Some Windows experts recommend that every year or so you do a fresh install of Windows. It is the drastic action I would only recommend if a PC is running slow from an accumulation of programs being installed and uninstalled and needs to be degunked.

It is not something I particularly like doing to my own machines, but I offered to do it on a laptop which had been given to the local “computer expert” to fix. I had already removed an impressive selection of malware from this laptop, but it still booted horribly slowly and wasn’t as responsive as its hardware specs would indicate. Right then I should have made sure I had the Dell “Drivers and Utilities” CD, instead of finding it out just as I was beginning the process. Also it may have helped to run one of those driver backup utilities, but I was in a hurry to get started. Big mistake.

The data was backed up , so I booted up with the restore disk, erased the main partition, formatted it and installed Windows XP. Then I installed an anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall. That was the easy part.
The harder part was trying to figure out which drivers were missing, downloading them from the Dell support site and installing them one by one. Several hours later all the drivers were loaded, and I had started on the Windows updates. Finally I was finished once Office had been  installed and the data restored. I also had my fill of Notebook computers for the day.
The laptop was booting up relatively fast and was quite snappy. At least the laborious process had produced some tangible results.

The lesson to be learned is make sure you have all your backups, Restore CD or DVD, and a drivers disk before starting this. I did all but one important step from past experience but a guide or checklist is probably a good idea. You would probably find one in the book “Degunking Windows“.