why is windows so shit

[wherebee]

So I have a windows machine that I use very occasionally for gaming. 

Never use it for any work, never use it for browsing the net, never visited porn or gaming sites, etc etc.

Probably had less than 100 days of use since I bought it 3 years ago.

The thing has bloated to be 95% full on the hard drive.  I have 4 games on it.  That's all.  No photos, no videos, etc.  250GB.

 

It's insane how shit windows is.  I have a 10+ year old Mac that has had one cleanup in that time and still runs like a dream.

 

/rant over

 

Anyway, my question is what free program for a non-techie would let me clean up the shit windows machine.

[XswampyX]

Try this.... https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

It will tell you where it's all gone.

I cleared up about 100GB yesterday with it.

 

[spunko]

One of my bugbears is people that say Windows is slow. It isn't, you're just using it wrong and it needs a bit of TLC first.

1. Look on reddit for a Windows 8/10 Registry cleaner. It removes all the tracking and spying, Cortana etc.

2. Download Spybot Search & Destroy and run a full, deep scan. It'll probably find loads of tracking shite you didn't even know was possible.

3. Obviously, remove all unneeded programs etc.

[eek]

First step check to see if there is a folder called Windows.old on your c drive - that will be 20+gb of crap from a previous version.

 

After that following the advice on https://www.howtogeek.com/125923/7-ways-to-free-up-hard-disk-space-on-windows/

[JoeDavola]

My Dad has a similar problem that I must remember to try and fix for him.

Up until last year he was using a really old laptop with an old version of windows - might have been 7, and even though the laptop was 10+ years old he was fine with it.

Laptop finally died so he got a 'new' one with the newest windows and the thing runs like an absolute dog to the point he's just given up on it.

[One percent]

31 minutes ago, The XYY Man said:

I could answer your question, but since you started your post with the word "so", you can fuck right off...!

 

XYY

So, are you ok if there is a comma after the so?   

[JoeDavola]

I've been informed that the best thing to do after buying a laptop with windows 10 pre-installed is to go to the media creation page of the microsoft website and create a windows 10 boot USB. Then use that to install a 'clean' windows 10 without any of the bloatware that the supplier will have put on it.

[eek]

On 11/06/2020 at 16:36, JoeDavola said:

I've been informed that the best thing to do after buying a laptop with windows 10 pre-installed is to go to the media creation page of the microsoft website and create a windows 10 boot USB. Then use that to install a 'clean' windows 10 without any of the bloatware that the supplier will have put on it.

That's not necessarily the case in all circumstances. Some laptops now come with software that is only accessible from within the original image (gigabyte, asus and MSI are big culprits of this as they have software that control the internals (fans and cpu power management) of the laptop ).  

Edited June 13, 2020 by eek

[JoeDavola]

2 minutes ago, eek said:

That's not necessarily the case in all circumstances. Some laptops now come with software that is only accessible from within the original image (gigabyte, asus and MSI are big culprits of this as they have software that control the internals (fans and cpu power management) of the laptop ).  

Oh OK thanks for the info.

This is a DELL. For some reason it's so slow as to be pretty much unusable. It's so fucking bad I've never seen anything like it and this is a brand new laptop.

[eek]

5 minutes ago, JoeDavola said:

Oh OK thanks for the info.

This is a DELL. For some reason it's so slow as to be pretty much unusable. It's so fucking bad I've never seen anything like it and this is a brand new laptop.

For Dell, HP and Lenovo it's usually fine to junk the OS and do a fresh install.

But I would be looking at the spec of it and seeing why it runs like a dog - as a minimum it needs an SSD and 8gb of ram. I suspect it was cheap so has 4gb and a 2.5" hard disk that is already dying (I've seen that in a lot of bargain basement HP machines bought by neighbours from Currys)

Edit to add - if the memory is soldered on to the motherboard (as is often the case with dell) you should still be able to replace the hard disk.

Edited June 13, 2020 by eek

[JoeDavola]

1 hour ago, eek said:

For Dell, HP and Lenovo it's usually fine to junk the OS and do a fresh install.

