What kind of maintenance should I do to avoid software rot?

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I use Revo Uninstaller to do my uninstalling now days so far it seems to do what is asked, must be very careful not to uninstall other listing that belong to other programs when doing the maximum, make sure that you only delete the type that is in Bold.
http://www.revouninstaller.com/uninstaller_help_page.html

I downloaded free windows registery cleaner and it got rid of some of the rot. I also defrag once a month and do disk cleanup. But when downloading software one gets alot of *&^ with it so it gets confusing to know what you can and cant delete. I wish someone would develop a programme that will remove anything automatically that is not been used. Windows updates take up a lot of space and i am not sure whether one can delete the old ones or not.

Usually with new software, I create an appropriately named Restore point (Before installing Program XYZ). Then if I decide fairly quickly to uninstall the new software, I can restore the system without any hassle, cleaning up the "rot" at the same time.

I think it's a good idea to run a computer in "sandbox mode" when downloading and installing anything. If something goes wrong none of the changes are applied. If everything seems to be OK then you can apply the changes. Acronis True Image has this capability.

Leo, perfect explanation!!I think my windows is at the point I ll have to reinstall it from scratch. Just wondering here if anyone can give me a clue on how to save all the driver updates I ve done - and dont even remeber where they are - so I won t have to go through all the pain of updating all of them again??

Solution to software rot and fragmented hard drives?

Linux. :)

yes, "software rot" is not something you should be overly concerned about. There is very little you can do about it other than just running your scheduled preventative maintenance.

I use also use revo to uninstall all my software and CCleaner about once a month as well as their defragger. I'll run their registry cleaner maybe once every 6 mths or so but I make sure to analyze first and uncheck anything I'm not sure about.

As for doing a complete system "re-install" I use Acronis True Image Home. I'll install the O/s, update the drivers, install any core programs I use all the time and then I'll make a complete system backup using their secure zone. That way all I have to do is boot from a floppy/cd/dvd, format the drive and on the reboot, press the F11 key and restore the system. It cuts down on all the re-installs, not to mention having to re-activate/register software.

I've been pretty lucky following these steps. I've only had to do one complete system "re-install" and then I upgraded to Vista x64 Business.

So, I recommend the following programs, Acronis True Image Home, Ccleaner, Defraggler, Revo Uninstaller. Run these tools on a monthly - semi-annually schedule and you should be ok. If a specific issue comes up, run them at that time.

Historically I've found that Windows does not do a very good job of cleaning out its temp directories. I believe this is one of the areas MS's DiskCleanup touches, but I've never really trusted it enough to use it... so I just periodically clean out the temp directories myself (by hand).

You can see the real benefit of Ccleaner when someone brings you a machine that has never been cleaned. I have seen it remove almost 2GB of junk in one pass, reviving PCs that were unusable. in those cases i would also use the reg-clean function, but i agree with Leo, that should be saved for special occassions.

For persons who, like me, install and uninstall a lot of programs, it would be preferable to use either Sandboxie (www.sandboxie.com) or Returnil Virtual System (www.returnilvirtualsystem.com) both having freeware versions. Returnil in effect "clones" your C: drive. Any changes made to the OS get removed after a clean reboot. If you want to preserve the changes for some time, it is better to go into "hibernation" mode, but as soon as you perform a clean reboot, the system returns to the state before installing the program. If you decide that you want to keep it permanently, or if you have to install updates, you can do it in the allowed mode and then set up the protected mode for testing other programs. The protected mode also saves you from nasties such as viruses, worms etc.

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