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Backing Up and Reinstalling Windows

Introduction

It is a well-known fact that over time a Windows computer will accumulate junk and begin to run slower. Most people hate to reinstall Windows because the process can take a long time and it is easy to lose data or forget which programs to install.

This document is intended to help you make the re-installation process as hassle-free as possible. I have used this list to install Windows on more than 15 machines, and each time I have added and adjusted these links to make the process go faster and add important information. If you have suggestions of links to add, please let me know.

Take me to the list!

Backup All Files

Before you re-install Windows, you need to back up all important data on your computer. That includes:

• All documents from My Documents, the Desktop, and other common document folders
• All e-mail and settings from Outlook, Thunderbird, and other clients
  • Thunderbird: Use MozBackup
  • Outlook (all versions) and Outlook Express: See Site Developer for instructions
• All settings from Firefox and Internet Explorer
  • Firefox: Use MozBackup
  • Internet Explorer: Go to "File | Import and Export..." and follow the wizard instructions
• All files from address books, calendar programs, etc.
• Chat program settings
  • Trillian Auto Backup
  • Back-up Yahoo! Messenger
• Other program information, such as financial statements, etc.

In addition to files, you may want to take a look at how your system is customized so that you don’t forget anything you’ll want to set up on the new system.

• Check Add/Remove Programs list and the Start | Programs list for any programs you want to reinstall later that are not listed below
• Locate CDs for all necessary applications
• Backup any special fonts you have installed
• Take a look at your customized desktop settings and write down the ones that you want to keep

Install Windows

Installing Windows requires a valid CD and CD Key. The CD Key for your computer is usually on a sticker attached to the side, top, or back of the computer, or with the Windows installation disc. If you do not have the CD Key written down, you can use keyfinder.exe to get it from the current installation of Windows. Write it down and have it handy as you are re-installing Windows.

Sometimes it may be necessary to install drivers for your computer after you have installed Windows, many times before you can even connect to the Internet. That means you may want to find all of the pertinent drivers for you computer before you reinstall.You can usually find all the drivers you need at the manufacturer’s website using the computer model number. (Hint: many Dell computers have a service tag on the back that can be used at the Dell Support website to get the downloads for the specific computer.)

If you are planning to install new memory or any other new hardware, this would be a good time to do that. Then the computer will start out with all of the hardware it will be using.

To start the reinstallation, put the Windows disc in your CD/DVD drive and restart the machine. Some computers do not have the CD/DVD drive set up before the hard drive in the boot list. If you are not given the option to boot from the CD when you restart the machine, that is probably the case. To fix this, you will need to:

• Reboot your computer and enter the BIOS (sometimes called Setup)
  • You will need to hit a specific function key when your computer first starts up (right after you press the power button). It is sometimes different on certain models, but the first screen you see should tell you what to press. In many Dell and HP systems it is F2.
• In the BIOS, look for the Boot Order option.
• Reorder your boot order so that the CD/DVD drive is listed before the hard drive.
• Do NOT adjust any other settings unless you know what you are doing.
• Exit while saving changes, your computer will restart, and it should read the CD/DVD drive now.

The Windows installation disc will show you the partitions on your hard drive and allow you to delete them individually. Delete them all (unless you have backup data saved on one of them) and do either a complete or quick format of the partition space. Install Windows to the unpartitoned space.

After the installation, you should install all of your drivers and make sure that your hardware has all been detected.

Uninstall Junk

At this point, you may want to rid your computer of all that junk PC manufacturers install by default (AOL, game trials, etc.). To do this easily, you can use PC Decrapifier, Revo Uninstaller, CCleaner, or a similar tool. Or just uninstall all the junk manually under Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

All Windows updates

After Windows is installed and ready to go, the first thing you should do is install the latest Windows updates. This part of the process could take a while, depending on the age of the installation CD you used and some other factors. You will need to visit Windows Update (IE only) a few times (with possible system re-starts in between) to ensure that you have all of the updates you need. Be sure to install all of the Critical and Recommended updates, and choose any Optional updates you feel are important, like Windows Media Player and the .NET Framework 3.0.

Installing Programs

After your computer has a fresh installation of Windows, it is now time to install your programs. The following list of programs is broken into categories to make installation easier. You may have to restart your computer periodically during these installations, so be sure to keep track of where you are on the list. All of these programs are, as far as I know, Adware and Spyware free. Be careful when you install them, though, since some bundle other free utilities (like the Google toolbar) with them, but give you the option to not install the extra programs if you don’t want them. If you find that any of these install adware/spyware, please contact me ASAP.

Some of the programs listed below are not free downloads, though they may have trial versions available. These are all clearly marked as such. I have left them in the list because I want you know about them in case they will be helpful to you.

