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  #1  
Old January 6th, 2019, 02:38 AM
NYKrumrie NYKrumrie is offline
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Suggestions on cleaning-speeding up Win 7 laptop.

I'm trying to clean up & speed up a Win7 pro HP laptop. I haven't used Win7 in a long time. The laptop has Intel i3-3110M, 2.40 GHz, 8GB Ram, OS x64. So can you recommend the best steps to do a cleanup & speed up on a system like this? It has no 3rd party AV or malware programs. it just has built in Win Defender. I was thinking about doing the following.
-Update Win 7.
-Uninstall any 3rd party junk programs.
-Run Malwarebytes scan.
-Run Defender scan.
*Any other suggestions to run?

Is "Search & Destroy" still a good AV/Malware program?
Can you recommend any free diagnostic programs that can scan/test the PC to see if it's running close to optimal speed?
Thanks!
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  #2  
Old January 6th, 2019, 05:19 AM
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zipulrich zipulrich is offline
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After doing what you outlined, try running PC User Benchmark. It's an older tool, still works well though.
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  #3  
Old January 6th, 2019, 09:27 PM
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renegade600 renegade600 is offline
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one other thing you might do is a manual defrag after you cleanup and remove programs.
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  #4  
Old January 7th, 2019, 05:15 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
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Quote:
It has no 3rd party AV or malware programs. it just has built in Win Defender.
That is not good. Do not be confused by another of Microsoft's confusing naming policies. The Windows Defender in Windows 7 is a basic anti-spyware program is NOT the full anti-malware solution as the Windows Defender found in W8 and W10. You need a full, real-time anti-malware solution.

So I recommend you download and install Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). It is pretty much the same thing as the new Windows Defender found in W10, but it is for W7. Most importantly, it is a full fledged anti-malware solution that protects your W7 system from viruses, worms, Trojans and other malware, including spyware.

Quote:
Is "Search & Destroy" still a good AV/Malware program?
I would not recommend it. Years ago it was fine for XP. But its day has long passed. For W7, I recommend the above mentioned MSE. And regardless your primary anti-malware solution of choice, I recommend having a second scanner on hand just for double checking, and I generally recommend Malwarebytes for that - and it seems you already have that.

As for cleaning, if you have CCleaner installed, update and use that. If not, there is nothing wrong with Windows own Disk Cleanup.

Note W7, unless the defaults were changed, will automatically defrag your hard drives once a week, if needed. But if you decide to manually run defrag, before to run CCleaner or Disk Cleanup first. And uninstall any 3rd party applications you installed but don't use first too It is counterproductive to defrag with 1000s of temporary files, or unused programs on the drives.

And remember, SSDs are never defragged. Fortunately, Windows knows the difference and will not defrag SSDs when they are detected. Note in later versions of Windows, the tool is no longer called Disk Defrag but rather Optimize Disk. This is to avoid users getting confused and worried that Windows might try to defrag their SSDs.

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Can you recommend any free diagnostic programs that can scan/test the PC to see if it's running close to optimal speed?
Most are gimmicks that try to trick... err... coerce... umm... entice you into paying for something you don't need. I recommend the above actions, then just make sure Windows is fully updated.
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  #5  
Old September 8th, 2019, 04:12 AM
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english teacher english teacher is offline
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Cool

In addition to running malware bytes and other procedures you mentioned, try running CCleaner to remove cache from your hard drive. There is an option to remove what you want to get rid of, and what you want to keep. I forgot all of the settings. I use it all the time and I like it. But when it comes to actually removing junk, I keep my history files for future reference. But your browser cache from either chrome or Firefox you probably should remove. You can analyze what files you want to remove and see how much space you're gaining. Also you may want to look at what "start-up" items are checked. Having too many programs in start-up can also slow things down. You have to kinda play with this adjustment to see what programs really slow it down and which don't. Your anti-virus programs would be one culprit. This hopefully should be a good starting point for you. If you are unsure of which things you should keep and remove in the check boxes, just ask. And the defrag is also a good idea too.
Good Night and Good Luck.

Last edited by english teacher; September 8th, 2019 at 04:17 AM.
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  #6  
Old September 8th, 2019, 03:22 PM
lufbra lufbra is offline
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english teacher, did you see how old this post is?
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  #7  
Old September 8th, 2019, 03:37 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
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Quote:
english teacher, did you see how old this post is?
Not to mention it is basically a repeat of previous suggestions so not sure the point of the post at all. In fact, since this post, and just one other less than 2 weeks ago are the first in 2 years from english teacher, makes me wonder if the account has not been compromised. ???
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