asked on

The ultimate way to reinstall Windows Vista and Microsoft Offiec 2007

Hi,
As my computer is becoming more and more unstable and un-responsive from time to time, I am planning to make a re-installation of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007. I have an image of my C-drive created by Acronis True Image, with a "clean" installation of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007l, i.e. an image I made after having installed Vista and Office from scratch with all the drivers, patches, upgrades, etc available at that time from Windows Update. These images are residing on my second hard drive (D-drive).

Now I wonder what the "utltimate" steps would be when reinstalling from these images, when I also would like to keep my personal preferences, templates, etc. So beside making a backup of My Documents folder, etc, which are the obvious parts, I also would like to be able to find my customized "Quick Styles" in Word and fonts installed after the image was made, etc... So if any Experts out there has a good step-by-step guide to accomplish this, given my situation, I would be most grateful!

tenaj-207

I would do a couple of things. First off what would probably works best is to run the "windows easy transfer" wizard. To run this click on start and in the start search bar type in "windows easy transfer." Save this to your external hard drive or a thumb drive. I would also copy the entire c:\users\YourAccount directory just in case anything is missing. This provides a good backup. Lastly if you really want to cover yourself, I would run another system backup so if it doesn't work then you can restore it back to the settings you had.

All that being said I've used windows easy transfer to transfer from XP to Vista and also from Vista to Vista and it does a fabulous job! So I don't think you'll have any problems, but it's better to be safe then unsafe. :)

-Tenaj

DWOLTERS

ASKER

Thanks Tenaj! Does the "Easy Transfer-feature" take care and backup all my templates in Office as well as Office settings, user defined shortcut buttons, quick style sheets and themes, etc?

tenaj-207

It should. Microsoft says it transfers;
User accounts
Files and folders
Program data files and settings
E-mail messages, settings, and contacts
Photos, music, and videos
Windows settings
Internet settings

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/easy-transfer.aspx

DWOLTERS

ASKER

Thanks! I get a little hesitant about that "Program data ", because there might be program data that could be the source of the unresponsiveness I am now experience. But maybe you can choose WHAT program data, etc NOT to be transferred?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

tenaj-207

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

DWOLTERS

ASKER

Thanks! I will try both, a than come back and report the result!