System Programs

• AntiVirus and anti-spyware programs
  • AVG Free — There are a few free anti-virus programs out there, but this is my favorite.
  • Ad-Aware SE Personal — Detects and removes adware and spyware.
  • Spybot Search and Destroy — detects and removes spyware. Sometimes catches things that Ad-Aware misses.
• PowerToys for Windows XP
  • Open Command Window Here — Right-click option that comes in handy when you work with the DOS prompt regularly.
  • Clear Type Tuner — Essential if you have a flat-screen/LCD monitor
  • Tweak UI — Allows you to make lots of little and big changes to your Windows configuration.
  • Image Resizer — Easy to use tool
• Power Toys for Windows Vista
  • Run as Administrator for Scripts — Allows you to run scripts that require admin access
  • CMD Here as Administrator — Right-click option that opens a DOS prompt logged in as Administrator
• SyncToy — Helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers quickly and easily.
• Open Type Font Properties Extension — Allows you to see more information about a font when you look at its properties.
• Compatibility Pack for Office 2007 — Only install this after you have installed a version of Office prior to Office 2007. It will let you open and work with documents saved in the new format.
• Vista4Experts — This program helps you easily change settings in Vista related to security center notifications, User Account Control dialogs, automatic Windows Defender scannings, automatic update installations, and other important and sometimes frustrating functions.
• Vista Lite — vLite provides you with an easy removal of the unwanted components in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking.
• CutePDF Writer — Allows you to print directly from any program into a PDF file.
• ActivePerl — This is only needed if you are a Perl Programmer.
• MyODBC — Only if you need it.
• Input Director — Lets you control multiple Windows systems using the keyboard/mouse attached to one computer.

Basic Programs

• AutoHotKey — The best keyboard shortcut creator out there. Anything you can do with your mouse or keyboard you can script in AutoHotKey.
• Flash Player
• Shockwave Player
• QuickTime
• Adobe Acrobat Reader (Version 8 or earlier versions)
  • Or, if you want to skip the hassle of using Acrobat Reader, you can use FoxIt.
• Foldersize for Windows — Lets you see the size of folders in the Explorer window, just like files. Only works in XP, but it is a great little tool.
• ISO Recorder — create an ISO file (for burning to a CD) easily.
• Taskbar Shuffle — Move programs around in your taskbar with click-and-drag
• Unlocker — Unlock files that are being held captive by a specific program. Makes them easier to delete.
• KeePass — A great Password keeper.
• DoubleKiller — finds duplicate copies of files on your computer.

Web and Communication

• Firefox — The best browser available, hands down. Here are some of my favorite extensions:
  • Adblock Plus — Block ads on sites across the Internet.
  • Mouse Gestures — makes navigation much easier
  • Tab Mix Plus — Lots of controls for tabbed browsing and session saving
  • Google Toolbar
  • Google Browser Sync — Syncs up bookmarks, passwords, etc. between different computers. Requires a Google/Gmail account.
  • Better Gmail — A great set of enhancements. Only use if you have the older Gmail interface.
  • Better Gmail 2 — for newer Gmail interface
  • Better Gcal — Useful enhancements for Google Calendar.
  • Drag and Drop Upload — lets you drag and drop a file into a form field instead of having to browse for it.
  • Hebrew Calendar — Adds the Hebrew date and important information in the status bar.
  • IE Tab — Opens the page you are looking at in an Internet Explorer window nested inside FireFox
  • Windows Media Player Plug-in — necessary for viewing Windows Media videos in Firefox.
  • PDF Download — Lets you choose to open, download, etc. any PDF you click a link for, without locking up your browser.
  • Fasterfox — Tweaks to make Firefox run faster.
  • FaviconizeTab — Minimizes any tab to show just the Favicon (no text) with a double click.
  • ColorZilla — A great tool for web development. gives you a color picker tool inside the browser, letting you click on anything and get the color.
  • Toolbar Buttons — Over 100 helpful toolbar buttons for Firefox, as well as some for Thunderbird and Sunbird.
• Thunderbird
  • Minimize to Tray — Minimizes the application to the system tray (next to the clock) instead of to the task bar. Works for Firefox, too.
  • Contacts Sidebar — Adds a sidebar with your address list.
  • Buttons! — I use this extension to archive messages. It allows you to add custom buttons to the toolbar.
  • Always View Messages In Threaded View — A setting that makes keeping track of conversations easier.
• MozBackup — Essential tool for backing up or moving your Firefox and Thunderbird between computers
• Palm Desktop — Vista-compatible Beta version
• Instant Messaging — There are a few IM programs out there that let you use a variety of networks in the same interface. These two are the ones that I have used and suggest you try.
  • Trillian Basic — Supports Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ, and MSN (Jabber/Google Talk available with the paid version)
  • Pidgin — Supports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, and Zephyr

File Management

• FileZilla — My preferred FTP client.
• WinSCP — An alternative FTP client, especially nice if strong encryption is required. Works a lot like Windows Explorer.
• UltraVNC — The best VNC client I have used. Lets you work on a computer remotely, as if you are right in front of it (like GoToMyPC, but without the cost).
• A.F.5 — A great little file renaming utility.
• SyncBack Freeware — Freeware backup utility. LifeHacker has instructions on how to set it up.

