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Miscellaneous => The Orphanage => Topic started by: zeddicus on March 29, 2018, 02:37:04 PM

Title: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zeddicus on March 29, 2018, 02:37:04 PM
Just as soon as my tax refund comes in.  :eusa_dance:

Have paid down all of my debts. Have a steady income now, will probably get a laptop for portability. Any suggestions?

If all else fails would even look into buying used. But there is still time to make that decision
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: FORTRANS on March 30, 2018, 12:21:58 AM
Hi,

   Of the computers I have owned, quite a few have been laptops.
Small, but not too small seems to be best.  The largest did not
get much use.  The smallest was nice if you were moving from
place to place (home, work, hotel rooms, Mom's house, etc.) but
did not get much more than e-mail done with it, too small a screen
for anything else.  Two have TV out features that extend the
Windows desktop to the TV.  I have found that rather useful at
times.  The older has S-Video, the newer HDMI.  I am using the
older one as a DVD player now.  My brother-in-law used the same
HDMI computer for internet video at one time.

HTH,

Steve N.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zeddicus on March 30, 2018, 09:34:34 PM
Quote from: FORTRANS on March 30, 2018, 12:21:58 AM
...quite a few have been laptops.
Small, but not too small seems to be best...

That's my thinking as well.  Will probably be looking into 64 bit OS,   as 32 bit seems destined for obsolescence.
I really dread the thought. Seems Windows Automatic Updates are all but impossible to completely disable, as I gather from what I have been reading with Windows latest offerings. I will surely miss humble XP Pro SP3. But if I can get hold of a used computer that has been properly wiped and has XP reinstalled (pre activated), I may yet go that route.  (obsolete as it may be), then later look into a 64 bit machine. All of this depends on the pending income tax refund that is due shortly, and budget constraints

Zedd
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: jj2007 on March 30, 2018, 10:47:40 PM
I am on Win7-64, which is in many aspects better than XP. You can code in 32- or 64-bit, no difference.
Regarding hardware, take what your budget allows but don't accept less than 4 GB RAM.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zeddicus on March 30, 2018, 11:09:15 PM
Quote from: jj2007 on March 30, 2018, 10:47:40 PM
I am on Win7-64, which is in many aspects better than XP. You can code in 32- or 64-bit, no difference.
Regarding hardware, take what your budget allows but don't accept less than 4 GB RAM.

Old habits die hard,  but I do realize that upgrading from xp would be inevitable, sooner or later.

Totally agree about ram. Was struggling before with the 2 gig's I had.

Will certainly be interesting learning to code for 64 bit. Barely had a handle on 32   :biggrin:

zedd
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: hutch-- on April 05, 2018, 04:16:51 PM
Z,

Unless you need to carry it around, a desktop usually offers more bang for your buck and you can more easily change bits in it like hard disks, add memory and other accessories. It would be better if you could get a box with a 64 bit OS as it allows you to work in both. XP works fine but you are limited to 32 bit and the world is changing.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 10, 2018, 07:49:13 PM
 :biggrin:

"xp simulator" for android.

repeatedly displays shown error message, or others - users choice. lol

then nice BSOD if either buttom selected.

:lol:

plus legacy xp sounds - a real hoot.?
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on April 11, 2018, 04:26:53 PM
I'd go a desktop all the way too.

I have a few laptops and I hate working with them. Small screens, finicky track pads, and cluttered keyboard.

Laptop's are always a few steps behind tech wise as well. They cost more for less.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 11, 2018, 04:55:12 PM
I agree that laptops are less than optimum. But on the other hand my limited financial resources will be the ultimate deciding factor. Plus, I had used laptops previously for quite some time with external monitor, bluetooth keyboard and mouse and had satisfactory results with that setup. And had the added benefit of also being portable. Of course memory was an issue, only 2 slots - but for what it was performance was acceptable.

So I am considering a used laptop to start off with. Then later - finances permitting - also get a (hopefully) new desktop. I recently got a minor promotion at work with a (also minor - lol) pay increase, so I'll be saving up...

64 bit, here I come....
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 12, 2018, 08:23:34 PM
For the time being, I have been looking into using a virtual machine for my smartphone, and use a windows xp iso with it. There are several vm's available for android. Limbo is one and it looks interesting.

After work today I'm going to get all my computer related stuff out of storage.  I'be got tons of stuff that I made backups to DVD on. I think I still have my xp disk image. If not might go see what win10 goes for retail USD. If all works out, I could probably delay purchasing a computer until I have enough $$$ to get a decent system.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on April 12, 2018, 08:26:52 PM
Damn man! XP on your phone! You must really want to get back into coding big time!  :eusa_clap:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 12, 2018, 08:36:35 PM
Quote from: Lonewolff on April 12, 2018, 08:26:52 PM
Damn man! XP on your phone! You must really want to get back into coding big time!  :eusa_clap:


Damn right!

And I love my slimmed down version of xp.   :biggrin:

No bloat, no auto-updates eating up resources, etc, etc....

Title: Total Disaster!
Post by: zedd151 on April 13, 2018, 09:20:44 PM

quote from previous post of mine
Quote
After work today I'm going to get all my computer related stuff out of storage.  I'be got tons of stuff that I made backups to DVD on.

Well, I didn't go that day. I went the following day - only to discover that several storage lockers there had been vandalised. Stuff was either stolen or broken beyond repair. A total nightmare for me. I had a whole slew of old, hard to replace software, not to mention a boat load of original asm source codes that I had long forgotten.   :icon_redface:

And to think that was part of my backup plan.   ::)

I had made disk images of my hard drive and stored them on an external HD.
I also backed up those images onto dvd. Shoulda stuck 'em on the cloud. :icon_confused:

The source codes are no big deal. Nothing there to write home about. It was just all the stuff I had written while getting my feet wet with assembly.

What really bothers is the software that can no longer be (easily) obtained.   :(
Not to mention my xp images. 

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on April 13, 2018, 09:23:45 PM
Geez, you are having a bad run  :(
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 13, 2018, 09:34:51 PM
Quote from: Lonewolff on April 13, 2018, 09:23:45 PMGeez, you are having a bad run

Well, on the bright side I will be able to truly start fresh.

Nice shiny new (hopefully) computer. 64 bit Windoze - something else new.

Learning 64 bit assembly - more new...

But yeah been tough for me lately. But I have my health, have an income that allows me to actually save up some money, and I have the "can do" spirit - that keeps me going. Really miss writing and testing my buggy code. At least I have the means to post my random ramblings here...

zedd
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on April 13, 2018, 09:39:29 PM
And you have a head of hair that would make John Travolta proud   :bgrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 14, 2018, 03:23:17 AM
Quote from: Lonewolff on April 13, 2018, 09:39:29 PM
And you have a head of hair that would make John Travolta proud

yeah my hair has not been effected by age, just everything else. (almost)  ;)

:lol:
Title: PC emulator in android...
Post by: zedd151 on April 16, 2018, 10:52:42 AM
I've been toying with the idea of using an emulator to get some form of Windows running here. I remember using a Vista version of WinPE for running utilities (HD cleaning, defragmenting. etc) offline. If I remember correctly, I used to also play solitaire (lol) after installing sol.exe and cards.dll to the iso.

It got me to thinking if it was possible to run masm and qEditor from WindowsPE (within an emulator) ....

Details shortly, I'm downloading an iso right now.   :eusa_dance:

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on April 16, 2018, 11:18:27 AM
Should work fine :)
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 16, 2018, 11:19:57 AM
First attempt at mounting and running from emulator.
Obviously not a bootable disk image...


Still downloading, and my phone is telling me "Can't load content at the moment" when I try to attach photo (.zip)  :(
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 16, 2018, 11:46:52 AM
Next iso was indeed bootable, but huge 1 gig.  Memory issues.   :greensml:

Back to the drawing board.....
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on April 16, 2018, 11:54:32 AM
Ha! Doing it tough, man!  :biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 16, 2018, 12:24:55 PM
Quote from: Lonewolff on April 16, 2018, 11:54:32 AM
Ha! Doing it tough, man!  :biggrin:

You never know just how much you' ll miss something until you really don't have access to it anymore.So yeah, in my desperation I'll try anything to get my fix.   :icon_mrgreen:

--------------------  later ---------------

After  veeeery long boot process...

No joy:(
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 16, 2018, 06:43:39 PM
After a couple of hours of playing around with a couple of emulators and iso's I'm not getting anywhere.

So I'll have to leave that idea for now. Now I really cannot wait much longer to get a halfway decent computer here. Once that happens, I'll be back in busines.   :biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: jj2007 on April 16, 2018, 06:53:15 PM
Remember assembly is so fast that even a cheap old used notebook (https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B077PQ1VNY/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all) will do the job for you ;)
Title: Be coding in no time....
Post by: zedd151 on April 17, 2018, 10:39:24 AM
  :biggrin:   :biggrin:

I'm working on something, and it won't be long now.....

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 17, 2018, 12:04:13 PM
almost there...

Problem is that everything done through an emulator takes sooooo looooong.

I'm not even sure if I'll be able to access real world files from the virtual environment.   :icon_eek:

But there's always hope...
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 17, 2018, 01:17:11 PM
Unless its a simple configuration problem, I'm not going to be using emulated Windows after all....

I'll just have to wait for the real deal...
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: hutch-- on April 18, 2018, 12:19:11 AM
Z,

Depending on your area, you should be able to hook an older desktop PC for peanuts. Something like a Core2 that will run a 64 bit version of Windows if you want. As I have been writing software for many years, I own a couple of Core2 boxes, a 3 gig 9650 and an older 2.4 gig version and even the slower one is fun to write code on. Both have XP loaded on them but Core2 will run 64 bit OK. You may miss out on the very later SSE4 and AVX but you can get a lot of code written on an older box and asm run well on them.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on April 18, 2018, 01:21:16 AM
 Good advice hutch, I've been shopping around the 'used' market myself. If all works out financially here, I should be up and running within a month. Ya gotta remember I'm running on a shoestring budget, so something used might mot be such a bad  idea , at least for now.
I can always 'upgrade' to something better later on.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: anunitu on April 18, 2018, 04:46:22 AM
Towers seem to be cheap,even new have dropped in price,unless you are looking for a gaming rig.
Title: holy %^&*!
Post by: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 03:31:33 AM
How can they sell a brand new laptop for only 20 dollars US more than retail os price ?

Win 10 64 bit btw.

im on a mission to find out.   :eusa_dance:  :bgrin:  :biggrin:   :biggrin:

amd processor though...

