Final things to do prior to first Macrium Image

Method · Friday at 5:26 PM

Hi folks

A good number of you have really kindly handheld me through drive partition advice and Win 11 Pro clean install. Win 11 Pro is fully installed (along with Office 2021) and both are now activated as of this evening, with all the windows updates done. All my hardware drivers are up to date and installed and all my hardware temps are looking great.

Before I use Macrium to create first image and a rescue USB of my 'clean install', I've just been doing some minor personalisation stuff in Windows, to beat it into a less annoying 'Microsoft' experience and Im only using a Local Account, no Microsoft Account.

My final queries are:
1. What apps might you recommend I grab, install and use prior to the first image. I was thinking of running CC cleaner - is this still considered good or are there recommendations for other cleaners?
2. I should have asked this earlier, but is Macrium still free? If not any other suggestions?
3. I have Malwarebytes Pro installed my my old PC and my wifes PC. Anyone know how I move that to my new PC?

Thank you so much for all your help. This community is an absolute game changer and amazing. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far

Methy

Fishmill · Friday at 6:20 PM

1; all I do is run Disk Cleanup including system files. You might optionally run your virus scanner.

2; I think Macrium is now on a subscription model, at least for the current version. Mine is over 5 years old with no issues.

3; I am reasonably sure an old version of Macrium can be moved to a new PC, although I've never done it. Contact their customer service. I think you identify your install via the last 4 digits of your license and they then issue you a new one for the new machine. Something like that.

glasskuter · Saturday at 4:11 AM

Method said:
1. What apps might you recommend I grab, install and use prior to the first image. I was thinking of running CC cleaner - is this still considered good or are there recommendations for other cleaners?
2. I should have asked this earlier, but is Macrium still free? If not any other suggestions?
3. I have Malwarebytes Pro installed my my old PC and my wifes PC. Anyone know how I move that to my new PC?

1. I use CCleaner and have for years to clean off all the temporary files. A good app to have is Revo Uninstaller Free. It appears it's now only portable, when means it's not installed. Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download
If you want to monitor your temps Coretemp is nice to have. You can configure its settings to your liking. Core Temp

2. Macrium is no longer free. It is now subscription. If you do not want to pay for Macrium, others here use Haselo Backup Suite Free. Hasleo provides Windows Backup & Clone, Data Recovery, Windows To Go Creator, and more.

3. Transfer your subscription to a different device

Bastet · Saturday at 8:03 AM

Macrium free is still available from the Majorgeeks site.
CCleaner isn’t as good as it used to be imo it’s now bloatware since they added driver & software updaters.

Bree · Saturday at 8:20 AM

Method said:
2. I should have asked this earlier, but is Macrium still free? If not any other suggestions?

Bastet said:
Macrium free is still available from the Majorgeeks site.

Reflect Free is still available direct from Macrium's download servers.
Link for the Reflect Free Download Agent is at the bottom of Post #1 here: Latest Macrium Reflect 8 updates

Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 has been retired, it's last update was v8.0.7783 - 1st December 2023. Having said that, Reflect Free still works today, even in the latest Insider Canary build.

Bastet · Saturday at 8:22 AM

Thanks @Bree I used to have the free link but one time it ceased to work & gave a 404 error so assumed MR had removed the download.

Bree · Saturday at 8:33 AM

Bastet said:
Thanks @Bree I used to have the free link but one time it ceased to work & gave a 404 error so assumed MR had removed the download.

I suspect that you may have had a link for the .exe for a specific installer version. The Download Agent is the more versatile and reliable link to use, even the Reflect v7 download agent links are still active.

Run the Download Agent and you'll get the choice of downloading the latest installer for 32 or 64 bit, with or without the PE components, etc. For the Reflect Free Download Agent that will be Reflect Free v8.0.7783.

kelper · Saturday at 8:48 AM

You should do a Macrium backup immediately after the clean installation has finished. If you mess up Windows with your tweaking, you will have to start from scratch. After installing programs, do another backup.

wiganken · Saturday at 9:03 AM

glasskuter said:
A good app to have is Revo Uninstaller Free. It appears it's now only portable,

It is available for installation as well as portable. My PCs have v2.5.7 installed.

Revo Uninstaller Free

Download Revo Uninstaller Free helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs easily. Remove all uninstall leftovers and traces

www.revouninstaller.com

Choose 'Download' if you want install it.

Method · Saturday at 11:53 AM

Thanks all. Will grab that free Macrium shortly.