Bible Study Programs

• WORDsearch 8 — The best Bible study software available. Not free, but definitely worth the cost.
• Bible Explorer 4 — WORDsearch’s free, full-featured little brother — the easiest-to-use and most powerful Bible Software anywhere. Comes with more than 150 free books, and more added every month. This program has been around for more than 5 years and was not free originally.
• Instaverse — If you see scripture references on the Internet, in e-mail, or in word processing documents, but always want to see what the passage says, this is the perfect tool for you. It pops up a small, customizable window when you hover over any Bible reference. Over 40 translations available, many of them free. Uses the same books as Bible Explorer and WORDsearch.

Editing, Web Development

• TextPad — My favorite text editor. I wish they did more active development on it, but it does integrate well with Perl.
• Prince XML — An amazing tool that reads an XML or a HTML file with a style sheet and produces a high-quality PDF. The tool costs a lot to use without the company’s logo on each file, but if you need to produce print-quality PDF files this tool does it perfectly. It is compliant with CSS 1 and 2, passes the Acid2 test, and has some great additional style sheet functionality to support footnotes, etc.
• OpenOffice.org — The quintessential Microsoft Office replacement.
• Quick Key — This is the tool I use to create Unicode Hebrew and Greek text in my e-books. It requires the .NET framework, if you don’t have it installed.
• Special Characters Menu — Program that runs in the background and gives you access with Windows+C to a specialized list of characters. Could be an easy way to add characters without using Quick Key or the Character Map. Site is in Russian. Look almost halfway down the page.
• Tidy — This is useful for Web developers. You might also check out the HTML Validator Firefox extension.
• IE Developer Toolbar and Firefox Web Developer toolbar — Both great tools to help you develop websites.
• Free PDF to Word Converter — This free program will convert PDF files into Microsoft Word Documents.
• PDF995 — Lots of features, including a PDF printer driver (like CutePDF mentioned above) and the ability to convert PDFs into HTML and Word documents. Quality of the conversions is not great, but usable if you are looking for something that displays okay.

Audio, Video, Images

• The Gimp — This program is the free alternative to PhotoShop. I have been using it for many years and have been very happy with the results. Watch out for the option to change file associations during install. If you want your image files to open by default in GIMP, then change the associations. If you prefer to have them open by default in the Windows Image Preview window, then don’t. This is not a setting you can change easily after installing GIMP.
• IrfanView — I use this program to work with TIFF files, but it can handle lots of image formats.
• Audacity — A great program for recording, splicing, and otherwise dealing with audio files.
• CDex MP3 ripping software — Lets you create MP3 files from your CDs, for use on a portable music player, etc.
• LEAD Command Line Utilities -- Instructions — This is a command line utility that can convert whole folders full of images at one time. The instructions are easy to follow.

Miscellaneous

• Quicklogger — A task and time logging tool that I created. Saves your task log as an Excel, text, HTML, or CSV file.
• uTIPu — Lets you record your desktop to make tutorials, etc. Free program with lots of great features.
• Gmail Notifier — System tray program that alerts you to new messages in your Gmail account.
• Google Toolbar for IE — Search toolbar with a built-in pop-up blocker.
• IE 6 Standalone — Great for testing web pages if you have IE7 installed already.
• Phun — A fun 2D physics sandbox.
• ClocX — Free analog clock with alarm functionality.

Games

• Call of Duty — My favorite first-person shooter video game.
  • Teamspeak — 3rd party client that lets you speak to other players in the game.
  • Teamspeak Overlay — Works with Teamspeak, shows you a list of the players using the tool and who is speaking.
• Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, Conquerors Expansion — My favorite strategy game. AOE III is out, but I have not played it yet.
• America’s Army — The Army’s first-person shooter game. You have to go through an extensive training process before you can play the game, even in multi-player mode.
• Tremuolus — Open Source first-person shooter game, alien spiders versus humans.
• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory — Another free first-person shooter. It is from the same line of games as the original Wolfenstein.