[RESOLVED] Netbook's msconfig

[foxy]

That's what I meant, sorry. We had already stopped the Google and Bing toolbars.

[Broni]

You stopped them, but if you didn't uninstall them, they'll be listed in Autoruns.
Autoruns is simply a list of registry entries with all possible sources of startups, services, processes and whatever is running on your computer.

[foxy]

Thanks. I thought the text file would make some distinction between processes already stopped and those still running.

As she's not on a network, and doesn't intend to be, anything else we can stop?

[Broni]

Nothing I can really see.

[foxy]

No Services?

[Broni]

Services are better left alone, unless you're really committed to disable couple of them and you know exactly what you're doing.
The best site to play with services: http://www.blackviper.com/

BTW, why all this commotion? Anything wrong with that netbook?

[foxy]

See my first post.

I'll check Black Viper for Win 7, as I've used it on my own XP computers.

[Broni]

See, how it boots to safe mode.
Less, than 5 minutes?

[foxy]

I'll have to get back to you. I'm learning bits and pieces of Win 7 online, and this is her first computer.

She went to BestBuy and bought whatever they pushed on her. Where would you recommend she should buy another GB of RAM? It's DDR2.

[Broni]

http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx would be a good place.
2GB should be plenty for Win 7.

[foxy]

Many thanks.

[Broni]

Sure thing

[SuperSparks]

I use Ubuntu Linux NBR (Netbook Release) on my netbook. It's performance is just fine, though Linux does have many issues in the usability area - it is a lot less friendly than Windows. Nonetheless, I like it, I find Windows to sluggish on low powered hardware. On my Eee, everything just works after installing Ubuntu, there are no drivers to worry about at all. I just thought I'd mention it anyway:

http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download

[HAN]

I have a netbook (Dell.) A 5 minute boot is longer than it should be but these machines are puny.(My boot is around 3 to 4 minutes.) The Windows Experience rating on mine is 2.2. (My main laptop is 5.0) I ended up having to dump my netbook version of Norton's NIS and go back to Windows Firewall and Avast (& also Sandboxie which makes it pretty bullet proof) to regain a decent level of speed.

Toshiba laptops run several of their own branded "doo dads" which probably aren't needed. But before disabling any of them, one should fully research them before stopping them. Also, Kaspersky is on board. Excellent protection. Most certainly choking the life out of the machine.

Realistically, it's going to be tough to perk this thing up much. Since your friend is not knowledgeable, IMO she needs an AV suite. Running just an AV and Windows Firewall may not be enough protection on their own. (I use Sandboxie when online and while it doesn't have a huge learning curve, installing, setting it up and teaching her how to use it would be a little tough long distance.)

I have a friend that wanted a netbook for her daughter for web, email, MS Office, photos and iTunes. I heavily advised her NOT to go netbook because iTunes alone would bring it to it's knees. Thankfully, she bought her a regular laptop and she has been very happy so far. So, bottom line, I'm afraid your friend may be in a no win solution. What you gain in ultimate portability you lose in quality of user experience. Beyond web surfing and email, netbooks are very weak performers.

[SuperSparks]

She might want to consider running Microsoft Security Essentials, it is pretty good at catching any nasties, but is very easy of system resources:

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/