Jamie Le Souef

I fresh install XP roughly every 4 to 6 months depending on how my system is running. There is no questioning that XP slows down considerably after months of heavy use - it becomes fatty and bloated, takes what seems an lifetime to boot up - time I’ll never get back - and just runs like a piece of shit.

This is no good for me, I need everything running snappy! I’m a full time designer and developer and can’t wait for a pallet tool to select 20 - 30 seconds after I’ve clicked it, not matter what load my PC is under - and this is no slow PC.

“There are tools to clean your system” you say. Well I stick my thumb at your so called tools that install more crap onto your PC then you had there in the first place and do a half-arsed job of cleaning the system anyhow.

“How about disk images?” Yes, all good and well for a quick recovery if something goes wrong - but I still prefer the fresh start.

No, the best way to get something is to get it fresh and there is no fresher then a 8pass DBAN and clean install of XP!

This isn’t going to be some guide on how to use DBAN or make a slipstream XP, rather it is just some useless copy to introduce what is really just a list of what I install.

Starting fresh does has some down points. The most notable (to me) is having to digg around for all my software (no that link has nothing to do with the sentence, i just like digg).

So I thought to my self one evening that i might just make a list and share it with everyone who cares - and without further bullshit I give you said list:

1. DBAN Hard Drive
2. Install XP SP2 (Slipstream CD)
3. Install All Updates + Drivers
   1. Nvidia Driver
   2. Creative Labs X-Fi Driver
4. Connect to network
5. Install Firefox + addons
   1. Firebug
   2. Foxmarks
   3. Google Toolbar
   4. Net Usage Item
6. Install Kaspersky Anti-Virus
7. Install Office 2007
8. Install Updates
9. Install Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection
10. Install Royale Noir theme
11. Install XP Power Tool PowerUI
12. Install XP Power Tool ClearType Tuner
13. Install RocketDock
14. Install Synergy2
15. Install Tredosoft Multiple IE (for site testing)
16. Install WinRar
17. Install Google Desktop
18. Install FileZilla (testing version 3 at time of writing)
19. Install HeidiSQL
20. Install Dev-PHP
21. Install and Schedule Driveimage XML (dixml.exe /bF /t”G:\” /v /s- /c)

So there you have it. Really just some links in one place for each time I format my workstation. If you have any sugestions that I should add to this list I would be more then happy to hear them. So please, post a comment, just say hi - just to let me know you are reading.

Ta Ta.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Design, Microsoft, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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