I love me some freshly washed Windows (do Mac OSX users do the same?)

[Kaido]

I've been through 2 Hackintoshes and never once had to reformat because things were slowing down. I've been on a MacBook Pro for almost a year now and it's just as speedy today as it was the day I purchased it. It's pretty incredible to think that I can boot the laptop and it's up and running in 9-10 seconds, with all apps loaded up that were running when I shut down. And these aren't notepad type of applications, it's strictly development tools + chrome and irc.

Yeah, my wife's hackintosh has been up for a good five years straight now. We're actually retiring it this month in favor of a pink Macbook for portability & to clear up some space (I need more room for VR Roomscale! lol). But OSX is *nix-based so it's the same deal, doesn't really clog up unless you get crazy messy with third-party apps & dinking around the OS files.

 

[Kaido]

Just gotta remember to clean out your computer every once in awhile...

 

[master_shake_]

Just gotta remember to clean out your computer every once in awhile...

i've never done that with soap and all.

but i have used a dishwasher.

in fact, there is nothing wrong with washing your motherboard like that if you let it dry out completely.

 

[MrSquished]

Just gotta remember to clean out your computer every once in awhile...

maybe i'll do this and see if that means i don't have to reinstall Windows every year like Mac users don't reinstall their OS. I'll use some lemon scented dish detergent and keep it fresh.

 

[Oyeve]

Yeah, reformat at least annually. With Windows it's more like at least a couple times a year. From a USB stick with Win10 to an SSD, the install is pretty quick these days.

Were do you guys come up with this crap? I really hope you are NOT in the IT business!

 

[Carson Dyle]

i've never done that with soap and all.

but i have used a dishwasher.

in fact, there is nothing wrong with washing your motherboard like that if you let it dry out completely.

I think I'd remove the battery and let the caps drain first.

 

[Red Squirrel]

For Windows 7 & Server 2008, you can use the official Windows USB/DVD tool to write the ISO of your disc to a USB key: (use ImgBurn to rip the DVD to ISO first)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

For Windows 10, that tool includes a copy of Win10 via streaming download, no ISO required. For reference, the activation method takes your key & puts it into an online database matched to your hardware set, so they don't care about physical discs anymore because once your computer is registered, all you need to reinstall is the stick & it will auto-activate:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/

I recommend a fast USB 3.0 stick to speed up installation. USB 2.0 can be really slow & 3.0 sticks are cheap these days. I keep a metal one (waterproof, shockproof, magnet-proof, temp-proof, x-ray proof, 5-year warranty) on my keychain; $29 shipped on Amazon for a huge (128-gig), brand-name (Samsung) stick off Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-128GB-Flash-MUF-128BA-AM/dp/B017DH3NOW/

If you want to do older operating systems or have multiple ISO files available to install via USB, you can get an optical disk emulator, which is basically a portable USB drive with some fancy software that fools your computer into thinking a selected ISO file is an actual disc (very useful for older systems that want to boot off a CD instead of USB). I have a USB 3.0 Zalman; they sell the empty case for $45:

https://www.amazon.com/Zalman-ZM-VE350-External-Enclosure-ZM-V350B/dp/B019C23H06

Just add a HDD (recommend SSD tho, even a small cheap 120-gig SSD will cover all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.).

I have one of those HDD ISO emulating drives, they're nice, but I find they can be flacky on some systems, it's hit and miss. 90% of the time it works fine though.

 

[Kaido]

I have one of those HDD ISO emulating drives, they're nice, but I find they can be flacky on some systems, it's hit and miss. 90% of the time it works fine though.

Yeah, I keep a slim USB bus-powered Bluray for backup just in case.

 

[Kaido]

Were do you guys come up with this crap? I really hope you are NOT in the IT business!

Come up with what, reformatting annually? Or installing from a USB stick?

 

[master_shake_]

people installing windows from usb... smh...

network installs are the only way to go these days.

especially when braswell and z100 boards shut the usb ports off during windows 7 installations.

ASK ME HOW I KNOW!

 

[Kaido]

I think I'd remove the battery and let the caps drain first.

It's a joke photo from the interwebs. It's supposed to be horrifying. But along those lines...

 

[Kaido]

people installing windows from usb... smh...

network installs are the only way to go these days.

especially when braswell and z100 boards shut the usb ports off during windows 7 installations.

ASK ME HOW I KNOW!

PXE?

 

[master_shake_]

It's a joke photo from the interwebs. It's supposed to be horrifying. But along those lines...

and yet it works great.

 

[Carson Dyle]

It's a joke photo from the interwebs. It's supposed to be horrifying.

I've washed electronics before, so not that much of a joke, if it really is one.

 

[master_shake_]

PXE?

Serva so yeah PXE

 

[Kaido]

and yet it works great.

Sorry, needs context - it's in reference to:

http://imgur.com/gallery/Gw359

&

http://imgur.com/gallery/8N9er

I didn't think the oil one was a big deal because hey, you can do an oil-filled case for cooling...it wasn't until I saw they were frying food in it that I LOL'd

 

[Ajay]

Seems like I had to re-install every Windows OS at least once (except NT4.0). It was easy to do upgrade-installs with XP, but has become progressively more difficult with each new release of Windows. With Win10, I haven't found a way yet to do a similar type of upgrade-install, so I may be going with a 'reset' on two computers that are boinked for different reasons.

 

[Oyeve]

Come up with what, reformatting annually? Or installing from a USB stick?

Formatting twice a year.

 

[Kaido]

Formatting twice a year.

I used to do it even more often, but then I started testing software & tinker tricks in VM's, so it didn't mess up my host OS so much.

 

[Geekbabe]

My mid 2014 MacBook Pro just gets a new Mac OS whenever they are released. My computer " just works" no need for fiddling with reinstalling the OS.