Re: Want To Make/Create Clean Wista 64-bit Install Including Drivers, Basic Programs, With ALL Your Configuring and Data Restoration Done

Hi,

Have you looked into imaging software? Using it, you make an image of the pc
the way you want it periodically. When all goes wonky, you wipe and reload
the most recent image. True Image from Acronis software and Image for
Windows from terabyteunlimited are just two examples of the multitude of
programs that will do this.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Susan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Does MS or any 3rd party developer make a truly easy clean install of
> Vista 64-bit (Windows in general) that one creates which would include
> the installation of all drivers you include, all applications you
> include, and everything configured the way you like it after 3 days of
> configuring?? Instructions on how to create this install would
> suffice.
>
> The idea or dream is... A year later after your or my machine slows
> down for unknown reasons (the untouchable registry has hundreds of
> orphaned lines that cannot be removed) you do a last backup of all
> data including certain programs and system data, with driver, program,
> and data updates to your customized Install Vista-64 bit CD/DVD,
> format C:\ and continue running this Install that lays everything back
> the way it was but with a cleaned up Registry and files in
> half-an-hour.
>
> What this would mean to me... I would not be so concerned about some
> program I just add messing up the whole works including permanent
> remnants in the Registry or the need to install the OS being put off
> indefinitely until something bad finally happens that forces you to
> drop whatever and start going through this long boring process.
>
> Thanks
>
> ~<Susan>~

> Yes, for better or worse I'm using Vista Ultimate's own Backup to both
> backup the entire PC periodically--only what has changed; and backup
> data Files automatically--only what has changed. The problem I can
> figure out how to get around is how to restore or create a clean
> Registry easily.
>
> I guess what I really wish is if Vista/Windows 7 had a way to create a
> new clean Registry bounded by only what it sees installed at the time,
> i.e., if nothing Symantec or Webroot, for instance, were installed
> then it would not add any old remnants of that software in the new
> Registry files.
>
> ~<Susan>~



You can do a registry backup at any time and keep a copy for for restoration
to that state if you wish. (An absolute must if you are editing the
registry)
Fraught with problems though, ... for example ..... if you made a registry
backup then installed Norton and decided three months later that you wanted
to get rid of it, you would be able to restore the registry to the state it
was prior to the install , ..... however ..... all other registry changes
made during that period would also be lost. That would create its own set of
problems.

Restore points save all updates to programs and registry files.

I found out the hard way that, although the restore operation claims not to
change personal files, it happily deleted my self-created .reg and .cmd
files, and downloaded programs I had stashed, even though they were stored
in my personal folder.

It's a typical-for-MS, brutally dumb process that simply 'rolls back' any
changes to 'system files', whatever their location.


"Susan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:57:03 +0900, "diggerop" <toobusy@themoment>
> wrote:
>
>>You can do a registry backup at any time and keep a copy for for
>>restoration
>>to that state if you wish. (An absolute must if you are editing the
>>registry)
>>Fraught with problems though, ... for example ..... if you made a registry
>>backup then installed Norton and decided three months later that you
>>wanted
>>to get rid of it, you would be able to restore the registry to the state
>>it
>>was prior to the install , ..... however ..... all other registry changes
>>made during that period would also be lost. That would create its own set
>>of
>>problems.
>
> Are Restore Points backup copies of the Registry only? Anything else?
> Thanks.

Susan - if you're still there...

(I was just checking old threads and saw your reply to my reply)

Short answer, yes, restore points back up the registry. But restoring is an
all-or none situation: you can't restore JUST the registry when restoring an
older restore point. Restoring to a restore point simply makes your
computer look like it did at that point in time, including all programs and
settings, with the exception of your data files, which are left in their
present state. If you had installed a new program after that restore point
was taken, rolling back to that point would de-install the program.

The point I was making is that what I considered MY data (self-created .reg
files, self-created .cmd files, downloaded programs in my personal folder)
were seen by the restore operation as 'system files' and thus had to be
rolled back to the same point in time (i.e. deleted, if I had
created/downloaded them after the restore point was taken).

So, MY solution to this problem is twofold:

1: Frequent backups to an external drive. I wrote my own backup because I
don't trust MS's. It's one of the aforementioned.cmd files, and uses the
XCOPY command, which allows me to back up the files *I* want to backup,
regardless of how MS feels about it.

2: Frequent self-created restore points. The external drive is really for
emergencies. Now that I understand System Restore, I realize that, as long
as the restore point I'm rolling back to was created after I
created/downloaded my 'program files', they will be retained. The rollback
will not delete them, because they were there when the restore point was
created.

Hope this helps. My fingers are tired!

Dave

"Susan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 18:24:35 -0600, "DaveD" <> wrote:
>
>>Restore points save all updates to programs and registry files.
>>
>>I found out the hard way that, although the restore operation claims not
>>to
>>change personal files, it happily deleted my self-created .reg and .cmd
>>files, and downloaded programs I had stashed, even though they were stored
>>in my personal folder.
>>
>>It's a typical-for-MS, brutally dumb process that simply 'rolls back' any
>>changes to 'system files', whatever their location.
>>
>>
>>"Susan" <> wrote in message
>>news:. ..
>>>
>>> Are Restore Points backup copies of the Registry only? Anything else?
>>> Thanks.
>
> Are you saying that although restoring to a Restore Point can do a
> whole lot more it does include the Registry too? If I'm about to mess
> around with the Registry is making a Restore Point the easiest way to
> recover the Registry if something goes wrong?