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While I wait for my micro sd to get here to root and use my Aria, I have been just playing around with it and checking out various apps in the market. Then I saw an antivirus app and downloaded. Since I am new to Android, I thought I would ask others whether they have had any problems (or if there are problems) that require an antivirus. Or is it just a useless app?
I noticed there are apps that can contain some important information (i.e. mobile banking and e-mails), but is an antivirus really needed?
Thanks in advance for the discussion.
I personally do not use one, and don't plan on using one unless someone supplies a greatly convincing argument. While I don't doubt that it is a possibility in the future it will be needed, I don't believe they are necessary up to this point. From what I've read there are very few viruses/malware whatnot out there written to affect Android. Everytime you install an app it tells you exactly what it needs to access on that second screen. Also, I'm not sure if you have any experience with what a lot of antivirus applications tend to do to computers speed, but I imagine it'd affect the phone in a similar fashion.
You can read a better constructed forum post about it here
If I'm incorrect on anything someone please correct me
Thanks. That was a good read.
I was just unsure if I want to use the online banking app. It is very helpful and useful but I was just a bit hesitant.
No problem In my opinion, I think for something like that (I use Mint personally, if you don't know what it is, you should check it out for banking/credit cards, finance in general) losing the phone and having the information get into the wrong hands is a bigger concern than a virus stealing it. Again, that's my opinion. Although there are apps for the scenario I described also SMobile Anti-Theft is the only one I can think of off the top of my head for no particular reason, but I know there are a few others (possibly better, not using one myself just yet) out there
Mobile Antivirus = Rip off and waste of phone resources. Sad part is, many programs meant to facilitate tracking your own phone (lost/stolen) for some reason include antivirus kind of crap in it. There are alternatives, but none the less it's all complete nonsense.
Works great, never had a virus with it! Or without it.
I dont have one on my android right now It's true I have to download antivirus software now for Cellphones, especialy android phones. Some of them like avast already have this option. I've read ZenOK Free Antivirus is going to release a free version too. which one you recommend
Never used antivirus on my android phone or my Ubuntu laptop. Never had any problems. I think worst case scenario right now is receiving a virus via email and forwarding it on to an unsuspecting windows box. But then again anyone who gets that email on windows And doesn't have antivirus is foolish.
Of course this could all change in the future and it may one day be necessary yo use an antivirus on android.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.
With your phone it may not be really needed but your laptop?! Do you know how many viruses, malicious software, adware and spyware could be on your laptop right now? I would suggest at least using it on your laptop. Anyways, I do personally use one on my phone as well.
theonew said:
With your phone it may not be really needed but your laptop?! Do you know how many viruses, malicious software, adware and spyware could be on your laptop right now? I would suggest at least using it on your laptop. Anyways, I do personally use one on my phone as well.
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Are you familiar with Linux based systems such as Ubuntu? It works the same way as android, which is also Linux based. It doesn't operate anything like a windows system. Everything runs in its own little 'box' (think .apks) and pretty much all software is downloaded through an Ubuntu download center (think Android Market). Everything has to have permissions, also just like android. It doesn't utilize .exe like windows. All this adds up to a system that is pretty secure. I don't download any software outside of the download center so I know where all my programs are coming from. All I use my ubuntu laptop for is surfing the web and messing with my phone. My laptop doesn't need an antivirus any more than my phone does. And my phone doesn't need any antivirus. People get stuck on that windows mentality (antivirus/task killers/memory managers).
Sent from my cm7 Aria.
Have never used an Antivirus on my phone I actually don't see how it's really of any use .-.
Everything I download app wise is from the Market and other than that I don't download anything besides a pic here and there
A virus cannot do anything malicious on Android or Linux without permissions, so I think antivirus can only protect a Linux computer or android phone from the user (who has to grant the permissions)...therefore I believe antivirus on android is mostly useless
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
As I was searching for something in the market place I ran across an Antivirus app:
Antivirus (Free version)
Antivirus ($9.99)
The Antivirus Pro (paid version) provides ongoing scanning of Android device, protecting against viruses, malware, OS exploits to ensure the integrity of applications and data. + Additional services for identifying phone location, using 'findR' to find lost or stolen devices based on GPS and cell tower ID.
In addition to the paid version, the free version scans mp3's, zip files, sd card's and has behavior mobile security.
I'm using the free version now and am debating if I should buy the full version.
