My laptop is bloated. What can I get rid of here?

[Pool Hall Ace]

I ran Revo Uninstaller and came up with some items that I don't need (at least I don't think I need them). Would it be safe to remove these? Let me know if more information is needed. Thank you!

Coupon Printer for Windows
anything related to muvee autoProducer
QuickPlay SlingPlayer
The Sims Life Stories
anything related to the Verizon Broadband toolbar (since I no longer have Verizon)
WinZip 14.5 (since I use 7-Zip)

[hobbit709]

1. wouldn't hurt to remove them

also any "trial offer" crap and any Wild Tangent games-those are nothing but spyware.

[wandy]

2. Take a look at My Documents.

Windows tends to put 'stuff' in My Somewhere (I usualy use a less polite word). The My somewhere is a sort of default place so you may find pictures, music or even full length movies that are not needed or at least better kept somewhere you have more controle of.Every ID on the system will have a My Documents folder and windows will not hesitate to save the same thing for each ID the system has in My somewhere, unnecessaraly waisting space.

[Pool Hall Ace]

14. I can't find a folder called My Documents. :(

[wandy]

18. Whoops. My bad. Poor wording. Let's try this........

Using exployer you will see something like Idname Documents. Or if you are using an administrator ID you will see a Documents and Settings folder on the 'res drive. At least up to Vista (not sure about Win 7) this is where windows puts stuff it hasn't been explesity told where it should put it. For example if you download a fishing picture it will most likley go into My Pictures. Most likley,,, that is the problem. If however when you download pictures from you're camera into a folder you created, let's say FishingOnTheSTLaurance, that's where you will find those pictures of that whopper northen pike you caught.
If you don't understand this it isn't youre fault. I'm probably not explaining it well. It may be (for me) too striaght foward to find the right words. Were you here I could just point at the screen and you would say... OH,, Gotya.
And here I am trying to write the great American novel.
See if this helps. If not keep at it it as their are plenty of good folk here that might explain it better.

[jrandom421]

3. Start over completely fresh

Save all your data to an external drive, re-partition and re-format the drive. Reinstall Windows and all your critical applications and recopy your data back.

Sometimes, you need to start over completely fresh and be done with it.

[Pool Hall Ace]

15. I have a flash drive, if that is what you mean,

but this laptop was acquired second-hand, without any disks. Instead of Windows, should I use one of those operating systems like Ubuntu that I have been hearing about?

As you can tell, I don't know much about this stuff.

[Vehl]

4. Give these a try

As a poster said above, reformatting and reinstalling is the best option.However there are some good ways to get rid of most of the crap/bloatware a computer gets saddled with over time(in case its not managed rigorously)

I would suggest the following sequence of actions

1 Download and run Advanced system care free

Download link to CNET download site here
http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare-Free/3000-2086_4-10407614.html

^^ This is an excellent free software that does a lot of maintenance, without the need to get into the nuts and bolts.
After installing, select and run the "Deep care" option (i would suggest the Deep care option over the quick care option)

[IMG][/IMG]

^^ posted a pic here so you will know the interface( dont be fooled by the "run quick care" shortcut this software creates..as we want to run the deep care option)

select scan and repair (you get this option when you mouse-over the "Scan now" button)



2 press alt+ctrl+del and select "Start task manager" to start the task manager

select the "processes" tab.

if you see anything listed there that seems unwanted, just post it here(as you did earlier) so we can check-see if they are bloatware or essential processes. Unwanted processes can be stopped and/or the programs responsible for them can be uninstalled.


hope this helps

[Pool Hall Ace]

5. OK, thanks!

I've been offline for a few days due to the Valentine's Day rush, but I will try this after I'm done catching up on e-mail.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

7. FAIL.

Advanced System Care is trash software from known code stealers. (Google "IOBit steals Malwarebytes intellectual property&quot Anything useful it does is already integrated into WinDOZE.

ANY software that automatically "cleans" the registry of "errors" is destined to lead to system degradation at BEST to Computer=BRICK at worst.

Clearing the registry of a few stray entries is the equivalent of clearing one parking space in a parking lot the size of the Louisiana Purchase.

