Do you do Windows?

[jkaetz]

Dude, if you had to go through that much song and dance to make a pistol run right, would you stick with the platform?

If one treated a pistol like they treat their computer then they'd likely have the same problems. Imagine encasing your pistol in concrete and then trying to chisel it out and expect it to perform at 100% again.

100% of problems with Windows can be avoided if one is judicious about what programs are installed and what websites are visited.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

What he described took up a lot of space on a forum post. That doesn't mean it takes a lot of effort.

I do those things every day. Multiple times a day. Some know it, some don't. It's not as many steps as that makes it sound.

 

[BugI02]

What he described took up a lot of space on a forum post. That doesn't mean it takes a lot of effort.

I do those things every day. Multiple times a day. Some know it, some don't. It's not as many steps as that makes it sound.

I'm with you on that. Was a command line programmer back in the day and a windows user up through 7. Went mac because the wife is a graphic designer and wanted to freelance so mac much better for her. Once I adjusted (not that hard) I found I loved it. Still have a windows laptop, but wouldn't go back for desktop if I could. Just waiting to pull the trigger on a used macbook pro when I find the right one.

ETA: There is a substantial upfront investment to switch. You are right about that,

 

[wtburnette]

Dude, if you had to go through that much song and dance to make a pistol run right, would you stick with the platform?

As stated, it's not that hard and once done, running the scans once every week or two can be fast and easy. Windows has the largest amount of users and therefore most malware is written for it. There's some written for the Mac OS and even Linux, but not nearly as much. If you game, Windows is where it's at. No other OS offers the same level of support. If you don't, Mac or Linux are attractive alternatives. I have Linux Mint running on an old gaming laptop and I love it. I use it for my online banking transactions and use it to surf the web when I'm working from home. My desktop is still Windows though, because I like to occasionally game. I also supported Windows machines for 16+ years and know my way around them pretty well, so I'm comfortable staying where I am. Not knocking your choice, just could never get into the Mac platform. Every year or two I look back and think to myself how glad I am I stayed away from the whole Mac and idevice ecosystem. Again, just my personal choice.

If one treated a pistol like they treat their computer then they'd likely have the same problems. Imagine encasing your pistol in concrete and then trying to chisel it out and expect it to perform at 100% again.

100% of problems with Windows can be avoided if one is judicious about what programs are installed and what websites are visited.

Well, more like 75%. I agree about the programs installed, but infected ad banners and drive by exploits can leave your machine infected no matter how careful you are. I've visited tech news sites that I've been using for years and received infections from their banner ads due to the ad server being infected. Nowadays, if you aren't actively scanning your Windows system with anti-malware tools from time to time, you're likely infected, even if you don't notice any symptoms. Up till I was infected by a pretty reliable site, I felt the same way, but afterwards I started scanning with such tools every week or so and I find malware at least once a month. Believe me when I say that as a security professional, I'm careful what sites I visit.

 

[WebSnyper]

As stated, it's not that hard and once done, running the scans once every week or two can be fast and easy. Windows has the largest amount of users and therefore most malware is written for it. There's some written for the Mac OS and even Linux, but not nearly as much. If you game, Windows is where it's at. No other OS offers the same level of support. If you don't, Mac or Linux are attractive alternatives. I have Linux Mint running on an old gaming laptop and I love it. I use it for my online banking transactions and use it to surf the web when I'm working from home. My desktop is still Windows though, because I like to occasionally game. I also supported Windows machines for 16+ years and know my way around them pretty well, so I'm comfortable staying where I am. Not knocking your choice, just could never get into the Mac platform. Every year or two I look back and think to myself how glad I am I stayed away from the whole Mac and idevice ecosystem. Again, just my personal choice.



