Maybe it was a returned item ( sold as new, but whaddya gonna do ) that hadn’t been checked out before reselling.
Some vendors do that sort of thing.
Forgot the link. There are cheaper options than the one shown.
This is correct. I used to work for MSFT and spent the last 5 years of my life in the group that deals with the OEM manufacturers.
The OEM brands (such as Dell) get paid a bounty for all the crapware that is pre-installed on their PC’s. Ballpark figure $20 per machine. The thing is, the crapware just gets slapped into the PC software image. The crapware is not tuned for performance or for a fast boot or optimized for anything. The standard OEM image with crapware effective downgrades the PC *at least *one core i chipset (for example, you paid for a core i7 machine but with the crapware, the performance is i5 or i3 level. So you over paid and got underperformance).
Apple does not run into this problem because they control the software image and don’t throw in crapware.
Microsoft has something called the Signature Image. Any PC with a Signature Image not only cannot have crapware, it also meets some pretty rigorous standards. Trust me, the “Signature” folks are generally uncompromising A type personalities that are uncompromising in “holding the line” against whoring out Windows software. I have dealt with them and they are about as flexible as tea party wingnuts on Obamacare. Signature Image PC’s are sold through the retail channels but all the Microsoft Store PC’s are Signature Image.
I was laid off from Microsoft but I still highly recommend anyone buying a PC to check out the MS Store deals. The price *might *be ~$20 higher (hard to tell because the MS Store only sells customized SKU’s with the Signature Image, but it is so worth getting a clean machine that has been optimized and doesn’t include the crapware that you have to spend hours to exterminate.
NAF1138 - go to add / remove programs and then remove the programs. Some should be obvious, and search on the ones you don’t recognize, and remove them. It doesn’t necessarily 100% remove each and every bit but it will improve performance
Going back to factory settings will not fix the problem. The factory setting has the base operating system image for that particular PC, including all the drivers and I’m 99% sure the crapware.
I can’t help thinking that the biggest piece of malware on the machine is Macafee.
Post that phone number, please, that the screen told you to call.
The thing about Artemis is that Macafee has a part of their technology suite called Artemis protection. Are you sure it told you that you had the Artemis! virus or did it just say that Artemis detected a virus?
Here’s an article from Dell’s support that talks about what the Macafee Artemis protection does. It’s the real-time component of Macafee’s malware protection:
https://support.software.dell.com/kb/sw7879
I’m going out on a limb and guess that in the brief time your mom used the machine, she visited a dodgy website and Macafee’s artemis protection kicked in.
I would recommend the following:
- Uninstalling Macafee
2, Uninstall the shitty Dell certificate, using their instructions here:
Dell apologizes for HTTPS certificate fiasco, provides removal tool | Ars Technica - Run a deep scan with Windows 10 built in antivirus, Windows Defender (just open the Start Menu and type Defender).
- Do a deep scan with Malwarebytes
- (optional) install and do a scan with Kaspersky
- Download the Windows 10 install media and do a clean reinstall, as described here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10?36261b60-2f68-4336-abe2-4b00f210b6aa=True&34de222e-6944-44aa-8f45-8e96988880a4=True - (Important) Send the whole damn mess back to Dell and then buy a different machine from the Microsoft store:
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/list/categoryID.69404900?sortby=ranking%20ascending&filters=17%20%26%20up%2C15%20to%2016"%2C15%20to%2016.5"
It would be rather cool if an anti-malware company self-identified as malware itself.
Honesty in Advertising.
Still, malware and anti-malware is so '90s. The world has moved on.
This doesn’t sound legit at all. Anyone can turn off the crapware, and the processor speed doesn’t change.
Lots of people don’t know what can and cannot be safely deleted.
I’ve wanted to start an Omnibus Pit Thread for the inane computer interfaces in the post-rational world. Feel free to add this #F$@$K#&ng# inanity if/when I start the thread.
