LostKnightsRPG.org

so... if i format my computer, does that serve as a fix-all for any problem i have?

does that clean the registry and everything? dumb question, but i know little about the topic...

If you do it correctly then it should clear out everything.

Formatting the computer, specificlly a long format, will essentially write 0's to every block on the drive, completely annihilating* any data that was present on the drive, including the operating system.

A quick format, by contrast, will wipe only the file-allocation tables, master boot records, and partitioning information. While this does not strictly eliminate the data, it does remove all references the system previously had about where to find the start/end of files, effectively turning the content of the drive into garbage.

tl;dr: Yes, formatting the system will fix prettty much any software problem.
That said, its pretty easy to keep a system virus free if you've got a simple virus/spyware scanner and appropriate web-surfing habbits. I have never had a serious problem with viruses and the like despite years of heavy downloading.

* This is technically still recoverable at extreme cost via the use of tunnelling electron microscopes and high-power magnets, but very few organizations are going to go to the trouble to do that - or really give a shit at all.

While "appropriate websurfing habits" seems to indicate common sense, I would like to know what they are generally considered to be. I've never gone to a website that said something like "downloads a virus to your computer", and I've had stability issues that may stem from some malware infection. So, while I consider myself a rational websurfer, I'd like to make sure.

Any pointers?

i've only had 2 real probs in the last 3 years, but both of them were a pain in the ass, b/c they write themself to the registry and auto restore themselves after my anti-virus kills them.

and since i need to de-frag, get rid of old junk, uninstal unused programs, etc, anyway, i figure a format would be easier all around.

A format also involves a reinstall, so be prepared for that - you'd need to reinstall any/all programs and would lose all of your data if it was not backed up to something else.

The habits I alluded to previously are actually a bit more than just web-surfing habits. I'm extremely strict with what my computers are and are not allowed to be doing. I lock down their abilities to run automatic anything (updates and whatnot). I never allow anything extraneous to run on my computer (mainly looking at the system tray) which helps to ensure that nothing is going on without my knowing about it (and also generally keeps performance good - system tray crap can seriously impact performance).

As far as web surfing itself goes - never let the browser do anything unless you explicitly tell it to. A lot of this is the common sense you refered to - if a site has a popup that's all "Click OK so that I can install a bunch of crap on your computer" Just Say No. Similarly avoiding such sites in the first place can help to ensure that you're not going to run into problems. One of the bigger sources of major problems tends to be download sites. For things like this (torrents and whanot) it is best to only download from known-good sources. Many tracking sites will have comments sections for the torrents involved and many (piratesbay comes to mind) will have comments that say "Yep this is good" or "Nope, this has viruses and apocolypse in it" Typically if its gotten a lot of hits (has a lot of seeds/leeches, whatever metric is used) its probably good.

I may do something else that helps keep it clean, but if I do I don't do it consciously. Mostly I think its just my extremely tight grip on my systems. Computers will only do as they're told, so I make sure that I'm the only one telling them to do things.