A concept that I knew and applied in years gone by to Windows 95/98 recently came up on a blog I enjoy written by a Tablet PC aficionado, called Tabula PC. In a post discussing different challenges he’s facing at the office, Peter Rysavy mentions his desktop PC at work is approaching “that one year mark of entropy�:

“My work desktop is slowly disintegrating. Outlook had to be reinstalled several times, IE is shaky, and the whole thing is super slow. No, it’s not spyware - it’s just approaching that one year mark of entropy.”

Note that I’m making an assumption here, but I’m guessing that he’s on either Windows XP or at least Windows 2000 at work. Peter, I invite you to confirm that. Anyhow, here’s my question:

Does the once generally agreed upon concept - that after about a year of use Windows needs to be reinstalled from scratch - still hold true in the world of Windows XP? I realize I don’t have the readership to really start this discussion, but hopefully someone will pick up the question and pose it in a forum much larger than this.

Various fake Windows error messages. ;-)