But I would be looking at the spec of it and seeing why it runs like a dog - as a minimum it needs an SSD and 8gb of ram. I suspect it was cheap so has 4gb and a 2.5" hard disk that is already dying (I've seen that in a lot of bargain basement HP machines bought by neighbours from Currys)

Edit to add - if the memory is soldered on to the motherboard (as is often the case with dell) you should still be able to replace the hard disk.

It's a Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series - just logging on here to get you the specs and the fucker's hanging on a black screen (with a cursor I can move over it) for 2 minutes after a successful log on. Ridiculous.

OK....got it 'working' after a hard reset....specs are i3-6006U CPU @ 2GHZ and 8GB RAM....good shout on the HDD, it's not an SSD so that's gotta be the best bang for buck in terms of upgrade.

[eek]

31 minutes ago, JoeDavola said:

It's a Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series - just logging on here to get you the specs and the fucker's hanging on a black screen (with a cursor I can move over it) for 2 minutes after a successful log on. Ridiculous.

OK....got it 'working' after a hard reset....specs are i3-6006U CPU @ 2GHZ and 8GB RAM....good shout on the HDD, it's not an SSD so that's gotta be the best bang for buck in terms of upgrade.

Yep - that sounds to me like a fu**ed hard disk - easy enough to fix just order that https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT240BX500SSD1Z-Internal-Solid-State/dp/B07G3KRZBX/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=ssd&qid=1592052665&sr=8-5 and reinstall windows via a usb key.

[JoeDavola]

5 minutes ago, eek said:

Yep - that sounds to me like a fu**ed hard disk - easy enough to fix just order that https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT240BX500SSD1Z-Internal-Solid-State/dp/B07G3KRZBX/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=ssd&qid=1592052665&sr=8-5 and reinstall windows via a usb key.

Yep that's exactly what I've ordered! Although they've gotten so cheap I just went for 480 - hopefully be with me early next week. Should be a new machine after. Cheers.

[MerryMoon]

I have up on Window when Vista came out .. I have been using LINUX Mint for eleven years now with few problems.

[eight]

I'm still clinging on to W7, the end of updates sounded like a step forwards TBH. Low and behold yesterday it "updated" and installed Edge, all by itself. 

[nirvana]

So, I would delete windows and install endeavouros 

And windows is so shit cos it's got too many lines of code and too many tossers have written bits for it over the years

KISS

Edited July 16, 2020 by 5min OCD speculator

[Dave Bloke]

On 09/06/2020 at 10:44, spunko said:

One of my bugbears is people that say Windows is slow. It isn't, you're just using it wrong and it needs a bit of TLC first.

1. Look on reddit for a Windows 8/10 Registry cleaner. It removes all the tracking and spying, Cortana etc.

2. Download Spybot Search & Destroy and run a full, deep scan. It'll probably find loads of tracking shite you didn't even know was possible.

3. Obviously, remove all unneeded programs etc.

Then install linux

[Bandit Banzai]

I know it's heresy to say it, but I think Win10 is alright. But you need to get it on a USB stick and do a stripped down, bare bones install.

But yeah, an OEM install full of shite and bloat is appalling.

[NogintheNog]

On 01/07/2020 at 10:30, eight said:

I'm still clinging on to W7, the end of updates sounded like a step forwards TBH. Low and behold yesterday it "updated" and installed Edge, all by itself. 

That's a dangerous place to be as Microsoft has ended security patching W7....

 

On 01/07/2020 at 09:29, MerryMoon said:

I have up on Window when Vista came out .. I have been using LINUX Mint for eleven years now with few problems.

Same here, been using various flavours of Linux since 2011, currently 64bit Ubuntu Mate on my Laptop, and Linux Mint 20 XFCE on my desktop. No bloat, seems to get quicker with use, and loads of online support. Looks good too with Plank and my Val D'isere wallpaper!

Edited August 23, 2020 by NogintheNog

[eight]

23 minutes ago, NogintheNog said:

That's a dangerous place to be as Microsoft has ended security patching W7....

So what, exactly, is the risk?

[NogintheNog]

56 minutes ago, eight said:

So what, exactly, is the risk?

Quote

The biggest issue with continuing to use Windows 7 is that it won't be patched for any new viruses or security problems once it enters End of Life, and this leaves you extremely vulnerable to any emerging threats.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/how-to/how-to-prepare-for-windows-7-end-of-life

I wouldn't!

