Things you should do before reinstalling Windows Operating Systems

Every so often you'll most likely need to reinstall Windows on your computer. Whether it's a failing hard drive or you're upgrading from XP to Windows 7 there are many reasons you may want to reinstall Windows. While reinstalling Windows can be a troublesome task in itself here is a list of things to make the re installation run smoothly and leave you with your data and programs  running as before.





BACK UP YOUR FILES

I consider this to be the single most important thing you should always do before reinstalling Windows. To be quite honest this is something you should always do on a regular basis. Data backups is probably the single most requested task in the PC Repair industry. As more and more of our lives are stored on our computers it is crucial to make copies of everything you don't wanna risk losing. Always copy your music, videos, pictures, word documents and more to either external hard drives or disc before starting the reinstall of Windows. It is not an easy task to recover files after a reinstall, and in most cases requires sending the hard drive out to a data recovery specialist and entails significant fees usually starting around $250 and going up.

BACKUP EMAIL

Many of the more popular email programs like Outlook save data on your computer also, and that data could be every bit as important as your music, pictures etc. Depending on the email program you're using you can usually do a Google search on how to back up the files from that particular program. The files will be different on each program and on later post I'll walk you through how to back up some of the more popular email programs.


FIND YOUR PROGRAMS TO REINSTALL

Windows will not automatically reinstall additional programs that you've installed. A computer without all your programs is not very useful or entertaining. You'll want to check your All Programs menu in the Start menu and make a list of all those programs and games you've installed over the years. You'll also need to locate the product keys for those programs. Usually these will be located inside the packaging that came with the program when you purchased it.

GREAT FREE ALTERNATIVES TO POPULAR PROGRAMS

After you've installed Windows back on to your computer trying out some newer, free alternatives to some of those programs you had installed on your computer for years on end. There are tons of free alternatives to antivirus, music and video tools even email programs out there, here's a few you may wanna take a look at:

• Antivirus - Microsoft Security Essentials is a great and free antivirus and antimalware program. You can use this instead of MacAfee, Norton or other expensive antivirus programs.
• Archiving Files - If you were ever using an older version of WinZip or WinRar try out 7-zip. This is a free alternative that works with most files formats like zip, rar, cab and others. This will be needed for a lot of files or programs that you download in the future.
• CD/DVD Burning - Windows 7 does have the capabilities to burn ISO files to disk but it does not include many extra features that you get with ImgBurn. I've used ImgBurn personally for years and love it. ImgBurn is every bit as good as Roxio or Nero for burning cd/dvds and it's totally free.
• Office Tools - Everyone needs some type of office tool these days, for spreadsheets, word documents etc. The most popular is of course the Microsoft Office suite which is very expensive. However there is an alternative out there OpenOffice, I've have used and recommended this program for many years now and looks and works almost identical to Microsoft Office, except it's totally free.
• Windows Live Essentials - This package program comes with Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger and Writer. They're great programs to replace many other for-pay programs.

Now that you've got all your data and programs backed up you're ready to start on the Windows install. Just pop in your Windows Operating system disc and you're ready to go (or contact me and I'll be happy to do that for you). Don't forget to activate your copy of Windows you've got 30 days to complete it and you will be reminded of that constantly from the system pop-ups. Make sure you keep Windows up to day with Microsoft Update and protected with your antivirus program.