New Dell laptop with Windows XP what a joke!!!

[ade234uk]

Today a shiny new dell laptop arrived at work. The problem is not the laptop its just it has Windows XP on it. My boss insisted on having that stupid set up music running in the background. I was about to go over unplug the thing fffiiing thing when he told me that he was not happy with it because it seemed slow and wanted me to remove bits and peices to make it a bit quicker.

I am not kidding you I have never used such rubbish in my whole life. I have not used Windows for about 6 months @ home and I am so thankful I found Ubuntu.

The amount of pop of Windows and questions and updates you are asked to undertake before you can start using Windows is a complete joke. And the amount of icons that appear in the taskbar makes a brand new Dell crawl on its knees. There must of been about 15 different icons in the startbar, with twelve of these being complete rubbish.

I decided to uninstall a lot of the crap, and guess what Windows then started asking for the CD over and over again, and I never even touched any critical files. I had to do about 5 restarts before things became settled but even then it still asked for the CD grrrrr.

The most annoying thing is that these companies are taking control away from its customers. AOL had about 6 different entries in the start up menu. Corel and Mcafee where also trying to catch my attention with stupid pop ups and reminders, and they say Linux is not user friendly?

If this what Windows is like these days they have had it. Lets hope Vista is juts as bad because I would love to see Microsoft banned for the monster they have created.

They have created an industry where users think it is acceptable to spend £30.00 on anti virus software which all seems to work very well for companies like Macfee who force new Dell users to use their software anyway in the hope of them paying for more updates 18 months later, and these people think they are getting a deal. What a joke.

Rant over!!

PS Dell should really change the plastic on their laptops becuase it's very cheap. Makes you understand now why their goods are so cheap and their call centres are located in India. No disrespect to any one in India.

[lordofkhemenu]

I feel your pain.
I'm the "IT guy" for my company and I cringe anytime I hear the words, "We just ordered so-n-so a new laptop|desktop"
With all the crap on it, MS updates and other things I have to do to it..it takes me damn near an entire day to just get ONE machine set up.
argh.

[xequence]

Dont ever use the version of windows that came installed on your computer.

On my parents computer, a compaq, with windows (and alot of other crap preinstalled) there were 46 processes running. (no windows up.).

For some reason compaq feels the need to have an "iPodservice.exe" running all the time. Noone in my family even owns an iPod... Stupid.

For mine, just a normal retail CD install, there were 18. And that included uTorrent and a couple vmware things.

[Bandit]

If your boss asked me to remove crap that was making it run slow I would have done "format c:" FIXED!!!!

[jc87]

That is why i hate windows , i have to lost huges amounts of time making it "work" , be a AV , Firewalll , codecs , office , etc.... with Ubuntu just add a few repositories , apt-get install , and is all done.

And the worst part is that i have to double click EVERYTHING , damn i cant stand use double click anymore.

[Kapre]

If your boss asked me to remove crap that was making it run slow I would have done "format c:" FIXED!!!!

I would agree with bandit. Then tell your boss about the greater OS than XP that you can install (saying Ubuntu will be an overkill).

K

[ade234uk]

I tried to convert him to Firefox as a gentle start but all I got was, THIS FIREFOX IS RUBBISH. I DONT LIKE IT. WHERE IS MY INTERNET EXPLORER.

[mstlyevil]

It is not MSFT fault that Dell loaded a bunch of crapware on the computer and slowed it down. Just go to the add remove programs and remove it all to speed up the PC. Turn off all the unneccesary services by running services.msc. This will speed it right up without having to reinstall. (especially since reinstalling will just be a restore function anyway and will put that s**t right back on.)

[xequence]

It is not MSFT fault that Dell loaded a bunch of crapware on the computer and slowed it down. Just go to the add remove programs and remove it all to speed up the PC. Turn off all the unneccesary services by running services.msc. This will speed it right up without having to reinstall. (especially since reinstalling will just be a restore function anyway and will put that s**t right back on.)

Its much better to just do a clean install then even attempting to do that :P

[mstlyevil]

Its much better to just do a clean install then even attempting to do that :P

You do not understand. He will not have a install disk. He will either have a restore disk or partition. To use a reinstall disk he will have to buy a new license since this is a bussiness computer. Things are not always as simple as you sometimes believe them to be.

[vayu]

The most annoying thing is that these companies are taking control away from its customers.

The whole of our society is in the same mess. In US history books they've changed Lincolns' line in the Gettysburg address to "of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations".