Now I can check out whats up with caballeros '  drawers.   :P

I had no idea prices have come down so far.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: avcaballero on May 06, 2018, 03:46:19 AM
> Now I can check out whats up with caballeros '  drawers.
:biggrin:

I bought a 386 retail some (quite) time ago by a similar prize. With a hard disk which allowed me to compile programs without having to insert and remove dozens of different floppy disks :icon_rolleyes:  Wonderful :lol:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: anunitu on May 06, 2018, 03:56:50 AM
last tower i bought,was about $400 with dual core 1TB drive built in graphic card,wifi and not to bad,but only a 300 watt power supply. With win10 but it is still in the box,until my win 7 box bites the dust. IT is an HP if you wondered,the win7 box is also HP,and running well.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 04:23:36 AM
Okay, so the ad was a little misleading. It's a netbook, but thats okay. I was going to plunk down 120 USD for win 10 home, then another xxxx amount of dollars for a new ssd hard drive. Just to get an older laptop of questionable operability to function. Then theres the battery problem with the ols laptop. Doesn't hold a charge. I could spend twice what I did on  the netbook to fix up the laptop (32 bit) which will become obsolete in time.

For those intetested, its a Dell Inspiron 11 3000. I'll post specs as soon as I get home and unpack it. Even if performance is mediocre, at least I can code once again. Instead of being a troll on the forum. Sorry hutch--  :P
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 05:36:48 AM
Finally got this thing tethered to my phone via bluetooth for stable internet connection. So now ends this saga and this thread.  :greenclp:

Can't get the smileys to work when clicking on 'em...  or the other icons in the posting editor
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: avcaballero on May 06, 2018, 06:08:23 AM
I'm curious, what kind of computer is it for only $20? I hope to keep my W7 for many more years. :biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 06:13:51 AM
It's a Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Netbook. retail for 139.99 USD.  Windows 10 Home sells for 119.99 USD at same store.  :biggrin:

So far the only problem is I can't use the smileys here by clicking on them. Probably a browser setting. But it will take me some time to figure out how to change all the things I would like to change on this computer.

From System Information:

Dell Inspiron 3180  --> I don't know why the literature included says Inspiron 11 3000
Windows 10 home, 64 bit
AMD A6-9220e R4 , 2cores, 2 logical processors
29.12 GB eMMC Hard Drive
4 GB Memory

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on May 06, 2018, 07:54:42 AM
Awesome! Now we can see you hit your project hard  :t

It probably won't run Crysis at 4K, but will be awesome for coding on.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: jj2007 on May 06, 2018, 12:54:06 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 06:13:51 AMDell Inspiron 3180  --> I don't know why the literature included says Inspiron 11 3000

There is a review here (https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-chromebook-3180), but that one is a "ChromeBook", i.e. not Windows. If you have Windows installed, congrats, it seems a very good machine. Get a fast assembler like UAsm64 (http://www.terraspace.co.uk/uasm.html#p2), and you'll be fine.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 02:10:03 PM
Quote from: jj2007 on May 06, 2018, 12:54:06 PM
but that one is a "ChromeBook", i.e. not Windows.

Yuck. After having an Android Phone for a while, I'd rather not be stuck with Google all over my computer. Even though this machine has plenty of its own bloatware.

Quote from: jj2007 on May 06, 2018, 12:54:06 PM
If you have Windows installed, congrats, it seems a very good machine.

More bang for the buck. It came just in time, as I was looking for a reasonable bargain. I would have spent twice as much to get an older laptop up and running. The netbook is small but compared to typing on a smartphone for a while, it is plenty big.

Now once I get this box setup just the way I like it and have all my programming tools at my disposal, I can resume coding in assembler. 
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: daydreamer on May 06, 2018, 05:17:50 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 02:10:03 PM
Now once I get this box setup just the way I like it and have all my programming tools at my disposal, I can resume coding in assembler.
congrats on new computer, hope you didnt end up with a cheap 1360x768 screen
:t
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 05:27:57 PM
Quote from: daydreamer on May 06, 2018, 05:17:50 PM

congrats on new computer, hope you didnt end up with a cheap 1360x768 screen
:t

Considering that I was posting from a smartphone, 1360x768 is HUGE. Plus there is always the possibility of using an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. For $139.99 USD I'm satisfied with the purchase, especially considering the cost of fixing up the harddriveless, dead battery laptop that I came to own. Add up the cost of a hard drive, Operating System, Battery, an more memory, and it comes out to double or more than what this humble computer cost. all I can say is   :biggrin:   :biggrin:  I'm happy with it.
Title: I won't be buying a new computer......
Post by: zedd151 on May 09, 2018, 01:09:22 PM
Only three days in and I broke my new computer.    :icon_redface:
Just today, I was about to have supper and was finishing some code at that time. I figured that I should get the code down before I forget my train of thought. So I decided to bring the netbook with me. I tripped and fell and the netbook went flying.

To make a ling story short, I now have another dead computer on my hands.  "Operating System Not Found. I even tried to reset to factory condition, no dice.  Why me all the time??

So, I will be sitting on the sidelines pretty much for a little while longer. Writing a little code, but won't of course be able to test what I write.

I doubt if the warranty will cover my own mishap.    :(
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: mineiro on May 11, 2018, 11:11:52 AM
This message is standard, maybe you forgot some cd, pen drive, memory card without the boot sector on the pc and the BIOS software is trying to boot the Operating System where it does not exist. It is a sequence that we can configure, as priority 1 being hard disk, priority 2 cd-rom, ....
Enter the BIOS firmware and configure to boot from the hard drive, you have nothing to lose. I'm not assuming the cable dropped or hard disk faults.
Another option is to redo the boot sector if it is; maybe more than one partition; I do not think it's a disk failure.
You only need find where O.S. it is or reinstall O.S. in last case.
If it does not work, grab the scapulars, talismans and amulets and pray a lot.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 11, 2018, 05:05:56 PM
Quote from: mineiro on May 11, 2018, 11:11:52 AM

... You only need find where O.S. it is or reinstall O.S. in last case.
If it does not work, grab the scapulars, talismans and amulets and pray a lot.

I've tried everything I could think of,  even downloading the win 10 ISO from dell.  While attempting to install,  it kept asking for drivers without naming them.  I'm at wits end here.  My next step is to call Dell for tech help.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: aw27 on May 11, 2018, 08:50:02 PM
For my last notebook I installed Windows 10 from a bootable USB stick created with the Media Creation Tool. If your hard drive is not broken it will definitely install.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 12, 2018, 01:15:49 AM
Quote from: aw27 on May 11, 2018, 08:50:02 PM
For my last notebook I installed Windows 10 from a bootable USB stick created with the Media Creation Tool. If your hard drive is not broken it will definitely install.

Why would that be  any different than installing from DVD??

Anyway,  I have @active bootdisk which runs on windows 10 winpe.  I have successfully reformatted the HD using diskpart following instructions for uefi disks from Microsoft.  Still no luck. Temporarily using winpe as general purpose is wouldn't be bad but no wow64 32 bit support.  So any programs I try to run from winpe that are not native 64 bit simply won't run.  So any tools I use to help fix my problem have to really be 64 bit compatible without relying on wow64 32 bit support. 


The last and final option I have is taking the HD from this computer and installing it into the HD-less laptop I got from a buddy a couple weeks back. It could be some other kind of hardware issue with the Dell netbook. In theory if I still cannot install to the other laptop,  then the HD must be the problem.  Of course it could be the install medium.  If I can't install to the other laptop with this HD,  I'll reburn the ISO and try again. But I really think windows setup would complain if the install disk was corrupt.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: aw27 on May 12, 2018, 01:36:51 AM
Quote
Why would that be  any different than installing from DVD??
I though the notebook had no DVD drive. Of course, you can use an external DVD drive.
Still, why do you need an ISO from Dell. To install Dell crapware?
Title: Re: I won't be buying a new computer......
Post by: FORTRANS on May 12, 2018, 01:56:35 AM
Hi,

Quote from: zedd151 on May 09, 2018, 01:09:22 PM
I doubt if the warranty will cover my own mishap.

   Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  If the place you bought it
is easy to get to, give it a try.

Steve
Title: Re: I won't be buying a new computer......
Post by: zedd151 on May 12, 2018, 03:16:00 AM
Quote from: FORTRANS on May 12, 2018, 01:56:35 AM

   Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  If the place you bought it
is easy to get to, give it a try.

Steve

Thanks FORTRANS, but unfortunately I had thrown away the receipt.  Otherwise that would not have been a bad idea.

To add:
I will look into removing the HD from the new computer after I return from some errands .
Installing into the older laptop shouldn't pose any difficulties, the new one however has no access panel. Disassemble required.
Title: I'll be fixing my computer soon...
Post by: zedd151 on May 12, 2018, 03:40:08 AM
The other thing I was pondering was to install Ubuntu or some other flavor of Linux and running my windows software from wine.
I'll be further exploring my options in the coming days.  I could probably pick up another new network relatively cheaply as I had this one. Then I can canibalize this one for parts (HD,  memory, wireless card)  Or even purchasing the exact same model, imaging the disk before I even run it,  then applying that image to this HD.  Should be no trouble getting it reactivated with original keys. At least it sounds good in theory.

Later....
Nevermind what I said about having the install ISO from Dell. It was a micros++t ISO.  So possibly,  there is a driver missing in the ms ISO. So as of now, I am downloading the Dell ISO from their site.   Keeping my fingers crossed this time.    :biggrin:

>>> 23 minutes in and 1.9 GB so far...
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: mineiro on May 12, 2018, 11:33:15 AM
Dell have a good feedback, try that my brother.
I have solved a lot of windows errors from Linus, another choice.
The hard point is that images. My drivers (I live on a 3rd world) are cheap from yours, this is relevant. Who seels to me don't sell to you, this is about images, well, sorry, this is about mentality about regions. I'm talking about exokernel and about. Take your windows hard disk and install on another computer and you will know what I'm talking about, failure; but, on linux side ok depending of your distro or ... .
The problem is easy to solve, keep walking my brother, believe in me. I faced this a lot, gain a lot of money, ... . Only clock work for free?
Other words, iso images have a default driver images, don't have specific images. Create your own iso image, don't download that. Of couse, from microsoft ok.
Be in peace.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: daydreamer on May 12, 2018, 06:15:28 PM
well if you go the Linux way,linux comes with lots of Tools to play with as programmer,even apache webserver
good luck

Title: FIXED!!!!!!
Post by: zedd151 on May 12, 2018, 07:54:09 PM
After all the trouble these last few days, I finally got the damn thing fixed.  Turns out that somehow the uefi boot partition got corrupted, so I followed a tutorial for copying the 'BCD store' from the windows partition to the boot partition. And YEAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for everyone that stopped in with their suggestions...

