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My Netbook was slow when I first bought it. Here are some things I did to speed it up and free up some space on my hard drive:
1. Perfomance Settings
Unchecked everything except “Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons.” This changed the look of a few things, by eliminating a lot of visual “bells and whistles.” I just use the computer for basic stuff, and I am a minimalist, so this worked well. I noticed an improvement in speed immediately.
2. Uninstalled Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe Acrobat takes forever to open. I installed Sumatra PDF viewer instead. I tested Sumatra by opening a 174 page PDF document, and it opened instantly. Good riddance, Acrobat.
3. Uninstalled Samsung Casual Games.
I never used them, never will.
4. Uninstalled Microsoft Office Home and Student.
I rarely, if ever, need the tools it offers, and I suspect that If I did, I could easily find an alternative program to download somewhere.
4. Downloaded Irfanview
It’s a tiny program that can do wonders with pictures.
5. Did not set up “Fail Safe” (would like to completely uninstall it, to be honest)
I consider it a significant risk of privacy invasion. Anything that allows remote access to my computer gives an adversary remote access to my computer.
I store important files on an external drive only, and keep protected backups in another location. I am the kind of person who has literally driven off and left his lap top on a restaurant table. So I only allow myself to store on my computer a file that I can live without if my computer is stolen. This saves a ton of trouble if my hard drive crashes or my motherboard malfunctions too. So even if my laptop is stolen, I do not need to remotely access it to retrieve files.
6. Uninstalled the pre-installed antivirus and installed AVG 9.0 Free.
Why pay for something that you can get for free?7. Installed Spybot search and Destroy
Nice, free program.9. Installed Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
Another nice, free program.10. Installed Spyware Terminator with real-time protection.
I take security seriously.11. Installed a password generator and a password storage device
Also free.12. Installed Revo Uninstaller.
Probably the best program I have installed in a long time. Wish I had known about it sooner. Before Revo, traces of programs that were uninstalled (primarily registry entries) remained on the computer. Revo deletes everything.
Here is the status of my C drive:
Used Space: 9.64 GB
Free Space: 71 GBAlmost forgot a very important one:
13. Installed Virtual Clone Drive
When I downloaded a program that required a CD ROM, I just installed Virtual Clone Drive, which is basically a virtual CD ROM, and the program ran great. That saved me from buying an external CD ROM drive and waiting for it to come in the mail before I could run that program. Time AND money saved!
cad12 – Welcome to the forum
If you need a free alternative to MS Office try OpenOffice.org
Hope this helps
Welcome to the forum, cad12 🙂
You may be interested in ninite.com which gives you the option to download and install a shed load of free apps in one go. I’ve used it a lot when setting up new computers.
To quote the nitnite website:
“Ninite installs software fast with default settings and says “no” to browser toolbars and other junk.
Ninite checks your PC’s language and 64-bit support to install the latest, best version of each program.
Ninite runs on Windows XP/Vista/7 and works in the background unattended and 100% hands-free.
All Ninite does is automatically download and install the apps you select. Not even Ninite is installed.”
That solves my problem with finding an alternative to Microsoft Office. Do keep the suggestions coming. This is one of my favorite subjects.
TCMuffin, that list of programs reminded me of some more programs that I forgot to mention:
14. ccleaner
Ranks up there with Revo as one of the most useful programs I have downloaded. Can’t believe I used a computer without it for so long.
15. Cam Unzip
I actually almost purchased a license for Winzip until I found out there were free alternatives. 7zip is very popular. I tried 7zip and CAM Unzip both. I ended up sticking with CAM Unzip, because I just liked it.
16. Trillian Messenger
Although I haven’t installed this on the netbook yet, this is my preferred messenger. I have it on my desktop computer. I remember trying Pidgin and having trouble figuring it out.
17. Thunderbird
This is the mail handler I would use if I didn’t use web mail exclusively. Speaking of which, I want to remove Outlook Express, but the guides I’ve read make it seem pretty complicated. They scared me away from even trying. Any suggestions?
