Working at XDA is a job that requires me to do a lot of testing. Even a few years back, I always had some computers on different rings on the Windows Insider program, and in recent years, work has required me to test a ton of different software, which I usually install, test, and uninstall.

The vast majority of that testing has fallen on a single laptop, the Huawei MateBook X Pro from 2022. And being used as a test laptop for a few years without a clean install or proper reset clearly does something to Windows, because I’ve been seeing things I would never think to be possible. Heed my word: your Windows computers need proper maintenance every now and then, likely including a reset.

This laptop has been through a lot

Testing software is no joke

Now, I’m not some kind of QA tester or anything like that, but while writing at XDA, I’ve covered a lot of software, and I never like to talk about things I haven’t tried. So, over the years, I’ve thrown a ton of things at this laptop. Before that even started, it was already enrolled in the Release Preview channel of the Windows Insider program. That’s why I actually chose it for testing software, as it had the most stable version of Windows out of my non-essential laptops at home. I figured it would offer the most realistic experience. Plus, it has a 3:2 aspect ratio, which is also the target for XDA images, so it made it easier to grab screenshots to use in articles.

That being said, it’s been through more than any computer should endure. In the past couple of years alone, I’ve covered everything from antivirus software to office suites, gaming browsers, game recording tools, Start menu alternatives, Windows UI tweaks, and old versions of Windows through virtual machines, some of which require a good bit of setup, too. Everything I’ve covered in these articles (and many more), I’ve had first experience with, and almost all of it happened on this one laptop.

I try to clean up the computer when I’m done, and I don’t like to keep software I don’t plan to use, especially once it starts eating into my storage and affecting my ability to do other things. But that only goes so far. Programs always leave behind some trails of data that I don’t have the time or patience to hunt down, so things start to pile up.

Windows is so broken now

Taking screenshots? In this economy?

Windows is not particularly well-known for offering the most stable or reliable experience in the long run, and things can get broken out of nowhere with no apparent fix. While that’s fairly rare, installing and using all kinds of software, sometimes even involving changes to the registry, can really throw a wrench in the works and make things worse. This laptop is a fairly good example of that.

Of course, at this point, it’s a lot slower than it used to be, which is to be expected to some extent. But what’s particularly notable are some of the issues I’ve had with Snipping Tool. At first, I had an issue where Snipping Tool would crash if I launched it when a modern context menu was open, making it impossible to take screenshots that included the menu unless I used third-party software.

But more recently, it’s become even worse. Now, whenever I take a screenshot with Snipping Tool, Do Not Disturb is enabled, and it does not turn off automatically again. Granted, Snipping Tool usually turns on Do Not Disturb because it’s a full-screen app, but it’s supposed to turn back off once you’re done taking the screenshot. And if that’s not bad enough, the screenshots I take don’t actually save, despite the app being set to do so. A file is generated in the screenshots folder, but with no data.

As I’m writing this, I just received an update that at least made it so the Snipping Tool notification warned me that screenshots weren’t being saved. However, that didn’t last long, and soon enough, it was back the way it was before.

Another issue I’ve noticed more recently is that Windows Spotlight desktop backgrounds just don’t work, either. I’ve tried enabling it a few times, and it always just stays stuck on one or a handful of preset images, and it never pulls new content from the internet. I don’t even get the button that would allow me to see more information about an image or switch to a different one.

Recently, I also mentioned how after shrinking a partition using GParted (due to the Windows partition manager being lousy), Windows would let me expand it again, but it wouldn’t let me resize it at all due to an error saying the disk may be corrupted. That, too, was apparently fixed after installing the aforementioned update, which is interesting.

Why I haven’t fully reset it

And what have I done?

The easiest fix to deep issues like this would normally be to reset the computer or perform a clean install, but unfortunately, I’ve been opting not to do that. It’s mostly because I have some virtual machines for really old versions of Windows (such as Windows 2.0), and they were very tricky to get up and running. I’m mostly worried I may need to set them up again eventually, and I don’t particularly want to go through that again. Even if I keep my personal files, resetting always implies uninstalling every program, including hypervisors like VirtualBox and VMware, so I don’t want to risk it.

However, I have tried some things. Of course, I try to uninstall software when I’m done testing it, and I’ve also tried the in-place reinstall method that Microsoft added to Windows 11 a while back. This basically reinstalls your current version of Windows through Windows Update while keeping your data and apps intact. On paper, it should be a great solution, but it hasn’t made things much better in my case. All the same issues remain. Of course, I also tried to reset the Snipping Tool app, but that didn’t do much, either.

It is annoying that such a problem can’t be fixed easily by just deleting some files or running basic maintenance tasks. Windows could stand to do a better job of managing data for installed software so that unnecessary files can be removed more easily, and things can’t just pile up and get corrupted this way. But to be fair, it was also on me to stay on top of everything I installed and be more proactive in deleting apps and leftover files I didn’t need anymore.

Keep a close eye on your PC

This is a fairly extreme example of what might happen when you carelessly use a PC without bothering to clean it up (on a software front) occasionally, or trying to install trustworthy software. I’ve tested a lot of things that I don’t think should have been on my PC at all, and as an end user, you should avoid them. After all, that’s the point of many of the articles we write: recommending things you can trust.

It’s always a good idea to take a look through your installed apps to see what might be taking up space unnecessarily or potentially causing issues later down the line.