Just my .02, YMMV. Caveat Emptor & all that.

[Vehl]

8. really?

us PC enthusiasts can and will not think twice about cleaning the temporary files, deleting histories, unwanted shortcuts, even if needed--unwanted registry entries...defragment..etc etc.. however its not easy for a normal user to do all this unless they are willing to spend a few hours at least..learning to do these stuff.

btw..the registry cleaning is just one out of the multiple stuff IObit does...and no..i dont have any vested interest in iobit, i just recommend it to people because its much easier for them to do so...and it does not come with the adware/bloatware many other similar free software utilities come with.

I did not hear about iobit stealing malwarebytes code...if they did its pretty sickening..to say the least. Malwarebytes is one of the most effective utilities ive seen.

So even if we were to ignore the registry cleaning, the rest of the stuff it does will go a long way towards cleaning up the OP's computer. If you suggest some other similar software, as i know there are a few, pls feel free to do so.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

12. As I said, YMMV.

"...and it does not come with the adware/bloatware many other similar free software utilities come with"

Seriously? I just did a test install of ASC latest version in VBox, XP SP3: First it asked me if I wanted the "IOBit Toolbar"

Of course I declined but to the novice user the accept or decline options can be somewhat confusing. If you click decline, are you declining the software itself, the toolbar, both? Is it one of those no really means yes & vica versa? How bout if I press "skip"? What happens then? Does the toolbar install?

Anyhoo, the IOBit Toolbar turns out to actually be the "Spigot" toolbar. A quick Google search for Spigot returns dubious--at best-- results to "It's Malware & it won't uninstall" type hysteria. If you wanna read their Privacy policy & terms of use, I've uploaded them to MediaFire (Desktop.zip) : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ek43lv217ona3mm

After installing and launching the app I was immediately prompted for an "Important update" Update WHAT? Dunno, they wouldn't say. How am I getting updates if I didn't even configure my settings? I won't even mention the sales pitch...


I ran a "normal" scan using both ASC & CCleaner, without executing the actual cleaning, using the settings I employ with CCleaner (my cleanup app of choice). Both had somewhat similar results EXCEPT the reg cleaner. CCleaner found 23 "errors" while ASC found....96!!!

WTF????? Turns out about 55-60 "errors" were actually registry customizations I made to my slimmed down, updated, nLited XP installation media: http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

Another thing I found to be quite disturbing is it's "cookies to keep" PRESETS...some of the WORST "offenders" were pre-selected BY ASC as keepers. Again, WTF???



ASC runs at startup & installs a service by default, another no-no for me. Why would I want something I use on-demand to run at startup? There's more, but in the interest of brevity & saving bandwidth I'll zip-it here.

I agree that all the other normal necessary maintenance can be a chore for the novice or average user, that's why I always recommend CCleaner, with one obvious Caveat: DO NOT use the registry cleaner.

[Vehl]

17. Good post

yes, I should have mentioned that one should ignore the request to install the toolbar and stuff, but I guess i took it for-granted that people would ignore them/skip them.

If you noticed I did mention that one should go to settings and disable start up at windows start up, in my previous post. i was just trying to help the OP with a tool that would help him do most of the cleaning stuff without having to do everything manually and/or accidentally downloading a system cleanup utility that is pure Waldemar/bloatware in disguise.

I'll try Ccleaner out.
thanks for the detailed reply.

[hobbit709]

20. Advanced System Care does suck. The older version, Advanced Windows Care works much better.

As far as wanting to add toolbars and adware, name me ONE downloadable free app that doesn't want to do that. Hell, there is plenty of paid for software that wants to add unnecessary crap. and don't even get me started on printer drivers-especially HP printers.
I had one person bring in a computer that had so many different toolbars installed on his browser-of course he was using Internet ExploDer-that less than half the screen displayed the web page he was looking at.

[HopeHoops]

23. Name one? MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. Essential utility.

No ads. No toolbar. Just a desktop icon and an entry in the All Programs list.

[hobbit709]

25. OK, but you got to watch out so you don't install the trial version.

As several people have found out.

