Unfortunately that "install the apps by launching the installers of all of them at the same time" doesn't work so well with all apps, especially for those of us that are major gamers lol.

*Notes that Scott formats at a full moon is a downplay since his computer never has time to get a virus when he's formatting like bi-monthly* LOL

There are lots of apps that I have installed, well over 40 I'm thinking, and reformatting/reinstalling takes days and even up to a week or so where cleaning it and keeping it clean can take a few hours most of the time to at most a day or so. Much faster to clean it, and much better to at least attempt to 'keep' it clean to start with

Installing 40 apps takes days? Do you take a 2 hour nap in between each install Jo Ann?


ZING BANG!

lol, well some of them take over an hour when it's the large downloaded game installers. They install for like 20 minutes, then you usually have to download the updates for the next half hour to 1 1/2 hours and then install those for the next 20 minutes or so lol. I usually have 1 to 4 of these games I play here and there I don't have the patience to sit and install for hours at a time lol, too much frustration! *smacks Scott again just remembering it!* LOL

So I purchased a new Sony laptop today. I never like how the manufacture delivers them, so I always format them as soon as I buy one. I thought this would be a good test to see how long it takes me to clear a system and get it to the way I like.

First I formatted the computer with the latest Windows 7 and then ran system updates. After that, I went to Sony's Website and downloaded all the latest drivers.

What else did I install:

1. All CoffeeCup Applications (about 40 apps in all)
2. Microsoft Office
3. Adobe Reader
4. Adobe Flash Player
5. iTunes
6. QuickTime
7. IrfanView
8. FireFox
9. Chrome
10. Safari
11. Opera
12. Adobe Air
13. Camtasia Studio
14. Snagit

I then restored my browser bookmarks, Direct FTP settings.

From start to finish, around 2 hours. Probably could have shaved another 15 minutes off of that, but I had a heck of a time getting my BlueTooth Mouse to sync.

I just bought a sony a month ago and I love it.

Man I wish Scott,

Add on about 3 other image editing softwares, 2 different text editors, Wikmail, Trillian, PCTools security, Ventrilo, Roboform, a handful of maybe 4 other web editing softwares, Map software (delorme), Norton Ghost, Right now 4 major games that I sometimes end up redownloading if they are too old since the updates take dang near as long to download as just redownloading a fresh copy does lol, Windows Tweaking software, Winrar, and of course all the windows updates which alone take over an hour sometimes to get done. I don't put 'all' the CC software on though, bout a quarter of them right off and then piecework as I need them.

Then go and update all the settings, restore data files, and I just ain't got the kind of patience to sit and do it all in one sitting lol. The games are what takes the most time though.

Dungeons & Dragons Online guys, come play! It's a free download and the game is free to play now too Gotta have something to get rid of the stress of shops and sites and such lol.

The obvious solution/fix would have been to re-format!!

Scott I'm getting one of my sons to install a new hard drive for me tomorrow so need to re-install everything .....so if you have a spare couple of hours head down my way ...

I plan on buying a new desktop some time during the coming summer (maybe best to wait after the thunder storm season is over about mid-July...), but here the software delivered with a new pc comes as one (or 2) CDs which has the OS and all the rest of whatever bundle is included. If I want to do what Scott describes, I need to, instead of formatting, strip the pc of all the stuff except the OS + drivers, and then install what I want. It takes me a day usually. And I agree that all the Windows updates take forever...

But Scott gave me a great hint in an earlier post: To load the software I want to have installed onto an external HDD (I have a server, actually) and then install from there. That way I don't have to look for all the original CDs, and my office environment could be a bit more 'uncluttered'.

of course!!