MS Vista Reinstall Prep & Advice Please

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Hi


Our Dell XPS laptop has recently started to become a bit "clunky" with software taking longer to load; updates not applying correctly; corrupt user profiles etc. :bang:

Whilst I tend to use my MacBook Pro most of the time, the rest of the family use this machine so need to keep it going as the MBP is mine, all mine!!! :D

My thought/plan is to reinstall MS Vista and then reinstall the relevant software with the hope of the clean install tidying things up somewhat. (I am not going to install W7 on the laptop - IMO it's not worth the cost of the install on this particular machine)

Last time I did this I had a real challenge with trying to find drivers etc. :bonk: A simple re-install seemed to take an absolute age.

Is there a simple way of doing this (perhaps a free utility that finds drivers on the existing install and allows me to save to a flash drive or similar?)

I've also got a few utilities and pieces of software on the PC that I have downloaded (legit I might add!) Is there a simple way of capturing all that is currently installed on the PC without me having to manually list everything?


Cheers for all your help :thumbs:
 
Belarc advisor lists most things including license codes.

Before you do anything type:

run->msconfig <return>

Click the startup tab and go through each of the programs in there. Disable any you don't think are relevant or not needed. You may be surprised at how much quicker the machine is.
 
Thanks guys thats really helpful
 
As a bit of an alternative view, how old is the laptop? If you're going to go through the pain of a reinstall I wonder whether an upgrade to Windows 8 might be worth the wait and modest expense.

I have an XPS PC, supplied with Vista a few years back and beginning to go a bit creaky a few weeks ago. No excuse for it really as it is my media server and doesn't get much installed and is not a daily driver in any way, shape or form. That's what my XPS laptop is for. Anyway, I installed Win 8 Preview on the PC and now it is as slick as you like.

I've pulled the same stunt on an old Phillips (Twinhead) laptop and that also seems to be all the better for it. Unfortunately, with my XPS M1710 laptop, now almost six years old, I can't find Win 8 drivers for the GFX card and I can't run it at full res, so that looks like a no-go. But in your case, if your machine is newer......?

Worth a thought.
 
Hi Tim

Its around 4-5 year old - IIRC the model is XPS M1530.

Is the preview availabel as a free download/trial - might be worth a try depending on full price as I'm wary of spending too much on an (albeit good) older machine.
 
Yes, but the retail version is released in October, so no problem. That's why I mentioned waiting to do the (re)install.

Of course, it makes sense to try out the preview first, to make sure all is OK. I had a spare HDD for the laptop, so it was a piece of cake to swap drives and install the preview on the spare. For the PC, since it was a bit FUBAR anyway it was time for a rebuild and with time on my hands I thought I might as well try Win 8 on that too. Suffice to say that I will be buying one or more copies as soon as it is available.

The only issues I have found are....

- Lacking drivers for my XPS M1710 laptop;
- DVD was not found in the XPS 420 PC and needed a wee registry fix.

The new Metro interface, which initially I despised, is now of zero consequence. Mostly I operate in the desktop workspace and see Metro as nothing more than a colossal "Start" dialogue, which I can dismiss as soon as I've got what I want from it.
 
Just for a bit of moral support, I reinstalled Vista onto our 4-year old laptop, new install onto a new SSD - it's like a new machine! Definitely consider switching to SSD if you're going to the trouble of reinstalling. It'll be the faster drive that makes most difference - but was definitely worth the swap.
 
Cheers Malc - hadn't thought about SSD for this machine (I have it on my MBP and it is fast)
 
I also found our 32-bit licence code worked for a 64-bit vista install (don't think they used to) so have a bit more headroom for adding ram if needed.
 
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