The best way to rebuild Windows 7 from scratch

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	BEST PRACTICES The best way to rebuild Windows 7 from scratch
	By Susan Bradley A new or (more typically) rebuilt Win7 system requires some extra care to get fully patched. The updating process can be long and tedious; here’s how to get through it as quickly as possible.

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The full text of this column is posted at http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/the-best-way-to-rebuild-windows-7-from-scratch/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Kathleen – many thanks for this. I have rebuilt Win 7 several times, but have the uncomfortable feeling that it was never quite the same as when it was fresh out of the box.

To your advice I would add that, before embarking on rebuilding Win 7, you (not you, I mean!) should have all the up-to-date drivers from the PC manufacturer, or driver supplier, and – this is vital – a note of the order in which the drivers should be installed. After my first rebuild, I learned that this does matter, certainly does with the Dell Latitude E, now four years old.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Kathleen – many thanks for this. I have rebuilt Win 7 several times, but have the uncomfortable feeling that it was never quite the same as when it was fresh out of the box.

To your advice I would add that, before embarking on rebuilding Win 7, you (not you, I mean!) should have all the up-to-date drivers from the PC manufacturer, or driver supplier, and – this is vital – a note of the order in which the drivers should be installed. After my first rebuild, I learned that this does matter, certainly does with the Dell Latitude E, now four years old.

So glad you like Susan Bradley’s article–she wrote it, not me. I merely posted it. KA

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So glad you like Susan Bradley’s article–she wrote it, not me. I merely posted it. KA

Susan – yes, so sorry to overlook that you were the author. Thanks for a great article!

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Great Article! Just exactly what I needed to work on my project. I don’t know what I’d do without you guys newsletters sometimes!

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I have to agree 100% with the advice to download IE11 from the MS web site. I’ve tried several times to upgrade an existing IE 8 or IE 9 installation and failed every time. I’ve had 100% success with the downloaded IE11.

Hank Arnold (MS MVP – Consumer Security)

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Bless you Susan. You don’t know how much work today’s column has saved me. We refurbish computers and donate them to low income seniors. We install Win 7 on most of them, and process 100+ computers each year. Running updates takes us hours and hours. I did not know about the “Windows 7 enterprise” Update. Thank you VERY much for this information. It is invaluable!!

Gary Cahn

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We refurbish computers and donate them to low income seniors. We install Win 7 on most of them, and process 100+ computers each year. Running updates takes us hours and hours.

Gary Cahn

If you have many PCs to reinstall it might be worth the effort of creating an updated installation ISO every few months.

You can use wsusoffline to download all the security updates for Windows 7 and then use WinToolkit to integrate these updates into Windows 7 SP1 and create a new ISO or USB installer. If you do that you’ll only need to install KB 3135445, IE11 and then a handful of other updates via Windows Update once you’ve installed your updated Windows 7.

It’ll probably take you a day or so to get things worked out but after that you’ll save lots of time on every installation.

Andy

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These are great tips – logically organized and clearly explained. Using the enterprise update should save me lots of time.

The other thing I’ve noticed lately is that downloading Windows 7 updates seems to take much longer than it did previously. I get the feeling Microsoft is throttling the W7 updates in deference to Windows 10.

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I have tried to install Internet Explorer 11 several times but keep getting the error message: “Internet Explorer did not finish installing. Setup can’t continue because a more recent version of Internet Explorer is installed on your computer.”

Internet Explorer is not listed in Programs & Features but does appear on the Start Menu under All Programs. I tried renaming the IE directory in C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer to “XInternet Explorer” but that didn’t work–same error message. I then tried moving the IE directory, but still get the same error message.

Any ideas?

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I have tried to install Internet Explorer 11 several times but keep getting the error message: “Internet Explorer did not finish installing. Setup can’t continue because a more recent version of Internet Explorer is installed on your computer.”

Internet Explorer is not listed in Programs & Features but does appear on the Start Menu under All Programs. I tried renaming the IE directory in C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer to “XInternet Explorer” but that didn’t work–same error message. I then tried moving the IE directory, but still get the same error message.

Any ideas?

On Windows 7, IE 11 is not managed like a normal program. Go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features and then click on the link that says “Turn Windows features on or off”. That’s where you can check/uncheck Internet Explorer. If you uncheck it and then reboot, IE will no longer show in the start menu and you should be able to install IE 11 from the download.

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Great article, especially the info about the equivalent of ‘Service Pack 2’. Much appreciated.

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Susan, thanks for the article, the tip about KB 3135445 is especially useful. It’s made a huge reduction in the the time Windows Update takes to work out which updates to apply. Because it wasn’t a security update I ignored it, and I guess lot’s of other ppl would too.

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Susan –

An excellent and valuable article, but when trying to download the SP2 rollup for Win7 64bit and have selected that item and then go to view the cart, I get the following message:

The website has encountered a problem
[Error number: 8DDD0010]
There is a problem with the page you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed.

