Save hard drive space with custom MS Office installation options

By Wesley Fryer On March 1, 2010 · · 1 Comment

I started the process of doing a “clean installation” of my laptop computer’s operating system and all the software programs I run this weekend. This can be a lengthy and painful process, but I’ve found it can be a LITTLE better by keeping a linked list of the apps I use. This time around I’m installing fewer applications, and also being careful to do “custom installations” to reduce the hard drive space taken by larger applications with features I don’t need or want.

In the case of MS Office 2008 for Mac, it is possible to do a custom installation which does NOT install additional language support files and other features I don’t plan to use.

I still have a bunch of programs to install on this “clean” hard drive, but it’s amazing so far to see how much FASTER everything is running. Over time, different software programs activate “services” and background processes which slow things down. While it is possible to uninstall programs, that inevitably leaves some files on the computer and often does not fully return the computer operating system to its “pre-install” configuration. Going through the reinstall process is painful and can be a little nerve wracking (especially if you don’t properly back up all your files in advance) but I’ve found it’s always worth the effort.

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