still no reasonable way to reinstall Windows??

[808dude]

My system, yet again, has developed some nearly-intolerable quirks and sluggishness that seem to demand that I clean-install or something similar. So I got excited when I (mis)read a couple of the tutorials on Win10 reinstallation, thinking there was now a way to 'restore' without losing umpteen non-stock pieces of software I've installed in the last few years while doing so. But alas, no, it appears the same lame process is required, for the most part.

When I go partway through the Win10 'restore' process, a warning appears, listing all of the non-stock software I will need to either reinstall or give up on, with the advisory that it will be saved to my desktop, presumably only after the restoration is done.

And it's LONG. Maybe a hundred items? True, maybe a lot of them are un-needed buildup comprising defunct installations, but still, there are a LOT, so again I want to ask: isn't there a better way to deal with this? I can't imagine getting truly done with the "restore" without having 20 or more hours involved in locating and re-installing all of these items, rebooting ad-nauseum, to say nothing of the unexpected troubleshooting that inevitably comes up during that process. I've got 8000 things I should be doing OTHER than sitting in my desk chair futzing with this.

Any options?

 

[USAFRet]

A Windows install "Keep Everything" cannot be expected to keep track of hundreds of thousands of random application install things. Some good, some dodgy, some absolute crap that never worked in the first place.

It does a "best effort", but if some piece of crapware will not roll over...oh well. Blame that on the application developer, not MS and Windows.
Yes, it warns you. Proceed on and see what happens. Either it works well, or some of those applications choke hard.

Maybe the "nearly-intolerable quirks and sluggishness" come from all that crapwware you've installed over time.

 

[RARRAF]

create a backup every now and then with Macrim reflect its free / store your important stuff on a different drive / never had to re-install / do not install junk software keep a good antivirus bitdefender is my choice / remove junk with io bit uninstaller its free

 

[USAFRet]

And as above, backups and images.
I have at least 3 levels of Images for all my systems.
1. Day 1 bare OS.
2. OS with my usual application install load and whatever OS updates were viable at that time.
3. The regular daily Full+Incremental backup imaging.

 

[808dude]

A Windows install "Keep Everything" cannot be expected to keep track of hundreds of thousands of random application install things. Some good, some dodgy, some absolute crap that never worked in the first place.

It does a "best effort", but if some piece of crapware will not roll over...oh well. Blame that on the application developer, not MS and Windows.
Yes, it warns you. Proceed on and see what happens. Either it works well, or some of those applications choke hard.

Maybe the "nearly-intolerable quirks and sluggishness" come from all that crapwware you've installed over time.

Thanks USAF - seems like you implied that the "keep my files" option will keep even SOME non-stock software installed, but the indications from the various writeups I've seen are that this isn't the case. You get back only the bone-stock stuff that comes with Win10, and that's that...right?

I've not yet had the occasion to use a system image, and that might be because it just didn't seem to work when I tried (years ago). As to Win10, it seems like the "day 1" version wouldn't be necessary because of Win10's built-in restore method (above), but I'd definitely be interested in making an image work after I've got Office, CAD, Chrome/FF, VLC, Irfanview, etc etc installed again. What runs your daily backup imaging? Where does it get stored?

 

[808dude]

create a backup every now and then with Macrim reflect its free / store your important stuff on a different drive / never had to re-install / do not install junk software keep a good antivirus bitdefender is my choice / remove junk with io bit uninstaller its free

RARRAF - Thanks, I'm now trying out Bitdefender vs. AVG (which everyone must complain is constantly trying to sell us something), I ran io bit uninstaller and took out a bunch of stuff I was fairly sure I've not used in a long time. Gotta look up Macrim Reflect still. I'm clinging to the possibility that mere housekeeping might get things unclogged.

 

[USAFRet]

A Windows install "Keep Everything" cannot be expected to keep track of hundreds of thousands of random application install things. Some good, some dodgy, some absolute crap that never worked in the first place.

It does a "best effort", but if some piece of crapware will not roll over...oh well. Blame that on the application developer, not MS and Windows.
Yes, it warns you. Proceed on and see what happens. Either it works well, or some of those applications choke hard.

Maybe the "nearly-intolerable quirks and sluggishness" come from all that crapwware you've installed over time.

Thanks USAF - seems like you implied that the "keep my files" option will keep even SOME non-stock software installed, but the indications from the various writeups I've seen are that this isn't the case. You get back only the bone-stock stuff that comes with Win10, and that's that...right?

I've not yet had the occasion to use a system image, and that might be because it just didn't seem to work when I tried (years ago). As to Win10, it seems like the "day 1" version wouldn't be necessary because of Win10's built-in restore method (above), but I'd definitely be interested in making an image work after I've got Office, CAD, Chrome/FF, VLC, Irfanview, etc etc installed again. What runs your daily backup imaging? Where does it get stored?

Unless you have some VERY weird stuff, the "Keep Everything" does exactly that.
All your applications. I too use Office, VLC, IrfanView, and much, much more. That is NOT weird in any way.

Generally, it will only redo the OS, and literally keep all the installed applications.

For a real good way to reinstall things like IrfanView and VLC, see ninite.com

For the imaging and backups? I use Macrium Reflect. The System Restore built into Windows? No.
For a detailed description of my daily backup process, read here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3383768/backup-situation-home.html