How many programs before you start again?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Franklin
  • Start date Start date
F

Franklin

Been getting ready to build a second PC. Made me review how much
stuff I have got on my present system.

Using 'MyUninstaller' http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html
I can see I have 511 installed programs!

In addition there are those programs which didn't need any
installation. I reckon I have about 100 of these ready and
waiting to be used from a shortcut link on my menus.

And then there are all those programs which were so unimpressive
that they got uninstalled. I don't know how many of those there
were. 50? 100? 150?

Adding together my figures of 511 + 100 + approx 100 then I see my
XP system has had about 700 or maybe even 800 programs!

-------------

Other background info is :

Based on the creation date of the 'WINDOWS' folder, my WinXP is
about 30 months old (installed in Jan 2003).

The C drive, which also contains no substantial data, is 14 GB of
which 10 GB is used up.

The Program Files folder, which contains *no* substantial data
files, is a bit over 5 GB.

If I sort by size the installed programs list on MyUninstaller or
Add/Remove then the middle size is about 1.7 MB.
Largest program at 357 MB is MS hotfix KB896727 (Aug 2005).
Largest user application is Photoshop at 189 MB.

What sort of data do other people have?

On avergae how long (or how many programs) do you wait for before
(re)installing a new XP system?
 
Franklin said:
Been getting ready to build a second PC. Made me review how much
stuff I have got on my present system.

Using 'MyUninstaller' http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html
I can see I have 511 installed programs!

In addition there are those programs which didn't need any
installation. I reckon I have about 100 of these ready and
waiting to be used from a shortcut link on my menus.

And then there are all those programs which were so unimpressive
that they got uninstalled. I don't know how many of those there
were. 50? 100? 150?

Adding together my figures of 511 + 100 + approx 100 then I see my
XP system has had about 700 or maybe even 800 programs!

-------------

Other background info is :

Based on the creation date of the 'WINDOWS' folder, my WinXP is
about 30 months old (installed in Jan 2003).

The C drive, which also contains no substantial data, is 14 GB of
which 10 GB is used up.

The Program Files folder, which contains *no* substantial data
files, is a bit over 5 GB.

If I sort by size the installed programs list on MyUninstaller or
Add/Remove then the middle size is about 1.7 MB.
Largest program at 357 MB is MS hotfix KB896727 (Aug 2005).
Largest user application is Photoshop at 189 MB.

What sort of data do other people have?

On avergae how long (or how many programs) do you wait for before
(re)installing a new XP system?
Click to expand...

Windows does tend to get filled up with junk as time goes by and you install
programs then forget about them. You have a number of options to deal with
this problem:
1. Get a hard drive big enough to contain all the extra files.
2. Periodically (I used to do it every 3 months when the trial licence on my
virus checker ran out ;-) ) back up all your data, format your hard disk,
reinstall Windows, then install all the programs you actually want.
3. Use an operating system with a package management system - this will make
the job of dealing with all those programs much easier. Examples include
Debian Linux, Fedora Linux, Gentoo Linux (My current choice), FreeBSD

Note also that Windows itself comes with hundreds of programs and utilities,
so, once those are taken out, the number may not be as large.

I hope my answer hasn't been too linux-fanatic :)
 
Franklin wrote:
On avergae how long (or how many programs) do you wait for before
(re)installing a new XP system?
Click to expand...

Years ago I used to re-build my 9x systems now and then to clean out the
crap, but nowadays there are such good registry cleaners available (plus
I'm more experienced at removing things by hand), that I wouldn't see
myself doing an XP re-install for this purpose. I have had issues where
removal of software causes issues, e.g. when I took off NAV 2005, but I
have been lucky and found solutions in registry tweaks. I try to be
less "try everything on the coverdisk" than I used to be, LOL, but with
cleaning and careful system restores, I don't find crap build-up much of
an issue anymore.

Best,

Ian.


---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0533-0, 15/08/2005
Tested on: 16/08/2005 02:41:29
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com
 
but nowadays there are such good registry cleaners available
Click to expand...

Ian

Can you recommend one or two please. I was using Norton System Tools
but it's no longer installed.

Thanks :-)
 
Jeff said:
Ian

Can you recommend one or two please. I was using Norton System Tools
but it's no longer installed.

Thanks :-)
Click to expand...

I use Regcleaner (http://www.jv16.org/). I have an older build (4.3)
that is freeware, possibly there is a small charge for the new release.
4.3 is fine if you can get it, and as long as you don't mind making
decisions of what to manually select for deletion (it backs-up keys first).

CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com) is a killer tool as well. This one will find
all the left-over snippets from uninstalled apps (such as Norton, LOL)
and let you remove them painlessly. Wholeheartedly recommended, but use
this one with care!


---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0533-1, 16/08/2005
Tested on: 16/08/2005 20:20:43
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com
 
I use Regcleaner (http://www.jv16.org/). I have an older build (4.3)
that is freeware, possibly there is a small charge for the new
release. 4.3 is fine if you can get it, and as long as you don't mind
making decisions of what to manually select for deletion (it backs-up
keys first).

CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com) is a killer tool as well. This one will
find all the left-over snippets from uninstalled apps (such as
Norton, LOL) and let you remove them painlessly. Wholeheartedly
recommended, but use this one with care!
Click to expand...


Thanks Ian :-)
 
Jeff said:
Thanks Ian :-)
Click to expand...

You might not thank me when your system is broken, LOL. I found out
this morning that one or two of those "redundant" and "orphaned" DLL
files were the TWAIN driver for my scanner! I wonder what else I have
unwittingly broken with CCleaner?! Luckily, I have backups, restore
points, etc... but the problem is it can take ages to discover items
which are broken. Care, people, care...


---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0533-3, 17/08/2005
Tested on: 19/08/2005 16:21:47
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com
 
Ian said:
You might not thank me when your system is broken, LOL. I found out this
morning that one or two of those "redundant" and "orphaned" DLL files were
the TWAIN driver for my scanner! I wonder what else I have unwittingly
broken with CCleaner?! Luckily, I have backups, restore points, etc...
but the problem is it can take ages to discover items which are broken.
Care, people, care...


---
Click to expand...
Whenever I recommend that fine bit of software, `CCleaner`, I always
recommend that they Untick everything. Then Read what they are doing. I
think the golden rule is: If you don`t know what it is, Leave it alone.
best wishes..OJ
 
Back
Top