Now I will make a backup of the entire disk, including ALL of the partitions
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: aw27 on May 12, 2018, 11:05:47 PM
You have all the reason to be happy, at least until you are forced to upgrade to version 1803 ("Redstone 5") which will chop 4 GB out of your small hard drive.  :t
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: hutch-- on May 12, 2018, 11:50:34 PM
Something I have noticed with Win10 64 Professional, every since the last major upgrade, the available disk space on my boot partition has increased by about 30 gigabytes. I have seen the free space go as low as 85 gigabytes, correctly its showing about 120 gigabytes which is the best for a long time. It seems you get less of the mountain of chyte remaining than it used to be. I use a standard Windows utility called Disk Cleaner which removes some of their junk but of late there is little to remove.

I did not buy this Intel PCIe x 4 SSD to have it loaded full of Microsoft chyte, it used to have some massive mountain of crap for the Microsoft store that you could not routinely delete but that seems to have faded away.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: aw27 on May 13, 2018, 12:16:08 AM
Disk Cleaner is great to remove the Windows.Old folder and get back a few tens of GB.
Still, drive C keeps filling up even after I moved My Documents, Temp and My Downloads to another drive. I believe this is an inevitable Law of Physics.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 13, 2018, 01:41:23 AM
As it stands at the moment, I have 7.5 GB free space on the hard drive and that is with pagefile and hibernation both turned off. Also I uninstalled most MS office products, as I rarely use those. I am looking into making some of the programs I use "portable" with Portable Apps, or similar. 

I have a 64 GB SD card at the moment to hold the stuff that I'd rather not clutter up the C: drive with.

After the last couple of days, I am just so grateful to have the computer back in running condition - that I will accept what I have now.   :bgrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on May 13, 2018, 01:18:12 PM
Good to know that it was just a temporary disgrace. Welcome back  :bgrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 13, 2018, 02:53:29 PM
Quote from: felipe on May 13, 2018, 01:18:12 PM
Good to know that it was just a temporary disgrace. Welcome back  :bgrin:

Yup, good to be back.

For four days I think, I thought I really fubarred this computer. Turns out it was a simple (or not?) BCD Store corruption. So now I'm back trolling the forum.   just kidding, hutch--     :P
Title: Success!!
Post by: zedd151 on May 13, 2018, 06:57:23 PM
Well, I finally got the dell system recovery downloaded. Reinstalled to factory condition, changed the settings I wanted to, and removed the programs I would never use, turned off hibernation and disabled the pagefile. Size of C: is now 9.9 GB. Plenty of extra space  :biggrin:


Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on May 13, 2018, 08:52:31 PM
Nice Dude!
Title: Re: Success!!
Post by: zedd151 on May 14, 2018, 06:03:01 AM
Quote from: zedd151 on May 13, 2018, 06:57:23 PM
Size of C: is now 9.9 GB. Plenty of extra space  :biggrin:

Just tested out my backup of C: , it  was 10.5 GB but that's okay. Not bad considering that the harddrive had gotten bloated to 23 GB, and its capacity after the uefi partitions is only 27.2 GB.

I found some other useful settings that will help me keep the hard drive as clean as possible.


As a side note, after I recovered the backup the first time, it DID NOT show up in Explorer. I thought I screwed the pooch again.   :lol:
But it turns out that is because for some reason the backup software  @Active Disk Image did not reassign the drive letter. I saw it in the partitioning tool though and I was relieved but only slightly. Then I rebooted. All is well with the backup strategy.

I just made another backup with some additional settings changes. I am keeping all of the backups "just-in-case" Next step is to install all of the utilities and other programs that I like to use - masm32 sdk is top of that list hutch   ;)

Backup time 9:24 minutes, recover time on the clean backup install was 8:43 minutes. Not bad compared to a fresh install from a windows disk.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: jimg on May 14, 2018, 07:06:42 AM
Be sure you test your bootable external storage containing your recovery software.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 14, 2018, 03:49:37 PM
Quote from: jimg on May 14, 2018, 07:06:42 AM
Be sure you test your bootable external storage containing your recovery software.

Now that's very good advice, indeed. No sense in backing up if the backup storage fails.   :icon_redface:

Anyway, I have made yet another incremental backup from the clean install, this time without installing all of the vendors driver packages.
Rather I extracted them, and if needed I can install the drivers using only the .inf, .sys, .cat (and .dll or other) files as needed. Without all of the bloatware that sometimes is packaged with drivers. Also I switched from @Active Disk Image for the backup this time. With Disk Image, you need to run it from WinPE environment (@Active Bootdisk) While that program is very good at what it does, it poses a limitation (external cd/dvd drive)

I used Drive Snapshot this time around. This program lets you restore a backup right from the comfort of Windows. It loads itself in memory and reboots your computer to do its magic. My external cd/dvd drive is probably 10 years old, and I don't want to be stuck needing it when it craps out on me.

edit == I just tested this last backup. It restored drive C: in 6 minutes and 24 seconds.

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 22, 2018, 07:16:30 PM
Discovered how to enable administrator account in Windows 10 Home.  So I will reinstall fresh copy of OS and uninstall all of the default crap Apps (that I will never use) properly from the dedicated elevated account.    :bgrin:

Having a user account just isn't the same yes I know that users have so called administrator privilege but also denied a lot of access,  in home edition anyway...

Next step would be  to create a TrustedInstaller or NTAuthority account..    :P
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 22, 2018, 07:31:36 PM
Now if I can disable all of the other crap,  I'll have it working like user friendly windows xp    :biggrin:

Oops meant to add to my previous post.  8)

Edit ===

I let the recovery process run while I go to work.  When I  get home should have a shiny new OS to play with,  unless the computer blows up and burns down the house while I'm away.   :biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 23, 2018, 06:58:45 PM
So far I have the admin account set up,  and enabled Group Policy Editor, gpedit.msc. Have also put in a context menu entry to change ownership of files and folders. And also removed and uninstalled all of the crap Apps and removed them from the program files apps folder. The c drive is now down to just under 10 gigs.

I am also looking into setting group policies,  to disable the apps that persist i.e. Cortana and a couple others. One of the tech guys at work is showing me the way around gpedit, so I can do it properly



Edited to add...

I am making incremental backups along the way, in case I fubar anything.  Which I advise to anyone trying to alter their operating system to behave better. The.next step is to determine how many tasks running are really necessary and which can safely be disabled for better performance and memory savings.

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 24, 2018, 01:46:36 PM
I've got my computer about as user friendly as I can get it. Windows update no longer tries to automatically update, or check for updates. I can now choose what updates to download (AV definitions mostly). Also I have that spying little Cortana totally disabled. As well as a  few other little tweaks.

The C: drive remains about the same 9.8 gigs used. Thats much better than when it was approaching 17 gigs used.

Now I can begin installing the PROGRAMS that I WANT to have on my computer. (notice I didn't say "apps") Anyway, I will use a lot of portable apps versions of the programs I want to use (where available) or make my own, with the help of a program called "What Changed". That program monitors the files and folders that have changed during a normal program setup. This way you know exactly what files your portable program will need in addition the What Changed program also monitors the registry for added/changed registry keys.

I will be using an external drive for most of it. Including masm32/64. So this chapter of my computer woes is coming to a close. I'll be coding soon, since I won't have all of the distractions of this tempermental OS to deal with anymore.   :biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 24, 2018, 08:14:16 PM
Had to roll back one of the last tweaks.  oooops!   :redface:

I rebooted, and no text was present anywhere.  :icon_redface:
Microsofts' way of saying "Don't touch that!"  :lol:

So C: is back to around 10.2 gigs. I'll take that and tweak no more. As of now, the system is stable no signs of anything amiss. 
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: mineiro on May 24, 2018, 10:27:35 PM
Hello zedd;
Sysinternals have some good tools to what youre doing, like monitors (files, registry, ... ). I'm not updated but on past have some programs to 'freeze' your hard disk. All changes done will be erased at next boot, so your have your machine at same state or your own config. Other way is that you can create an image of your hard disk as a backup. One good backup to have in hands is just registry, when we install and uninstall programs they don't erase some remnants inside registry. You need a program to create a registry backup, don't do by regedit or reg32, ..., they don't work well to this task. It's hard to backup registry because they are in use by windows, an option is insert your hard disk into other computer and copy manually that files (.dat), other is boot on a linux O.S., mount ntfs partition and copy that specific registry files, this way they are not in use.
Good know that things are going fine to you.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 25, 2018, 04:24:28 AM
Quote from: mineiro on May 24, 2018, 10:27:35 PM
Hello zedd;
..... Other way is that you can create an image of your hard disk as a backup......

That is the method I use.  Drive Snapshot  (http://www.drivesnapshot.de/) Works well, so if I change anything either inadvertently or not, I can always revert to the way it was before.

I don't keep personal files and/or folders on my C: drive anymore, so the way I keep the backup copy now is perfect for me.

Thanks for the other tips. And yes, I have tamed the Windows 10 beast and killed all sorts of reporting back to Micros**t.   :biggrin: And the system is running well.

One thing that I want to try is creating an image using Dism.exe offline, using this method according to the documentation I have read, I should be able to remove "packages" to create a custom OS install. More on that later when I get up the b***s to try it.  :P  If that works out well, it should help in reducing the overall size of the OS. But research must be done first to avoid removing "System Critical" packages. I will post a detailed (somewhat) accounting of those proceedings if/when I decide to try it.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 25, 2018, 05:11:35 AM
For those who would like more details for what I have done already...

The changes I have made to the clean installation of Windows 10 Home:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To enable the hidden "Administrator" account in Windows 10 Home, from an elevated command prompt (run as administrator):



Net user administrator /active:yes



To set a password for "Administrator", from an elevated Command Prompt:



Net Users Administrator *



and hit Enter. Now you will see new line to type a new password for administrator - and your new Administrator account is all set and ready on the next reboot.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enabling "Group Policy Editor" in the Home version create a .bat file with the following:



@echo off
pushd "%~dp0"
dir /b C:\Windows\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~3*.mum >Files.txt
dir /b C:\Windows\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~3*.mum >>Files.txt
echo Installing Group Policy Editor...
for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . Files.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"C:\Windows\servicing\Packages\%%i"
echo.
echo Installation complete.
echo.
pause


Run from an elevated command prompt. (run as administrator)

Using the above, you enable the Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Home Edition (8 & 7 too, I believe), which is not enabled by default in the Home version.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other good thing to use is  Easy Context Menu  (https://www.sordum.org/files/downloads.php?easy-context-menu) <-- direct download link.
With this program, you can add to the right click context menu "Copy to Folder...", "Move to Folder...",
and my favorite "Take Ownership", which allows you to delete/change files or folders blocked by "SYSTEM" or "TRUSTEDINSTALLER", plus many
other tweaks.


As a cautionary note: DO NOT MAKE THESE CHANGES unless you have a backup of your system,
and secondly don't do it unless you know what you are doing.

The "Administrator" account enabling is well documented in many places on the internet.

The enabling of "Group Policy Editor" is also well documented...


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The other changes I have made to MY SYSTEM will not be posted here. Any changes you make
to  Your System are solely your responsibility.


