So...no one else is gonna bring it up?

[Rath Darkblade]

I've also noticed a whole bunch of so-called "apps" that Windows 10 installed by default. They look like this:

Dratted apps!

I've figured out how to remove most of them, but the following apps still hang around like a bad smell, and I'd love to get rid of them:

- Cortana
- Alarms & Clock
- Camera
- Maps
- MS Store
- Mixed reality portal
- People
- Photos
- Xbox game bar
- Your mobile

They're pretty much useless. I don't need them, they're just taking up space and memory. Is there any way to get rid of them?

I've also noticed that since I upgraded to Windows 10, my disk is being accessed pretty much all the time. Any ideas what's going on? This is causing the entire system to be very slow.

Thanks!

[notbobsmith]

Quick question: so, I took the plunge and upgraded to Windows 10. So far, it's running just fine (whoopee! ), but there are some niggling teething troubles. For instance, I have a few files stored in my Downloads folder. Unfortunately, it looks like this:

Untitled.png

I don't really need this "last month", "earlier this year", "a long time ago" nonsense. I can read a date, thank you very much.

Is there a way to get rid of this?

I don't have anything in my Downloads folder, but you can try changing that in the Options under "View".

I've also noticed a whole bunch of so-called "apps" that Windows 10 installed by default. They look like this:

apps.png

I've figured out how to remove most of them, but the following apps still hang around like a bad smell, and I'd love to get rid of them:

- Cortana
- Alarms & Clock
- Camera
- Maps
- MS Store
- Mixed reality portal
- People
- Photos
- Xbox game bar
- Your mobile

They're pretty much useless. I don't need them, they're just taking up space and memory. Is there any way to get rid of them?

I've also noticed that since I upgraded to Windows 10, my disk is being accessed pretty much all the time. Any ideas what's going on? This is causing the entire system to be very slow.

Thanks!

I've noticed that my system does seem to access the drive a lot more but seems to settle down after a while being mostly idle. I suspect that Windows 10 needs more resources and more RAM. With an older system, that probably meets reading and writing to the swap file a lot more. That said, I haven't really noticed a decrease in performance with the more demanding games that I have. At least it's not any worse than it was before.

[DeadPoolX]

Did either of you have more than one hard drive when upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10?

I have multiple drives (one SSD and two HDDs), where I keep my OS and some specific productivity programs on my SSD, while using the HDDs for less important programs, games, and general storage.

The issue here is that I moved my User folder (that contains the libraries, such as the Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Video folders) from my C Drive (SSD) to my my D Drive (the first HDD) using a Symlink.

The reason this is important is because my SSD is small by today's standards (but was considered large for an SSD back in 2014 when I put my machine together) at 120 GB of storage. As of right now, I only have 38.9 GB of room free on that same SSD (my C Drive), but the Users folder on my D Drive takes up 243 GB.

So my question is... if I do an upgrade, will it keep the User folder on my D Drive or will the upgrade try to move it back to my C Drive?

Also, another question I have is if I were to do a clean install of Windows 10 (probably after doing the upgrade so my Windows 7 key could be turned into a digital Windows 10 license), do I need to detach the HDDs so Windows 10 only installs on the SSD and doesn't put a boot sector on one of the HDDs (which is something I've read that tends to happen a lot with Windows 10).

For the record, I've tried looking up the answers to both questions and the answers I've found are usually vague and somewhat unhelpful. I've even posted asking these questions on other forums and subreddits, but the responses indicate that no one bothers to thoroughly read my posts before answering which ends up becoming a frustrating ordeal.

[notbobsmith]

I have just the one hard drive, so I'm afraid I can't help. I do see your problem and I can imagine how the upgrade could mess things up.

I've also experienced that thing where you post a question and the responses seem like no one read it. Why do people do that?

[Rath Darkblade]

Sorry, DPX. I have only one drive (one HDD of 930 GB - and about 235 of them is free, but my disk is still being accessed all the time).

Perhaps if I disabled some of the services, Windows would calm down? I know that not all services are necessary or even beneficial. Any ideas?