It makes things like Linux much more difficult, clumsy and inconvenient than it should be. Now it affects Windows too? :smack:
Why would you need to be connected to the internet when installing Linux ( or one of the BSDs ) ? I generally do when installing OpenSuse, just for convenience; but it’s not required — nor was it on Mint 17.2 which I installed a few days ago on another. In fact Linux is now used for so many types of devices it could be inconvenient to require internet on some.
Of course Linux and the others don’t require registration keys nor pre-installed malware either.
Still, on both OpenSuse and Mint, and all else, I choose you, KDE. Talking of inane computer interfaces, check out Unity, which was Windows 8 Fugly before Windows 8. All these heavy blocky webpages which now dominate flowed from the unholy fusion of Unity, Apple, Windows Metro and Google.
No, as a rule, you don’t need to be connected to the internet in order to boot up Windows. It’s just part of the OP’s problem.
I don’t want to remember or recapitulate all the layers of grief I’ve endured. It’s certainly possible to install Linux from disk, but not from flashdrive – you have to burn a disk.
IIRC, I once had some default Linux and, although it had all the “important” applications like Calendar_With_Dancing_Pigs and Appointment_Book_with_Gallivanting_Unicorns, it was missing minor frills like … a C compiler. IIRC, there was no easy way to add the compiler without Internet connection. This was VERY inconvenient for me at the time, since I had no Internet at home and was trying to bring stuff in from Internet cafes via flashdrive.
Linux distros can certainly leave out some tools/apps: I don’t have a list to hand, but OpenSuse default doesn’t include make. Though I only needed it once.
However — the odd thing being that a lot of handy stuff like filelight and grsync only weigh about a mb or 2, but they find room for things weighing 100 times as much * — I daresay Apple and Windows leave out things people think important too. But I will always install from DVD.
- Including stuff I strip out asap, like Akonadi, Strigi, Nepomuk and all other searchers that waste CPU > when I can’t remember where stuff is on a computer I won’t be needing a computer.
[QUOTE=Channing Idaho B[ol]
[/ol]anks;18889983]This doesn’t sound legit at all. Anyone can turn off the crapware, and the processor speed doesn’t change.
[/QUOTE]
That’s not necessarily correct. You are right in that the processor speed doesn’t change, but the amount of bits the processor has to crunch can be effected and the boot time most likely is negatively effected. A poor analogy is that your new car has unevenly inflated tires and a couple hundred pounds of concrete in the trunk. The engine has the same horsepower, but the vehicle performance, handling, mileage will be worse than if the tires are properly inflated and the extra weight in the trunk isn’t there.
- The Windows software image + the OEM drivers and software may not be optimized. This means for example the Lenovo Yoga touch screen drivers load slower than the standard times, or the pen is slow, or Lenovo’s own developed battery monitoring utility software is slow compared to the built in Windows version.
- Norton Anti-Virus is added to the boot path (so it automatically boots when you start the PC). Norton adds at least seconds to the boot time. User satisfaction goes down the longer it take to boot. If you’re running Norton then you can see how much CPU, disk and memory it takes up of the machine
- When you remove something like Norton Anti-virus, it generally does not remove 100% of the bits. These bits are still in the boot path and most likely negatively impacts the boot time and adds overhead to the running of your PC
Go to Task Manager, and look at all the processes that are running and you can get an idea of the impact of the non-standard image build.
Again, Microsoft analysis shows that the installation of crapware by the OEM effectively takes a core i7 processor and hobbles it such that it has an equivalent performance to a core i3 or core i5 running a Signature image. Consumers pay a premium for that core i7 and don’t get the full benefit if there is crapware.
You didn’t talk to MS tech support
Which is why builds by small computer shops end up so damn fast.
Yes, thanks. I had figured that out.
Anyway I think I got the computer running correctly. The guy from Dell tech support disabled the computer’s ability to run any of the crap ware on start up and I am in the process of cleaning if all off the computer.
If anyone has a recommendation for a good quality anti virus /anti malware program or anything else to help with pc security I would appreciate it.
If you guys are still interested I have a photo of the blue screen that I took with my phone that I can post a link to.