Reinstalling drivers after a Windows reinstall

For the past few months I've been putting off and putting off reinstalling Windows on my main home PC. It's become slower and slower to the point where it's painful to use. The problem is that I'm an inveterate application trialist. Over the years since I installed XP on that machine I've installed countless applications. I've tried out dozens of text editors, dozens of sound file converters, dozens of applications for creating icons, document management systems, Perl, Python, Ruby, IDEs like Eclipse, Visual Studio and Komodo, programs for my PDA, then programs for my Blackberry, applications I've been documented for work, tech authoring applications, you name it.

Some of the apps I just uninstall after playing around with them for a while. Most of them I just left there in my programs directory. As a result my Windows Registry was collosal, my C drive was chock full (even though I install applications to a programs directory on D) and the whole system was generally fantastically bloated and lethargic.

I'd resisted doing a reinstall because I knew I had lots of programs that I use occasionally but don't have the installer for. Reinstalling Windows, therefore, means hours online tracking down and downloading the installer again. There's also the driver problem. All those obscure drivers I've had to install over the years will vanish on reinstalling Windows.

However, what finally convinced me to bit the bullet and reinstall was hearing about a program called DriverMax on the Mike Tech Show #185.

DriverMax is a free program that allows you to save some or all of your drivers and then import them again later. You don't need to know where to find them, DriverMax locates them all and then allows you which ones you which to save. It also allows you to save them as a zip file if you just want to archive them periodically. I just let DriverMax save everything and told it to save to my 1 terrabyte "My Book" storage device.

After reinstalling Windows sure enough I had driver issues. I couldn't get any sound out of my speakers and, looking in Device Manager, there were three missing drivers. So I just reinstalled DriverMax, told it to import all the drivers I'd saved and, hey presto, everything sorted itself out.

If you need to do a Windows reinstall I'd recommend you make life easier on yourself by using DriverMax.