:biggrin:

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: mineiro on May 25, 2018, 07:47:56 AM
I generally try to kill some programs on memory to see what is need or not and feel the consequences. Try to kill scrcs.exe on windows xp and you will see that is not possible (even being admin). Well, it's possible (debug priviledges), but ... (blue screen). Because only I use the computer I don't need a lot of gifts to multiuser, disabled a lot of things.
When I started I was doing a 'dir /s ...'  to list all files on whole hard disk and redirecting output to a text file. After instaled a program and rebooted I was doing the same to another file. The difference between both text files are files inserted by the program. This is not good because instalation programs can delete some files, but I have started this way.
When I tried the same, exporting from registry to text files and comparing to see what was inserted I get in trouble. Regedit was not exporting all keys, have ones that are priviledged, this is how I look to monitors. I carry with me until today old 'windiff' program, so I only need look for colours, red and yellow, this program show difference by lateral bar colors.
This way that I'm talking here is valid to any O.S., but as you can see have faults because are not monitors.
I'm remembering that I was running windows xp sp3 and that consume only 48mb after initialization; well, I stay more than one week erasing, disabling things.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on May 25, 2018, 08:43:13 AM
Quote from: mineiro on May 25, 2018, 07:47:56 AM
...
I'm remembering that I was running windows xp sp3 and that consume only 48mb after initialization...

sounds a lot like mini xp, or similar bootable portable xp (bartpe for example)

Good old windows xp. Got a lot of flack in those days, but it was the most customizable and user friendly operating system.
It didn't complain too much if the user removed a lot of the bulk. (Except for operation 'critical' components)

While I never got xp as small as 48 mb, I did get it down to just under 400 MB. It booted fast in comparison to the default installation.
And restoring backups took hardly any time at all.

But now everyone has to deal with Windows 10 bloatware. But little by little, I'm working on that problem on my end with some success.
Title: ubuntu 12.04
Post by: zedd151 on May 30, 2018, 08:10:10 AM
Getting ready to give Ubuntu a try
If successful,  will use it for internet (denying internet access to all of the invasive crap on Windows 10.)
:bgrin:

It's booting up now....    :biggrin:
Title: Re: ubuntu 12.04
Post by: zedd151 on May 30, 2018, 08:17:13 AM
Hello Ubuntu!   :biggrin:

Actually I have used ubuntu in the past,  but briefly.

Now i can say dirty things about Micros**t with out fear they will send a digital time bomb into my computer.      :P

it just works, right off the cd rom...
Title: Re: ubuntu 12.04
Post by: zedd151 on May 30, 2018, 07:12:15 PM
I tried to install Ubuntu,  but no grub was installed so I overwrote the installation and re expanded the Windows partition.  Will run Ubuntu from CD until I have time to try to install it again.
Title: Re: ubuntu 12.04
Post by: zedd151 on May 31, 2018, 03:59:41 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on May 30, 2018, 07:12:15 PM
... until I have time to try to install it again.

I don't have to work this weekend so I will try to install Ubuntu on Saturday. On the Windows 10 front, I have my OS down to 8 GB.   :icon_mrgreen:  Leaving plenty of room for the repartitioning and installation of Ubuntu.
Title: totally FUBARred!!
Post by: zedd151 on June 03, 2018, 07:45:57 AM
Well not totally,  just a catchy title.    :P

While attempting to install Ubuntu for the second time,  something went horribly wrong and wiped out my Windows 10 partition.  When I saw that,  I didn't even attempt to log into Ubuntu. I went straight away to reinstall Windows.  The somewhat long process is running now.  I would have reinstalled a backup,  but the partition setup is such that the backup I have won't install due to windows partition now too small.  (Drive Snapshot needs same size or larger partition)

I am assuming that the gpt/uefi partitioning / booting system is fubarring the Ubuntu installation. Or so it seems.  Of course it could also be that I'm a newb when it comes to Linux in general and Linux installation in particular.

So once I get my Windows installation back up and running,  I don't think I will try a third attempt at installing Ubuntu to the same hard drive as Windows.   :(
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on June 03, 2018, 08:05:14 AM
Why don't you try the new windows linux subsystem?  :idea:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 03, 2018, 08:22:00 AM
Quote from: felipe on June 03, 2018, 08:05:14 AM
Why don't you try the new windows linux subsystem?  :idea:

Because I have no idea what/where that is.    :icon_confused:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on June 03, 2018, 11:25:34 AM
Have a look here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10 (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10). But i have never done nothing with it, so you will have to figure it out alone or with help of another forum member that has.  :idea:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 03, 2018, 11:59:31 AM
Nope,  I  can't do that.  I literally spent days getting rid of micro$**t  store apps.  I won't use anything related to M$ Store.
It's just another way micro$**t tries to control what the end user does with their own computer.    8)
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on June 03, 2018, 12:08:22 PM
What about trying a live linux system?  :idea:
Title: Re: ubuntu 12.04
Post by: zedd151 on June 03, 2018, 01:40:49 PM
Quote from: felipe on June 03, 2018, 12:08:22 PM
What about trying a live linux system?  :idea:

Quote from previous post in this thread....
Quote from: zedd151 on May 30, 2018, 07:12:15 PM
....  Will run Ubuntu from CD until I have time to try to install it again.

;)

That's exactly what I plan on doing,  felipe.   :biggrin:

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on June 03, 2018, 01:58:14 PM
I have experienced ubuntu live and i found it a little slow. I recommend you a lighter distro, especially if all you want to do is browse the internet with it.  :idea:
Title: I've done it.
Post by: zedd151 on June 04, 2018, 02:15:26 PM
I finally got rid of the last of the remaining "Metro" apps from Windows 10 Home.
It fubarred the Start Menu, but that's okay. I have a work-around for that.

No more Cortana, no more Edge, no more of any of the other Sh***y apps
that came with Win 10 Home. Only the legacy "Programs" remain.   :biggrin:

The OS is down to 8.35 GB. Now I can live with that.
So since I shouldn't be having any more trouble with the invasive apps, I will
again resume coding here shortly. The computer is behaving very well, runs a
magnitude faster than the original install, have much fewer running processes.  :t

The last phase will be to try and remove the last remnants of the "Metro" apps
by removing the entries for them in the WinSxs directory. Have already completely
removed them from the other directories.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: hutch-- on June 05, 2018, 01:02:28 AM
Z,

A toy worth owning, Spybot Anti-Beacon.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: anunitu on June 05, 2018, 01:21:44 AM
best computer power unit.

hamster wheel power.

(http://www.mmocompendium.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Hamster.jpg)

Title: Re: I've done it.
Post by: daydreamer on June 05, 2018, 03:37:43 AM
Quote from: zedd151 on June 04, 2018, 02:15:26 PM
I finally got rid of the last of the remaining "Metro" apps from Windows 10 Home.
It fubarred the Start Menu, but that's okay. I have a work-around for that.

No more Cortana, no more Edge, no more of any of the other Sh***y apps
that came with Win 10 Home. Only the legacy "Programs" remain.   :biggrin:

Paintbrush, Norton commander,file explorer, lynx,calculator,notepad,qbasic?
I recommend try out different modes in calculator in newer windows,old had only two modes,simple and advanced
I tried to convert some hex numbers to get an idea of how many Chinese unicodes it had,so when I saw a,I typed 10 etc and when I changed mode on calculator in win 8 64bit,it had several more modes,including 'programmer', where all kinds of conversions between binary,octal,hexadecimal,decimal,it even had and,or,xor,not,left/right shift/rotate
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 05, 2018, 06:00:14 AM
Quote from: hutch
A toy worth owning, Spybot Anti-Beacon.

I will look into that.

Quote from: anunitu
best computer power unit.
hamster wheel power.

Power supply is fine thanks.   :P   :lol:

Quote from: daydreamer
I recommend try out different modes in calculator in newer windows,

If it's part of the "Metro apps" it is already history and will not be back on MY computer.
Anything that calls itself an "APP" is not worthy imo. Look at the junk they put into cheap smart phones. Hopefully in the
more expensive smartphones they have better "PROGRAMS"

Anything that resided in the "APPS" folder is history. I want PROGRAMS on my computer, not "politically correct, written by some suburbanite, college educated 'know-it-all', who only knows how to program in Visual.WhateverTheFork.Net," APPS!    8)

Otherwise, hey! How ya doing?    :lol:

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: FORTRANS on June 05, 2018, 10:32:05 PM
Hi,

Quote from: zedd151 on June 05, 2018, 06:00:14 AM
Otherwise, hey! How ya doing?

   Well, following this thread caused me to go out and buy an
inexpensive Windows 10 laptop just to see how different that is.
It came in yesterday.

   I just powered it up to take stock, and encountered Cortana
right off the bat.  While it worked better than I would have
expected, it's not what I wanted to see.  It (or whoever set up
the introduction) wanted to set up names, passwords, and
register the thing.  So I played around a bit and finally hooked
it up to the internet to close a registration window.  So it starts
downloading updates.  Yuck.  If there is some pointers to clean
things up, it would be nice to have a walk through to help start
things off.

   Good news, the touch pad works much better than any I
have seen up to now.  Bad news, I probably should not have
bought the thing.  Windows 10, out of the box, doesn't seem
usable.  I was hoping for nice little portable computer.  Not a
steep learning curve.

Muttering,

Steve
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 06, 2018, 02:15:21 AM
Hi FORTRANS!

I have completely removed Cortana and a host of other bad actors from my setup.  I also killed any updates from downloading,  or  I am sure that all the changes I made to MY computer would be undone on the very next update.   If I have to,  I could even remove the update program and so called helper modules too.  But so far no need for the nuclear option.

I really miss the plain and simple xp.   Windows 7 wasn't so  bad either.

Just wait until you start running some home brew software.   Watch in Task Manager how that plays out.   Cortana will make a big appearance, windows defender anti-virus as well,  MrT. might even show up.. (I pity da fool)

My first week with Windows 10 was a nightmare.  I'll post more after work.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: avcaballero on June 06, 2018, 04:57:03 AM
I have heard so many bad things about W>7 that if someday I'd lost my W7, I'd seriously consider switching to Linux with WXP/7 in a virtual box.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on June 06, 2018, 04:59:24 AM
I haven't found anything wrong with windows 8.1. Is really manageable i think.  :idea:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 06, 2018, 09:04:33 AM
Quote from: FORTRANSIf there is some pointers to clean
things up, it would be nice to have a walk through to help start
things off.


I would really be the wrong person to ask. I've fubarred this computer a dozen times in just the first two weeks.

