New laptops with Vista

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Rocky

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clem012 said:
Stop it......... all my friends are laughing at me because I've been telling them for the past year that I'm buying a mac........so what do I do, buy a laptop with frickin Vista........I'm such a loser......
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Not to worry.
It's not a lost cause.
My friend just bought a new laptop with Vista, and after I was through with it, it resembled XP more than Vista, and it was screaming fast.
I intend on going through everything that needs to be done, detail by detail.
 
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Rocky

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clem012 said:
GOSH DARN IT..........I'll make all those drivers available.....how's the weather????
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Most good techies will know in a New York minute, if they're available or not.
And if they're not, we can work that puppy into being so XP-like, you won't know the difference.

Weather is good, of course.
I do believe that the DR has the best climate in the whole world.
I've certainly never seen better.
 
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Rocky

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Now the fun starts.

It would appear that the Microsoft people, do not want users to be able to turn off or remove "Windows Defender", so they make it near impossible for the average user to do.
Defender must have been modeled after Norton, and whether it actually manages to stop any bad stuff from invading your puter or not, it's not only irritating, but it slows you down to such a crawl, that it alone, is enough to make you hate your new laptop.
Sooooooooooooooo.....
Let's go kill the little blighter.

Anyone who has tried to stop it or remove it, will tell you that they just can't find how to do it.
That's because Windows Vista has a new trick.
It allows you to be signed in as the administrator, without giving you administrator privileges.
So first things first, let's get control of your puter.

Start, control panel, user accounts.
Turn user accounts control off by unchecking the box, then you will be told that the changes will not occur until rebooting, which it is now time to do.
After the reboot, back into the control panel to "Windows Defender".
In the Defender options, at the bottom, (scroll down) there is another check box which will allow you to turn Defender off.
It may require another reboot.
I don't have a Vista puter in front of me, so I'm doing this by memory and can't offer you screen shots, but anyone can contact me, if they have any difficulties whatsoever.

Assuming that you now have Norton removed and Defender turned off, your puter is most likely getting to be a good 50% faster.

So the next thing we are going to look at, is cleaning it up, for faster snappier actions & reactions.
 
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Rocky

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Clean up time.

This device/software, is the best all purpose cleaner on the market, and it's free.
It's going to take care of several issues, be easy to use, and fairly rapid.
So, go to the link below, and download the installer to the desktop.

Advanced WindowsCare Personal - Reviews and free Advanced WindowsCare Personal downloads at Download.com

Once downloaded, install/run it.
Running it the first time, you will be asked if you would like to make a restore point, which you can accept.
It'll be done in a few seconds.
Now that it's open, you will notice a second page attached to the device, to the right.
It's an advertisement for the pro version, which would not be free, of course.
You cannot close that page for 10 seconds or so.
Not to worry, it's of no interference.

Before doing your first scan, go to "options" then "update".
Now you're ready to scan.

For the sake of ease and to cater to those who are not very puter savy, this first time, you will uncheck the system optimization option, then start the scan. After scanning, simply press "repair" and let the device clean up in the default settings.
It's imperative that you do not run the system optimization for now, otherwise, it will detect that your Windows Defender is turned off, and it will turn it back on for you.
The first time that happened to me, I thought the damm puter was possessed by the devil, lol.
So let's just avoid that issue for now, and we'll cover the finer use of this software, in another post.
 
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Rocky

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Screenshots of Windows Care

Windows care, when first launched.

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Getting ready to update.

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Updating.

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Scanning with system optimization unchecked.

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Results of the scan.

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Repairing.

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Rocky

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Defrag.

When you first receive your laptop, brand new in the box, one would think that it's ready to use, and as clean as clean can be.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It's loaded with junk files, which the Windows Care program just took care of, and it's also in dire need of a good defrag.
Vista's defrag does not show you a visual of the condition of your hard drive, nor the progress being made.
Who knows how much good it actually does, but let's run it anyhow.
Start, programs, accessories, system tools, disk defragmenter.

While it's running, let's go download a free aftermarket defrag program.
Disk Defrag - Reclaim the Speed Of Your Disks
Once downloaded, install & run it.
 
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Rocky

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Handy adjustements.

