What's your checklist for a clean install

I'm really impressed with X-Lite. I haven't installed 25H2 though. I'm really highly considering doing it sometime this week, or maybe even next year, or 10 years from now. . hahaha

It needs to be done, then I can use DISM or create my own Recovery Image

Hazel123 said:

That looks great. Assume once you’ve done it all once you just reuse it on every install? I may be a masochist but I feel like I have to do all the settings myself somehow.

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Yup, 100% correct, unless Windows decides to change some stuff with big updates like 25H2, then I actually take the time to check everything on the site step by step.

And I totally get it, I was the same the first time I used it, not having full faith in the automation and having that paranoia that maybe something was overlooked or didn't work as I actually wanted it to, but to my surprise everything was okay. So, in time, and with other reinstalls (because god forbid a win install stays as you want it to ) I began to trust the script fully and never looked back.

cereberus said:

Clean installs are ONLY needed if a user practices inadequate drive management or something glitches causing issues that can only be resolved by a clean install (as I

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Like some nasty malware that you downloaded before you realized what you were doing, and which ca't be cleaned out completely. Or you aren't confident that all the droppings from this malware have been put into the doggy poop bag.

x509 said:

Like some nasty malware that you downloaded before you realized what you were doing, and which ca't be cleaned out completely. Or you aren't confident that all the droppings from this malware have been put into the doggy poop bag.

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I gave you the full 10 points for that one.

I Rufus'd a clean install on a laptop the other day..., it's nice to start out with a clean slate, and a tiny Registry where the tree's aren't 17 miles long!!!

A note on Easeus Todo PCTrans (transfers applications from one build to another etc).

Having bought my first 2nd hand laptop (Lenovo t480s) in almost 10 years, this makes this my first clean install in that time, and marks my introduction to Win 11 (bar playing with it in a VM a long while back).

1st stage- similar to many points above, plus tweaks to make taskbar configuration a lot more like Win 10's and start menu (Open shell) and search box opening on left.

Expunge Copilot, New Outlook, OneDrive.
Some adaptations to appearance.
Partition drive appropriately.
Create first disk image.
Set up scheduled restore point creation.
etc...

2nd stage .. the 'exciting' bit.. transfer selected programs from a USB disk with a clone of my Win 10 O/S using Easeus Todo PCTrans. (This is one option)
I last used one of these programs around ten years ago (Laplink PCMover is another).
Fortunately I had a 1 year license from a giveaway.

ToDo PCTrans scans the old installation, then presents a list of items found (not Store apps) which you can select. In may case over 250 (I seem to collect utilities etc).

By way of an experiment, I selected a lifetime giveaway word processor I use frequently- Atlantis Word Processor. (There's no current such giveaway).
The transfer ran, including the appropriate Visual C++ runtime.
To my delight, the program ran (and was registered) perfectly.

I then chose a number of others. Most were fine. A few required specific action. E.g.
Genie Timeline- a very good backup program neatly integrated into file explorer) was lacking a service and needed repair and a key entering to register it.
Poppeeper (a free light tray email program and notifier) came with all accounts configured- required the run at startup option selecting.
Hard Disk Sentinel also required a key, as did Perfect PDF.

A huge time saver, and avoids passing on unwanted programs and registry leftovers.

@dalchina, I also recommend Explorer Pacher

Explorer Pacher v 26100.4946.69.6

Thanks, already used..

Megahertz said:

I also recommend Explorer Pacher

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You can also download it from
ExplorerPatcher - developer's own site
This site shows you the date of the latest version, which I find handy as I can then quickly compare it to the date of my last download.


Denis