[goatmeal]

I do have a dual system (C:/D: SSD OS/Recovery and E: HDD Data), but haven't upgraded yet; plan to in a week or two when I have an off-day from work on a Friday so I'll have a 3-day weekend just in case something goes wrong (not anticipating it, though).

A thread from a couple years ago on the Tom's Hardware forum recommends unplugging all other drives except the drive on which you want OS installed. I will be doing that.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads ... e.3531977/

Also saw a video yesterday where you can use legit unused Windows 7/8/10 keys to activate Windows 11 (!). Has something to do with the Win 7/8 keys being recognized for the Win 10 upgrade, then the Win 10 upgrade transferring to Win 11.

[DeadPoolX]

Perhaps if I disabled some of the services, Windows would calm down? I know that not all services are necessary or even beneficial. Any ideas?

Well, I presume you've disabled certain things from the get-go, like Cortana, right? There are a lot of invasive options you need to turn off in Windows 10, and I imagine doing so might also save your computer from doing more work than it needs to do.

Aside from the above, I'd recommend you check out Black Viper's site for information on Windows services configs. Scroll down to see the detailed list, but I'd recommend reading everything on that page anyway.

Maia and I've been using Black Viper's site since Windows 2000. We should probably donate something at this point because his configuration lists have been really helpful and saved us a lot of time by using his site instead of looking all over the Internet.

A thread from a couple years ago on the Tom's Hardware forum recommends unplugging all other drives except the drive on which you want OS installed. I will be doing that.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads ... e.3531977/

That's also what I've read, and in fact that's why I asked about disconnecting the extra drives to prevent the boot sector getting put onto a separate drive instead of the OS drive. I'm not sure why, but apparently Windows 10 tends to put the boot sector on the wrong drive if multiple drives are connected during installation.

That said, I think it's only a potential issue when you do a clean install, not an upgrade. I'm still looking into this, however.

v
Also saw a video yesterday where you can use legit unused Windows 7/8/10 keys to activate Windows 11 (!). Has something to do with the Win 7/8 keys being recognized for the Win 10 upgrade, then the Win 10 upgrade transferring to Win 11.

Yeah, I can use my Win 7 Pro key to upgrade to Win 10 Pro, and then theoretically use that Win 10 Pro key to upgrade to Win 11 Pro.

I won't be doing the latter, however, because my computer's motherboard and BIOS is too old for Win 11. So I've got until 2025 before Win 10 reaches EOL.

If I decide to keep my current machine at that point instead of putting together a new one, I'll probably switch to one of three Linux distros: Ubuntu, Linux MInt, or Pop_OS. I'm angling towads Pop_OS since it has better Nvidia driver configurations, despite a lot of people recommending Linux Mint because its GUI is similar to Windows.

[Rath Darkblade]

Perhaps if I disabled some of the services, Windows would calm down? I know that not all services are necessary or even beneficial. Any ideas?

Well, I presume you've disabled certain things from the get-go, like Cortana, right? There are a lot of invasive options you need to turn off in Windows 10, and I imagine doing so might also save your computer from doing more work than it needs to do.

Aside from the above, I'd recommend you check out Black Viper's site for information on Windows services configs. Scroll down to see the detailed list, but I'd recommend reading everything on that page anyway.

Maia and I've been using Black Viper's site since Windows 2000. We should probably donate something at this point because his configuration lists have been really helpful and saved us a lot of time by using his site instead of looking all over the Internet.

Thank you, DPX! I've read the entire page, gone through Black Viper's list, and turned off unnecessary services. Fingers crossed that Windows would calm down a bit.

I disabled Cortana, but I'm not sure what else I should disable. (I wasn't even sure what Cortana is, but after googling it, I understood why keeping it isn't a good idea). Is there anything else I should disable?

[notbobsmith]

Perhaps if I disabled some of the services, Windows would calm down? I know that not all services are necessary or even beneficial. Any ideas?

Well, I presume you've disabled certain things from the get-go, like Cortana, right? There are a lot of invasive options you need to turn off in Windows 10, and I imagine doing so might also save your computer from doing more work than it needs to do.