[jc87]

I tried to convert him to Firefox as a gentle start but all I got was, THIS FIREFOX IS RUBBISH. I DONT LIKE IT. WHERE IS MY INTERNET EXPLORER.

Put firefox with a blue theme , and replace the firefox icon with a icon equal to IE , and you will never get caught:twisted: .

[aysiu]

Put firefox with a blue theme , and replace the firefox icon with a icon equal to IE , and you will never get caught:twisted: . Here's one: Luna Blue (https://addons.mozilla.org/themes/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=OS%20Integration&numpg=10&id=1653).


The whole of our society is in the same mess. In US history books they've changed Lincolns' line in the Gettysburg address to "of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations". It was the 14th amendment that birthed the corporation phenomenon:
http://www.iiipublishing.com/afd/pa-resol.htm
http://www.iiipublishing.com/afd/changes.htm
http://www.nancho.net/corperson/14amend.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:BoSFFqsG52gJ:reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/fourteenth_amendment_hammerstrom.pdf+14th+amendmen t+corporations+person&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10&lr=lang_en

I have to say one of the worst things about my job is having to use Windows. The tech department won't let me run Linux on my computer, and if they did, it would just make things complicated (they'd have to let my Linux computer join the domain; I'd need something like Crossover Office to get our database program working; our database program integrates with Microsoft Word... not OpenOffice).

[DigitalDuality]

Norton's Ghost, learn it, love it. Try to stick with as few models of laptops and PCs as you can. Create images for each department, ...install the OS, Office, and whatever software employees of that dept need. Setup everything was you want. Lock it with Sysprep, ghost it. And voila. Problem solved.

Every pc/laptop done in about 30 min to an hour.

[aysiu]

I know PartImage can make copies of partitions, but is there a good ghosting program for Linux whereby I can create a CD that will bootup and then restore Ubuntu how I want it?

By the way, this thread is the most off-topic I've ever been in these forums... I think.

[majikstreet]

I know PartImage can make copies of partitions, but is there a good ghosting program for Linux whereby I can create a CD that will bootup and then restore Ubuntu how I want it?

By the way, this thread is the most off-topic I've ever been in these forums... I think.
would like to know that too...

anyway, AFAIK the cd's that come with computers to reinstall windows just install windows.. no drivers or anything.. that has to be done with other cd's... at least with my dells..

[aysiu]

anyway, AFAIK the cd's that come with computers to reinstall windows just install windows.. no drivers or anything.. that has to be done with other cd's... at least with my dells.. Maybe that's a new thing. The Dell I bought in 2003 came with three CDs: Windows XP Service Pack 1, Drivers & Utilities, and InterVideo WinDVD.

The eMachines computer my wife and I bought in 2005 came with three ghosted restore CDs.

I haven't tried this, but a simple Google search turned up "Ghost for Linux":
http://freshmeat.net/projects/g4l/

[majikstreet]

Maybe that's a new thing. The Dell I bought in 2003 came with three CDs: Windows XP Service Pack 1, Drivers & Utilities, and InterVideo WinDVD.

The eMachines computer my wife and I bought in 2005 came with three ghosted restore CDs.

I haven't tried this, but a simple Google search turned up "Ghost for Linux":
http://freshmeat.net/projects/g4l/
my dell was bought.. hmm probably about then or before then... it came with the drivers cd, reinstall cd, and probably some more that I can't remember

[mstlyevil]

my dell was bought.. hmm probably about then or before then... it came with the drivers cd, reinstall cd, and probably some more that I can't remember

My brother old Gateway done the same thing. I have a Uncle that bought a new Gateway lappy that just had the image partition and no install disk. More and more manufactuers are doing this but I have no idea if Dell is doing this as of now. (I just build my own and I have no need for a lappy)

[majikstreet]

oh yeah, I did some google searching, and found this: http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/

[bjweeks]

Use Nlite (http://www.nliteos.com) you can remaster the install cd with all the software, drivers, and tweakes you need....

[xequence]

Use Nlite (http://www.nliteos.com) you can remaster the install cd with all the software, drivers, and tweakes you need....

nLite is so fun!

The posibilities are endless.

[Kernel Sanders]

I didnt realise people used the default windows installation that came with their computers these days? :mrgreen:

Seriously though, PC Vendors cramming windows with **** before they ship just spreads misconceptions about windows! Some people actually think that the **** all over their desktop/start menu/etc is actually part of Windows XP! NO NO NO!!! :twisted:

The first thing I did when I recieved my new super computer :cool: was to reformat the hard drive as quick as I could and install Windows XP Pro SP2
from a REAL CD, not some ****** restore cd!

