curse Client. Most important step is taking a copy of whole c:\users so that I have backup of all settings including browser bookmarks.

[Tzalix]

- Daemon Tools is no longer needed with Win8, it has built-in ISO mounting
- Windows version of iTunes is crapware
- 7zip is totally free archive management program, don't need WinRAR with it's registration nagging

I'm sticking to Windows 7 for now.
iTunes is the easiest way for me to get my favorite podcasts, which is all I use it for.
Good point about 7zip.

[wickedbastard]

- drivers (pc/mouse etc)
- adobe suite (PS, illu etc)
- office
- antivirus
- regcleaner/ccleaner
- daemon tools
- winrar
- winamp
- skype
- uTorrent
- chrome
- some minor things i cant come up with now

[Deleted]

ninite.com

Good place to grab a lot of the essentials. It deselects toolbars, gets rid of installers etc. no having to search and download x individual files.

[wickedbastard]

ninite.com

Good place to grab a lot of the essentials. It deselects toolbars, gets rid of installers etc. no having to search and download x individual files.

Im usually a bit scared for those kind of programs, but if its all good. Wauw!

[Tzalix]

ninite.com

Good place to grab a lot of the essentials. It deselects toolbars, gets rid of installers etc. no having to search and download x individual files.

That seems like one awesome piece of software, thanks for the tip!

[Deleted]

Im usually a bit scared for those kind of programs, but if its all good. Wauw!

I guess the do have an updater as well if you like but other than that it's just an installer, you don't have to install any program to use it

[ldev]

So, this weekend it's time again. Time for a complete wipe of the HDD, clean install of OS and whatnot, you know how it is. Stuff starts to slow down, you find yourself constantly deleting small things so you can push more crap in there, and sooner or later it's just time to start from scratch.

No I don't what you're on about. And I'm pretty sure you're using computer wrong.

My checklist is a disk image back up from home server...

User was infracted for this post.

[Succath]

No I don't what you're on about. And I'm pretty sure you're using computer wrong.

My checklist is a disk image back up from home server...

Not everyone is a computer genius, and tbh there is nothing wrong with cleaning up your pc by reinstalling everything.

[Deleted]

If I had to:

WoW
Mumble
Chrome
Foobar 2k
Skype
Mumble
uTorrent
CCCP
Curse Client
Tukui Updater
MAL updater
Essential drivers


I guess that's about it. Haven't had to do it once in 7 years yet.

[Freeaze]

This is my MUST do when starting over. In somewhat this order. I won't install any games until this is done^^

- Skype
- Chrome
- Spotify
- WoWMatrix (when I still played)
- Steam
- Update Java/Flash
- Drivers
*- WinRar
And almost forgot. In this order, before ANYTHING ELSE;

- Tunngle
- Evolve
- Hamachi

THEN antivirus/firewall... ;D

(Edits: *)

Btw, I never save these, I always do fresh installs but these are the programs I download/install as soon as the OS is installed)
Fresh start on computers, rule^^

[noteworthynerd]

First off, I always follow this guide when reinstalling my OS.

Other than that, my list is comparatively small, I guess:

• Google Chrome (w/ adblock)
• AVG (free version)
• Revo Uninstaller (free version)
• 7-zip
• CCleaner
• MSI Afterburner (then set my custom video card fan profile)
• Microsoft Office
• Steam (and then various Steam games like Dota 2 and TF2)
• Battle.net App (and then SC2)

And that's about it.

[Spiralphoenix]

Typically I just get critical drivers, chrome, and antivirus. Everything else can just be freshly downloaded in the clean system. I don't see what difference it makes downloading them beforehand on an external. Really just chrome and the network card driver would be enough (or not even chrome if you can stomach opening IE momentarily).

After that though it'd pretty much just be... download it when I need it. Sure 7-zip is pretty much 100% guaranteed to be re-downloaded and installed on the new system, but I don't bother to do it until I have some compressed file I need to open. Not that it takes long to reach that point, but yeah.

[Deleted]

My general re-installation process is a fairly well oiled machine these days. These are the things I normally do before installing applications. Btw - these are personal things just as an example and may not be appropriate for your system.