[HopeHoops]

26. I just install the "free" version - works great.

[hobbit709]

27. The trick is the Decline or Accept buttons after the final update.

Free works great. I have the paid for version on two my computers-my main system and the one I use to scan infected drives from customers.

[HopeHoops]

28. Getting the paid version for all of my machines is in the "round tuit" department.

[HopeHoops]

6. WinDoze degrades with time. Sometimes the only thing to do is a factory restore.

CAUTION: THIS IS A ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS!!!!

You have to backup every damn thing on the computer including your e-mail and bookmarks and know where all of your install CDs and product keys are. And it can take a few days, what with service packs (also known as fudge packs) to install. Vista is one of the worst offenders ever in terms of degradation and disk optimization really doesn't help much (a little, not a lot).

[Vehl]

9. No

A properly maintained windows does NOT degrade with time, contrary to what people may think.

Most of the disk optimizers dont help because people let them run in the background...and these software are often system hogs by themselves..so in the process of 'optimizing" their computers, they run (or many...ive seen people running 3 or even 4 pc optimizer/utility etc etc in the background!) these software in the background all the time..taking a huge chunk of the processor time/memory and slow down their pc even further.

A good practice is to ensure that after running optimizer/utilities, to turn them off...oh and often this involves going into the settings to disable the "start up when windows starts" options which many optimizers/utilities have set on "on" by default.


Vista was one of the worst offenders, but I ran it for years without any crash or degradation..because I maintain my PC. Windows 7 is MUCH much better.

The myth that windows degrades and is less stable than(say mac os) is mostly propagated by those who do not maintain their pc, or do it the wrong way. It only takes a one time-effort of about a couple of hours of learning(by googling) to learn to properly do these stuff, but most people are too lazy to do so.(I hasten to add that I do not mean you, but people in general who perpetuate this myth)

oh and backups are always important, but in my use of PC's over the past 10 years, I've yet to have a BSOD that was NOT related to hardware failure...and I've never been a victim of a virus either.

[HopeHoops]

10. Why the hell would you run one in the background?

I was referring to defragmentation, and that's a hurry up and wait operation on any machine. And yes, Windows does degrade with time. It isn't a matter of "proper maintenance". The registry gets bloated, drivers that aren't needed anymore still load, and the boot and restore times both expand. There are utilities that claim to scrub the registry and unnecessary drivers, but none of them have ever been able to do it and they're a good source of malware payloads. Defragmenting the drive won't fix any of those issues, but it might help the bloat load more quickly. Mac and Unix machines aren't immune to those kind of problems, but it isn't nearly as noticeable.

Prior to Win95, 3.11 was about the best DOS M$ ever made, although the V1.x (CP/M clone) wasn't bad. M$DOS 2.anything totally sucked. Since Win95, only 98SE, NT4SP6 Server (to some degree SP4) and XP Pro have been not just stable but fairly consistent in performance. I'm tempted to add Win7 to the list because it seems to be fairly stable and autoupdate actually WORKS in Win7, but I had to restore someone's Win7 laptop to a checkpoint this weekend because it was in an infinite reboot loop - wouldn't even boot into Safe Mode. As best I could tell it was related to updating DirectX (probably hosed the registry), but that still shouldn't happen.

[Vehl]

11. where did I say that?

Why the hell would you run one in the background?

If you look at my previous post, I have clearly said that some of the utilities continue to run in the background even after they have done what they were supposed to do.

///A good practice is to ensure that after running optimizer/utilities, to turn them off.///

At least more than 50% of the utilities I've checked out do not exit, but minimize to system tray(have a background process running) even after the user clicks exit, after he is done with using those utilities. One has to look at the system trey and explicitly make them quit and also has to change the default settings so they will not load up when windows starts. Imagine someone installs 5 utilities, and even after quitting them, 3 or 4 run in the background? it Will drastically affect system performance. This is also the reason i turn off the "real time defragment" option some of the disk defragmenters have..too much overhead for too little use. Defragmenting once or twice a month is more than enough.

I was referring to defragmentation, and that's a hurry up and wait operation on any machine.

I guess you meant fragmentation. Sure, fragmentation is a fact of life, and defragmenting should be done to cure this.

