Windows

Startups And One More System Restore Comment

Posted by on May 14, 2007 | 4 Comments

I appreciate all of the comments I received regarding System Restore. I don’t think we will all agree on its usefulness but we at least have the choice of using it or not. Regarding the fact that it does not, per se, “uninstall” the offending software, this is quite true. It will, however, remove those “hooks” in the registry and most of the time that is my goal. Once I have my computer back in working order I can then find time as needed to clean out program files, registry mentions, etc. Just my way of dealing with a mini-crisis.

On to startups. These are the programs down in your taskbar down by the clock on the right hand side of your desktop. They have become one of the more irritating things when I am trying to help someone get their computer working properly over the phone. There seem to be more and more of them. Seems that every program you put on your machine or that comes installed when you purchase the machine has to have some startup icon and the ability to “call home.”

Most of the folks I deal with have no clue what these are and the names they give me over the phone often don’t give me any information. I have a friend in Florida who just purchased a new Gateway. All he uses his computer for is research and email — that’s it. He mentioned that it is very slow and he is running Windows Vista. I wrote back that most likely an upgrade in memory might help him out. I was assuming it probably came with 512MB of RAM. He wrote back and advised me that yeah, that is probably his problem as he only has .99GB. So now I’m thinking that should handle what he is attempting to use that machine for.

I came to find out that he has a TON of icons in the taskbar. Now, I’m sure that with running Vista on his machine that some added memory would not hurt, but removing some of those startups will definitely help.

I’m just wondering… is there ever going to come a time when we can purchase a computer and then CHOOSE what we want in the taskbar rather than having to remove what someone else decided we absolutely positively had to have? I know, rhetorical question, but my goodness, this is really getting out of hand. It’s like paying for SPAM!

Okay, rant over. Not a very helpful post but I feel better.

[tags]windows, vista, registry, taskbar, RAM, SPAM, icons[/tags]

  • Scott King

    I have on several occasions “restored” the operating system from the disk image on the restore partition,after conferring with the owner about what they really need on their system.I back up their documents,and restore the system.Most restore images only restore Windows, without reinstalling the bloat that comes with a factory preload. Since most of the add-on software is trialware or a lite version,I have found most people get along without it just fine.As for buying a new box without bloatware, some smaller system makers are flexible with what the customer wants to have installed.

  • Brian Humbrecht

    Connie, the ‘Mother’ of MS Sys Restore is GoBack [currently owned by Symantec as Norton GoBack]. I have used GoBack, ever since Gateway Tech Support recommended it over 10yrs ago; when I had a Gateway PII-400 running Win98. GoBack is much more comprehensive than MS Sys Restore & will reset [rewrite] the complete HD to the configuration at the time of the ‘restore’ point that you pick of those available. It will remove bad installs, virus/worms/trojans & other malware, etc.; because, it restores the whole HD configuration to the ‘restore’ point in time. Also if there are updates ‘beyond’ the restore point, you can ‘copy’ them & paste them to the updated HD ‘restored’ configuration. GoBack runs outside of Windows; so, you can access it on start up w/o having to boot up to Safe Mode as a minimum to access MS Sys Restore. Over the yrs GoBack has saved my ‘crashed’ HD many times & it is the second item I load when ever I setup a new HD or rewrite one [Note: first item I install after the OS is AntiVirus as a part of Norton Sys Works; then; GoBack, which these days I have as a part of Norton Sys Works disk's additional/optional bundled software.]

  • Cheryl

    I agree, a major nuisance trying to clean up a new pc.Thought you might be interested in a look at PC Decrapifier:
    http://pcdecrapifier.com:80/home

  • David Joseph

    How may I contact Brian Humbrecht – May 15, 2007 @ 6:45 am that submitted a comment on this page regarding the program Named GOBACK? If required, you may forward this note AND my email address to Mr Humbrecht. Thank you for your attention to my request.