And my computer runs like a dream! :cool:

[Kernel Sanders]

Use Nlite (http://www.nliteos.com) you can remaster the install cd with all the software, drivers, and tweakes you need....

nLite WILL eventually OWN, but at the moment its a little too buggy for my taste......

[xequence]

nLite WILL eventually OWN, but at the moment its a little too buggy for my taste......

What bugs have you encountered? Were you using RC6?



I didnt realise people used the default windows installation that came with their computers these days? :mrgreen:

Seriously though, PC Vendors cramming windows with **** before they ship just spreads misconceptions about windows! Some people actually think that the **** all over their desktop/start menu/etc is actually part of Windows XP! NO NO NO!!! :twisted:

The first thing I did when I recieved my new super computer :cool: was to reformat the hard drive as quick as I could and install Windows XP Pro SP2
from a REAL CD, not some ****** restore cd!

And my computer runs like a dream! :cool:


Yea. I keep trying to get my parents to let me install my own windows CD on their computer in place of the horrible preinstalled version.

[K.Mandla]

The amount of worthless dreck that came preinstalled on this machine made me want to puke. I even had some awful financial program that offered me a popup -- within Windows, not online! -- every 10 minutes or so. And when I put a CD in the drive, about four different programs tried to latch onto it. It was horrifying -- like a pack of dogs following around the one animal in heat.

Needless to say I killdisk'd that drive after about an hour. And there's no way in hellacious I would ever buy any of those programs. Especially the financial one. I feel bad for people who just don't know enough about them to get rid of that funk.

[Leo_01]

I tried to convert him to Firefox as a gentle start but all I got was, THIS FIREFOX IS RUBBISH. I DONT LIKE IT. WHERE IS MY INTERNET EXPLORER.
Set him on fire.\\:D/

[DigitalDuality]

meh, the guy he tried to convert... from a non-tech user standpoint, is right. FF is rubbish.

Take away the security stuff that the average person doesn't (but should) pay attention to, take away the paradigm shift from windows to tabs that old folks have a hard time adjusting to. And FF looks and feels like crap.

It's slower to open, it's slower to load pages. And i'm pretty sure more average folk don't care how well it renders CSS.

Edit: and yes, this is even after all the about:config tweaks and fasterfox extension.

[Kernel Sanders]

meh, the guy he tried to convert... from a non-tech user standpoint, is right. FF is rubbish.

Take away the security stuff that the average person doesn't (but should) pay attention to, take away the paradigm shift from windows to tabs that old folks have a hard time adjusting to. And FF looks and feels like crap.

It's slower to open, it's slower to load pages. And i'm pretty sure more average folk don't care how well it renders CSS.

Edit: and yes, this is even after all the about:config tweaks and fasterfox extension.

Really? I think firefox OWNS? Exensions rule, particularly the AdBlock Plus extension, I really dont know how I ever coped with so many ads when (on very rare occasions) I have to use IE.

For me, firefox is fast to open, web pages load faster, I have no memory leaks?

I'm guessing you just had an unlucky experience? :confused:

[bjweeks]

Firefox ftw and adblock rules.

[DigitalDuality]

No no, i love firefox. It's the only browser i use on Mac, Win, and Linux.

I too, love my extension. I love the improved security over IE, i like the number of web programming styles it supports that IE doesn't, i love tabbed browsing.

Firefox's memory leak, isn't a leak, but a cache feature. and that can be "fixed" in about:config.

The point i was making was the average end user who doesn't know jack about computers. they aren't concerned with extensions. They aren't concerned with tabbed browsing b/c a paradigm has already been set in their mind about the browsing experience. They aren't concerned about security, b/c it's not something they readily see on the screen. It's just mumbo jumbo that goes on in the background to them.

Scroll down to the Windows section here:
http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

FF is extremely slow on a cold start, it's slower on page loading. In fact the only area where FF is faster than IE 6.0 is script loading. The only way FF is faster, is if the Win machine is bogged down with spyware/adware, etc. And every tweak to FF possible to increase speed has been done on another machine, and then you compared.

To the average user, Firefox seems like a crippled browsing experience. I know i personally, get tired of waiting for the damned app to open. Same thing about Open Office.

Even tweaking memory usage in OpenOffice, having the OOo Quickstarter load in any OS at boot, taking away the splash screen, prelinking in Linux, it still doesn't touch the speed at with MS Office opens. I've gotten OOo to open in 8 seconds. That's as low as i can get it. MS Office (Word, Excel, PPT) i can get open in 4. And that's without tweaking.