What I see happening quite often these days as well, is on laptops and netbooks the product key is getting rubbed off the COA sticker because it is made from paper and doesn’t have the clear plastic coating to protect it like the old days. Or if you’re unlucky and Microsoft thinks you have done this one too many times for its liking, you may have to reach for the phone and go through the extra activation steps on there. This obviously means entering your 25 digit product key and then activating online. The problem when you reinstall is having to reactivate the operating system. Quite often, when dealing with someone else’s computer and all they have to fall back on is an old system recovery image created by the OEM, a reinstall is really the only logical option. Many users also like to wipe and reinstall even a new system when it comes preloaded with the manufacturer’s bloated software and third party trials of Office and a security suite etc. Many of you will have taken image backups of your own system but personally speaking, if it’s been at least a few months since the last install, I prefer to start afresh.
Sometimes when your Windows installation starts to get a bit slow or unstable, you might be thinking about wiping it off and putting a nice, clean, new install back on.