Even now with all of the invasive stuff either disabled (permanently) or removed, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop and Windows come crashing down with a great big BSOD from all of my tinkering.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on June 06, 2018, 01:16:42 PM
I haven't found Windows 10 to be that bad really. Pretty much just removed all of the adds and crap from the start menu and was good to go.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 06, 2018, 02:50:00 PM
Quote from: Ascended on June 06, 2018, 01:16:42 PM
I haven't found Windows 10 to be that bad really.

My main problem is having an embedded small hard drive. out of 32 GB I only have 27-28 GB to work with. The first week, after all the updates I was down to a very low free space on the hard drive.

That was the first of many troubles. Then there is the issue of invasive 'apps' monitoring everything that you are doing on YOUR VERY OWN COMPUTER. Nevermind Windows Defender deleting your homebrew masm32 assembled programs. I just got sick and tired of all of the shiiite that is put into Windows 10 (the Home version at least). So I opted for the 'nuclear option' deleting as much as the OS would let me get away with.

Between Cortana, Defender, and a couple other 'apps' my PC was running constantly at 35-45% cpu, and near 40% memory usage at "idle" (apparently some apps don't know the word 'idle'). Some days were worse. Now it purrs along and runs much faster with all of the crap removed.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Lonewolff on June 06, 2018, 03:32:42 PM
Yeah, 32 GB isn't much to work with. I struggle to stay afloat with a 128 GB SSD as my primary drive.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 06, 2018, 03:47:50 PM
I've got the OS down to 8.5 GB, and now have plenty of space to work with. I put most stuff on external flash drive. But when downloading for instance, I'll use space on C: for speed. and I now have a partition (on main HD) with a secondary backup of C: on it, in case the backup on the flash drive fails or gets corrupted in some way.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 07, 2018, 07:02:03 PM
My latest adventure involves removing extra pre-installed languages.  There are a total of 14 languages including English "en-en"
From winsxs I have already started. I'll post more info as it becomes available.

Later -->>

So far, it has been a success. OS size is now down around 7.2 GB.
Now to remove the unused languages from the other directories.  :bgrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 09, 2018, 06:01:39 PM
Quote from: zedd151 some time ago
Now to remove the unused languages from the other directories.  :bgrin:

I have put that on hold for the moment as I am off on another tangent.

Have used a utility 'AOMEI Partition Assistant' to merge the 'SYSTEM' (boot) partition with the Windows OS partition. This was done after deleting the hidden (unformatted) MS partition.

Had to adjust the BCD Store, using 'EasyBCD' to ensure the bootmgr was pointing towards the new C:\Windows partition.

After all the changes were made, works like a charm. I was a little hesitant at first, but realized I could always revert to the backed up version of my system if anything went wrong - and went ahead anyway.

The next step will be to re-create a recovery partition. Not like the pre-installed recovery partition. It will hold mainly two things, The latest backup of my C: drive and the utility to recover the C: drive from the backup file. I am strongly considering making it a bootable partition and installing WinPE on it to run the backup utility. It's a little work though getting WinPE set up on a fixed disk when it expects to be run from either cd/dvd  or a removable drive. But there is a way, I just have to read up on it. This will be in addition to the backup that I have stored externally from the computer.

With the few essential programs I have installed, my C: drive weighs in at 7.99 GB. and right now has 21.1 GB free space available. -- I had already removed the recovery partition when I wiped the entire drive - when I converted from GPT to MBR. I am preparing for the event that I may yet install Windows xp on this computer. But I have to see if drivers are available for this fairly new machine. It is highly doubtful though.

The best I can hope for in that regard is probably running xp from VMWare or other emulator (VirtualBox?) don't know just yet. I need my xp fix.  :P

Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: daydreamer on June 09, 2018, 06:30:20 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on June 07, 2018, 07:02:03 PM
My latest adventure involves removing extra pre-installed languages.  There are a total of 14 languages including English "en-en"
dont forget to remove unused languages like assembly  :P
I do the other way around and install many languages so I can test unicode
wonder what kinda smartphone you had,even a 16gb connected as external would help a Little
or buy a  cheap usb memory
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 09, 2018, 06:52:33 PM
Quote from: daydreamer before...
dont forget to remove unused languages like assembly  :P

lol. soon enough I will be writing code again. in VisualBasicOrWhateverThe Hell.Net.   :P  :redface:

Quote from: Magnus :P
or buy a  cheap usb memory

It's not really about saving HD space anymore, I have plenty now. It's more to have a small as possible OS drive. For fast backup and restore.  :biggrin:

Some folders I noticed like System32 have as many as 110 folders containing language translation files (.mui) In my whole computer possibly these files range in the 10s of thousands. It all adds up. and some are full .dlls written for the specified languages. (as opposed to using external .mui files)

I'm working on getting the list of all folders containing these files.  (example: "C:\>dir /b /a:d /s *el-GR* >> c:\users\administrator\desktop\languages.txt")
Then I will create the file deletion (del) and remove directory (rd) batch files from those lists.
Title: Windows XP 32 bit.
Post by: zedd151 on June 10, 2018, 10:49:27 AM
Got 'er half way done. Obtained through unnamed sources I got a copy of Windows XP Professional. I already have the CD key and attempted to install on another partition. Some sort of BIOS issue preventing the install. So I did the next best thing, installed it in VMWare.

I have spent the better part of the afternoon obtaining through various sources (mostly Archive.org - Wayback Machine) all of the old software that I used to run in XP.   :biggrin:

While the install to virtual machine worked, there is of course no way to activate it anymore. So I am left with a running virtual version of Windows XP Professional installed with legitimate CD Key, but only can use it for 30 days before it expires.    :(

But I am having some fun in the mean time. I even managed to image xp from inside of VMWare and restore the image to D: partition. After fumbling around to get XP (on HD partition) to boot, I finally managed with the help of GRUB bootloader but alas BSOD stopped me in my tracks. Still the same BIOS issue that prevented a normal installation to the hard drive.

I know there must be a way to correct this problem. But until I find the solution, I'll be running XP through VMWare.   :greenclp:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: aw27 on June 10, 2018, 04:31:28 PM
I keep all my collection of old OSs in vmWare. I hope I will not need to activate them again.  ;)

BTW, Internet Explorer 6.0 works fine with this site.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 10, 2018, 04:50:14 PM
Quote from: AW
I keep all my collection of old OSs in vmWare. I hope I will not need to activate them again.  ;)

Good idea!
Quote from: aw
BTW, Internet Explorer 6.0 works fine with this site.

I haven't figured out yet how to connect to the internet yet via VMWare.   :(   I know it's something simple I am overlooking.


Yes I know, I'm living in the past. But what I see of the present and future of MS OS's, I'd rather BE in the past.  :biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: aw27 on June 10, 2018, 05:03:46 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on June 10, 2018, 04:50:14 PM
I haven't figured out yet how to connect to the internet yet via VMWare.   :(   I know it's something simple I am overlooking.
It should be simple and transparent, but is not always. Start by installing the VMWare Tools.
Title: Windows Event Log - odd behaviour
Post by: zedd151 on June 10, 2018, 08:59:15 PM
I finally made a clean install of Windows 10. This time I am removing/disabling Features with a more methodical, step-by-step
approach. I am doing this because right clicking on the 'Task Bar' no longer worked nor did the 'Start Menu'.
I screwed the pooch somewhere.

I know this seems odd, but disabling 'Windows Event Log' via (MSConfig--> Services) results in WiFi icon not being displayed
in the notification area of the taskbar. And cannot be re-instated by other means. It was driving me nuts. I even reinstalled the WiFi driver,
all to no avail.

I figured it would turn out to be 'Windows Error Reporting' or some other module playing this dirty trick, but why 'Windows
Event Log' ??? What is the Event Log doing that requires WiFi access. btw - I connect to the internet through usb patch
to my smartphone but it bothered me that the WiFi icon was not showing when it should have been.

So now everything appears to be working so far, and most of the unpleasantries have been disabled or removed. I am being careful this
time whereas before I disabled/removed several items in one batch before restarting to see the results.

Also I am thinking that because the Wifi connection/settings were screwed, I was unsuccessful in enabled internet connectivity in VMWare
for my WIndows xp installation.

All is well after a couple of hours work on getting Windows 10 Home down to a reasonable level of @#$%%^*.    :icon_mrgreen:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on June 11, 2018, 03:31:59 AM
zedd i can see you have your personal taste with your OS version. I want to tell you this again (i think?) just if you have a big failure in the system again in the future: You can use windows for development (not connected to the internet) and a live linux to browse the internet.
Anyway you will choose what you want. I personally hate to waste my time configuring and installing Oses too many times...:idea:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 11, 2018, 08:36:50 AM
Quote from: felipeYou can use windows for development (not connected to the internet) and a live linux to browse the internet.
That was originally my idea as well. But I hate having to switch between OS interfaces to get stuff done.   :exclaim:

Quote from: FelipeI personally hate to waste my time configuring and installing Oses too many times...
It's not a waste of time, as I am learning to tame the beast known as Windows 10 Home Edition properly

Example 1: Previously I was using a brute force approach to removing unnecessary languages on my system; I would haphazardly delete the offending files/folders and it worked somewhat.

Example 2: I found the correct way to delete said unnecessary languages...

Get a listing of installed 'packages'

DISM.exe /online /Get-Packages > currentpackages.txt
DISM.exe /online /Get-Apps >> currentpackages.txt
dism.exe /online /Get-ProvisionedAppxPackages >> currentpackages.txt
dism.exe /online /Get-ProvisioningPackageInfo >> currentpackages.txt


currentpackages.txt:


Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.16299.15

Image Version: 10.0.16299.15

Packages listing:

Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~en-US~10.0.16299.15 <-- obviously will not include this one.   :icon_rolleyes:
State : Installed
Release Type : Language Pack
Install Time : 9/29/2017 2:41 PM

Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~pt-PT~10.0.16299.15
State : Installed
Release Type : Language Pack
Install Time : 2/23/2018 1:30 PM

Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~ro-RO~10.0.16299.15
State : Installed
Release Type : Language Pack
Install Time : 2/23/2018 3:00 PM

Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~ru-RU~10.0.16299.15
State : Installed
Release Type : Language Pack
Install Time : 2/23/2018 1:36 PM

~~~ etc., etc., ....


From the resulting 'currentpackages.txt' file, I can then build a cmd script to remove chosen packages:

dism  /online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~pt-PT~10.0.16299.15
dism  /online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~ro-RO~10.0.16299.15
dism  /online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~ru-RU~10.0.16299.15


It takes much longer this way, but the OS won't complain about anything missing - not that it has; surprisingly no ill effects from simple deletion.
But this is the approved way of doing it.
:biggrin:

But in all seriousness, I do appreciate your input.  8)
This latest installation and configuring was necessary. You do remember that I said certain wanted features weren't working anymore?

My taskbar and StartMenu now work properly.

Cortana is no longer trying to access the internet to upload my business to M$.
Updates no longer try to download - fubarring my settings.
I no longer have to keep switching off realtime AV scans.

And all is well with Windows 10 Home Edition. It is now almost down to the size of a Windows Vista setup. Around 7GB.   :greenclp:

By the way, for those following my progress (I know you're watching this thread - you know who you are)   8)
After each major step I am making a backup of the previous version first, just in case.

Once I am satisfied with everything (possibly a very long time from now) :P I will post everything I have done to tweak Windows 10 Home into good behavior. (Sort of a tutorial) - FORTRANS are you watching this thread?
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 11, 2018, 11:05:50 AM
Before removing the language packages, 101,000+ folders and 289,000+ files, 10 GB used space.

After removing the Language Packages, and running Dism > ComponentCleanup:
24,211 folders and 59,696 files!!! the used space presented below....

It can't get any better than that.  :biggrin:
Until my next tweak...
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 11, 2018, 06:32:37 PM
After reinstalling VM Ware, and Windows xp on it, disk usage back to 10 GB.   :lol:  But still is a big improvement over the other option - letting the OS grow to monstrous proportions.   :shock:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: daydreamer on June 12, 2018, 01:34:28 AM
@felipe
Some like to tinker with os,they become experts who can help others who has a crashed os
Like people that want to concentrate on learning become better and better with different programs,tutorials and friends sharing knowledge,wether it is photoshop,musicmaker,blender,but i also mean not so obvious programs like javac.exe,vc,ml.exe etc
And playing with os might lead to try linux,which comes with many cool programming tools, it starts linux kernel and after that you have a huge file similar to autoexec.bat where you can customize your linux as you want
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 12, 2018, 02:17:57 AM
Quote from: daydreamer on June 12, 2018, 01:34:28 AM
Some like to tinker with os #

It has not been a joy to work on Windows 10, but I am getting better at it.
Quote
And playing with os might lead to try linux....
I've  got my hands full dealing with Windows. Don't  want to try learning linux.    :icon_cool:

I know  the post was directed to felipe but I felt the need to respond.
Title: Windows 7
Post by: zedd151 on June 13, 2018, 04:47:04 PM
My latest adventure is exploring Windows 7 64 bit. I am attempting to get drivers for this computer.
I shouldhave better luck getting drivers for Windows 7, since it is a better comparison to Windows 10 than Windows xp was.

Right now, I really need the wireless driver first so that I can download the drivers from the computer. Several other key drivers
from Windows 10 also were not compatible with windows 7. But I am working on a possible solution....
Title: Windows 10 Home Edition
Post by: zedd151 on June 17, 2018, 01:29:44 AM
I am done tweaking/modifying this OS.

Cortana is permanently disabled
Auto Updates are permanently disabled
Real Time AV is disabled.

Windows 7 and Windows xp appear to be uninstallable on this system due to lack of driver availability.

This is all I have to say about this matter.   :icon_mrgreen:

So for better or for worse, I am stuck with this computer for time being.

As soon as I can scrape together needed cash, will rebuild my other netbook and laptop; new Hard Drives, OS installation, drivers, etc.
Windows 10 will certainly NOT be part of those setups.  Those are both 32 bit machines, and both xp and Win 7 run fine with them.   :biggrin:
Title: Re: Windows 10 Home Edition
Post by: zedd151 on June 17, 2018, 02:55:11 AM
Quote from: zedd151

So for better or for worse, I am stuck with this computer for time being.


I always have ubuntu Live CD to fall back on for posting  :biggrin:
Title: Windows To Go!
Post by: zedd151 on June 17, 2018, 11:13:12 AM
Well, I'll be darned!

Windows to go. It is an installation on a bootable flash drive (or other portable) I was experimenting with win 10 32 bit pro version iso, and with rufus I found the option 'Windows To Go'. It created a Windows 10 Professional installation on my flash drive. I never knew.

It still needs activation in the normal manner, else functionality will cease at some point. But as of now, I am posting from the portable Windows Professional installation.   :biggrin:

Much much better than WinPE. Of course, I still have Cortana, Real Time AV scan BS to deal with; Not to mention auto updates.

I now have a better way possibly, to test questionable tweaks and 'adjustments' to my activated Windows 10 Home edition setup.
I know I said I wouldn't mention that any further. But what I found today was a major breakthrough for me.   :biggrin:


Now I can possibly test this portable windows installation on my two derelict machines. Neither has a hard drive. I will see if it's possible.
I now have a new toy to play with, at least until my interest in coding re-emerges.
Title: Re: Windows to Go!
Post by: zedd151 on June 17, 2018, 12:20:07 PM
Of my two derelicts, the older laptop the win to go portable win 10 pro works, but does not have drivers for WiFi card.

The other one has drivers for Wifi, but has problems with video card. When trying to change resolution it doesn't quite crash the OS, just hangs with an almost black screen.

If I could only connect to the internet first then I could instll the appropriate video drivers.   :biggrin:

But I'll have to take the netbook on the road for a better WiFi connection. The Internet connection I have at home is dreadfully slow - in the kb/s range.  :(

But at least I sort of have 3 work(able)/ing computers.   :P

The older laptop is definitely more suited for Windows xp, or possibly Vista.

The newer netbook though smaller - seems to handle Win 10 alright. (other than the video issue)

edit to addd--->

I have noticed that for being ran from flash drive this OS runs fairly fast. Not quite as fast as running from HD, but pretty close seems to me.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: anunitu on June 18, 2018, 02:30:59 AM
i have seen this system on a stick around.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-stick-pcs/

So whole hardware on a stick kinda,add an OS I guess.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on June 18, 2018, 03:39:25 AM
Quote from: anunitu
So whole hardware on a stick kinda,add an OS I guess.

That is actually a different animal of a similar genus. That is actually hardware in a small form factor.

Windows To Go is an installation done to an external USB thumb/flash/etc... drive that you can do yourself. It can be run on any PC whether it has a hard drive or not.

Starting with Windows 8 certain editions had this ability natively to create a Windows To Go install directly
from the OS on a Windows To Go compatible edition of windows.

There are now 3rd party tools that add this functionality to other editions of Windows 8 through the current
versions of Windows 10. I use 'rufus' I have also seen this capability in 'AOMEI partition assist' partitioning tool.

from  Microsoft  (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/planning/windows-to-go-overview)
for more information on "Windows To Go"
Title: Debugging the debugger or should I say..
Post by: zedd151 on June 23, 2018, 05:25:56 PM
the debug strings?

I have been trying to get back into coding since I got this computer. Now I have everything under control with it, I started re-using some of my old code from my "Installer Creator".

I only want to create a directory tree and file listing. Those work ok, but I get this debug string spit out by ollydbg:


Message=Debug string: onecoreuap\shell\lib\idllib.cpp(161)\SHELL32.dll!741608CB: (caller: 74160E1E) ReturnHr(1) tid(1414) 80004001 Not implemented


I have no clue what that means.   :redface:

I am busy cleaning up the code and removing unused portions left over from its use as "Installer Creator" -- will post the code as soon as it is ready.
...... or not
Title: Further trials and tribulations... :P
Post by: zedd151 on June 29, 2018, 01:27:25 PM
I basically gave up on Windows 10 Home ed. I ran Windows 7 Pro for about a week and a half, I am now sampling Windows 7 Ultimate.

I didn't realize that the install.wim file contained 4 editions of the OS. It's not always the case. But the iso I have of it does, so that's a bonus.   :biggrin:   I hadn't bothered with Basic or Home version.

Windows 7 is working very well for me. Not all of the drivers are available, as this PC was built specifically for Windows 10 by Dell  - but the preinstalled Windows drivers work acceptably.  Thank you Micros--t for that anyway.

---- A strange thing happened -----

I had a strange thing happenning with my mouse today; I don't use the netbooks built in touchpad as I don't like them.

When I would view a web page or even a long .asm source, .txt file or 'you-name-it'  the vertical scroll bar would suddenly shift up or down, without me moving the mouse wheel.  At first, I though it might be a virus, or something. So I reinstalled a clean backup of the OS, after wiping the drive.

Still same effect. Even in Windows to Go I have on a USB drive exhibited the same problem - so I narrowed it down to the mouse. I changed batteries - you never know (the mouse sometimes performs strangely on a very low battery) - Still same issue.  It is now over two hours I have been trying to figure the problem out and narrow it down to what needs to be fixed.

I even tried getting drivers for the mouse as I no longer have the unneeded (at the time) drivers originally supplied by Logitech.

I recalled that some time in the past month I spilled my coffee ( a sin, in and of itself ) on my desk.  Only a few drops landed on my hardware. (the netbook, mouse and a couple of USB flash drives)  So, with this new recollection at hand, I dis assembled my mouse to discover a mound of dust, hair, and probably some cookie crumbs.  Probably that junk got dislodged, and relodged itself in my mouse wheel - with the help of my spilled coffee.

Inside the mouse wheel there are teeny tiny vanes, I guess some form of optical sensor sees the vanes moving to detect mouse wheel movement. Anyway, I cleaned everything inside the mouse case with a paintbrush to remove all of the debris.

Now my mouse is happy and can run around on my desk, trying to avoid the mouse trap.    :P
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: aw27 on June 30, 2018, 02:10:19 AM
I become crazy when mouses start performing bad. Many don't even have  screws for dismounting and resist to disassemble in all imaginable ways. I usually end throwing them directly to where they deserve to be.  :(
I settled for simple wireless mouses and come to prefer those from Microsoft because always install straight away without CDs or DVDs full of crapware.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on July 02, 2018, 01:23:44 PM
Ending the saga of my Windows 10 experience. 

I was going to write a tutorial of all of the changes I have made to Windows 10 to make it behave 'properly'. But I decided against the idea, since some of the changes would have most likely been in violation of the Licensing Agreement. It's the only Licensed copy of WIndows that I own currently.

I have also abandoned many of the changes I have made to my Windows 10 installation. Right now I am running Windows 7 in trial mode until the 30 days run out. I have a nearly complete Windows 10 installation on a flash drive (Windows To Go) that I use from time to time.

Not if, but when the trial runs out on my Windows 7 installation, I will be seeking to obtain Windows 7 retail. I know it is still out there - I just have to find it locally when I have the $$ to do so. I used to love Windows XP, But I am getting adjusted to Windows 7 very well.

