I've also been busy doing some "spring cleaning" (in the middle of winter) of my computer.
My dev machine (Also known as 'my computer', seeing as it's the only one I have) is starting to show it's age (bought in the fall of 2007), but I plan for it to last me another year before upgrading. Partly to eek as much value from it as practical, partly because it's served me well and still has the potential to do what I need it to for AdventureFar's continued development (it's a 2D tile based game - It doesn't exactly require high minimum specs), and partly because I expect Windows 8 to be released in fall of 2012, and if I'm going to upgrade, I might as well do so sometime after the new OS ships to kill two birds with one stone (three, actually: I plan to migrate to 64bit at the same time).
So my intent to cleanup and tuneup my current computer consists of several steps:
1) Organize and sort all my files currently on the computer.
([size=2]Yep, organizing 70GB of files sounds like fun - luckily I already did most of it. It's 70 GB now but was probably 90GB when I started)
2) Install another GB of RAM ([size=2]bringing me up to... 3GB! I definitely feel like 2007), install a second 350GB harddrive ([size=2]already arrived from Newegg).
([size=2]I also regreased my Videocard's fan, because it seems the lubricant on the fan sleeve bearing keeps evaporating. I first greased it 6-8 months ago, so once or twice a year isn't bad now that I know how to. I really ought to clean out the dust every so often anyway)
3) Reinstall, reformat, and re-partition the machine.
([size=2]It was a Vista machine originally, so I'll have to first install Vista (OEM 2007), then use a Windows 7 (Amazon pre-order in 2009) update disc)
I'm very confident that this tuneup will make the machine run smoothly - even just installing the 1GB of RAM (which I tossed in earlier this week) brought a noticeable improvement.
Before I actually do the reinstallation, I'm going to use the opportunity to install a bunch of largish applications I want to test drive; if I don't like them, I simply wont re-install them after I reformat, thus not worrying about their installation/uninstallation leaving artifacts on the machine.
