Weird WinXP problem.

[Razor1]

Without wishing to hijack the thread, what exactly is Windows problem. I've defragged weekly but still see a clear difference between the trojan induced fresh install last weekend and the nine month old install it replaces.

I've never run a registy cleaner, do they make a difference?

After a while Windows registry just gets all messy, it pretty much keeps track of everything in the registry. Registry cleaner will help a little, but its better to just backup and format. (if you need a backup software, try http://www.genie-soft.com/)

By far geniesoft is the easiest backup program out there, personally I would do it manually but just depends on how comfortable you are with where everything is located on your comp :smile:

 

[t0y]

I tend to use one of those err.. "unoficial" boot CDs with NTFS write support and rename the Windows, Program Files and Documents & Settings and everything in the root dir to something else except for the swap and hibernation files. Afterwards, I just tell the installer to go "C:/Windows".

It's a lot easier to recover from a clean install when you have all your data avaliable the same way it was before.