There are some driver issues with Windows 7 (non availability) but the system is stable with the drivers that come preinstalled with Windows 7. So, that is not a major issue for me. I don't plan on any hard core gaming or video processing so the video/graphcs drivers are not an issue as well.

So this thread will probably be " I'll be hunting down locally, a legal copy of Windows 7 real soon "   :biggrin:
Til then I may have to freshly install 7 again to get another 30 days of bliss.  8)  or else deal with the complexities of 10.  :icon_rolleyes:
Title: Re: Further trials and tribulations... :P
Post by: zedd151 on July 03, 2018, 02:48:40 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on June 29, 2018, 01:27:25 PM

Now my mouse is happy and can run around on my desk, trying to avoid the mouse trap.

My mouse started acting up again today. I took it apart again to investigate. The wheel actions are controlled by an emitter/detector pair and the emitter was loose. Not having a soldering iron available, I wiggled it back and forth until I was able to remove it.

I don't have the wheel functionality anymore but at least the cursor isn't jumping all over the place, nor is the page. I can still scroll the page by clicking the wheel then moving the mouse. It's not precision movement, but a fast way to jump to either the top or bottom of a page. Even if I had a soldering iron handy, I doubt if I could do the job as my eyesight ain't what it used to be.   :P
Title: Buggy Driver???
Post by: zedd151 on July 04, 2018, 01:35:41 PM
I have been intermittently having trouble with my mouse, or so I thought. When browsing long pages in IE, or even perusing long text files or others - the page scrolls up or down without rhyme or reason.  I was blaming the issue on my mouse and in fact found a defect with it.

The defect was the emitter that is part of an emitter/detector pair that determines whether or not the scroll wheel has changed position. I 'resolved' that problem by going nuclear and removing the faulty part. (Didn't have a soldering iron available to repair somewhat properly).

All was well since my last post in this thread. I have installed a s**tload of software to try out on this Windows 7 system. There was so much junk, that I had to do some extreme housekeeping. So, I reinstalled Windows 7 from a backup. Now the so-called mouse issue is back.

I am starting to really believe that it was not the mouse at all that was causing the problem with the obnoxious scrolling of long pages. I think it could be one of the drivers that I installed through Windows Update. (Didn't have any other resources available for certain drivers)

Another thing I have noticed is the text cursor here right now is blinking ultra fast. I disabled the cordless mouse by simply unplugging the USB radio. Something I had NOT done during my first trouble shooting sessions.

The page just jumped, so I KNOW NOW that it is not my poor little mouse that was causing the issue.  I think though that if is not the mouse, perhaps the touchpad. I could not find any setting to disable the touchpad, other than what would disable the mouse as well.

The touchpad of course is embedded and part of the computer. I don't want to crack open this thing and permanently kill the touchpad, although that IS another option. And I may have to - to help determine if the touchpad is the reason for the problems.

Maybe the touchpad is just too sensitive? I know that when I am typing I have to stay well clear of the touchpad to avoid unwanted cursor movement.  Well the other option is always available - - to just keep running Windows 10 and stop trying to run 'obsolete' operating systems.  Thank you very much Microshaft!   :icon_redface:     ::)

-------------------------------------

edit to add...

I think I will use Windows 10 for a full day tomorrow, with everything set the same way as when I was having the page scrolling issues in Windows 7.

signed,
stumped in Chicago.   :biggrin: 
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: jimg on July 04, 2018, 02:57:47 PM
Often you can disable the touchpad in the bios.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on July 04, 2018, 04:09:57 PM
Quote from: jimg on July 04, 2018, 02:57:47 PM
Often you can disable the touchpad in the bios.

I hadn't checked that. Thanks for the tip. I'll check now.............

moments later:

Nothing useful in the BIOS for this purpose. Thanks anyway.
Title: mouse update..
Post by: zedd151 on July 04, 2018, 08:23:42 PM
The next thing I tried is to disable all visual effects in control panel> advanced system settings> performance> settings (button) > visual effects..At first I disabled everything. So far it worked. I don't know why but it appears it did.

I wasn't satisfied how the fonts were displayed though, so I enabled 'smooth edges of screen fonts' and left everything else disabled.

The interface resembles win 2000 (no glitz), but if it gets the job done, I don't care.
Title: Re: Buggy Driver???
Post by: FORTRANS on July 04, 2018, 09:50:02 PM
Hi,

Quote from: zedd151 on July 04, 2018, 01:35:41 PM
Maybe the touchpad is just too sensitive? I know that when I am typing I have to stay well clear of the touchpad to avoid unwanted cursor movement.

   Here is a dumb idea for you; cut out a piece of corrugated
cardboard to cover the touchpad.  Then glue it over the touchpad
and pretend it's a wrist rest pad.  May not work, but it is cheap
to implement.

Cheers,

Steve N.
Title: Re: Buggy Driver???
Post by: zedd151 on July 04, 2018, 11:55:06 PM
Quote from: FORTRANSHere is a dumb idea for you; cut out a piece of corrugated
cardboard to cover the touchpad.

So far, removing all of the visual effects seems to improve my mouse's performance. I haven't noticed any unwarranted page jumps since I disabled most of the visual effects. I only kept 'font smoothing'.

p.s. No idea is too dumb for me at this point. I was running out of my own ideas; so every little bit helps. At least by the end of all of this, I should have a long list of things that didn't work..   :P

btw - Looking at the title of this post makes me think of the wild west, with horses and buggies. Buggy Driver.   :lol:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: jimg on July 05, 2018, 01:15:00 AM
I assume you did a google search for "dell inspiron 11 3000 disable touchpad" and nothing there helped?
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on July 05, 2018, 01:32:24 AM
Quote from: jimg on July 05, 2018, 01:15:00 AM
I assume you did a google search for "dell inspiron 11 3000 disable touchpad".....


:icon_rolleyes:   Ummmm no. It's usually in a case like this that the most obvious solution for a problem is the most often overlooked.   :icon_mrgreen:

Thanks Jim, you're almost a genius.

There are two mice or pointing devices listed in device manager. One is the mouse that I use and the other is the touchpad, even though it is not listed as 'touchpad'. So changing the driver for the touchpad to anything else enabled me to disable it. and that's what worked to disable the touchpad.  Now I can remove FORTRANS' piece of cardboard.  :P   just kidding, Steve.

Concept from  answers.microsoft.com  (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/how-to-disable-touchpad-on-dell-inspiron-10-uisng/3c5d5ece-92b2-4ae1-b9ae-b271efd38266)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that the touchpad is totally disabled, I will put all the changes I made back to 'factory' condition - except for the disabled touchpad.
Then I will see if there is still a problem with the vertical scroll randomly activating.

:biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on July 05, 2018, 11:25:26 PM
After disbling the touchpad (finally) the mouse problem appeared to have been fixed.                           momentarily.   :(

That was a good suggestion however, to eliminate the possibility of compatibility problems between the mouse and touchpad.

So I thought "Now what can I do?".

I have changed the batteries
I disabled the scroll wheel by physically removing the emitter (it had a loose emitter)  -- read more below...
I have disabled the touchpad
I even tried changing drivers for the mouse.

All to no avail. Each time I try something it appears to work, but for just a little while.  Sooner or later, the trouble begins once again.
It seemed for a while to only happen ewhen I was typing. That made me paranoid that someone slipped me a Digital Bomb

I do go to places on the web, that are shall we say 'not suitable for all audiences'  :biggrin:   And I download a lot of junk from the web as well.

I have run AV scans on everything on my computer, the two SD cards I use for storage, it was driving me crazy!
I even thought that MS could be behind it, for all of my activity in closing down all of the MS Spyware on WIndows 10.  :P

but lo-and-behold....
remember when I said I 'fixed' the scroll wheel? It turns out I only did half of the job. I left the detector in place.

The last thing I did was to remove the detector for the scroll wheel. That was hours ago, and I have been writing some code since
that time with no apparent trouble from the mouse.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: hutch-- on July 12, 2018, 03:10:09 PM
Z,

I am much of the same view as AW, I use a Microsoft optical cable mouse that is completely hassle free as you just plug it in and it works. For my older i7 box with Win7 64 Ultimate I use a low cost wireless Logitech mouse which works fine but I have to keep in mind that it may stop if the battery wears out. The trick is to throw out any of the crap that comes with a cheap mouse if it will just plug in and run.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on July 12, 2018, 04:38:29 PM
Quote from: hutch-- on July 12, 2018, 03:10:09 PM
Z,

I am much of the same view as AW, I use a Microsoft optical cable mouse that is completely hassle free..


At this point (a full week after my last post) I can safely say that the trouble wasn't with my mouse after all.
It works fine now, with the touchpad disabled.

Apparently there is a problem with this computers touchpad and Windows 7 64 and my mouse -  all trying to
work together.

There are no issues with the touchpad and Windows 10 64, and the mouse all running at the same time.

-- -but I prefer to  keep running WIndows 7. So the touchpad will remain disabled until such time that I have
to run Windows 10 - as the trial period on my Windows 7 install on this computer nears its end.



Title: Just when I thought it was safe to go outside...
Post by: zedd151 on July 14, 2018, 06:29:50 PM
Damn Microsoft!!

I had to pop in a backup of Windows 10 to make a posting to one of the Matrix Transposition threads. I was sure that I had disabled Windows Update permanently. But low-and-behold, M$ found a way in, and I just got a popup from Windows 10 ""We are adding some new features to Windows, this could take a few moments" I rebooted back into WIndows 7 immediately to curtail the installation that probably still lies-in-wait. Luckily though, It's not my licensed version of Windows 10 which I had spent days securing from such tragedies.

On second thought, maybe I overlooked disabling Updates on the copy of Win 10 Ultimate that I was 'trying out'.    :icon_rolleyes: 

correction= It was my primary Windows 10 licensed installation.
Ooops! something is definitely amiss. It was not Windows 10 Ultimate, as I had trouble with that backup. It was indeed my customized
Windows 10 installation that M$ found a way in- to Windows Update.  I'll just have to reinstall the backup to further circumvent their
tampering with my setup.  :shock:   I must have missed a setting somewhere. I know that it will not try to update the OS, it was trying to
install some 'typing' program, probably for autocorrect. I didn't get the full description of the update it was so generously supplying me with.
Title: Windows XP is here to stay...
Post by: zedd151 on July 23, 2018, 06:12:08 AM
 :biggrin:   at least on my computer.


For over a week I have been using Windows XP in VirtualBox (On Windows 7 Ultimate - 32bit)


It is basically set up as my Development Environment. Nice, quiet, no peeping programs or processes to interfere
with what I want to do on MY computer.


If Windows 10 had not been natively installed at the factory I would totally remove it from my repertoire. (sp?)


Now I can comfortably write code, surf the internet and do everything else without wondering what Windows 10 is
tracking about me today. Fork Cortana! That whore.  :biggrin:


Windows 10 is the ultimate spyware. Yet M$ claims that everything that Windows 10 does is there to help you.


LOL!!  That kind of help I do not need. I want to be left the f**k alone and not be spied on by my Operating System.  8)
