The Annual Reformat
Have you ever changed the strings on your guitar? You know how it sounds a million times better – even though the guitar sounded great anyways? That’s what a clean reformat does to your computer.
I have a friend. He claimed (at some point) to be tech savvy. He built the desktop he’s using at the same time that I built the one I’m typing on now. He knew more than I did then. I know that he’s not very tech savvy by modern standards because we’ve had the following argument for about 2 years:
Me: “Dave, reformat your computer”
Dave: “No. It is running Windows XP just as well as it was when i installed it back in 2002.”
Me: “Dave, XP doesn’t work that way. reformat your XP. it will be night and day”
Dave: “No. Things open just as fast as ever and everything’s OK.”
This is a person in denial. a Windows box cannot last 7 years without massive slowdown. about 2 years after i built my first computer (in 2002) i first reformatted (not by choice). reformatting does 2 important things (among many):
1) Gets rid of “the muck” from registry edits, added/removed programs, antivirus software footprints, and stuff you didn’t realize you don't need [making things way faster]
2) Gives you the newest, cleanest OS possible
The first part is the most important. After 6 months of any Windows-based OS use (I don't know anything about Mac stuff), your OS becomes a bit bogged down.
The good news is that a computer almost 7 years old is more than satisfactory for today’s OS and software. That’s amazing (7 years ago, a computer became 
obsolete after 2-3 years). The good news is the Microsoft OS has been (almost) perfected. The newer versions (see: Windows Vista) offer nothing but eye candy, demanding advanced computers. The bad news is that you can’t buy the version of Windows XP that you need. The best version of Windows XP is available only on pirate torrent sites: totally stripped down, removing all the bloat ware and unnecessary processes. That’s what I’ve been running for years and I haven’t looked back – or forward.
If I was more disciplined, I would reformat every 6 months. Reformat once and you will see how magical it is. You will want to reformat more often too. The reformat shall set you free. It will be the sun to your allegorical cave. You don’t need all that shit you thought you did (like when you lost all your mp3’s and realized you only wanted to re-download 25% of them anyways).
I’m not disciplined enough to reformat every 6 months. So I do it about every 12 months. Fortunately, it’s not nearly the headache it was 5 or 10 years ago. A thumb drive can save all your important documents and settings. A couple DVD’s can (usually) save the important media, and with torrents it’s very easy to re-download important albums or movies/tv.
Then you can download open source software (as listed s
omewhere on this site): Firefox, Launchy, iTunes (not open source, i know), thunderbird, combined community pack (good for movies), foxit (>adobe reader), uTorrent, pidgin, and install a pirated Office (still >open office). Getting those extensions again is a bit of a pain, but it’s also kind of fun seeing what new stuff is out there. And you’re set.
Reformat. I’ll help you.