This has happened repeatedly on two different machines. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Leo Corrigan

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Excellent.

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A. If I were clean installing the OS I would do quite a few things first:

Run Belarc Advisor and WinAudit to look at that I had installed, and how long since I last used it to determine what apps to prepare to install.

Get any product keys and copy protection keys on the PC as well as disassociate any protected apps from the manufacturer’s server so I can reuse the keys on reinstall.

Make a verified back up of the boot drive image and the support boot app needed to run the backup app with no working OS present if needed to restore.

Backup all data files, %appdata%, %ProgramData%, emails, bookmarks, address books (PIM), and verify. Make sure you have hidden files and folders shown. Copy C:Users[username ]AppData and C:ProgramData somewhere. After installing Windows, copy those back in. Copy to restore user profiles. Win 7 Easy Transfer app ostensibly does this.
http://www.maketecheasier.com/3-ways-to-backup-user-profile-in-windows-7/

Do system updates if not already: Update BIOS to last available (at MB or PC maker support website). Update all HDD, SSD and ODD firmware (PC or drive maker support website).

Good time to consider hardware updates for an old system: More RAM (3-4GB total for 32-bit, 8GB total for 64-bit) (possibly used). An SSD for a boot drive. Add storage drive. Upgrade CPU (possibly used). Upgrade video card. Upgrade an end of life PSU.

Clean system out of dust bunnies, inspect condition of interior. Make sure all fans work.

Good time to run and log memtest86 or memtest86+ (7 error free passes = pass), any manufacturer’s drive diagnostic app on drive(s) (free download at drive maker support website; if not available then use 3rd party test apps like HDTune or Hard Drive Sentinel) and HWMonitor (or equivalent). Store logs of results on flash drive for future storage on updated system for baseline reference.
http://www.memtest86.com/

http://www.memtest.org/

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Good idea to download and have ready the antivirus app you plan on using. Good idea to gather any apps that will need to be installed.

I like to manually grab the last device drivers available for all the chips in the system, though Win7 does a good job of finding and loading either current or fairly current ones via Windows Update.
http://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=130&lang=en

http://forum.scottmueller.com/viewtopic.php?t=1308

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2089404/how-to-easily-find-drivers-for-unknown-devices-in-windows.html

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B. Win 7 Clean Install (refresh)

Note: If all you have is an OEM volume license version that came with a major PC builder like Dell or HP then reinstalling is complicated. You effectively install the version and updates that originally came with your computer those many years ago along with any baggage the PC maker saddled you with. If you use any of those apps (like a system diagnostic or DVD burning app), however, the maker support site may offer an updated version for download.

No matter what installation you choose I always unplug from the Internet, and unplug any non-critical peripherals and secondary drives before clean installing an OS. This way you don’t get any surprise Windows activation or updating attempts, or installation on a drive other than the target drive you want. Activation and Updating can occur later when everything is installed the way you want.

Good time to consider recovering any boot drive space by deleting any old recovery partition present that are so old as to be no longer worth keeping. Delete partitions. Reform partition(s). Reformat drive NTFS: short (quick) unless drive is more than 3 years old then long format (this checks the entire drive surface by writing to it, marking off any bad sectors and pulling reserve sectors out to replace bad ones. I must admit once I start seeing bad sectors I scrap the drive.)

Other options for a rebuild are:

1. download Win7 with SP1 ISO.
http://getintopc.com/?s=Windows+7

2. Download all Win7 updates including service packs and some fairly common Microsoft optional add on apps as an installable package from WSUSOffline.
http://download.wsusoffline.net/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXAOvbNJYyE

3. Collect Win7 + SP1 + driver packs + IE11 (other apps) and slipstream using R7.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/145343-slipstream-windows-7-sp1-into-installation-dvd-iso-file.html

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C. Post-install

Once OS is clean installed and updated it is time to plug in any unplugged secondary drives. Install drivers. Then connect onto Internet and Windows Update until no more updating and then validate system.

Install AV app and update its database. If you want to do a full system virus scan at this time go ahead.

Plug in any peripheral devices and update their drivers.

Then restore %appdata%, %programdata% and user profiles.

Good time to make an backup image.

Then start installing apps. Then documents, email ….

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Wanting to get 2775511, but unable to do so. Apparently it can only be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog, which requires Internet Explorer. When I attempt to go there, using IE11, it says “To use this website, you (sic) browser must have the user data persistence setting enabled”. On checking that setting, it is already enabled. Tried disabling and re-enabling it a few times, restarting IE each time, but it made no difference, and the site continues to give the above error. I would like to be able to access the MS Update Catalog, so what is wrong?

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A superlative article! IT works as described. Also, an excellent reason to support the WindowsSecrets site financially. One (obvious) question, though. I presume a user chooses one of the four choices shown in Figure 4.

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