I was just wondering if it's a good idea to reinstall every now and then, to make sure there are no viruses in your system. 

Can anti-virus programs be trusted to find ALL malware ?I have systems that are 8 years old. I've never reinstalled an OS ever unless a system crashed and there was no backup available. I've never understood PEOPLE who do this. And it depends on the av - if it's good, if you scan on a regular basis with the av and MalwareBytes you should be fine. But you shouldn't be doing things that are LIKELY to "attract" malware in the first place. 26 years and DOZENS of systems LATER - I've never had any virus on any of them.No anti-virus will catch 100% of viruses.

That said, all anti-viruses will get almost all of them.
Odds are very low that you would have a virus, and no antivirus software will find it.

If your computer is having odd problems, and you are comfortable reformatting, go for it. As long as your data is backed up, it's not like it would hurt anything.

If you just want to do it as a sort of preventive maintenance, I would say, it's not worth it.

I guess it all boils down to; do you have anything better to do with the next 2-5 hours you would be spending reinstalling everything? Quote from: Allan on April 07, 2010, 05:51:20 AM

I have systems that are 8 years old. I've never reinstalled an OS ever unless a system crashed and there was no backup available. I've never understood people who do this. And it depends on the av - if it's good, if you scan on a regular basis with the av and MalwareBytes you should be fine. But you shouldn't be doing things that are likely to "attract" malware in the first place. 26 years and DOZENS of systems later - I've never had any virus on any of them.