We've all been there, no matter what you try, your PC just isn't running like it did the day you purchased it. So you admit defeat, back up what you can and break out your installation disk. After installing your squeaky clean instance of Windows, the reality of what little you have as far as programs go comes barreling toward you in a wave of panic and frustration.

Fortunately today there's a wide array of quality freeware applications, so it's both cheaper and easier to transform your system into a seemingly impenetrable force armed with a cache of media, messaging and office applications.

With this guide, we will be providing you with a list of useful applications that we feel stand above all others in what they attempt to do, and when all is said and done, your PC will be ready for nearly any everyday task you throw at it.

http://www.techspot.com/article/146-...ter-reinstall/

I did everything possible to actually keep my OS install across different hardware; went from Athlon 64 S754 to Intel Core 2 Duo using a bunch of tricks to get it work

Moving existing Windows XP Install from AMD nForce3 to Intel P35