Aside from the above, I'd recommend you check out Black Viper's site for information on Windows services configs. Scroll down to see the detailed list, but I'd recommend reading everything on that page anyway.

Maia and I've been using Black Viper's site since Windows 2000. We should probably donate something at this point because his configuration lists have been really helpful and saved us a lot of time by using his site instead of looking all over the Internet.

I should look into this. Somehow it doesn't seem right that I'm using half my 8 GB of RAM while the system is idle.

I won't be doing the latter, however, because my computer's motherboard and BIOS is too old for Win 11. So I've got until 2025 before Win 10 reaches EOL.

That said, didn't they extend support for Windows 7 due to the size of the market still using it? Anyway, I've been using Windows 7 until now, so I can go past the expiration date of Windows 10 for a little bit until I get a new system. As silly as this sounds, I'm waiting for the release of Elder Scrolls 6 or Mass Effect 5. Whichever comes first.

[goatmeal]

Just upgraded to Win10 from Win7 a little over an hour ago, and the process took right at 30 minutes, from the moment I clicked "setup.exe" on the ISO to getting a working Windows 10 desktop.

On my desktop computer, I have a SSD for the OS and a HDD for the data, though the Win7 re-install on the SSD is only 15 months old (a result of the original OS+data HDD failing early last year).

Instead of using a USB2 flashdrive ISO with a USB2 port like on my laptop a couple of years ago (my only choices at the time), this time I opted for speed: I downloaded the Win10 ISO onto a USB3 flashdrive, then accessed the ISO from a USB3 port and chose to keep all my "apps" (just call them 'programs' ) and files.

Before the upgrade could continue, I did have to (1) uninstall one program during the process (VMWare Player 12) because it was not compatible with Win10, and (2) confirm that Microsoft Security Essentials would not be present as such on Win10. Those were the only 'problems' found. After that, the upgrade continued without issue.

I did not unhook/disable my HDD data drive, and did not have a problem with Win10 installing onto a different drive. It installed on my C: drive and made a copy of the previous OS Windows data in a new folder called 'Windows.old'.

I've been using Windows 10 at work for years now, so there won't be much of a "getting used to"/"learning curve" here...

My system specs are:
• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
• Installed RAM: 16.0 GB
• System Type: 64-bit

Hope my experience helps.

[Rath Darkblade]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I just wanted to say thank you, goatmeal. And here's a question:

I can see your system specs are better than mine. Mine are:
• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60 GHz
• Installed RAM: 8.0 GB
• System Type: 64-bit

OK, so obviously you have twice as much RAM as I do. (Your processor is also quicker). I've noticed that it takes my computer about 2-3 minutes to boot. So ... do you think I simply need more RAM, or should I also upgrade the CPU?

I don't think I need a new computer or anything like that - I'm just curious. Thanks!

[goatmeal]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I just wanted to say thank you, goatmeal. And here's a question:

I can see your system specs are better than mine. Mine are:
• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60 GHz
• Installed RAM: 8.0 GB
• System Type: 64-bit

OK, so obviously you have twice as much RAM as I do. (Your processor is also quicker). I've noticed that it takes my computer about 2-3 minutes to boot. So ... do you think I simply need more RAM, or should I also upgrade the CPU?

I don't think I need a new computer or anything like that - I'm just curious. Thanks!

You don't need a new processor, and you definitely don't need a new computer if yours is working fine (other than the boot time). Your CPU is actually a little faster than mine:

• Both are Core i7 CPUs
• Your CPU type i7-4790 > my i7-3770
• Your CPU Speed @ 3.60 GHz > mine @ 3.40 GHz

More memory certainly won't hurt and will likely help. If you don't know the type of memory or the maximum amount your system will allow, go to an online memory seller website selling memory upgrades, like Crucial Memory. Because they want to sell you memory, they have drop-down menus for your to choose (1) Computer Manufacturer name, (2) Product Line, and (3) Model type. They can also scan/analyze your system for you, should you choose. Crucial has a database of over 175,000 computer systems.

