How much do you optimise your PC?

[Edwin]

I’m curious if anyone else goes in for extreme tinkering like me?

I’ve gone individually through all the startup items (msconfig), services (Services) and scheduled tasks (Task Scheduler), disabling or uninstalling absolutely everything that’s not essential to keep the PC working.

Also I step through all the helper apps, add ons and browser plugins for all the main browsers, doing the same.

It’s a process I repeat every couple of months because there’s a lot of cruft that builds up because software updates and new software install more unnecessary stuff all over the place.

 

[Adam H]

I've always gone through msconfig as a process of habit every couple of months, along with general clean up processes. That was a result of being an IT engineer for a couple of years before getting involved with web stuff. Now days I'm not as knowledgeable about the latest tools and optimisations as I personally can't be bothered. In Win, 98, Me, XP there was so much to tweak for major performance improvements and those systems really needed it doing.

I now find MSconfig, Ccleaner and, Nod32 and the occasional malware scan keeps things operating nicely with the latest Systems.

Could also be because I don't have to deal with cheap machines and what I referred to as *PEBKAC anymore ( *Problem exists between keyboard and chair )

 

[Adam H]

Speaking of CCleaner, they had a malware issue recently. Just in case you (or others) hadn't heard.
http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/ccleaner-hacked-malware.html

Yeah I saw that on one of the tabloid newspaper feeds the day it happened. Luckily I hadnt updated ccleaner in the time frame of which it was infected.

 

[davedevelopment]

I run a fairly minimal Linux desktop and don't suffer the "windows rot" type symptoms. I kick it once in a while when it sounds like one of the fans has got a bit of dust in it.

 

[TallBloke]

Used to disable some services on my old Dell in attempt to improve performance. It was always the anti-virus s/w that killed performance though.

Moved to an iMac in 2010. Best computer I've had and I'd never return to windows now (I'd consider Linux).

Now considering moving from Chrome browser to Safari as I'd like to make it more difficult for advertisers to follow my every online move. Also, Chrome seems to be a performance hog, although I do have a habit of leaving lots of tabs open.

 

[aZooZa]

Mac obviates most of these issues. I'd never run Windows again as my main machine. XP was reasonable in its day but subsequent iterations: PITA IMHO.

 

[dee]

Mac obviates most of these issues. I'd never run Windows again as my main machine. XP was reasonable in its day but subsequent iterations: PITA IMHO.

Im the same. Been on macs since 90's and they just work ! No third party conflicts or driver issues really. Im sure PCs are much better these days but still.

 

[Adam H]

Ironically, had my first crash in many years this morning. Woke up to check emails & go through my morning routine. My main machine with Win 10 didnt get past the back screen prior to user logon. ( little white dashes circling ).

I very nearly gave in and started fresh as I couldnt find the problem after a couple of hours tinkering, hardward checks, Chkdsk, SFC scannow, MBR boot fixes, Win 10 diagnostic repairs, disable and enable services. ( I had done a full scale virus and malware scan the yesterday so new it wasnt anything like that ) All come up clean, I put it down end the end to a corrupted user profile as I could get into safe mode by activating the administrator account via command prompt and the fact I couldnt access or add new users, even after editing the registry to default values to profiles.

I was then going to admit defeat as I needed this machine online by morning, and knew id have a good 12 hours to reload all my gear and backup data so mid-day currently I was in for a long day doing that. But before I did, Thought id and disable some device drivers before doing so and see if it come online..........wish i had just done that first like I normally would of way back when. I was convinced it was a software/registry/update corruption......turns out it was a graphics driver problem, although I didnt reinstall it. Just disabled it in safemode, then when It got back into full windows mode finally i reactivated it. Restarted, shut down a couple of times and its all fine.

Waste of a morning, and realising how rusty and out dated I am with some stuff, not the Sunday I had in mind