Clean Setup for New PC

P. Breathnach

Greetings, folks.

I have always liked to keep my systems as clean as possible, because the overhead with firewalls, virus protection, drivers for accessories, and so on tends to add up and slow everything down. Open a couple of applications, and my current system can crawl. And I'm not into games, beyond the odd foray into simple things like Freecell. I use business applications, photo management software, a little video management and I hope to do more, and I plan to digitise 100+ vinyl recordings - and, of course, I browse the web, using Chrome. I suspect that part of what is wrong with my current setup (apart from insufficient RAM) is that there is some incompatibility between programs that are running either in the foreground or the background. I could try cleaning everything down, but am afraid that I might disable things I need. In any event, the PC is about five years old, and might be due to be downgraded to backup system.

I have just ordered a new desktop, which has Windows 7 Home Premium as its OS. So when the new system arrives I will be installing my software and files.

What I would like advice on minimising the background overhead. My first question is what to do about firewall and virus protection. What's the current best advice for Windows 7 Home Premium?

yoyo

for a new machine:
- Remove the trialware anti virus/internet security-Install Microsoft Security Essentials (Free)
-Use Windows Firewall
-Uninstall all trialware/junk stuff that ships with the machine
-Use SRIron over Chrome as web browser (Google Chrome is a glorified spyware product!)

A quick way of removing this junk is PC Decrapifier. This will automatically detect trialware junk for removal, its very handy

Nick

bonzodog2

Check the system tray (by the clock) for icons of things you don't use, and TaskManager, sorted by CPU usage or memory usage, to find apps slowing you down.

stevenf17

Another thing to do is to open msconfig.exe and go over to the startup tab. Then disable any programs you don't want to start when the computer starts.
You'd be surprised how many sneaky things run on startup and constantly run in the background!

bonzodog2

I've also noticed recently, some printer/phone/cdburner software products that want to try and index all media files they can find on startup. Bloatware IMHO.

P. Breathnach

Thanks, people.

Having said that I am cautious about adding to things, I have to say that I am about equally cautious about removing things. I played with msconfig and got rid of four things (one of which was HP Digital Imaging Monitor, which might be the sort of thing that bonzodog2 had in mind in his last post). Two mysteries on which I would like advice:
1. There are two instructions to load TINTSETP; can I delete one?
2. There is a blank item (no name, no command) with a location in Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\; what might that be?

The OS on the current system is Vista. Should I dump ZoneAlarm and ask Vista to provide a firewall?

I'm considering SRIron, but I hadn't heard of it before today, so I want to do some checking out (I was aware of Chrome's spyware capability).

It might be that when this PC is relegated, it will be running sweetly!

yoyo

SRIron is Chrome without the spyware bits, yeah dump Zone Alarm, Windows Firewall is ok. You can safely disable most stuff under the startup tab in msconfig, as a rule of thumb if the publisher is microsoft be more caucious, you shouldn't break the system disabling them all though tbh, but may restrict functionality

Nick

danjo-xx

deffo dump zone alarm it's a damn time waster:(

demanufactured

Hey P.Breathnach
Heres the easiest way to have a clean install on a brand new pc.

1. First time you boot it up you will be prompted to enter your name and set up the pc name. Dont enter your name, instead, Press CTRL+SHIFT +F3 together.
This will reboot the pc and will boot into the built in Administrator account and will be in whats called "Sysprep audit mode", Its what OEMs use to build new pcs.

Select "enter system audit mode" from the first drop down menu.
Select "quit" from the bottom drop down menu
DONT tick the generalize box.

2. Now while you are booted into the admin account you can remove any of the installed crap that comes with the machine and install the software you like, You can connect to the internet to download anything you need as normal.

I recommend going to http://www.ninite.com to download the apps you want, It is a great site that as all the essential free apps you will need.

(you may need to reboot when uninstalling or installing some apps, When you do you will be prompted with the sysprep window again, Select the same options as above.)

3. When you have everything installed and you are happy with how the system is,
Go to MY Computer - C: - Windows - System32 - Sysprep, And double click on the sysprep.exe file, This will bring up the same window you saw earlier, This time select "oobe (out of box experience)"
and you can either select reboot or shutdown from the second menu.

When the system reboots you will come to the create user screen like you saw when you first turned on the machine.
Enter your name and anything else windows asks for, it will create your profile and load your desktop.

What you will have now is a brand new PC with a clean windows install but without all the crap that Company's put on the machines they ship, You will have all your own selected software and a nice fast PC.


This may seem long winded and daunting but if you follow the steps above you wont get it wrong.

If you have any more questions feel free to PM me.

Gadgetman496

demanufactured wrote: »

Hey P.Breathnach
Heres the easiest way to have a clean install on a brand new pc.

1. First time you boot it up you will be prompted to enter your name and set up the pc name. Dont enter your name, instead, Press CTRL+SHIFT +F3 together.
This will reboot the pc and will boot into the built in Administrator account and will be in whats called "Sysprep audit mode", Its what OEMs use to build new pcs.

Select "enter system audit mode" from the first drop down menu.
Select "quit" from the bottom drop down menu
DONT tick the generalize box.

2. Now while you are booted into the admin account you can remove any of the installed crap that comes with the machine and install the software you like, You can connect to the internet to download anything you need as normal.

I recommend going to http://www.ninite.com to download the apps you want, It is a great site that as all the essential free apps you will need.

(you may need to reboot when uninstalling or installing some apps, When you do you will be prompted with the sysprep window again, Select the same options as above.)