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: felipe on July 23, 2018, 12:56:02 PM
That's ok, but now you will be spied in the world wide web... :idea: So the question is: can you with that too?...:idea:

8)                               :icon_cool:                     :shock:                    :lol:           :idea:           :redface:

:icon_mrgreen:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on July 23, 2018, 06:15:51 PM
Quote from: felipe on July 23, 2018, 12:56:02 PM
That's ok, but now you will be spied in the world wide web...
Nah. theres a level of anonymity and firewalls are in place.
Plus I can always turn off the internet and still use the computer, but I can't use the internet without a computer.


8)
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 05, 2018, 09:05:50 PM
START OF GRIPING SESSION
Issues, issues, and more issues. I have two partitions both with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit set up on them,
the one I use regularly I cannot complete the installation of VC++ 2015 redistributable 14.0.23026.
It gives an error "0x8000ffff" catastrophic failure", tried repairing and /or uninstalling and reinstalling it to no avail.
This is the os I tinkered with, to reduce the overall size, btw. So I am not completely surprised.

Okay, so on a second partition, I set up a clean unmodified version of Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. the VC2015
redistributable installed, and ML64 and the rest work fine.  But on that Win 7 installation I cannot get ollydbg
to run properly. Single Step exceptions, etc. and the debugged program exits. I tred the exact same settings
in fact copied the entire odbg110 folder from the Main install to the New install, no good results.

I am thinking that there is something in new install I need to turn off in Windows 7 to allow olly to run properly.
I would be grateful for any suggestions. I would like to move everything over to the 'clean install' version of WIndows
7 but that is exactly the one giving problems in regard to ollydbg.

So, on one ML64 is fudged, on the other I can't run ollydbg..   :(
I stopped running xp in virtual box for the same reason, its a real pain-in-the-arse to switch from one to the other.

END OF GRIPING SESSION -- LOGGED 6:05:26 AMSunday, August 05, 2018
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 05, 2018, 09:16:34 PM
 ::) :icon_rolleyes: ::) :icon_rolleyes: ::)

It's always the same thing. The seemingly hardest problems usually have the simplest solutions. I am
posting from the 'clean install' Windows 7 and

Found I only needed  to adjust ollies 'compatibility settings' to Win XP.    :biggrin:
Checking 'Run as Admin' didn't hurt either.

Later--> Yup, I ran some tests everything is okay with the clean install of Windows 7. I have copied my files over already
and am about to trash the non compliant WIn 7 setup  8)   
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 06, 2018, 12:37:26 AM
Sweet. I now have a clean install of Windows 7 Pro, all of my files and other junk have been copied to the new install.
I installed masm32, buildx64, ML64 and company without a hitch. I have reinstalled all of my favorite programs,
(most of them are copy/paste workable) and have no more troubles with ollydbg. Now I will install x64dbg, to have
a debugger handy for 64 bit code.
I had trouble with the 32 bit version, but perhaps I will have better performance with their 64 bit program.

And to top it all off, I made a backup copy (This time with all the programs and settings in place :P )
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 08, 2018, 12:43:08 PM
Test post from a computer without a hard drive. Running Windows 10 to Go, 32 bit from a usb flash drive.   :biggrin:
Actually, it's a micro SD card, you can see it there in the Vivitar adapter.  OS in a drive no bigger than a finger nail,
Who would have thunk?
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/r3ebwerahtp22bg/IMG_2.jpg?dl=1)
actual image of this post ^^^^^   8)
And I thought running Windows xp in virtual Box was slow.   :P  At least now I know I have a working computer for if/when my main system craps out. This box is an ancient (not really THAT old) Acer AspireOne
netbook. Screen resolution, 1024 x 600.   But not to worry, it has a monitor jack if I can find the monitor cable.  :icon_confused:

Once a program is loaded into memory, it runs ok. But loading the program from the usb drive takes some time. Its only usb 2.0 after all.

Later --> I found out I only have 512 MB memory in  there, I'll have to swipe some from the junk laptop.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: jj2007 on August 08, 2018, 04:41:22 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on August 08, 2018, 12:43:08 PMTest post from a computer without a hard drive. Running Windows 10 to Go, 32 bit from a usb flash drive.   :biggrin:
Actually, it's a micro SD card

Looks fascinating, but now you confuse me: What is it exactly, a USB flash drive or a micro SD card?? And how did you convince the OS to boot from there?
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 08, 2018, 07:20:12 PM
Quote from: jj2007 on August 08, 2018, 04:41:22 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on August 08, 2018, 12:43:08 PMTest post from a computer without a hard drive. Running Windows 10 to Go, 32 bit from a usb flash drive.   :biggrin:
Actually, it's a micro SD card

And how did you convince the OS to boot from there?
I generically call any drive that plugs into the usb port a flash drive . 
Maybe I should say solid-state, usb port enabled, read-write device?   :P

As for 'Windows To Go' it is a feature rolled out with Windows 8, I believe,
that enables a Windows installation to be installed onto a removable device.
Do a Google Search for Windows To Go. No hassles with the install, no
fudging around to get the OS to work "right', like I have seen others trying
to do on the net on various sites. (With Windows xp and WIndows 7, et. al.)

And Windows has come a long way as far as supplying adequate in-box, stock
hardware drivers.

Heres a link  With more information  (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/planning/windows-to-go-overview)  :t Of course you still need a valid
license (key) for continued use after 30 days.
Title: The saga continues...
Post by: zedd151 on August 09, 2018, 06:05:57 AM
Posting from my ancient Gateway Laptop, on Windows To Go Windows 10 32 bit Home edition. I installed the wifi drivers for Windows 7 but they did not work. (Drivers not available apparently for use with Windows 10)
My Smart (dumb) phone has the option to 'tether via usb' so I tried that option, so here I am posting via my phone   :icon_mrgreen:

This screen is HUGE in comparison to my old netbook. Only slightly bigger than my new netbook that I purchased a few months back.
I'll post a screenshot in a little bit...

Edit I fubarred and had to edit the mfr name. lol
On this computer, Windows To Go runs a little faster. Of course it has 2 GB ram as opposed to he 512 MB in the little netbook. I was surprised it even ran with so little memory.

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxfsc3kt39fg7t2/gateway.jpg?dl=1)
I had to install Drop Box on this machine. :)
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 09, 2018, 07:11:49 AM
This setup isn't so bad. The OS is responsive enough, and it is almost as fast as it would be if I were running from a bona fide hard disk. (Not as fast as a solid state disk, however)
There are a few lags, but nothing to write home about.
It of course, is sill crippled by the fact that not all of the drivers are available, so that means I have to manually transfer anything from my Windows 7 setup to this computer manually via usb drive. :(

But otherwise, it IS a working system.  :)
I don't like Cortana peering over my shoulder all the time, but thats life in the Windows 10 world.   8)


Just when I thought I was finished playing around with OS'es and configurations.  ::)    :biggrin:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Caché GB on August 09, 2018, 09:32:17 AM
Struggling with OS's is a never ending story. Dam MicroSh*t.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 09, 2018, 10:41:38 AM
Quote from: Caché GB on August 09, 2018, 09:32:17 AM
Struggling with OS's is a never ending story. Dam MicroSh*t.
No struggle now, I'm just playing around.  :greensml:
I have Windows 7 64 bit set up on my main computer and it is solid, and doesn't spy on me.   :icon_cool:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 21, 2022, 02:10:33 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on May 06, 2018, 06:13:51 AM
It's a Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Netbook. retail for 139.99 USD.  Windows 10 Home sells for 119.99 USD at same store.  :biggrin:
From System Information:

Dell Inspiron 3180  --> I don't know why the literature included says Inspiron 11 3000
Windows 10 home, 64 bit
AMD A6-9220e R4 , 2cores, 2 logical processors
29.12 GB eMMC Hard Drive
4 GB Memory
That little netbook finally had its last day about a week ago. I dropped it, and broke not only the screen, but one of the hinges as well. It was open at the time and landed on concrete in exactly the wrong position.
But luckily I think a year ago (more or less) I bought two refurbished boxes (exact same model) from a third party seller on Amazon for $140 USD a piece plus taxes and shipping (included monitor, wired keyboard & wired mouse btw). The specs are in my signature and they both run fine with the SSD's I put into them a month after I got them. So ends the saga...
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: daydreamer on August 21, 2022, 09:00:02 PM
well its no secret what you run,because that is revealed in first line with cpuid when help testing something in this forum
one older laptop +padded bags is safer to walk on ice in winter or getting robbed of highend laptop,learned the lesson of dropping my old gaming laptop twice,new extra USB ports and duct tape on backside of screen
who was it who wrote laptop got destroyed by spilling soda on it?uses waterproof tablet when eating/drinking to avoid that
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on August 26, 2022, 07:12:08 PM
Damn! Just noticed this thread has over 33,000 views? Sorry to disappoint, there's no there's no multicore overclocked high speed, 32 GB fast memory, super duper nitrogen cooled gaming computer being bought or discussed here at any time soon.


I know what 'they' were looking to find here.  :toothy:
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on October 06, 2022, 03:48:57 PM
Quote from: zedd151 on August 26, 2022, 07:12:08 PM
Damn! Just noticed this thread has over 33,000 views?
Almost 35000 now.  :tongue:  34981 as of this post.
Just so the newest viewers know...
The last two computers I bought are about 12 years old, and nothing fancy schmancy either.  :badgrin:  See post #154 above.
A few issues with the monitors that came with them, the whole kit is refurbished. I can't complain though. They served me well for the money spent and are still kicking. I'll post the specs for anyone interested in a few minutes when I get back in front of the computer. I'm sitting on my back porch right now looking at some of my old threads.

edited later to add...
QuoteHP8000 series Ultra-Slim Desktop
Intel Core2 Duo 64 bit CPU @3.00 GHz
8 GB RAM
It doesn't seem to actually be running @ 3.00 GHz though. Seeme a little 'tired'.
I ordered two of the same computers. They both had all the neccesities included, wired mouse & keyboard, and 1280x1024 monitors.
For $130ish USD a piece plus tax and shipping.
The other computers I mentioned in this thread have all kicked the bucket in one way or another.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: Shintaro on October 06, 2022, 09:39:17 PM
Chris Titus has a utility HERE (https://christitus.com/windows-tool/) to debloat win 10. It can clear some processes that are not required etc.
Title: Re: I'll be buying a new computer...
Post by: zedd151 on October 07, 2022, 12:49:06 AM
Quote from: Shintaro on October 06, 2022, 09:39:17 PM
Chris Titus has a utility HERE (https://christitus.com/windows-tool/) to debloat win 10. It can clear some processes that are not required etc.
'The Windows Club' also has a very similar tool which I had used. But no tool can remove the fact that Windows 10 is a POS OS. I have long since reverted back to Windows 7, and removed all of the problems that Windows 10 is.  :biggrin: 
Some people use and even like Windows 10/11. Well, good for them. I won't stop them or criticize then for using it. I wish them the best. They can have the 'Metro' interface and all of the Metro Apps. My computer runs programs. Apps are for dumb phones.  :tongue:  Oh, and tablets. Almost forgot.


zedd.