Edited August 23, 2020 by NogintheNog

[Long time lurking]

Well i had a windows ten update after it,it then went into a automatic repair loop that was impossible for me to get out of 

The recovery tools would not work i had to do a fresh install where by i lost all my files  time for an external hard drive and linux now i know this is going to sound stupid but what version works best with chrome, Mint or Unbuntu  

[NogintheNog]

One tool that I've used to repair non functioning Windows systems is the Sfc Command. There are various ways of running it, sometimes you need to run it twice as it won't always be able to repair at the first attempt. Used it lots on corporate  Windows network to get misbehaving PC's working properly.

https://neosmart.net/wiki/sfc/

Both Mint and Ubuntu will run Google Chrome well. Linux Mint is much more friendly if you are coming from a Windows environment. Ideally you have a spare PC to run it on to get to grips with it before leaving the Microsoft party.

[Lightly Toasted]

On 23/08/2020 at 16:46, Long time lurking said:

Well i had a windows ten update after it,it then went into a automatic repair loop that was impossible for me to get out of 

The recovery tools would not work i had to do a fresh install where by i lost all my files  time for an external hard drive and linux now i know this is going to sound stupid but what version works best with chrome, Mint or Unbuntu  

Schofield's Second Law of Computing states that data doesn't really exist unless you have at least two copies of it.

If you only have one copy of something, it's a bit like Schrödinger's cat. Is it alive or dead? You have to look in the box to find out. In the same way, you'd have to load your single copy of a file or database to see if it was "live" data or corrupted (dead) or had simply disappeared.

That aside, I highly recommend putting Windows user data on a separate physical drive (or a separate partition if you only have one drive). That way you lose nothing if the system drive gets nuked.

To do this: go into File Manager, right click on Desktop/Documents/whatever to open their Properties (there are several items that can be moved) and change the Location to a non-system drive. I generally do this after installing, on a running system I guess there'd be some copying to put data where it needs to be after the change, probably get that done first.

Simpler approach: make a shortcut on your desktop to a folder on another drive/partition, and save everything there (organised in sub folders as needed). Back that folder up 

[onlyme]

11 hours ago, Lightly Toasted said:

Schofield's Second Law of Computing states that data doesn't really exist unless you have at least two copies of it.

If you only have one copy of something, it's a bit like Schrödinger's cat. Is it alive or dead? You have to look in the box to find out. In the same way, you'd have to load your single copy of a file or database to see if it was "live" data or corrupted (dead) or had simply disappeared.

That aside, I highly recommend putting Windows user data on a separate physical drive (or a separate partition if you only have one drive). That way you lose nothing if the system drive gets nuked.

To do this: go into File Manager, right click on Desktop/Documents/whatever to open their Properties (there are several items that can be moved) and change the Location to a non-system drive. I generally do this after installing, on a running system I guess there'd be some copying to put data where it needs to be after the change, probably get that done first.

Simpler approach: make a shortcut on your desktop to a folder on another drive/partition, and save everything there (organised in sub folders as needed). Back that folder up 

Definitely  better with separate physical disks and one dedicated to the system drive. Assume the OS is going to keel over at some point, easier to format / upgrade / update the system drive and hammer a fast but cheaper and sufficiently sized SSD for the OS alone.  Mens that the system drive that takes a hammering (including swap files  / virtual disk space for the OS) can go tits up and all data still there without having to extract it from the same disk which may not just have a failing OS but failing hardware as well. So all data on separate physical drive and then a backup of this data drive off the machine - cloud or walkabout disk stored preferably somewhere that is a little bit fire proof just in case.

[nirvana]

On 08/06/2020 at 08:46, wherebee said:

what free program for a non-techie would let me clean up the shit windows machine.

linux - this is ace https://endeavouros.com/latest-release/

On 23/08/2020 at 13:00, eight said:

So what, exactly, is the risk?

when Microshite release patches the hackers jump on em and 'reverse engineer' what's been done in order to target other versions that haven't been patched........

I used to believe in 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' til I understood the above which equates to

'if you don't keep fixing it, somebody might come along, smash your windows in and steel your life'

windows! get it? maybe not....