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Have you ever lost a Start Menu? Well, I did today. It was my lucky day. So, I tried fixing it with every known fix to mankind (well, at least what’s posted on the forums), but to no avail. Worst, I also had a Taskbar Menu on my Desktop that just wouldn’t go away.

I was really getting sick of the PC problems I’ve been getting the past two weeks, that I’ve decided to obliterate everything on my laptop. First, I backed up my data. No problem. I used my USB drive. What a lifesaver! Everyone should get one. I don’t even know how people did backups in the past, but I heard it was a real mess.

After backing up my data. I came up with a list of applications that were installed on my PC. Wouldn’t you know it, I had over 100 applications installed. Did I use them all? No, only a handful. Some apps were already deleted, but they all left all kinds of orphaned files in the system.

I decided to come up with a list of applications that I absolutely must have. I came up with less than 10. Amazing. So, I created a special folder for the install software of these 10 applications I mentioned for easy access and for a quick restore later on.

Then came the moment of truth, formatting the drive. One of the nice things Fujitsu did was provide a restore CD. The restore image is the same image when the laptop came out of the factory two years ago. Simply an awesome utility.

After the restore, everything worked great. The desktop was “dejavu.” It’s the same image when I first bought it two years ago. Same software, same programs and same icons. I can’t believe how this laptop boots up fast. My computer had become bloated.

I then reinstalled all the essential programs. Then, I realized I forgot something. I forgot to save my bookmarks and address book in Mozilla Thunderbird, my email client. I can recreate the bookmarks, but I can’t recreate the address book. No big deal. I can search my inbox for people’s email addresses.

So, now I’m good. I now have a good working laptop, six hours later. Well, it was worth the time considering all the problems I have been getting these past two days. Now, I can rest assured it will be another two years before I do the same thing. By that time, my laptop would be obsolete.