More computer woes -- and QUESTIONS

[Hawkmoon]

My wife's primary computer is a Toshiba Satellite something-or-other. It's a few years old -- we bought it new directly from Toshiba when they were shipping with Vista, so I'm guessing probably about four years, plus-or-minus. It originally came with 2 GB or RAM She began complaining about speed (lack thereof), so a year and a half ago or so I upgraded it to 4 GB of RAM, and then about six months ago I migrated her to Windows 7. I thought it ran smoother and faster after the upgrades.

Apparently my wife disagrees. Today she complained again about how slow her computer is, and she doesn't like Toshibas because they are too slow (she doesn't understand that every brand has slower and faster, cheaper and more expensive, models. Hers is a Toshiba. hers is too slow. Ergo: Toshibas are too slow.

I'm not averse to getting her a new computer. After four years, it may even be a good idea ... even though both my desktop and my notebook are older and I'm soldiering on just fine. I thik there are actiually two issues going on here:

First, we're somewhat in the boonies. Not like Tallpine, but we're not exactly "downtown," either. We have AT&T DSL, but what we have is either the slowest or second slowest of the four speeds they offer, and they have told me that we can't get a faster speed due to the length of wire between us and the nearest central switching station. So that's one possible problem, dpending on what she's trying to do.

The other issue is that my wife has never encountered an add-on menu bar she didn't like. When I open her browser, there's virtually no browsing window visible because sh has so many tiers of manu bards stacked across the top of her screen. I'm sure all of that junk sucks processing speed voraciously -- but I don't know if more memory or a faster processor would be the better response to it.

To better sort out how much of the (alleged) problem is due to physical connection speed and how much is due to the computer, can any of you geeks steer me to some (freeware) benchmarking utilities for Windoze? I'd like something to assess just the computer, and then I'd like something to assess upload and download speeds to the Internet.

Also, what would be decent (not blazing fast) benchmarks we could/should be looking for? She does NOT play on-line games, so we don't need a gaming machine. Mostly, she does e-mail, Skype, Facebook ... and she shops ... a lot.

TIA

[41magsnub]

You nailed the origin of the problem, she has a load of crapware on the computer.  I'd ruthlessly go through add/remove programs and pull out the stuff you can't identify, then run malwarebytes and reassess the speed.   

If you feel really brave, you can tell her why it was slow (clicking on stupid things on the Internet).

[Brad Johnson]

Migrate her emails, data, favorites, contacts, etc onto another drive, blow the HD away, and reinstall 7.  Trust me, it's faster, easier, simpler, and more reliable than trying to fix a crapware/malware/bloatware infested machine.  You'll spend a couple hours doing one and it will work, or you'll spend a couple days doing the other and she'll still be complaining... if it works at all.

Brad

[AZRedhawk44]

Migrate her emails, data, favorites, contacts, etc onto another drive, blow the HD away, and reinstall 7.  Trust me, it's faster, easier, simpler, and more reliable than trying to fix a crapware/malware/bloatware infested machine.  You'll spend a couple hours doing one and it will work, or you'll spend a couple days doing the other and she'll still be complaining... if it works at all.

Brad

^^ This.

It blows my mind how many people keep an OS load around for 4/5/6/7 years, then buy a new computer when it gets slowed down rather than just back up the good stuff, nuke the drive from orbit, and reload the OS and apps.

Best upgrade you can do to ANY 2+ year old computer is wipe the hard drive and re-install the OS from clean.

[Perd Hapley]

What about putting her on account with limited privileges?

[AZRedhawk44]

What about putting her on account with limited privileges?

Another good idea.

Or, create a new account on the same computer without blowing the data away.  A lot of crapware/malware will remain user-resident rather than system-resident.  A new user profile will orphan that old stuff into the old profile.

[Brad Johnson]

She does NOT play on-line games, so we don't need a gaming machine. Mostly, she does e-mail, Skype, Facebook ... and she shops ... a lot.

I missed this earlier, and it's important.  First, tell her to stop liking everything and clicking on every link in FB.  There's some pretty nasty stuff out there that takes advantage of FB's popularity.  Second, remind her that just because something shows up in the Google or Bing shop-til-you-drop search results doesn't means it's okay.  Known entities like Amazon or some online version of a well known retail store, fine.  Some never-heard-of-it place advertising name-brand cosmetics or fashions for 90% off?  Just! Say! No!

If a talk doesn't work, 41mag has an electronic training collar for sale.

Brad

[41magsnub]

Or he could spend an hour and see if that helps before dropping a nuke on the machine   

[Perd Hapley]

And whatever you do, don't let gunsmith anywhere near this computer.

[Fitz]

Migrate her emails, data, favorites, contacts, etc onto another drive, blow the HD away, and reinstall 7.  Trust me, it's faster, easier, simpler, and more reliable than trying to fix a crapware/malware/bloatware infested machine.  You'll spend a couple hours doing one and it will work, or you'll spend a couple days doing the other and she'll still be complaining... if it works at all.

