I just got a new laptop*. I know they always include a lot of junk, so what/how should I remove? Also, I’m new to Windows Vista, so what settings should I tweak to make it better?
Thanks for the help!
*Acer brand, AMD 1.9 Ghz processor, 2 GB RAM, 165 GB hard drive, for $650.00
If I may piggy back on this, is there a good way to get applications (e.g., Timeslips, Quicken) from an old system onto a new one?
I am considering getting a new desktop, so it would likely be from XP to Vista.
On the Mac, there’s a program called “Migration Assistant” that copies the user directory from an old machine, or from a backup disk image, to a new machine. Is there not something similar on the PC? I’m sure I remember something… ah, here it is. Windows Easy Transfer and Windows Easy Transfer Companion. These seem to require XP service pack 2 on the source machine.
The PC Decrapifier is a free utility which can quickly detect and remove some of the more annoying pieces of software which often come pre-installed on new computers.
It’s expensive (as I recall, $50) but Laplink is really great at doing this. You get the software to install on the old and new computer and a serial or USB cable.
It will not only copy over all your programs but your files too, and retain most of the tweaks you’ve set up. What in the past has taken me one to two days got done in about two hours, seamlessly.
A very few of the older programs did not work, so had to uninstall and reinstall them, but I’d guess about 95 percent of them went over and ran perfectly. If your time is worth anything, it’s worth it, as well as saving your frayed nerves.
KlondikeGeoff Does what you’re saying apply to transferring programs from one computer to another and one operating system to another? Say, Win2K to Vista?
My Acer AMD laptop came with time trial for Norton’s anti-virus program. I tried the program, eventually bought it, and later went through a lot of embuggerance and eventually had to remove it and take a refund due to it conflicting with a Microsoft system update.
When my laptop gave up the ghost, the technicians on the telephone were helpful in that they were from Texas and spoke something that I could understand as being English (I’m from Canada). Unfortunately, the technicians in Ontario who made the repairs were morons, who on the first go-round replaced the mother board without replacing the hard-drive that had failed, and on the second go-round replaced the hard drive but buggered up the re-loading of the operating system.
I’m not sure but i think so. I know it does it from XP to Vista. I believe it will do anything except from ME, which isn’t surprising. 
Sorry I don’t have a link right now, but Google “Laplink” and their site will give you all the dope.
I got one of those Acer budget laptops lately, too. I support getting one of the “decrap” utilities and doing some cleanup – but first I would do a bit of playing around and simply deactivating the load-at-startup feature of things like Windows Sidebar and “Acer Empowering Technology”, without removing them altogether, just to see what effect that has on system performance. Then later you can try them out to see if they’re any good to you or what performance hit you take, and see if you want to nuke them.
Most transferrer apps/utils transfer data and settings, but not all do the app programs themselves, you have to check with the maker. I recall discussions here and elsewhere in which folks have recommended that if possible apps be reinstalled afresh in the new machine. In any case there are a number of XP apps that will not play nice with Vista w/o certain patches, or will only work in “XP compatibility mode” (emulation), or will not work, period, end of story – regardless of how you transfer.
The first thing i would do is reformat it with the disc they gave you.
Why?
If it’s like the one I got (series 57** Acer Aspire), it most likely came with NO bootable CD, but rather it’s up to the owner to buy some blank CD-Rs or DVD-Rs and create his own recovery bootable disk first thing out of the box.
Plus, in any case, for almost every brand of machine currently in the market, the standard these days is that it would NOT come with a standalone Windows System Disk from M$, but rather with an OEM System Recovery boot disk from the manufacturer, which would just restore the machine to out-of-the-box state, bundled junkware and all.
I was just forced to read a book on Windows Vista Secrets for work. My notes are in the office, but the one sticking point for us to remember was that Vista does NOT have a native anti-virus. Their Windows Defender (firewall etc) is a bit more robust but you really need to make sure you have anti-virus installed.
Also, the Bit Locker program they have that encrypts your entire hard disk has NO recovery possibility if you lose the recovery key. NONE. You will lose everything. It’s not turned on by default, so be really sure you want to encrypt your drive before you turn it on. I probably won’t turn it on.
If you’re really interested, I can peruse my notes on the book once I’m back in the office.
Isn’t that kind of the point of encrypted volumes? Which functionality is supported by older versions of Windows, and other OSes, of course.
Applications generally have to be re-installed, because they install portions of themself in the registry and various other arcane locations. That means you start over with a default version of the applications. Then you bring over your data files – usually they have a function in the application to do that. Like in Quicken: create a backup file on the old machine; then Restore it on the new machine. In the better-designed applications, restoring the backup file will also bring over the customizations you have done to the application.
Otherwise, for transfer of data in general, I would suggest buying a USB external hard drive enclosure that will accommodate the hard drive from your old machine. Put the drive in that, connect it via USB to the new machine, and transfer data files to your heart’s content. I used to use laplink and similar software/cable methods, but now the external enclosures are just as cheap, and they can later be used as a backup method on your new computer.
Don’t! Check with people who have done this. My experience is that every XP user who gets a Vista machine regrets it, and wishes that they had stayed with XP. Most manufacturers now offer the option to get a new machine with XP instead of Vista (they were forced to do so by customer demand), but you have to specifically ask them for it.