# Slow desktop computer



## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

Hello,

are there any DIY solutions to a slow computer. I’ve always used free virus protection from Bell Canada or the Microsoft Security Essentials.

however, inevitably, my PCs start to slow down and “hang”. it will hang for about 30 seconds, then work fine until it’s stressed again…..then the hanging continues.

I assume I have malware or a virus.

anything I can do at home? 
do those plug-in USB stick malware removers work?

I remember taking a PC into Future Shop 20+ years ago for a ”clean-up” and it seemed to work.

any current solutions for a DiYer?


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## cliffsecord (Jan 10, 2020)

If you have malware or a virus just reinstall to be safe. Either install windows 10 - it works just fine without activation - or install Cloud ready and convert your PC into a chrome book. Both are easy to do.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Yea just back up your data in the cloud or an external and reinstall a fresh OS

All those software cleaner/protection services are bs imo. I don't use those on Windows, Mac or Linux.

Good opportunity to upgrade to SSD if you haven't already


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

I’ll need some more help To accomplish this. What are the risks? And how do I do it?


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I tend to agree with post #3 but in the meantime, it wouldn't hurt to run Malwarebytes which does find malware and other trojans and quarantines them. Virus protection is only partial coverage.

Given you have mentioned MSE, you must be running an old version of Windows. MSE was gone with Windows 7. Windows 7 support ended at the start of 2020 so any vulnerabilities uncovered won't be patched.


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## P_I (Dec 2, 2011)

It would be helpful to have some information about the computer specs, CPU, amount of RAM, size of hard drive and type, and what operating system is being used.


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## cliffsecord (Jan 10, 2020)

If you are in Ottawa I can help you in person. If not, buy a USB stick and copy all your personal data onto it. You can also upload to somewhere like google drive where you’ll have somewhere around 10 GB of storage. Just remember that though it maybe secure that it can still be hacked. 

Then get another usb stick and make that into a Windows 10 install drive. Get instructions directly from Microsoft. You can google the instructions. Create installation media for Windows

Just make sure you wait a few days after the backup to do a new install. Give yourself some cool down time to make sure you backed up all the info you need.

As long as you’ve backed up your important files don’t be afraid to nuke your OS. That said read, read, read about what you are about to do. Once you’ve done this once you’ll have gained an important skill for the future.


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

cliffsecord said:


> If you are in Ottawa I can help you in person. If not, buy a USB stick and copy all your personal data onto it. You can also upload to somewhere like google drive where you’ll have somewhere around 10 GB of storage. Just remember that though it maybe secure that it can still be hacked.
> 
> Then get another usb stick and make that into a Windows 10 install drive. Get instructions directly from Microsoft. You can google the instructions. Create installation media for Windows
> 
> ...


Is the correct term for what I’m attempting called a “reset”?

how do I maintain my Office products?


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive etc all provide some free cloud storage

I would just get a USB stick or external HDD and move it all there

Maybe hire the neighbour's kid if this doesn't make sense?


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

I found that a help to those running W7 is to disable Windows Update from the Task Manager accessed under Cntl Alt Del.

That process can consume gobs of memory trying to look for updates that are never gonna come any more.


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

I’m running W10. Seems straightforward enough, just worried about the registration keys for Windows and office products. I can’t remember how I obtained Office. I assume W10 was a free upgrade to whatever was installed originally….W7 maybe?


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Yea that's the annoying thing with Windows and Office. For example I once paid for them and then found out I can't move the software I paid for to my new computer hardware

Nobody else does this and Microsoft keeps changing their own rules as well. They're trying to sell subscription services now. Depending what you do on Office.. I have Office now but I've mostly migrated to google drive's free version just because I don't know what Microsoft will do next to hold my data hostage

With Mac and iPhone for example it's very easy to upgrade and transfer devices. I pay Apple $1/month for 50GB iCloud and it works seamlessly on all devices including Windows


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## Retired Peasant (Apr 22, 2013)

You could run Belarc Advisor and print it out (free for personal use). It has all your keys for software.
Belarc Advisor | Belarc, Inc.