There's a setting available in the control panel for Vista & XP users, which makes the mouse pointer jump to default boxes.
It's handy for any puter user, but specially for those who are using a pad on a laptop.
Start, control panel, mouse, and then check the box that says "automatically move pointer".

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Pursuant to doing this, when you want to delete something, for example,

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The pointer will jump to the logical position on the subsequent window.

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While we're at it, let's make the start menu a bit more user friendly and familiar.
Right click on the start icon, and select properties.

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On the next window that appears, select "classic start menu"

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Then, instead of having this view,

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It will now look like this, the old traditional easy to operate menu.

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And will make accessing programs that much easier, specially with Vista.

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Hopefully, your puter is not only a fair bit faster by now, but also more user friendly.
We are going to attack another major issue,(later) that slows puters down.
The amount of programs that automatically start at boot up, has a major effect not only on boot up times, but the general performance of the puter.
If you have 20 programs starting when you boot up, it's like overloading a car with passengers.
Your performance will be severely affected and diminished.
 
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Steve Costa Azul

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Hlywud said:
I know that when I need a new computer I will heading the iMac way
Click to expand...

Pay the extra for a mac and you will never look back! I have a new 24" imac and it is stunning! Super fast, won't get a virus, easy to use, reliable. If you want a Lexus, you pay a little more! Check out Consumer Reports magazine and read how they rave about Mac.
Make the switch, you'll love it! :classic:
 
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Rocky

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Steve Costa Azul said:
Pay the extra for a mac and you will never look back! I have a new 24" imac and it is stunning! Super fast, won't get a virus, easy to use, reliable. If you want a Lexus, you pay a little more! Check out Consumer Reports magazine and read how they rave about Mac.
Make the switch, you'll love it! :classic:
Click to expand...
There's not much doubt that they are better machines, but ole' farts like me, don't want to be bothered with learning a whole new OS.
Not only do they work and think differently, but they use different terms.
Just trying to hook one up to the wifi here took me half an hour to figure out that it's called "airport" on the Mac.
Stuff like that can bend my mind.
You kiddies out there with brains like sponges can go for the Macs, but us ole' farts might do better sticking with what we know.
 
Squat

Squat

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Rocky said:
You kiddies out there with brains like sponges can go for the Macs, but us ole' farts might do better sticking with what we know.
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I actually set up Macs for old farts, and get the kiddies with brain like sponge straight to Linux...
I guess all the "in between" would stick to winxp until forced to buy new hardware with Vista, then suffer thru it...

-Doesn't it remind you of Windows Millenium ?
 
A

apostropheman

Guest
this has turned into an excellent thread!

i'm lucky as my laptop HP Pavilion dv9380ca Entertainment Notebook PC specifications - HP Home & Home Office Products exceeds even real world minimums for making successful use of vista. now that i've gotten used to it i even kind of like it :eek::surprised:cheeky:

i installed ubuntu linux 7.04 Ubuntu Desktop Edition | Ubuntu
as a dual boot How to dual-boot Vista with Linux (Vista installed first) | APC Magazine on my laptop last night.
it only took about an hour, after repartitioning my hard drive 9using GParted) Linux.com :: A quick look at the GParted live CD, and it's amazingly fast!

it even uses the current version of firefox so downloading my bookmarks from the online foxmarks server was a breeze!
 
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apostropheman

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a question for Squat:

now that i have ubuntu7.04 up and running is beryl worth installing? How to Install Beryl with latest nvidia drivers in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn -- Ubuntu Geek, Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn and Beryl | Ubuntu Video.
are there any other programs/add-ons i should be considering?
Squat said:
I actually set up Macs for old farts, and get the kiddies with brain like sponge straight to Linux...
I guess all the "in between" would stick to winxp until forced to buy new hardware with Vista, then suffer thru it...

-Doesn't it remind you of Windows Millenium ?
Click to expand...
 
A

apostropheman

Guest
Rocky:

if you're interested in trying linux i'll have and extra copy of the CD's i used to do my installs with me. save you downloading and burning them.

it's really worth the effort; your laptop will be many times faster on the internet (and for other uses too). you'll be amazed! (although you will have to use firefox :cheeky:...but you'll like it, i promise) ;)

it's probably less of an initial learning curve that converting to vista is :surprised:paranoid::cheeky:
 
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