why is windows so shit

[wherebee 17,291]

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 9,025]

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 23,183]

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 575]

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 20,551]

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.

[The XYY Man 18,376]

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

 

XYY

[One percent 48,583]

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?   

[The XYY Man 18,376]

7 minutes ago, One percent said:

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

No. 

 

XYY

[JoeDavola 20,551]

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 575]

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 by eek

[JoeDavola 20,551]

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 575]

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 by eek

[JoeDavola 20,551]

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 575]

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 20,551]

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 40]

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

[eight 13,705]

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. 

[5min OCD speculator 1,442]

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 by 5min OCD speculator

[Dave Bloke 5,661]

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 297]

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 174]

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 by NogintheNog

[eight 13,705]

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 174]

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 by NogintheNog

[Long time lurking 14,804]

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 174]

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.