Once you have the information, buy from them or someone else. RAM will be your cheapest route, especially from that long ago.

My friend in college had a manual (maybe from his old Tandy computer?) that provided the following analogy for RAM back from the old DOS days. I'm paraphrasing here:

The amount of RAM is like the number of burners on a stove top: If you only have 4 burners (= small amount of RAM), you can only cook 4 items at any one time (= only run so many programs efficiently).

If you try to cook more than 4 items, you have to take a pot/pan off the stove to put another one on (= running more and more programs). This results in taking longer to cook the entire meal, switching pots and pans on-and-off the burners until everything is 'done' (= programs slow down when trying to multi-task above their ability).

With more burners (= more RAM), say 6 or 8 or 12 burners, you can cook more things (= run more programs) at the same time without losing any time (= programs run 'faster').

I think that would apply here.

Another the limiting factor might be your Hard Disk Drive (HDD), especially if it's older (which I'm guessing it is). I'm using a Solid State Drive (SSD) for my OS/boot drive (as I've described elsewhere here), and though I haven't timed it, the "boot time to desktop" seems to be as fast (or maybe even slightly faster) than when it was running Windows 7 on it.

I realize you might not be able to easily replace your single HDD to an SSD OS / HDD Data configuration, but data access time from your mechanical storage device also plays a factor in how fast your computer runs...

You might also look at programs that help you pick-and-choose which start-up programs to disable if you're inundated with 'bloat'.

However, if boot time is truly your only issue, just simply accept it as the trade-off while you save money for you new Windows 11 machine a few years...

[notbobsmith]

More memory certainly won't hurt and will likely help. If you don't know the type of memory or the maximum amount your system will allow, go to an online memory seller website selling memory upgrades, like Crucial Memory. Because they want to sell you memory, they have drop-down menus for your to choose (1) Computer Manufacturer name, (2) Product Line, and (3) Model type. They can also scan/analyze your system for you, should you choose. Crucial has a database of over 175,000 computer systems.

Thanks for the website. I actually gave their system analyzer a try and it did correctly identify my system and gave me some recommendations for compatible RAM. DDR3 given the age of my system. Unfortunately, there were only a handful of options and the only place that had them in stock was Newegg via a sketchy third party seller in Australia. Really useful webpage, though.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm - I'm not sure what kind of RAM (or what kind of motherboard) I have, and what kind of RAM my motherboard would be compatible with. (I tried finding this - I'm running Windows 10, which seems to have removed the old Hardware Manager for some reason. Does it still exist?)

I'm guessing my hardware is fairly old, given that originally, it was used to run Windows 7. (I can't remember when I purchased this computer, unfortunately - is there any way I can find out?)

[goatmeal]

Hmm - I'm not sure what kind of RAM (or what kind of motherboard) I have, and what kind of RAM my motherboard would be compatible with. (I tried finding this - I'm running Windows 10, which seems to have removed the old Hardware Manager for some reason. Does it still exist?)

Type "Device Manager" in the search box in your Taskbar
—or—
Click the Windows Start icon, select Settings, then type "Device Manager" in that search box

I'm guessing my hardware is fairly old, given that originally, it was used to run Windows 7. (I can't remember when I purchased this computer, unfortunately - is there any way I can find out?)

As I mentioned above, you can go to www.crucial.com/upgrades, then select "Crucial Scanner" on the right side of the three options. You can download a small system analyzer EXE file; run it, and it will generate an HTML file in your default browser describing the options for an SSD drive (if compatible/available for your system) and the memory of your system (type, bank configuration(s), and maximum allowed).

Scroll down to see the exact memory types available with all the in-depth information / specifics / compatible memory... Mine is the following:

4GB DDR3L-1600 UDIMM
DDR3-1600 • CL=11 • NON-ECC • UDIMM • 240-pin • 1.35V • 2Rx8 • PC3-12800
(× 4 = 16 GB)

So, now you can use that information to buy the memory from them or find another supplier on the internet.

NotBobSmith used the file and I did too just now, so it's legitimate / not a scam / not dangerous.