Every reformat's dream.

http://freenew.net/

http://freenew.net/
from Elemental Forums

While I was in the process of reformatting my computer, doing backups, and sorting through my files, I just happened to come across this; http://freenew.net/

I haven't used it yet. I've just downloaded the executable to run it after my reformat tomorrow, but if it works as advertised I must just say that I'm.. I'm.. I'm crying manly tears here. This will be a huge help, since I regularly forget from one moment to the next what I was doing and keep forgetting to do stuff I've planned the day before. Not this time. Not this time.

What it seems to do is to create a custom .exe that will download and install all the programs that you've selected beforehand.

Just thought I'd share. This may be something everyone already knows about. Don't hang me if it's some wierd malware site or something. ;)

61,245 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't seem to get the point though.  Do you just have so much stuff that you forget certain programs to install, or are you saying that it is a blessing because it cuts down on the time involved? 

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

A long time ago my uncle introduced me to Belarc. I run it and it creates a complete profile of my computer, including hardware information to installed programs (including Windows updates). It lists *everything*. It even includes your serials for your paid programs so you don't have to go digging around trying to find them when you reinstall. I use it as a reference to make sure I remember to reinstall everything that I had previously.

After my last format I was going to create a folder on my harddrive (not my system drive) with shortcuts that point to all the exe's I need to reinstall, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. :X

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Admiral100, reply 1
I don't seem to get the point though.  Do you just have so much stuff that you forget certain programs to install, or are you saying that it is a blessing because it cuts down on the time involved? 
Both, I suppose.

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Hmm, my biggest gripe is redownloading Windows all the windows patches and security stuff. 

 

Good luck reformatting.  If you use it, let us know how it works.  I may use it in the future, if I ever need to reformat again. 

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thanks, good idea. I have a cloned drive sitting on a shelf here, so I doubt a reformat anytime soon. But This would be a nice tool!

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

Great tool, and also Bebi's!  Thanks to both of you for the links!

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

oh thats more awesome than i thought!  thanks!

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Looks good Luckmann, thanks for the find. Will try it out next rebuild.

 

K for you!  k1

 

 

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Alright. Tried the program and it works great (which is more than you can say about my computer). It's simply amazing. Just execute, and it self-downloads and self-installs everything, program-by-program, in the background. What usually takes me a whole night of configurations and so on only takes me about 5-10 minutes.

I'm blown away by how great this works. :D

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Reformat & start again this time use an imaging program (listed below),create the first image after OS install,then another with a few of your most used apps,then another after a fully patched OS then add the rest of the 3rd party software starting from the most used to the least,obviously you won't want to so create one now actually make that two one time images,the time it takes to reformat & install the OS if you have an image you will have a fully operational updated OS ready to go in half the time now tell me how blown away you are ;)

 

 

macrium reflect is free-create two sets of one time images on diff hdd's never rely on one in case of hdd failure or data corruption

ghost or acronis are paid

 

PS:images aren't affected by minor hardware changes like hdd,dvd,graphic card etc,mobo on the other hand might stuff em up a bit