Make That Reinstall Less Painful

After a number of years of either prepping computers for production use, or simply reformatting mine (though my latest computer had it's first complete Windows reinstall last night after 4 years), I've found, as I'm sure you have, that there are a certain amount of programs you constantly install.

To make this easier, compile a list of those programs and download all their installers onto a flash drive. In case you've got no connectivity you can at least start installing some apps.

I also save shortcuts to sysdm.cpl, devmgmt.msc, cmd.exe and a few shortcuts to my company's network shares so that I can can quickly navigate to those drives and install any proprietary software.

Another dandy tip I came up with was saving my theme.

Whenever I deploy a machine, the first thing I do is get rid of the XP theme with all the shiny buttons and change it to 'Windows Classic' and make any changes.

Usually I'll hit Windows Key +R to bring up the run dialog and type sysdm.cpl. Then navigate to "Advanced", then "Settings" and then tick the radio button in front of "Adjust for best performance". However, there's a few things in there I still like to have turned on, that I believe have little to no effect on the speed of the computer.

• Smooth Edges Of Screen Fonts
• Use Drop Shadows For Icon Labels On The Desktop

The first one is pretty obvious, but the second one isn't as much.


Have you ever had a wallpaper installed and the icon's title text has a block around it, exposing the background color you've chosen, you can see what I'm referring to on the left? Well, the second Visual Effects option takes care of that and displays the missing sections of the wallpaper. As seen to the right.

Once you've made these changes, you can then go to 'Display Properties' and click 'Save As'. That will save the theme, including all the changes you've made to a Windows .theme file. Save that file to your flash drive and double click it before you get to work. Saves a ton of time.