Download latest versions of all software freeware/purchased/etc
Backup data on the C drive (in my case this is almost entirely contained within \ProgramData\ and \Users\<username\)
BIOS enable primary boot device is DVD drive
Insert Windows CD and install
On first restart, BIOS, primary boot device back to SSD
Finish Windows installation
Install ESET NOD32 Antivirus latest version and update as required
Install all latest drivers starting with Intel Chipset, Intel RST, Intel Mgmt Interface, NVIDIA, Sound, etc
Configure drivers (RST Write caching, NVIDIA Surround, Sound equalizer, etc)
Install Visual C++ Redistributables (for games) 2008/2010/2012, etc
DirectX Redist
FULL Windows Update cycle
On every subsequent restart, run Windows Update again until there is nothing left to update
Go through every item in Control Panel adjusting all settings as I desire
In System go through all the advanced settings, I personally disable System Restore and a bunch of other Performance related things, turning off Remote Desktop, etc
Computer Management -> Disk Management -> Assign drive letters
I personally change the way Windows handles Virtual Memory
Open all Windows programs like Notepad, My Computer, Microsoft MMC, Control Panel, etc etc.. Set window sizes and positions and settings as required
Apply Folder Settings to all
Configured Libraries to point to storage locations
Perform a Windows Experience Rating test and as a double measure lately I've been doing a "WinSAT diskformal" on the command line to ensure SSDs are correctly detected for the Windows 8 optimizer.
I turn off scheduled defragging
Install latest "support" applications - Java, Flash, Silverlight, etc
I run a few other things "powercfg -h off" (disable hibernation)

Post installation cleanup after restart:
Remove all folders left around by driver installers (C:\Intel C:\Nvidia, etc)
cleanmgr - as both normal and administrator to remove install temporary files
Clean out temporary folders (there are at least 3 of them as you know. \Windows\Temp, \Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp, \ProgramData\Temp)
Action Center Maintenance (Windows 8)
Task manager / startup item control (Windows 8)

I disable TRIM by default (I don't like the ATA command queue blocking, especially noticeable with SSD RAID) so every now and again I do a batch TRIM out of the SSD partitions in one go. In Windows 8 you can do this if you like (honestly I wouldn't recommend this unless you're seeing issues while TRIM is active)

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0
defrag /O C: F:
fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1

(Replace C and F with your drives)
I do this about once a week or two, takes a minute or less. TRIMs out all untrimmed blocks using the Windows 8 optimizer.

That's about all I can think of, off the top of my head.
Now I'm ready to install applications.

Almost all games I have are in Steam/Origin - no requirement to reinstall any of those.
No requirement to reinstall WoW, that's on a different drive, just run and go like before.

Enjoy

[Libram]

Probably too much.

Team Viewer
VMware Workstation
ePSXe
Daemon Tools
IObit Smart Defrag
Gimp
MSI Afterburner
Rainmeter
SpyBot Search & Destroy
Real Temp
CPUID - Hardware Monitor
CPUID - CPU-Z
Fraps
Malwarebytes
Ventrilo
Microsoft Office
FL Studios 10
Steam
Avast!
DropBox
Google Drive
SkyDrive
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Easy BCD
Media Player Codec
WinDirStat
WinRAR

I keep all of my games on a separate drive. Most of them don't require me to install them, however some few do.

[Deleted]

Is it just me that doesn't understand the whole clean install thing for HDD/SSD?
I mean if it happens multiple times a year ,that one would run out of space either one installs too much shit or their drive is too small.
I know there is some minor performance gain to be had if one runs a HDD setup only but that is so minor and not really worth the time needed imo.

[noteworthynerd]

Is it just me that doesn't understand the whole clean install thing for HDD/SSD?

I can't speak for the other users, but I don't reformat looking for a performance gain, I just like the feeling of a newly installed OS; there's something refreshing about "wiping the slate clean" I guess.

[Cyanotical]

i prefer ninite

that being said, i also have one of my hard drives dedicated to downloads, everything i have ever downloaded in the last few years is on that drive, that way i don't have to go looking for software or drivers, they are all there

[Tzalix]

Is it just me that doesn't understand the whole clean install thing for HDD/SSD?
I mean if it happens multiple times a year ,that one would run out of space either one installs too much shit or their drive is too small.
I know there is some minor performance gain to be had if one runs a HDD setup only but that is so minor and not really worth the time needed imo.

For me, personally, I always end up installing lots of software over time that I'll only use once or twice, then I forget to remove it. Over time lots of stuff gathers up and I just find it easier and quicker to start fresh.