Well, more like 75%. I agree about the programs installed, but infected ad banners and drive by exploits can leave your machine infected no matter how careful you are. I've visited tech news sites that I've been using for years and received infections from their banner ads due to the ad server being infected. Nowadays, if you aren't actively scanning your Windows system with anti-malware tools from time to time, you're likely infected, even if you don't notice any symptoms. Up till I was infected by a pretty reliable site, I felt the same way, but afterwards I started scanning with such tools every week or so and I find malware at least once a month. Believe me when I say that as a security professional, I'm careful what sites I visit.

And use a non admin account for your general surfing, etc. Keep an admin account separate that you know the password to. If you get prompted from the UAC for admin credentials, only put in the password for the admin account if you know you initiated something that should need it. Otherwise cancel the action.

 

[wtburnette]

And use a non admin account for your general surfing, etc. Keep an admin account separate that you know the password to. If you get prompted from the UAC for admin credentials, only put in the password for the admin account if you know you initiated something that should need it. Otherwise cancel the action.

Excellent advice.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

FYI, Woot has free shipping on everything today. They also have an AMD refurb laptop up for $330, if you decided on the new hardware route.

Computers.Woot: Laptops, tablets, desktops, computer accessories, & more

 

[Cameramonkey]

FYI, Woot has free shipping on everything today. They also have an AMD refurb laptop up for $330, if you decided on the new hardware route.

Computers.Woot: Laptops, tablets, desktops, computer accessories, & more

And an important note about woot for anyone not familiar... Every day is a new item (for as long as they have stock). When they are gone, they are gone. They wont have more. And when the clock strikes 12, a new item comes with the new day; You snooze you lose.

So if it looks like you want it, get it. It may not be there later today, and it DEFINITELY wont be there tomorrow.

 

[weezy]

I actually have the beta for Windows 10 installed now and it is FAR better than windows 8.1

 

[Reno316]

Pretty much this. I would never spend $300 for someone to "tune up" a PC. Reload the OS (or if the machine has a restore partition, just copy off any data you want to preserve and do the restore to factory option)...

^^ That.

When I get a new PC, here's my approach:

First, before ever connecting to the network at home, I uninstall all the bloat-ware that came with it, then reboot.
Next, I partition the hard drive: C:\ is for Windows OS and NOTHING ELSE EVER. Run Windows updates until there are none left.
If it's shared with my wife, I make a J:\ partition for me, and an L:\ partition for her. That's where we put photos, pdf files, etc.
Then use Acronis True Image to get an image of the hard drive, specifically C:\.
J and L drives get backed up to my external hard drive and to cloud storage.

When the PC starts getting sluggish, I just re-image the C:\ partition, re-run Windows updates, and I'm back to "like new".

There ain't no way I'd ever spend $300 for a "tune-up" of my PC. Ever.

 

[Reno316]

Once you get everything clean, make sure you update your Adobe Flash, Shockwave, Reader and Java, plus make sure you have all the latest Windows updates installed. You can download something like Secunia PSI to search your system for software that needs to be updated to help as well. Lastly, make sure you have AV of some sort installed. If you don't want to pay for it, there are free versions of Avast, Panda or others that should work just fine for you. Good luck!

Never heard of Secunia PSI, but I might have to look into it.

NiNite is a fantastic utility for upgrading all your "associated" programs. You select what you need (Chrome, FireFox, Flash, Java, iTunes, etc.) and it will build an installer for those. Then a double click and let it run... It says "No" to all the extra packaged stuff (toolbars and the like), and checks all of the items you selected to see if there's an update. If so, it installs, if not it skips.

I run it once a month as a scheduled task... Never need to check for Java updates again!

https://ninite.com/

 

[tatic05]

Never heard of Secunia PSI, but I might have to look into it.

NiNite is a fantastic utility for upgrading all your "associated" programs. You select what you need (Chrome, FireFox, Flash, Java, iTunes, etc.) and it will build an installer for those. Then a double click and let it run... It says "No" to all the extra packaged stuff (toolbars and the like), and checks all of the items you selected to see if there's an update. If so, it installs, if not it skips.

I run it once a month as a scheduled task... Never need to check for Java updates again!

https://ninite.com/

Ninite is great! I use it a lot even for random software installs.