For you Windows users...

[CuppaJoe]

Did someone say, "bacon"?

 

[Nords]

My nine-month-old Dell Vista machine took 90 seconds to boot, and Soluto claims that it managed to cut that down to 74 seconds. Got rid of (or delayed) 16 applications, including the three seconds wasted on TiVo's server.

Interestingly the longest boot application is AVGFree at 16 seconds, which is as long as the next four Windows processes.

We'll see how this all works out when I reboot next month.

 

[TromboneAl]

I use the free app Startup Control Panel to manually examine or change the list of things that start automatically.

Mike Lin's Home Page

 

[RonBoyd]

This has been a very enlightening thread for me personally.

First, I have had Soluto installed for a week and have re-booted six times during that period (normal SOP). While the program didn't save me a lot of boot-up time, I found some memory robbing programs that I didn't know about. Starting with the statistics:

Prior to installing Soluto, I had 96 programs start, taking 4:58. After Installation, and adjustments made:

Required Programs -- 56 Apps - 2:14
Potentially Removable -- 26 Apps - 1:43.2
No-Brainer -- 1 App - :4.6

For a total of 83 Apps taking 4:13 to Boot. (Eliminated 13 Apps and 35.7 seconds.)

In fairness to Soluto, I had to re-install my original Boot-up controlling program, which controls the timing, and it runs at the same time as Soluto. (The reason was Soluto prevented "Gadgets" from starting during Boot-up.)

Bottom line: I am impressed with the program and highly recommend it. Not that it saved me any boot-up time but because of the basic principle of the thing -- it is self-adjusting and, even better, self-adjusting based on knowledge learned from all users of the program. A wonderful use of the Internet.

In addition to the joy from Soluto, I also discovered, through this thread, that Moneydance was re-written. This is one of the programs that I considered back when Microsoft abandoned Money. At the time, I decided against Moneydance because it was as light-weight as Quicken. My solution was to program Money so that it would retain the ability to update the Portfolio data and continue to use it. (This article explains the procedure for those that are interested.) Anyway, that would have taken considerable time and resources so I have been putting it off -- my Money subscription will end sometime in July.

Imagine the thrill I got when looking at Moneydance and finding that they did a complete re-write and, now, is exactly what I have been looking for.

While I am on the subject, iTunes was another program that was completely undesirable, in my opinion. My solution was "MediaMonkey." My song library, BTW, has 7,426 listings -- and I still have about 300 vinyl LPs to convert.

My photograph collection is also quite large (over 52,000 and I use Portfolio -- if anyone cares.

 

[Trek]

After I installed it today, I just get a screen saying it's down for maintenance and will be back shortly. Been like that all day. So now I have another useless piece of software on my computer I have to remove. Great.

 

[RonBoyd]

After I installed it today, I just get a screen saying it's down for maintenance and will be back shortly. Been like that all day. So now I have another useless piece of software on my computer I have to remove. Great.

And, worst of all, it gobbled up your Avatar.

 

[harley]

My DD was complaining that my old XP PC that I gave her was taking forever to boot up. When I was in town last week I tried it out. It took 12 minutes to boot. Poked around in it for a few minutes then used MSConfig to take ITunes out of the startup process. Booted in 3 minutes! Steve Jobs is screwing with Bill Gates again.

 

[walkinwood]

Another article highlighting Soluto
Novelties - Soluto Offers a Program to Fix Those Irritating PC Delays - NYTimes.com

 

[Nords]

After a little research on a couple mystery .exe files, I was finally able to rid this Dell PC (with its networked HP laser printer) of the Dell remote-support utility and the HP printer's "user support group" program.

These were programs that seem to have defied MSCONFIG's attempts to get rid of them. It shaved another 10 seconds off the boot. More importantly, who knows what those two programs were reporting to their respective mother ships.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I use MSCONFIG too. But then again, I miss command line DOS.

 

[scrabbler1]

After a little research on a couple mystery .exe files, I was finally able to rid this Dell PC (with its networked HP laser printer) of the Dell remote-support utility and the HP printer's "user support group" program.

These were programs that seem to have defied MSCONFIG's attempts to get rid of them. It shaved another 10 seconds off the boot. More importantly, who knows what those two programs were reporting to their respective mother ships.

That Dell Support facility was a big nuisance for a friend's PC which was booting up slowly and running slowly and hanging all the time. I had to uninstall the damn thing because MSCONFIG couldn't stop it from running all the time at start-up. It was quite the hog of system resources.

 

[RonBoyd]

These were programs that seem to have defied MSCONFIG's attempts to get rid of them. It shaved another 10 seconds off the boot. More importantly, who knows what those two programs were reporting to their respective mother ships.

Many years ago (5-6), I decided to never purchase another HP product for this very reason... haven't missed them a bit.