And yes, Windows does degrade with time. It isn't a matter of "proper maintenance". The registry gets bloated, drivers that aren't needed anymore still load, and the boot and restore times both expand. There are utilities that claim to scrub the registry and unnecessary drivers, but none of them have ever been able to do it and they're a good source of malware payloads. Defragmenting the drive won't fix any of those issues, but it might help the bloat load more quickly. Mac and Unix machines aren't immune to those kind of problems, but it isn't nearly as noticeable.

Utilities do correct registry bloating and the other problems you mentioned, which btw i did speak of in my previous post. I do know there are some utilities which have bloatware on them, and it simply means we have to use ones which do not have bloatware.

Also, as i'm sure you are well aware, ensuring that the hard disk is not filled to capacity is important. (most people dont even bother deleting songs/videos they downloaded from the web...or even the .exe files for software they installed; after they are done with these stuff). Ive seen tens of gigs worth of worthless data in the default "downloads" folder set up by their browsers. if only they had cleaned those stuff, they could have easily freed up about 20 gigs..or more..in some cases.

when a hard drive gets about 70% or more full, its efficiency is reduced, thus its good practice to not fill hard drives to the max...especially when page swapping/virtual memory are also tied to free hardware space.

When one follows good practices and maintains their pc well, there is absolutely no noticeable slowdown. At least in my opinion. if there is, it is definitely not more than the ones faced by the Mac and Unix machines.Given the much wider range of driver support/software support provided by Windows OS, I would definitely rank it higher than the more limited Mac and Unix machines.

Prior to Win95, 3.11 was about the best DOS M$ ever made, although the V1.x (CP/M clone) wasn't bad. M$DOS 2.anything totally sucked. Since Win95, only 98SE, NT4SP6 Server (to some degree SP4) and XP Pro have been not just stable but fairly consistent in performance. I'm tempted to add Win7 to the list because it seems to be fairly stable and autoupdate actually WORKS in Win7, but I had to restore someone's Win7 laptop to a checkpoint this weekend because it was in an infinite reboot loop - wouldn't even boot into Safe Mode. As best I could tell it was related to updating DirectX (probably hosed the registry), but that still shouldn't happen.

My secondary laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6400, from 2006. I have windows 7 on it and it runs blazing fast (for a machine from that era).
It was so old that it came with XP. I put Vista on it later on (and I hated the bloat) and had no crashes or any issues. Vista used about 1.2 to 1.4 gigs of memory to run the os(+processes+the rest) when I was not running any other program. I switched to windows 7 later on and now it only uses about 800mb-1gig when the system is at rest.

I once tested its bootup speed with the Macbook Pro(2009) of my friend and mine always booted up faster(and opened browser) than
his 2009 model Macbook(which was also 2 times as expensive as my 2006 dell) did, every single time...and gaming performance was faster too.


As for the infinite loops and other issues, Often even the best OS's cant survive the butchery it undergoes under human hands. Ive had people delete core files and folders by "accident"..or "invite" viruses into their machines by not even having a basic antivirus program...or run whatever crap all those dubious websites ask users to "run" without a second thought. I for one am glad that for cases like these, the system restore is always there. Windows 7 is probably one of the best OS's I've tried so far, and From what I see win8 would be better yet.


typed using a 2006 Dell inspiration 6400 ( self upgraded to 4gigs ram(from 2gigs) and a 7200 rpm hd for a grand total of 50$)


PS: btw a lot of the bloatware can be identified by monitoring the processes tab of the task manager, and disabled/uninstalled.
for example..Microsoft mice install the lame ipoint.exe which takes about 10-20mb at times...and a considerable amount of processor cycles...not to mention the Logitech bloatware....just disable them..and similar stuff when not needed and there is no performance loss.

[HopeHoops]

13. LOL! Yep - Process tab. That's the first thing I fire up on Vista.

I usually keep it lurking just off the right side of the screen, outside of the work zone but visible enough to see the names. And what do you mean XP is old? It's only been out for ten years or so. Win98SE is still quite useful, but XP is a major improvement.

