Help with new laptop

jshm2

badger09 said:

A plea for help setting up new Windows 11 laptop I’m overwhelmed by all the choices which seem to be needed instantly before I can move on. 

Comes with 1 month free trial Macafee premium preinstalled. I don’t want Macafee at all! It used to be virtually impossible to get rid of but can I now just uninstall the app via laptop settings? Or do I have to set up an account, cancel subscription which follows by default, & then uninstall. 

I’ve declined offer of free trial of Microsoft 365 Personal. I have Office 13 installed on old laptop but not sure I still have product key. I only use Word & Excel. Will the free version be enough?

Used to be comfortable with this sort of stuff but advancing years are taking their toll so grateful for any help 

Just Google "Bulk Crap Uninstaller" then download and run the program. It will highlight all the bloat software you can uninstall, like Mcafee. 

To transfer your MS office key to your new laptop (provided it's the same office version) download and run Nirsoft Produkey on your OLD laptop. Jot down the key and activate it on your NEW laptop.  

Frozen_up_north

Have you run Dell Support Assist? It should clean up and speed things up.

There is no need to install a fresh copy of Windows, Windows 11 is much better than older versions and will run fine with just a little cleanup from Dell S/A.

I have an i5 Dell Vostro and an i5 Optiplex, both run Windows 11 Pro and are pretty slick, booting in a few seconds.

badger09

Thanks
@jshm2 I’ll take a look tomorrow

@Frozen_up_north no I haven’t used Dell assist but I’ve no intention of reinstalling windows 11. Surely that can’t be necessary?  

Since doing some uninstalling today it boots up fast enough but is still incredibly slow at downloading web pages with lots of pictures. Much slower than my now 13 year old laptop with much lower specs (also Dell Inspiron) 

Eyeful

 Suggest you try using the Brave Browser (its based on the Chrome Browser), it should load much faster than the Chrome Browser.

Frozen_up_north

Re-installing Windows isn’t necessary. Run Dell Support Assist and it will tidy up the system, that is why it comes pre-installed.

grumpycrab

badger09 said:...but is still incredibly slow at downloading web pages with lots of pictures. Much slower than my now 13 year old laptop with much lower specs (also Dell Inspiron) 

in any browser run a speed test (just search for speed test).  compare with speed test on a mobile phone connected to the  same wifi.  How much memory does the new laptop have?   Is windows update running?

Eyeful

Have you tried the Brave Browser yet?

At the moment I am dual booting, Windows 10 with Linux Mint.
This month Microsoft keeps nagging me & I have seen many people complaining about Windows 11
So I will not be buying a new computer with Windows 11 but will just continue with Linux Mint instead. 

badger09

Frozen_up_north said:

Re-installing Windows isn’t necessary. Run Dell Support Assist and it will tidy up the system, that is why it comes pre-installed.

grumpycrab said:

badger09 said:...but is still incredibly slow at downloading web pages with lots of pictures. Much slower than my now 13 year old laptop with much lower specs (also Dell Inspiron) 

in any browser run a speed test (just search for speed test).  compare with speed test on a mobile phone connected to the  same wifi.  How much memory does the new laptop have?   Is windows update running?

Ok, so far I have gone through all the Set up & Optimise steps on Dell Assist. I also restarted router & new laptop & there was pages loaded slightly faster. 

I’ve run several speed tests on New laptop, Old laptop & iPhone. 

New laptop has never managed a download speed more than 2.71Mbps and most are below 0.5Mbps, whereas Old laptop were between 18 & 31. iPhone between 9 & 22 today. 

New laptop specs:
16GB, 2x8GB, DDR5, 5600 MT/s
1TB M.2PCle NVMe Solid State Drive

(not that that means much to me)

This morning I tried to download & install Bitdefender Free AV but it keeps stalling with error messages Slow internet connection, or Check internet connection & try again. So far only 21% downloaded after almost 2 hours & it says it’s downloading @ 11.1KB/s 😳

Clearly something is very wrong, but I’m stuck. 

Any pointers gratefully received.  

grumpycrab

badger09 said:

...

New laptop has never managed a download speed more than 2.71Mbps and most are below 0.5Mbps, whereas Old laptop were between 18 & 31. iPhone between 9 & 22 today. 

...

Does the new laptop have an ethernet port?  if so, try an ethernet cable to router.  disable wifi while you test it (although it should prioritise ethernet)

HillStreetBlues

Eyeful said:

Have you tried the Brave Browser yet?

At the moment I am dual booting, Windows 10 with Linux Mint.
This month Microsoft keeps nagging me & I have seen many people complaining about Windows 11
So I will not be buying a new computer with Windows 11 but will just continue with Linux Mint instead. 

How many of the over 1/2 billion Win11 users are complaining? as needs to be put into  perspective.