PC becomes very slow to respond

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
The install loop is solved.
The PC shuts down to complete the drivers installation and reboots. If the drivers disc is still in the DVD drive, the PC asks that diskette question.
All I had to do was remove the disc and shut down, startup and windows desktop is back.
The stupid software install did not say to remove the disc before it did the reboot !
 
Administrator
Joined 2007
Paid Member
Excellent.

For all your updates (and there are going to be a few hundred) I would suggest doing them in say 3 monthly blocks. If you bring up the update screen and highlight the first in the list, and then use the keyboard cursor keys to whizz down the list then you should get a good idea of the first month/year the updates start at. It gives the date at the right of he screen. Untick them all (box at the top) and just tick the first three months worth and so on. After doing the important updates, look at the optionals and do the same. If you currently have IE 7 ??? was it as standard then DO NOT accept any cumulative updates for IE8/9/10 etc as you first need to install the appropriate latest IE version. That will be in among the updates and should be identifiable.

When looking and selecting updates I ALWAYS untick (deselect) them all first because its so easy to say look at an optional, install it and not realise that 200 others were ticked and selected as well.

Important... from around April/May 2015 there were some updates related to W10 and the free upgrade. I've not installed these as I don't want W10. I can list the KB numbers for these although these were for W8.1 I think some are the same.

Although you can still disable the upgrade if you do end up being offered it, I just did not want all the telemetry and data gathering stuff adding.
 
Administrator
Joined 2007
Paid Member
Good question. I think there was only an SP1 for W7

Now then, with Vista you could download SP1 from MS and install it as a stand alone package BEFORE doing any other updates. That could be worth trying because SP1 is really a collection of all that went before.

There is a link in all this halfway down the page. Expand the tabs for details.
Learn how to install Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
 
Virus and spyware definitions: updated

I want to simplify directories.

At the moment Win7 has created two users: public and another with my name that I could not leave blankor bypass during set up.

Can I combine these, or delete one, to force Win7 to save in the one location?
 
At the moment Win7 has created two users: public and another with my name that I could not leave blankor bypass during set up. Can I combine these, or delete one, to force Win7 to save in the one location?
This registry file will add the advanced users control icon, to your control panel.
So, that you can see the new icon, do have the control panel display either large or small icons, instead of the category view.
Also, you'd need at least one account in the administrators group so as to maintain control of the computer. However, you can either delete or shut off the rest.
 
Is the user with the name I was prompted to type in, the administrator account?

The rebuilt PC only has two accounts.
I can delete the Public.

My present PC has 4 accounts, but hopefully once I have back up done and then a clean install, this too will end up with two accounts and I delete the non administrator account.

Will I always be able to retrieve/save from/to the administrator account without having to approve via the MS approve screen?
 
Administrator
Joined 2007
Paid Member
Oooh, that I would not like to venture an opinion on. If the license keys are genuine then you need the 'iso' file of the version in question. OEM means once activated then you are tied to the PC its on (non transferable).

Have you compared versions ? Scroll down for a comparison chart. Having the 'Pro' edition is nice but do you really need the extra options. I suppose XP mode (for old software) and disk image backup (I don't think HP version had that) might be worth it some.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions
 
Administrator
Joined 2007
Paid Member
You can reinstall an OEM as often as you want, it just has to be on the same PC it was activated on.

Vista discs used to have all versions on them, you simply selected the version your license key was for. That meant you could install any to see what it was like, even if it wouldn't activate.

Not sure if W7 carried that on or whether the licence key actually 'unlocked' your paid for version with the others being on the disc but invisible.
 
Administrator
Joined 2007
Paid Member
These are the updates to avoid, all from around April/May 2015 onward as these updates add the GWX icon (Get Windows 10) and telemetry points and data collection.

These KB numbers relate to W8.1 so I'm not sure if they carry over to W7.

Important... these are the updates to avoid related to the W10 upgrade.
KB3083325
KB3035583
KB3044374
KB3096480
KB3058168
KB3075249
KB3061468
KB3048097
KB3080149
KB2976978
KB3073874
KB3102812
KB3083711 (there is a question mark over this one. I've not installed it)
KB3087041
 
Small problem.

I installed the Motherboard drivers disc.
That added ~1GB of files to the C: drive, now up to 13GB
I did another Backup.
I must have missed something, the Backup did not say (2) in drive E:

Now C: drive is @ 38GB
Tried looking through the folders in C: to see if I could locate backup file. no luck.

So I thought, restore to bring it back to before the drivers installation.
Restore confirmed successful.
But C: is still at 38GB.
Did a MS clean including system clean. That only removed 3MB.
Still at 38GB

Any ideas how I get rid of those extra C: clogging files?
 
Administrator
Joined 2007
Paid Member
38 Gb is an awful lot, far more than Windows should be. To give you an idea, my W8.1 install (which is pretty similar to W7) is occupying 25Gb, but that is complete, fully updated and with all my software plus around 7 to 8 Gb of personal files added.

Try this.

Go to control panel and select 'Folder Options'. Now UNTICK 'show protected operating system files' and apply the setting.

Now see if you can locate whatever is taking up the room on the C drive.

The two obvious possibilities are 'windows old' but that shouldn't be more than 3 or 4Gb for a non updated XP install. The other is that you have somehow backed up to your C drive with AOMEI (if you have then those backups would not be restorable unless you move them to a separate partition)
 
Administrator
Joined 2007
Paid Member
Forgot to add image. Also select to show 'hidden files and folders'.
 

Attachments

  • Capture.PNG
    Capture.PNG
    52.1 KB · Views: 46
Windows .old should already be gone when I did the first clean with system included.
And that was when C: became ~12GB. I think it cleaned out ~7GB changing from 19 to 12.

It;s my last Backup that seems to have caused the jump from 13GB to 38GB.

I'll try that tick box in case the backup is hiding.
It would be nice if all I had to do was delete the wrongly filed backup, but the change is twice what the fist backup (1) is
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.