Trying to "spring clean" my laptop.....

patman99

You're running Vista. It is a useless, badly-written load of tosh. My son gave me his Laptop with Vista on it. I ran a series of speed tests, then wiped the drive and installed Win 7, re-ran tests and hey presto, a 69% increase in performance..
You could try reading this article HERE

ClaireLR

patman99 wrote: »

You're running Vista. It is a useless, badly-written load of tosh. My son gave me his Laptop with Vista on it. I ran a series of speed tests, then wiped the drive and installed Win 7, re-ran tests and hey presto, a 69% increase in performance..
You could try reading this article HERE

The thing is, for a technophobe like me that would involve doing things that would a) cost me money and b) I wouldn't know what the heck I was doing! I'd be scared and wrecking my laptop :eek: is Windows 7 really that much better?

Donnie

ClaireLR wrote: »

Having a potential blonde moment - I can't seem to see the live toolbar items that you mentioned when I go into manage add ons, it gives me tabs for toolbars and extensions, search providers, accelerators and inprivate filtering, I've clicked on them and all can't see what to do next!! I'll do the Ccleaner thing next, I run that quite often anyway so shouldn't take to long. Also, I go on holiday tomorrow, so please don't think that I've done a runner if I don't reply for a while, I really appreciate the help!

Do you know how to post a Screenshot? If so, you can send me a PM of the Toolbars & Extensions box in order to decide which to Disable. You can experiment if you wish. Disable entries and see if it improves your IE8 browsing experience. You can easily re-enable.

Donnie

You can disable all except the entries in bold. You can also disable the Sidebar if you don't use it. Just right click on the entry and choose Disable. If you find that it is something you use regularly, you can repeat the steps to re-enable.
As for the router software, you can set up the Wireless Connection through Vista. You don't need the Netgear utility. You also have the option to start any useful entries manually. Nothing will have been deleted.

Yes HKCU:Run NSUFloatingUI "C:\Program Files\Sony\Network Utility\LANUtil.exe"
Yes HKCU:Run Sidebar C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
Yes HKCU:Run ehTray.exe C:\Windows\ehome\ehTray.exe
Yes HKCU:Run msnmsgr "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe" /background
Yes HKCU:Run WMPNSCFG C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Windows Defender %ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe -hide
Yes HKLM:Run NvSvc RUNDLL32.EXE C:\Windows\system32\nvsvc.dll,nvsvcStart
Yes HKLM:Run NvCplDaemon RUNDLL32.EXE C:\Windows\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
Yes HKLM:Run NvMediaCenter RUNDLL32.EXE C:\Windows\system32\NvMcTray.dll,NvTaskbarInit
Yes HKLM:Run IgfxTray C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe
Yes HKLM:Run HotKeysCmds C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Persistence C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe
Yes HKLM:Run RtHDVCpl RtHDVCpl.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Apoint C:\Program Files\Apoint\Apoint.exe
Yes HKLM:Run ISBMgr.exe "C:\Program Files\Sony\ISB Utility\ISBMgr.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run MarketingTools C:\Program Files\Sony\Marketing Tools\MarketingTools.exe
Yes HKLM:Run GrooveMonitor "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\GrooveMonitor.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run Windows Mobile-based device management %windir%\WindowsMobile\wmdSync.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Skytel Skytel.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Adobe Reader Speed Launcher "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run SunJavaUpdateSched "C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe"
Yes Startup Common NETGEAR WG111v2 Smart Wizard.lnk C:\Program Files\NETGEAR\WG111v2\WG111v2.exe

patman99

All the stuff mentioned in the Hubpages article is free with the exception of Driver Agent. There is a free driver checker called 'Device Dr' but having used it, it is really hit and miss when it comes to finding the right drivers.

Donnie

patman99 wrote: »

All the stuff mentioned in the Hubpages article is free with the exception of Driver Agent. There is a free driver checker called 'Device Dr' but having used it, it is really hit and miss when it comes to finding the right drivers.

??????????

libra10

If you do decide to install Windows 7 take care.

I also have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21Z and since doing a complete installation of Win 7, have been unable to use the function keys for brightness and the volume button. There are ways round this, but possibly an 'upgrade' from Vista would be better.

Windows 7 is definitely a better operating system than Vista.

Good luck

aliEnRIK

libra10 wrote: »

If you do decide to install Windows 7 take care.

I also have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21Z and since doing a complete installation of Win 7, have been unable to use the function keys for brightness and the volume button. There are ways round this, but possibly an 'upgrade' from Vista would be better.

Windows 7 is definitely a better operating system than Vista.

Good luck

id guess thats because you never installed the sony drivers needed for them to run

libra10

You're right there. Sony support were not much help at all as I am not techy enough to understand about Utilities, Libraries, DLL files? and other jargon.

Some of the drivers on Sony support page wouldn't install, which probably didn't help. Followed relation's advice and tried to reinstall Vista (from back up discs), brought up an error code.

In the end I gave in! Can't beat City Hall!

aliEnRIK

libra10 wrote: »

You're right there. Sony support were not much help at all as I am not techy enough to understand about Utilities, Libraries, DLL files? and other jargon.

Some of the drivers on Sony support page wouldn't install, which probably didn't help. Followed relation's advice and tried to reinstall Vista (from back up discs), brought up an error code.

In the end I gave in! Can't beat City Hall!

Some drivers probably wont ever work on windows 7 as they were designed to be used on Vista