Clean Installs and Portable Apps

I just joined this forum and wanted to express my thanks for a wonderful idea (portable apps) and an even better implementation.

I have worked in technology since 1975 and over the years I discovered how important it is to be able to do a clean install on my Windows PCs to rejuvenate their performance and restore them to "better-than-new" condition.

Because hardware and driver technology moves so rapidly, as does software, I needed a way to leverage that change and make it work to the advantage of myself, friends, family and clients. My "bare metal clean install" is that way, and it's worked for me for at least fifteen years, perhaps longer.

We all know how a typical store-bought WinPC can be loaded with crapware and little applets that perform "magic" monitoring tasks in the background (Dell helpers, Gateway guardians, HP personal assistants, etc.) and all the default settings that make a WinPC so darned vulnerable. I found a great, dependable way to repair that problem, and it works every time.

I start by customizing my Windows installation CD using a tight little program called nLite (www.nliteos.com) which allows me to remove components, change default settings, slipstream service packs and security fixes/patches, include drivers and applications I want to use in a baseline, clean system install. There may have been other programs like this, but nLite (by Dino Nuhagic, wunderkind) is the cat's pajamas when it comes to making a slimmer, faster, more secure install CD for Windows 2000/XP/2003 and now a new version for Vista, as well (which I am not testing - yet).

I boot the system with this custom CD, partition and format drives, and just sit back and let nLite's completely automated install work its magic, including entering user names, Product IDs, IP addresses and workgroup names, and all the stuff I had to do manually before. I create a CD using the purchased MS key and nLite puts it all together in an ISO image I burn with Nero and then it's off to the races....

I say all this because portable apps provide a VERY quic k and easy way to get a system up and running online without so much as installing a single executable. No registry bloat, no hassles usually associated with normal setups and installations. Portable apps can be pretuned and preconfigured so that they hit the ground running and when it comes down to it, time is still money. Portable apps are a godsend in this regard, and I wonder how I ever managed without them.

I started using PAs on my USB key drive, but then I saw how easily they worked (and how FAST!) from my PC, I have decided to adopt them as standard operating fare from now on, and I wanted to share that with y'all. I'm preaching to the choir, I know, but when you find something that works as well as this, you gotta shout it from the rooftops.

Until I move to virtual machine technology, the bare metal clean install will be my preferred method of system setup and delivery.

Thank you John, for a great idea done right. What a breath of fresh air that is!

Best wishes from a very chilly Atlanta, GA.

Mark Strelecki
www.strelecki.com
Computing and Programming Since 1975