An update: I decided to install Soluto on my laptop. I went from a 6:25 boot time to 3:30 after adjusting. I still have 63 programs start at boot but got rid of 23. This may sound like an inordinate number of programs but a lot of them are security and network programs -- the laptop, for instance, belongs to two different networks -- depending on where I am (bricks & sticks or RV). Media Center is used extensively on the laptop and SageTV on the desktop.

I am now installing it on the other two machines. (Windows 7 & Windows XP)

I am very pleased with this program. (Now, watch that come back to bite me.)

 

[HFWR]

I have the Kentucky version, called Win-ders...

Don't care so much about boot time, but do hate all the useless crap running in the background, gobbling memory and CPU.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Whenever I get a pre-bought PC/Laptop, the first thing I do is reinstall the OS. Gets rid of all those pesky add on programs.

I almost always build my own PCs, but can't do that to laptops.

 

[TromboneAl]

When I reinstalled, I made drive images that I could later come back to. But it turns out that doesn't help that much, since I often add or remove apps, or change settings. IOW, it would be a big bother to restore back to an earlier state.

 

[ls99]

Downloaded and ran saluto, used it to improve boot time by 30secs. Then deleted it. It extended boot time by about 20 secs, and hated the the "peeling wallpaper" effect.

 

[ERD50]

When I reinstalled, I made drive images that I could later come back to. But it turns out that doesn't help that much, since I often add or remove apps, or change settings. IOW, it would be a big bother to restore back to an earlier state.

Why not make images routinely? Then you always have a recent snapshot of your apps/settings/configs.

I do it, and rotate between two different external drives, so I have a backup-backup. I'd try to do it every month or so, or after I made some big changes. And I'd get a subset of data backed up more often, sometimes just to a flash drive.

-ERD50

 

[RonBoyd]

Why not make images routinely? Then you always have a recent snapshot of your apps/settings/configs.

I do it, and rotate between two different external drives, so I have a backup-backup. I'd try to do it every month or so, or after I made some big changes. And I'd get a subset of data backed up more often, sometimes just to a flash drive.

I, also, have a rotating schedule for my Desktop Vista Ultimate machine -- every Sunday I make a backup with Retrospect; rotating between two external hard drives. However, in addition, I use the built-in Windows Backup to make a copy of all changed files every night and weekly (Thursday) an image is made with True Image to another external HD.

The two laptops are backed up by an Image with True Image when we are in Denver (access to home Network).

The other Desktop -- Windows XP -- simply relies on Norton GoBack which keeps a constant image that can be restored from at any moment.

Soluto, BTW, is not designed to act as a backup device.

 

[TromboneAl]

For me, the purpose of the drive image is for convenience if I have to restore the entire system. It also allows me to eliminate much of the stuff that accumulates and slows down the system.

Backing up my data is done every Friday. On alternate Fridays I back up to a zip file -- this requires only two mouse clicks. The other Fridays I back up My Documents to a DVD. I make sure that my My Document folder never gets too big to fit on one DVD. My iTunes files are stored and backed up separately.

Thus I can go back to any two-week period in the last six years or so.

 

[winger]

I went with an online backup service last year. $48 a year. We have close to 12,000 digital pictures of our travels since 2005. Priceless to us......

 

[FreeBird]

I've been using this guy's website for years to locate, identify, then eliminate various useless or unnecessary applications from launching at start up. This is a great thread with lots of useful info. Thanks!

 

[willywonka]

It seemed like Linux for non-server uses was dying off fairly quickly due to XP's success. Then came Vista. Vista may have been Ubuntu's best friend.
I recently started returning to Linux, after about 10 years on Windows for my home PCs. I was amazed at how easy it was to install Ubuntu on my daughter's Dell D430 laptop after a virus trashed it. It was up and running in far less time than the average Windows update. And it sniffed out all the wireless stuff, the printers, and it just worked! And that included installing the full office suite. My daughter loves it, especially since the killer malware is now a non-issue. The included application that links to a lot of pretty nice, pre- tested and certified, and FREE software downloads is also a big plus.
Perhaps it's the honeymoon phase, but I must say I'm very impressed with the improvements in the ease of installation for Linux. And the price is certainly right (zero) for the skinflint segment of ERs.

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[willywonka]

now wait a minute...I don't wear suspenders.

 

[Rustic23]

I have been using Ubuntu on my netbook, dual boot, with Xp for about a year. I boot in to Ubuntu about 95% of the time. I run Windows 7 on my main desktop, because it came with it, and it has been very stable.

I would recommend Ubuntu to anyone having to re-install an operating system. Another thing I like about it, is I can make a backup of the entire system is about 30 min, and it will fit on a DVD, and can be re-installed from that DVD.