When considering should I reinstall Windows what really warrants this drastic action?

In regard to any software problems the most drastic step one can take is to completely rebuild your computer, wiping everything and reinstalling Windows from scratch.

We get many questions asking should I rebuild my computer for a whole host of reasons, the most common of these includes, I have a virus or some other form of Malware, it was running slow, I was out of disk space, I could not uninstall an application, it was crashing to name a few.

A full rebuild should really be looked upon as the very last course of action, and today just installing Windows XP or Vista can take a long time, generally there are files, emails etc to backup and then if we allow an hour for the installation.

On top of this we have to let Windows update make sure the computer is sufficiently patched, we also need to install security software such as antivirus and Antispyware, and that’s before we even start to install any applications and copy back files, emails and setup accounts etc, the list just goes on, plus there is the risk of forgetting to backup something, and it could be a long time to get your computer totally back to the way you like it.

Of course there are always times when a rebuild is the only option, but to rebuild just because of a general virus, spyware or system performance is usually unnecessary in around 99% of cases.

Whatever problem your computer is encountering simply rebuilding may initially fix the problem, but if there is a hard drive problem it will return, the same goes for viruses or spyware, if your antivirus or Antispyware software could not prevent it or remove it in the first place what are the chances of it getting re-infected?

Common scenarios and Solutions

• Computer completely freezing – Generally this could be more of a hardware issue.
• Computer performance issues – this could involve a number of items all of which can easily be checked – Hard drive space – Hard drive fragmentation – Bloated registry with remnants of uninstalled applications etc – tuning the Windows interface – Running check disk to check the integrity of the hard drive.
• Virus or Spyware issues – If your current antivirus or Antispyware cannot remove a problem, try another type such as one of the online scanners which only needs to run an active x control, no spyware or antivirus software picks up every type of Malware
• Windows software crashes or errors – Windows has to really easy ways to fix this type of error the first is the Windows system restore, you can revert your computers working state back to a time it last worked properly, all files are left untouched during this. The next type is a Windows repair; this will repair any Windows system file problems.

One top of this many problems come down to common sense, if you install an application and all of a sudden you start getting problems such as popups or performance issues the first thing to do is remove the application and then run Antispyware and antivirus scans

Of course there can be much more to it than this, but as pointed out earlier just about every Windows problem can be fixed or resolved without the dreaded rebuild, so next time you think – Should I reinstall Windows it could just be a 10 minute fix

Search for more on Should I reinstall Windows

computer adviser should i reinstall windows article