18. VLC media player
Used this on my old lap top and liked it a lot. Will probably download it on my netbook. Definitely want to get away from Windows Media Player.
Finally, one program on that list looks especially useful to me: Dropbox. I will check it out.
If have any other programs that you like, let me know.
cad12 – You will probably find this thread of interest
Freddy’s list of (more or less) essential freeware-aps!
Hope this helps
You can uninstall failsafe from the machine by doing the following:
*Make sure to use a legitimate email address or it will not work*
1. Signing up for the free 30 day trial.
2. Follow instructions to setup a username and password.
3. Go to your email and confirm activation with provided key.
4. Open internet browser and go to: https://samsung.failsafe.com/fssui/fss/login
5. Enter your username and password from step 2
6. Under the “Account” tab click on “My Laptops”
7. Download the uninstaller
8. Run the uninstaller on your machine.
9. Enjoy having removed failsafe.Best,
MonxsterThis is a very useful thread. 🙂
I haven’t used Windows in a looong time so it’s difficult to know what to remove, what to replace and how to do it. 🙁
Nice thread cam12,
With some variations, such as using Foxit Reader and 7Zip and a few other odds my NC10 is similarly adjusted.
If you don’t really want to Install an office suite there is a portable version of Open Office for thumb drives.
It’s nice to read through all the replies on my post, and I’m glad the discussion has been useful. The problem I saw with Foxit was that it forced me to install a toolbar on my browser.
Here are some more things I’ve done to my Netbook since buying it a few months ago:
My Documents: Padlocked!
The “My Documents” folder now shows a picture of a big padlock. In fact, here’s a picture of it: http://imagefruity.com/images/10755219654611544477.jpg
It takes a password to get in. I downloaded Safe House Explorer and created a 4 GB encrypted container to put all of my documents in. I like Safe House because it looks nice, and it’s just very easy to manage my files in.
Second tweak: Sun Virtual Box.
I was talking about viruses with a guy who works full time as a Computer Technician, and he said that he deals with viruses by using Virtual Machines – like a computer inside a computer. He does all his work on a virtual machine, and when his Virtual machine gets a virus, he just deletes it and creates a new one. So I’ve got Virtual Box installed on my computer, and if I can ever find my recovery CD, I plan to give Virtual computing a shot. I’m really looking forward to this one.
Third Tweak: Cloud Storage
I love, love, love this one: http://www.dropboks.com/
It’s simple, it’s secure, and it’s free! I keep back-ups of documents there.Fourth: Cloud Storage for passwords
I use the one that Bruce Schneier helped create: http://www.passwordsafe.com/
Miscellaneous:
I did not like the terms and conditions of the original online storage website that I was interested in earlier in this thread, so I uninstalled it. An excellent file-storage and sharing website I use instead is Dropio.: http://www.drop.io/
As always, share any tips you have, because I will read your posts and look into them.
~cad12
[quote1269416628=cad12]Second tweak: Sun Virtual Box.
I was talking about viruses with a guy who works full time as a Computer Technician, and he said that he deals with viruses by using Virtual Machines – like a computer inside a computer. He does all his work on a virtual machine, and when his Virtual machine gets a virus, he just deletes it and creates a new one. So I’ve got Virtual Box installed on my computer, and if I can ever find my recovery CD, I plan to give Virtual computing a shot. I’m really looking forward to this one.[/quote1269416628]
Although this is a nice idea, and one that I use on my desktop computer if I need to run Windows. However the netbooks do not have hardware assisted virtualisation, and that coupled with the low performance processor means that virtualisation is going to be slow. it will also hit the battery life pretty badly.
Also you don’t really want to have to delete and completely recreate a virtual machine, what you really want to do is to set one up so you’re happy with it then save a backup copy incase the main one gets messed up.
That’s what I was afraid of. I knew that his virtual OS was not on a Netbook, so I wondered if Netbooks have the ability to run a virtual machine. I might have to drop this one from the list.
What I described is probably how it sounded to me when he was describing it, rather than what he was actually doing. I’m not familiar enough with it to properly explain it.
But it’s something that I want to try out. Will probably do it on my desktop computer.
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