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## cliffsecord (Jan 10, 2020)

Do you need Microsoft office? I thought I did until I did a reinstall, then I just used Google Docs. Open office is another decent one.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

I did mine last year.

Between Utube and google I got, successfully, clear instruction on how to replace my hard drive (it malfunctioned) and how to obtain restore W7 (found my restore cds).

Next I found out from pcmag how to get W10 gratis and install it.

Surprisingly good info and instruction out there. I have imp data backed up on cds and flash. Photos are backed up on a removable hard drive. No issue there. I did not bother with Office because I never use it ant more.

Two things shocked me. The first was that I was able to accomplish this. I was about to buy a new desktop. The second was the system performance…it was back to very fast from very slow.

it helped that I used my iPad to obtain and review the instructions while sitting in front of the desktop. This made it much easier for me.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

cliffsecord said:


> Do you need Microsoft office? I thought I did until I did a reinstall, then I just used Google Docs. Open office is another decent one.


LibreOffice is the new OpenOffice. The latter has been stale and left behind (no longer actively developed). LibreOffice is all one needs to replace MS Office.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Yea LibreOffice came standard on my Ubuntu. Why do we americans insist on staying in the MS Office abusive relationship..

I'd switch entirely to Ubuntu and MacOS but neither quite entirely replaces Windows. Very close though.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

Another option if you need Microsoft office is just use onedrive as you can work on MS documents online. Libreoffice works well and so does Google Docs, but there's always going to be some risk of formatting issues if someone needs an MS document.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

m3s said:


> Yea LibreOffice came standard on my Ubuntu. Why do we americans insist on staying in the MS Office abusive relationship..
> 
> I'd switch entirely to Ubuntu and MacOS but neither quite entirely replaces Windows. Very close though.


Curious on what you're missing because I've been using Lubuntu for years now. Libreoffice has gotten better, but can be flaky at times.


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## Retired Peasant (Apr 22, 2013)

I keep Office for Access - nothing in other offerings compares. Granted most home users don't use a database.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

I'm personally putting most stuff in the cloud, and running backblaze backups.


m3s said:


> Yea LibreOffice came standard on my Ubuntu. Why do we americans insist on staying in the MS Office abusive relationship..
> 
> I'd switch entirely to Ubuntu and MacOS but neither quite entirely replaces Windows. Very close though.


I've been on Debian since the mid 90's. Slackware in the early 90's
I still use it as my server, but honestly Windows and Office today is pretty good.

The web based free version with Onedrive is very capable. For my family we grabbed an Office 365 subscription. The apps are better, we have 1TB of storage each, it's just a really slick subscription, for less than the price of Netflix or Disney plus.

Also on my laptop (again Debian) I just use Office online if I need to for many items.


I understand the MSFT hate, but their products are actually getting pretty good.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

bgc_fan said:


> Curious on what you're missing because I've been using Lubuntu for years now. Libreoffice has gotten better, but can be flaky at times.


The odd software or driver issue. With more things going mobile/cloud/browser it's more the random driver issues lately

Ideally I'll have ubuntu and macOS on a mac.



MrMatt said:


> The web based free version with Onedrive is very capable. For my family we grabbed an Office 365 subscription. The apps are better, we have 1TB of storage each, it's just a really slick subscription, for less than the price of Netflix or Disney plus.


I don't mind Windows but I don't want to ever dig myself in their business model

I'm moving away from Google data harvesting so if anything I will pay for Apple. MacOS now with M1 chips sounds very impressive


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

m3s said:


> I don't mind Windows but I don't want to ever dig myself in their business model


Provide a product for a fee?



> I'm moving away from Google data harvesting so if anything I will pay for Apple. MacOS now with M1 chips sounds very impressive


Yes the M1 series of chips sound impressive, and I'd consider one if I had a need for a laptop and they actually produced a laptop with a proper keyboard. I need my number pad.
Right now I don't really need a laptop, and I have a general distaste for their products.

Also I've always found Apple products very hard to use and unstable, though to be fair I haven't used MacOS in the last 5 years. I find that the current iOS is much more stable, while it's not as bad as it was a decade ago, it's still not very good.

