How to Tune Up Windows
Linked by Howard Fosdick on Tue 19th Oct 2010 23:23 UTC
Windows In previous OS News articles, I described how mature computers up to ten years old can be refurbished and made useful. One article identified and evaluated different approaches to refurbishing. This article tells how to performance tune a mature Windows computer to make it serviceable again. I hope it will interest anyone who wants to tune Windows.
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lemur2
Member since:
2007-02-17

First, I would not recommend using any third party tools to clean up windows or help you do the job. I often find those programs to cause just as many, if not more, problems as then they solve. Second, The software substitution list is a joke. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE foss software and use it almost exclusively. However, if you have a Dreamweaver, MS office, Photoshop on a donated PC that you are not going to reformat, Leave them there unless there is a really good reason not to. If the new user doesn't need/ will never need one of them, then by all means remove them. But, those are F*ing expensive a** programs who's complete functionality cannot be readily replaced by FOSS as of yet. If the user really needs them, leave them. Dream weaver especially. There absolutely is not another program in the same category as it. Even older versions are very useful.


This is very true. Precisely spot on.

However, having noted that ... it remains a very difficult task to "clean" a Windows machine if it has become compromised and clogged up. People in that situation, where they have expensive programs installed on a machine where the Windows OS has been messed up, unfortunately find themselves very much between a rock and a hard place.

In general though, even though it sucks, I agree with the recommendation above. If there is expensive software installed on a machine, even a nearly-borked machine, then do not reformat, leave it there unless there is a really good reason not to.

In this situation, an attempt to "clean and tune" the machine is worth the effort.

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