Do you have suggestions for good alternatives to the now slightly bloatware CC cleaner?

badrobot · Saturday at 12:25 PM

To be honest, it's good to have a clean, pristine image of a newly installed Windows. It's free anyway. Just install what you need, create an image, then later on create another one if you want to.

Fishmill · Saturday at 12:47 PM

Method said:
Thanks all. Will grab that free Macrium shortly.

Do you have suggestions for good alternatives to the now slightly bloatware CC cleaner?

I have played with one or two alternatives...Wise I think was one of them. 4 or 5 years ago, when I was giving up on CCleaner.

But I gave up on all of them other than native built-in Windows tools. I even gave up on Revo Uninstaller after a while. All I use of that nature beyond built in tools is Macrium and a lifetime retail license of Malwarebytes.

Why? I never saw a single instance of any improvement in performance of anything whatsoever. I was relieving my obsessive/compulsive detail-oriented tendencies and nothing more. Some of it was probably boredom and inquisitiveness. But zero tangible benefit.

If you have those tendencies and they are stronger than mine, then by all means use whatever you need to use to get relief...even if it is CCleaner.

Re Macrium. At one time, I did make a Macrium image of my latest clean install....but in a moment of clarity I gave that up on the grounds that nowadays it takes very little more time to do a fresh clean install than it does to restore a Macrium image. I kept such an image around for 4 or 5 years and never restored it. I'm 9 years into the same install right now, so any such image was a waste of time. If I had a drive failure tomorrow, I'd restore my most recent image (I make them monthly) rather than the one of my last clean install from 2016.

To each his own. It's mostly personal preference that isn't necessarily subject to perfect reasoning.

OldNavy · Saturday at 1:00 PM

Have a look at this free program by Chris Titus.
You can do plenty of tweaks quite easily. Ir is run from Terminal or Powershell.

https://github.com/christitustech/winutil.

Chris has a vidieo on this program:

As Kelper mentioned, take an image first thing then feel free to tweak away knowing you can recover.
Once you have installed Macrium create your recover usb and also add Macrium to your boot selection when windows starts.
Test your recovery usb to make sure it works.

kelper · Saturday at 1:04 PM

@Fishmill

There is no way you can reinstall Windows in less time than you can restore a Macrium Image! It takes about ten times longer. Unless you are putting your Macrium image on floppy disks or very old external drives!

badrobot · Saturday at 1:13 PM

Fishmill said:
it takes very little more time to do a fresh clean install than it does to restore a Macrium image.

Of course not. It only takes minutes to recover from image and it will take you around an hour to do a fresh install and the entire day to re-install all your programs.

Fishmill · Saturday at 1:23 PM

badrobot said:
Of course not. It only takes minutes to recover from image and it will take you around an hour to do a fresh install and the entire day to re-install all your programs.

It would take me several days to re-install my programs. I dread it.

But I wasn't referring to anything other than a base Windows install with zero apps. If I had need for a clean install daily or weekly or monthly, I might use Macrium rather than a clean install. But I don't.

Minutes is right. I restore rarely, but I think its what...15 minutes if C is average size? It takes me less than 10 to make an image and I do that monthly. All depends on how large C is and what CPU and drives are in play.

kelper · Saturday at 1:27 PM

@Fishmill

I challenge you to time a fresh install of Windows and compare it with both creating and restoring an image. The latter will take the least time by far.

Fishmill · Saturday at 1:30 PM

kelper said:
@Fishmill

There is no way you can reinstall Windows in less time than you can restore a Macrium Image! It takes about ten times longer. Unless you are putting your Macrium image on floppy disks or very old external drives!

I'm not sure I said that I could.

How long it takes to do either of those things depends on a lot of factors, let alone how often they are done.

Mooly · Saturday at 1:39 PM

I always like to do a full image from a 'restart condition' which ensures all system files are correctly updated. I know many will say its not necessary but its just something I do. When you do the restart just let the PC sit there for 5 minutes before making the image.

Method said:
My final queries are:
1. What apps might you recommend I grab, install and use prior to the first image.

Windows updates so frequently that a 'First Image' of a clean install can become of little practical use in a very short space of time. Sure, it gets you back to how it was on that day but then what... think of all you have altered, added, updated, personalised etc etc. All is gone. You have to rebuild from that backup point.

Get in the habit of making regular full images (say every week or two and add to those with differential backups (for the free version). You are then never more than a a day or two away from a current updated image.

kelper · Saturday at 2:04 PM

Fishmill said:
I'm not sure I said that I could.

How long it takes to do either of those things depends on a lot of factors, let alone how often they are done.

" it takes very little more time to do a fresh clean install than it does to restore a Macrium image." Your words.

Final things to do prior to first Macrium Image

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