I'm not sure the Apple business model is much better than MSFT anyway.


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## Sam Sun (12 mo ago)

Thanks for this thread; it prompted me to spend a few hours today giving my laptop a tuneup (Windows 10). It only being two years old, there weren't too many issues. The last feature on this video "System File Checker" might be scary on an old computer.


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## TomB16 (Jun 8, 2014)

m3s said:


> I don't mind Windows but I don't want to ever dig myself in their business model


I assume you mean where the customer is also the product? If so, I am moving in the same direction.



m3s said:


> I'm moving away from Google data harvesting so if anything I will pay for Apple. MacOS now with M1 chips sounds very impressive


I wonder how many people realize how much data Google collects on them on a second by second basis. It consumes a significant amount of data and battery. Disablling "Google tracking" does nothing to the outbound data stream. A secure version of Android, without the Google infection, will run for a week on a charge with a reasonable amount of surfing on my Moto G7 Power. The same phone gets two days maximum, with the standard OS which Motorola poisoned when they obsoleted the device.

It is nearly impossible to get away from Google, including on Apple. I ran GrapheneOS on my phone for a while but will side load LineageOS in the near future, so I can s<till run Google apps.

Having a phone without Maps, Gmail, Calendar,.... is still worthwhile but just barely. I'm prepared to sell my soul to the devil for those apps but I will only be tracked while I run them.

I can see someone being happy with GrapheneOS, including it's limitations, but you would have to be more hard core on privacy than I am.

Speaking of slow, want to make that 5 year old Galaxy S7 or similar phone run fast and smooth, like a brand new high end phone? LineageOS or GrapheneOS. The amount of CPU, data, and battery committed to Google tracking is sobering. What's more, it's a current version of Android. More current than pretty much any of the OEMs ship because they are vanilla.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

TomB16 said:


> Having a phone without Maps, Gmail, Calendar,.... is still worthwhile but just barely. I'm prepared to sell my soul to the devil for those apps but I will only be tracked while I run them.


Maps - OSM (openstreetmaps) is crowd sourced open data that the vast majority of navigation apps use besides google/waze. Apple even used it before they decided to make their own map

Gmail - I only use gmail for all the random sites that require an email so they can sell it to spammers. For everything else their ProtonMail which is free and encrypted

Calendar - I just use the native iOS one

I like Google Drive though. I can build spreadsheets with live financial data. Last time I tried that on excel it was a nightmare


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

TomB16 said:


> I wonder how many people realize how much data Google collects on them on a second by second basis. It consumes a significant amount of data and battery.


Same with many commonly used apps, especially Facebook as I recall. The thing is basically spy software.

You can get some mileage out of disabling background data. I pretty much turn off background data for all these dumb apps. Additionally, it stops them from dinging and pinging and interrupting me all the time.

With their data life line cut, they can't spy and leak out much data on you either. Obviously any app you put into the foreground works normally, which is how I want it.

Another trick is to explicitly turn OFF mobile data to prevent the apps from doing anything. The phone still is connected to the mobile network, you just turn off its data interface to cripple the stupid apps.

I have a cheap Moto phone and usually get from 1 to 3 days on a single battery charge.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

james4beach said:


> Same with many commonly used apps, especially Facebook as I recall. The thing is basically spy software.


iOS lets you block apps from tracking you for ads now. It's basically destroying fb ad revenue

Basically an app can track all your other activity outside of the app as well. They could also see your clipboard data (iOS now warns you)

If google makes all its money from ad revenue doesn't that mean android is literally spy software itself


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

m3s said:


> iOS lets you block apps from tracking you for ads now. It's basically destroying fb ad revenue


That's great to hear. I hate this entire ad economy and I hope more privacy controls can destroy this type of business.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

james4beach said:


> That's great to hear. I hate this entire ad economy and I hope more privacy controls can destroy this type of business.


The ad economy is how free centralized servers are financed. That includes this forum

Paying microtransactions incentivizes people to process and serve decentralized networks

That would be web3


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

You have to pay for your services, with ads, direct payment, or some other way.

I'm not a huge fan of ads, but it seems to be a mostly workable solution.


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