3. When you have everything installed and you are happy with how the system is,
Go to MY Computer - C: - Windows - System32 - Sysprep, And double click on the sysprep.exe file, This will bring up the same window you saw earlier, This time select "oobe (out of box experience)"
and you can either select reboot or shutdown from the second menu.

When the system reboots you will come to the create user screen like you saw when you first turned on the machine.
Enter your name and anything else windows asks for, it will create your profile and load your desktop.

What you will have now is a brand new PC with a clean windows install but without all the crap that Company's put on the machines they ship, You will have all your own selected software and a nice fast PC.


This may seem long winded and daunting but if you follow the steps above you wont get it wrong.

If you have any more questions feel free to PM me.

Well, I've been knocking around PC's for years now and I never knew that.

I nice bit of Info from you demanufactured. thanks for that little bit of education

It's great to see such useful knowledge being shared by helpful users

I guess my signature sums this post up

P. Breathnach

yoyo wrote: »

... yeah dump Zone Alarm, Windows Firewall is ok....

danjo-xx wrote: »

deffo dump zone alarm it's a damn time waster:(

I haven't done it yet. Reason being that I made a mistake earlier in saying that my OS is Vista when I should have said XP (there are too many damn computers in this house, and I lose track of what OS each one runs). A Google search throws up a number of opinions that the firewall in XP is less good than that in later OSs, and offers less protection than ZoneAlarm. I have some sensitive files that I don't want compromised, so unless somebody convinces me otherwise, I'll keep ZoneAlarm.

It's not a big deal. This computer is now in the relegation zone, so if it is operating at 85% efficiency rather than 95%, that's okay.

It looks to me as if the single thing that did most to damage performance was the installation of a HP C4380 printer/scanner. And, as if to rub salt in, the software is not at all to my liking, very cumbersome and not at all intuitive. That particular piece of kit is not getting anywhere near my new PC.

P. Breathnach

demanufactured wrote: »

Hey P.Breathnach
Heres the easiest way to have a clean install on a brand new pc.
...

Great stuff.

It's nice that you trust me to have an IQ of 90 or better!

demanufactured

Deffo dump zone alarm...you dont need it...there is a hardware firewall built into your broadband router.

P. Breathnach

demanufactured wrote: »

Deffo dump zone alarm...you dont need it...there is a hardware firewall built into your broadband router.

I decided to act as if I have an IQ>90: I looked at the ZoneAlarm log. Nothing there. So it looks as if it has been protecting me from non-existent threats. So now it's gone.

Respect to ZoneAlarm: it's a very well-behaved uninstall routine, with a number of "are you sure?" messages.

demanufactured

Yeah....zone alarm was useful back in the dial up days when we all had public ip addresses on our pcs.
Pointless these days.

Nothingbetter2d

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Greetings, folks.

I have always liked to keep my systems as clean as possible, because the overhead with firewalls, virus protection, drivers for accessories, and so on tends to add up and slow everything down. Open a couple of applications, and my current system can crawl. And I'm not into games, beyond the odd foray into simple things like Freecell. I use business applications, photo management software, a little video management and I hope to do more, and I plan to digitise 100+ vinyl recordings - and, of course, I browse the web, using Chrome. I suspect that part of what is wrong with my current setup (apart from insufficient RAM) is that there is some incompatibility between programs that are running either in the foreground or the background. I could try cleaning everything down, but am afraid that I might disable things I need. In any event, the PC is about five years old, and might be due to be downgraded to backup system.

I have just ordered a new desktop, which has Windows 7 Home Premium as its OS. So when the new system arrives I will be installing my software and files.

What I would like advice on minimising the background overhead. My first question is what to do about firewall and virus protection. What's the current best advice for Windows 7 Home Premium?

AV: Microsoft Security Essentials
Anti-spyware: MalwareBytes
Disable aero its slows down your pc and doesnt really offer much benefit in return.
disable all non essential services in windows see link below
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-7-services-optimization-guide

Defrag your hard drive at least once a month.

stevenf17

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

Defrag your hard drive at least once a month.

On a normal HDD, Yes!
On an SSD No! Its just a waste of time and you'll unnecessarily wear the drive down!

Nothingbetter2d

stevenf17 wrote: »

On a normal HDD, Yes!
On an SSD No! Its just a waste of time and you'll unnecessarily wear the drive down!

true but based on the fact the OP didnt specify getting an SSD drive defragging a normal drive does help reduce seek times.

P. Breathnach

The new PC arrived last Thursday. I don't know how other people feel, but I always approach commissioning a new system with a bit of apprehension. In addition, some of the ideas on improving my current setup were so helpful that the old system is performing better than it has for quite a while, so there is no sense of urgency about getting the new machine going. It wasn't until yesterday that I went up to the attic to retrieve an old monitor and set up the new system.

It came with Kapersky, Microsoft Office, and Chrome pre-loaded. They are now gone. I want to get back to a bare-bones setup before I load anything of my own choosing. I won't even plug in the ethernet cable to the router until I am sure that the system is as clean as I can make it. The first download will be Microsoft Security Essentials. Then, probably, SRIron, followed by Open Office. Following that, I will transfer a lot of stuff from the current machine (using my external hard drive which up to now has been nothing other than a backup system - guess what its new function will be).

Before that stage, I have a question: my setup seems to have multiple copies of Windows Live Mesh ActiveX Control for Remote Connections installed, in multiple languages. I'm not sure that I will ever use it, but the overhead for having one version there seems small. Is it safe (and advisable) to get rid of the versions in languages other than English?

marco_polo

Also IMO LibreOffice > OpenOffice nowadays

P. Breathnach

marco_polo wrote: »

Also IMO LibreOffice > OpenOffice nowadays

Thanks. More stuff to check out!