"PC App Map" with MindManager and Belarc Advisor

I have been building a MindManager map of the applications on my home PC that I want/need to reinstall after a rebuild. Today I found I’m not the only one doing this.

I’ve tried many applications over the 2 or 3 years since I got this box and it’s finally starting to show. The odd weird shutdown, sometimes unprompted restart after hibernation, mean that a clean-out is on the agenda. First part of the process is working out what’s installed and what I will bother reinstalling.

To scan & record the current state I used the excellent Belarc Advisor. It builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and saves the results to an HTML page. This output is a great reference as you can see details on Hardware, OS, Service Packs and Hot-fix, drivers and applications installed including version numbers. It’s free for personal use and there is a commercial version for professional users.

This gives a great base but doesn’t help deciding which applications are really useful. For that I created a MindManager map by cutting/pasting from the Belarc report. This recorded the applications and allowed me to easily group them into categories.  I also added hyperlinks to the application website and notes with information like install process, serial numbers etc.

I can now scan though this map and assign priority for rebuild. It’s also useful for maintaining your PC as the links and details are so easy to access. Being MindManager you can also export to MS Office formats, HTML or as an image (Click on the thumbnail to see the map detail).

Some applications didn’t make it to the map as they are not going be reinstalled. Mapping another “mind”, even if made of silicon, can help you make up your own.