Speeding up my laptop

Dist · 1 Dec 2008 at 20:08

Does anyone know of any trustworthy programs out there that will help me speed up my Lenovo R61 and more importantly, reduce load times? I have a good 20-30 processes running according to task manager, as well as a fair few lenovo programs in the add/remove programs list, but im not sure which are safe to remove without losing key programs like battery management stuff, or finger print reader etc... Ive already lost the function of the thinkvantage button on my keyboard, which is why i stoped trying to determine for myself what programs to delete, as i didnt intend for that to happen.

Main reason i would like to reduce load times is so i can once again use VMWare to play arround with linux, but last time i used it loading windows took much longer (not sure why, but it did).

Davey D · 1 Dec 2008 at 20:44

have you checked your registry to see what programs are loaded up at startup? i bet at least 50% of the stuff can be removed

Flukester · 1 Dec 2008 at 20:54

yep, nearly all laptops come from factory with so many useless programs starting, just look at the system tray, it's a nightmare. (some laptops are so infested with useless stuff I just format them and reinstall windows as it's quicker than trying to remove the junk, sony are a bad offender for this as are tosh.)

goto start menu / run and type 'msconfig'

goto startup tab and pretty much everything there can be unchecked...

goto www.ccleaner.com and install.. check everything and run cleaner, then goto registry option and run that also..

I can guarantee after all that and a reboot your laptop will feel a whole lot better

edit: also check on disk space on c: , if your getting low have a good clean out.. also goto add/remove programs and uninstall stuff you don't use. After all above you could give laptop a defrag.

If lappy is quite a old installation nothing would be better than a complete reinstall of windows, always the best way.

Dist · 1 Dec 2008 at 22:23

Well ive removed most of the things from add/remove programs that i think i wont use, and that did basicaly nothing, i still have arround 25 processes running, and now i have lost the use of the mute, volume up and volume down buttons.

Ive also tried to disable as many services as i think would be wise, the remaining ones seems like they should be left running according to their descriptions.

TheVoice · 2 Dec 2008 at 01:12

Flukester said:
goto startup tab and pretty much everything there can be unchecked...

I wholeheartedly disagree; he's already stated he doesn't want to use lose functionality, so he needs to be a bit more careful. It's worth unticking anything to do with Java, iTunes, Adobe etc because all they tend to do is check for updates, something which you can do manually from within the appropriate program anyway. When in doubt, just Google the name of the application and you'll find a meaningful description somewhere.

ShakenNstirred · 2 Dec 2008 at 13:19

Dist said:
Main reason i would like to reduce load times is so i can once again use VMWare to play arround with linux, but last time i used it loading windows took much longer (not sure why, but it did).

you dont need vmware to play around with linux
most version of linux can boot from cd, to let you play with linux
i just did that with ubuntu

Flukester · 2 Dec 2008 at 18:18

TheVoice said:
I wholeheartedly disagree; he's already stated he doesn't want to use lose functionality, so he needs to be a bit more careful. It's worth unticking anything to do with Java, iTunes, Adobe etc because all they tend to do is check for updates, something which you can do manually from within the appropriate program anyway. When in doubt, just Google the name of the application and you'll find a meaningful description somewhere.

I install / config at least 2 new laptops each week and there is very little of worth living in a laptops system tray. It's 95% junk, which preventing from running effects your laptop very little and only speeds it up when gone.

I'm positive that these manufacturers are having a competition of 'who can load as much into sys tray as possible at startup' ....they all seem to be doing well.

Most stuff is simply GUIs to Windows functions that don't need front ends... like CDROM Acoustic Silencers, Wifi managers, Photo Album Manger, Trial of this and that etc etc... it's just pointless.

Uninstall heavy weight AV / Firewall / Security suites and just use Windows firewall with a simple free AV like AVG. (if you are behind a router / on a LAN turn off windows firewall totally)

This is my basic list of apps that all our laptops get

Vista
Office 2007
Nero (cut down version)
Spybot Search Destroy
CCleaner
Defraggler
AVG Free Edition

It's all you need... and none of that bar AVG sits in tray or hogs any real resources..

Dano · 2 Dec 2008 at 18:21

I'm positive that these manufacturers are having a competition of 'who can load as much into sys tray as possible at startup' ....they all seem to be doing well.

It's a contest to see who can get the systray to reach the start button, we nearly had a winner till some bright spark gave them widescreens

TheVoice · 2 Dec 2008 at 18:39

Flukester said:
I install / config at least 2 new laptops each week and there is very little of worth living in a laptops system tray. It's 95% junk, which preventing from running effects your laptop very little and only speeds it up when gone.

I agree that PCs come with lots of junk pre-installed, but it's not all crap. If you want media buttons, backlight brightness shortcuts, volume control buttons etc to keep working, you need to leave some stuff enabled. You just have to be selective about what you allow to run and what to disable because it's just there wasting space.