Brad

This


And give her a non-admin account so she can't install stuff.

[Brad Johnson]

Or he could spend an hour and see if that helps before dropping a nuke on the machine   

An hour with the training collar, or with crapware control...?

Brad

[Fitz]

Or he could spend an hour and see if that helps before dropping a nuke on the machine   

Every time I've tried to uninstall toolbars, speed up a machine, blah blah blah... there's always some lingering fuckery. I never have been able to get it to the point where it's quicker or less painful than just backing up documents and nuking the machine.



Also... with win 7. Once you get it to where you want it, take an image. Then, next time you have to blow it out, you back up docks, reimage. Then the system has everything you want and it takes no time

[Ben]

Also... with win 7. Once you get it to where you want it, take an image. Then, next time you have to blow it out, you back up docks, reimage. Then the system has everything you want and it takes no time

Yeah, that. The Win 7 backup engine is the best and easiest to work with one that MS has ever put out. I've used it several times to fix stuff that would have otherwise required a wipe and manual renistall of the OS and my prgs. You just need to make sure to let it backup your system at least weekly.

[Fitz]

I'd add to that to make sure you make a separate "base" image

Malware and whatnot being what it is, if you restore from a weekly you may get nowhere

[Hawkmoon]

I like the idea of saving the important stuff, nuking the drive, and starting over. The problem is ... I don't know how to do that.

What all do I have to copy over to a thumb drive (or whatever)? How do I copy it -- from Windows Explorer, or do I use the native Backup utility?

Then ... the version of Win 7 is an upgrade, installed over Vista. If I just nuke the drive, reformat, and start over, don't I lose that upgrade? Or is there a way to make a restore disk that will reload the operating system without all the crap?

Lastly -- I'd still like to run some benchmarks, as a before and after to assess whether doing all that makes any significant difference. Any suggestions?

[Ben]

I'd add to that to make sure you make a separate "base" image

Malware and whatnot being what it is, if you restore from a weekly you may get nowhere

True. On any new machine, I immediately make an image of just the OS, then an image of just the OS with prgs I loaded before I do anything with them, then go to the weekly backups. That way you just keep going back in time until stuff works again.

[Fitz]

I like the idea of saving the important stuff, nuking the drive, and starting over. The problem is ... I don't know how to do that.

What all do I have to copy over to a thumb drive (or whatever)? How do I copy it -- from Windows Explorer, or do I use the native Backup utility?

Then ... the version of Win 7 is an upgrade, installed over Vista. If I just nuke the drive, reformat, and start over, don't I lose that upgrade? Or is there a way to make a restore disk that will reload the operating system without all the crap?

Lastly -- I'd still like to run some benchmarks, as a before and after to assess whether doing all that makes any significant difference. Any suggestions?

Start menu. Search

"Windows easy transfer"

Once computer is rebuilt do it again

As for the upgrade. In the past I've done fresh installs of upgrade editions and it simply asks you to insert the old disk first. Not sure how it works now

[41magsnub]

Patient:  "Doctor, my chest hurts a little after strenuous exercise."

Doctor:  "You need a heart transplant."

Patent:  "Shouldn't you do some tests or something?"

Doctor:  "Nope"

[lee n. field]

I like the idea of saving the important stuff, nuking the drive, and starting over. The problem is ... I don't know how to do that.

What all do I have to copy over to a thumb drive (or whatever)? How do I copy it -- from Windows Explorer, or do I use the native Backup utility?

Either.  Or, use Windows 7 Easy Transfer, another feature of 7 that works pretty well. 

Then ... the version of Win 7 is an upgrade, installed over Vista. If I just nuke the drive, reformat, and start over, don't I lose that upgrade?

As long as you have the disk and the license key, you can install 7 straight off that disk.

Or is there a way to make a restore disk that will reload the operating system without all the crap?

You could use Clonezilla, but a full backup using Windows 7 backup is probably better.     

Lastly -- I'd still like to run some benchmarks, as a before and after to assess whether doing all that makes any significant difference. Any suggestions?

Nope, sorry.

[Hawkmoon]

As long as you have the disk and the license key, you can install 7 straight off that disk.

Yes, but ...

It's the 3-pack "family" upgrade. If I nuke and reformat the drive, there's nothing to tell Microsoft that I've previously installed one iteration of my three allowed installs on this computer. I don't want to use the second license to rebuild the first installation. I have a desktop and a notebook still running Xp -- the other two licenses in the 3-pack are for them.

[Cliffh]

IIRC, when you register the install online a code is generated and sent to Microsoft based on the computer hardware.  A reinstall shouldn't use up one of the remaining licenses, MS will recognize that the "installation" was actually a reinstall on that computer.

At least that's how it was a few years back.