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Windows Rejuvenated

Is your aging Windows machine slowing down? Getting creaky? Just plain showing its age? Here's how to make it work the way it did fresh out of the box.

Lincoln Spector

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The Simple Way to Back Up and Reinstall Your Device Drivers

A clean Windows reinstallation involves deleting everything in your system's Windows folder, including your hardware's device drivers. These batch files copy your drivers to another folder on your hard drive that won't be deleted by the Windows revamp. The file for PCs running Windows 98 or Me also copies your data from the Windows folder to a safer location. (Note that this step isn't necessary when reinstalling Windows 2000 and XP because these operating systems don't store user data in the Windows folder.)

Click the link below for your version of Windows to download the file to your hard drive. You can place the file on your desktop or in any other convenient location. After the download is complete, double-click the file to open a DOS (or Command Line) window. Read the message onscreen, and then press any key to continue.

Commands and file names (mostly file names) will scroll up the screen. Close the window when the scrolling has stopped. See "Start Anew in Windows" for instructions on reloading the drivers (and user data in Windows 98 and Me) once the operating system has been reinstalled.

The file for Windows XP

The file for Windows 2000

The file for Windows 98 and Me

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