About to get a new computer - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: etamal
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 30, 2023, 03:02:18 am
content: Hi, first post here on the EEV blog thingy, as the subject says about to unbox new computer, the old one will go to the workshop to be used for programming arduino projects, my main question is there's a lot of stuff on here that I don't need, games, pics, other downloaded stuff, updates, virus protection etc etc, some things are obvious but other stuff is just a string of letters and numbers, I've got no idea whether it's ok to delete or not, it might be an important windows update or something, all this extra stuff seems to make the computer painfully slow, just wondering if I can get a bit of a steer in the right direction re cleaning out stuff I don't need. Thanks.

author: Shonky
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2023, 06:20:02 am
content: Uninstall the software you don't need. A good starting point is removing the apps with icons in the system tray (normally bottom right)I would reinstall Windows clean if the machine has had a lot of cruft installed over the years. Then add what's needed.That's about as much help you can get with the information provided. You haven't even mentioned the OS.

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2023, 06:42:03 am
content: Back up everything and wipe the system then start againIt is a much better approach than trying to fish around in say an 5-10 year old box and figure out what is good and what is garbage to try and speed things up.Depending on what software you actually NEED in the workshop consider Linux Mint instead of Windoze to get a bit more spring in the box. The experience with it is actually fairly Windoze like and is not as command line heavy to drive as some of the other distributions. It is a great way to stretch the life on older hardware as it typically needs less hardware to get things done.Arduino IDE is available in LinuxLibre Office works great in either and if you are using MS Office stop it right nowInkscape and GIMP for Graphics stuffChromium for browsing.If you have specific software needs that require Windoze then maybe look at dual boot or running a Virtual machine for Windoze if needed.80%+ of my hardware is still on Windoze for software reasons but Desktop Linux isn't to painful even for a newb like me.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2023, 03:37:25 pm
content: I agree this would be a good time to update the old machine to Linux. Consider installing on a new SSD/NVMe, they're pretty cheap. For the new computer, what you want to search for is:new computer windows clean installI'm pretty sure Microsoft will have everything you need other than an empty flash drive of suitable size.

author: etamal
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 02, 2023, 03:16:38 pm
content: Thanks for the replies, the comp is just a regular HP 20 all in one from the local buy everything electrical store, it has an AMD E16010 APU and AMD radeon R2 graphics 4.00GB ram, with windows 10 home.Pics and other info has been put onto an external hard drive, I have also deleted games and other stuff, but as seems to be the best option is a complete clean, how might this sort of complete clean be done and then I'm guessing I would need to download virus protection (AVG) before I download anything else, Linux Mint and ARDUINIO for e.g.I'll also do a search for how to do a clean, by clean do we mean wipe and reload like doing a reformatting.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2023, 03:34:10 pm
content: QuoteIf your not putting windows back no need for any of that,just select the erase the disk option during mint installationn