[Vehl]

16. :)

I meant that the laptop was so old that i cam with xp installed. (which generally means the laptops sold before 2007)
yeah I liked XP, better than Vista imo

[HopeHoops]

24. Sorry. When I think "old" I'm thinking Heathkit and VIC-20 (with a whopping 5K of RAM!!!)

On Edit: My laptop was one of the early Vista boxes. XP was still around, but I wanted a 17" for the keypad and HP's 17" was the only one with a touchpad and buttons I liked at the time. The touchpad has about a 1/4" diameter place where my right forefinger has worn the paint off! It still works, no need to replace it. I've thought about upgrading it to Win7, but M$ doesn't have a very good track record with hardware support for machines more than a couple years old. I don't need the headache right now.

[wandy]

19. Registra corruption is a major cause of slow windows startups. By corruption I mean..

that sometimes programs do not clean up after themselfs when uninstalled. If a program requires 'background' service that are started by virtue of registra entries,, windows will attempt to start those serivces on bring up waisting time untill the OS determins that it can't find the dll (or what ever). My experence with register 'clenup' utilites is they are likley to be the last thing you run before you get out the install disks. "Mother Please I'de rather do it my self" using regedit. Yup folk keep those install disks handy!

If you pick around the Microsoft webpages you will find the Win XP resource kit. A bit of a dry read, but a real help if you are inclined to go 'bare knuclels' with XP or Vista.
If you pick around a bit further you will find a group of kick ass utilites that are a touch dangerous but if you read up a bit are helpfull as all heck. Ever try to deleat an unneeded file that is 'currently in use'. Their are ways to do that just well, what the resource kit and utilityes teach you to do is about as dangerous as any malware you can think of.
Just be shure that anything you download does infact come from Microsoft.

[hobbit709]

21. there are times when Windows acts like a virus.

Especially if a Restore point got infected. The only MS software I use outside of Windows is Microsoft Security Essentials-it's one the few things they've done that isn't bloated and actually runs effectively. I won't use Internet ExploDer, Media Player and I especially won't use Outhouse or Orifice.

I tweak the settings on all my machines, but most people don't know how to do more than turn it on. I have 6 computers that I use plus a tablet. So I'm running XP, XP X64, & Home Premium X64, Linux Mint 10 and Android 2.3. Nothing has standard default settings on it.
I have one more computer that I use as a test setup to try out various OS's to see how well they play with things. I still have an old clunker in the closet that runs DOS 6.

[HopeHoops]

22. You can't be a wimp about using regedit if you want to improve performance.

I've had mixed results over the years with M$ utilities. At the moment, performance is fine on all of the M$ machines I have in active or occasional use (about a dozen), but that hasn't always been the case by any means. The Win7 box is about as beefy as you could get when I bought it a year and a half ago (6 core i7, 24GB, etc.) and I use that for development. It screams. The only bitch I have with it is I do keep autoupdate active and have to remember to save EVERYTHING in all of the user spaces before bed because it does its thing at 3 a.m. and that usually means a reboot. That's mostly a pain when I've got about 20 VS10 windows open across both monitors. I'm amazed that they haven't figured out a live update process yet. Even VMS could do that for patches.

By the way, one of the first things to do with Vista is disable autoupdate. It has a wonderful ability to predict when you are under a tight deadline and decide that is the PERFECT time to peg the CPU meter with "don't interrupt me!!!!" status. I run updates manually. They seem to have cured that problem with Win7. I've never had it be an issue. I don't remember it ever being a problem with XP either. It's also pretty essential to have the latest service pack (or fudge pack as I used to call it). I just wish they would roll them into successive SPs the way Unix systems do. It's a pain in the ass to reinstall the factory image and then have to go through each SP to bring it up to speed.

M$ has never been the best option, but it is the most prevalent. It's been a running gag since the first version of 86x DOS, but I do have to admit they finally seem to have gotten it right with Win7. But hey, I've still got a few 98SE machines and a bunch of old DOS boxes (mostly for parts now). Sometimes you have to work with the devil. I've also got about 10 or so CRTs in the basement that still work. All I use now are flat screens, but I just can't see throwing them away. I'm looking for a charity that provides low-end systems to those in need. A free monitor is better than no monitor.