Made by: droidSecurity Inc.
Anyone else using the paid version? If so, how is it working out for you? Recommended?
iunlock said:
As I was searching for something in the market place I ran across an Antivirus app:
Antivirus (Free version)
Antivirus ($9.99)
The Antivirus Pro (paid version) provides ongoing scanning of Android device, protecting against viruses, malware, OS exploits to ensure the integrity of applications and data. + Additional services for identifying phone location, using 'findR' to find lost or stolen devices based on GPS and cell tower ID.
In addition to the paid version, the free version scans mp3's, zip files, sd card's and has behavior mobile security.
I'm using the free version now and am debating if I should buy the full version.
Made by: droidSecurity Inc.
Anyone else using the paid version? If so, how is it working out for you? Recommended?
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Click to collapse
There's another app called Lookout Mobile Security FREE that has darn near 5 star rating. It does pretty much what the paid version does of the Antivirus app above for $9.99, except that it's free.
It says, Winner of the Best Android App 2010...
It also has Phone Finder...which comes FREE with this App...
hhmmm
nope I've been using Lookout. Seems nice
There are viruses on Android? That's news to me. I mean, fake programs that steal your data, yeah, but viruses?
MMcCraryNJ said:
There are viruses on Android? That's news to me. I mean, fake programs that steal your data, yeah, but viruses?
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Haha it's all new to me too my friend...My initial reaction was, "Anti What? For Android?!"
I was so used to communist apple OS, being an iPhone user before where the word 'virus' was never in my vocabulary.
I'm going to try LookOut...heck it's Freeee
My opinion, don't waste your time with this man. Just uses resources of your phone.
I DO suggest lookout though. It is amazing to log into a website and find my phone (works pretty dang well), OR if you lose the phone in the house you can make it ring really loud.
With this app you also get AV and the ability to backup data to their server. I do not use the latter (you can disable features easily). But I have left on the AV for kicks and giggles.
I have NEVER heard of a virus on android, haha.
s15274n said:
My opinion, don't waste your time with this man. Just uses resources of your phone.
I DO suggest lookout though. It is amazing to log into a website and find my phone (works pretty dang well), OR if you lose the phone in the house you can make it ring really loud.
With this app you also get AV and the ability to backup data to their server. I do not use the latter (you can disable features easily). But I have left on the AV for kicks and giggles.
I have NEVER heard of a virus on android, haha.
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I'm using LookOut now...much better program it seems than the other one. The phone location feature is pretty neat too.
As long as you actually consider the permissions when installing apps and don't grant root access to some unknown app, antivirus is COMPLETELY unnecessary.
Hi All
Im a newly converted Android user after purchasing the Nexus 10. Being a newbie to the Android and Tablet world i was just wondering if Antivirus apps are something worth bothering about especially considering im downloading torrents on occasions.
Is Antivirus just something thats not really needed on a tablet, also if you are using one which one do you find is best and doesnt use up to much resources?
Thanks
jvanassen said:
Hi All
Im a newly converted Android user after purchasing the Nexus 10. Being a newbie to the Android and Tablet world i was just wondering if Antivirus apps are something worth bothering about especially considering im downloading torrents on occasions.
Is Antivirus just something thats not really needed on a tablet, also if you are using one which one do you find is best and doesnt use up to much resources?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Antivirus is basically not needed on a tablet, some people like to have it on phones mainly for the all in one security apps that provide antivirus (Mobile Antivirus applications are known for warning you about false positives) plus device recovery and location tools in case your device is lost or stolen. In reality the best antivirus solution for mobile devices is be carefully what applications you download and install, double check the permissions and see if they are realistic for the application that is requesting them. For example, there is no reason a calculator app needs to be able to read your call log's to function. Your less at risk downloading torrents on your mobile device but you still have to be careful with and pay attention to what you download. At the end of the day healthy caution, carefulness, and little research is the best antivirus solution for mobile devices right now.
I've been using McAfee Mobile on tab for over a year and had only one false positive. I contacted them about it and it was corrected within a few days with an update.
Good question. I wonder how they are on battery life and resource hogging........there a lot of choices.
Thanks for your reply shimp208.
Yea i did wonder whether AV was really needed on a tablet or whether it was just a pointless app for the supplier to make some money from ppl being over cautious.
Consider this: It is simply not possible for an antivirus app to detect a real Android virus, trojan or exploit in another app. Since the virus app is an app it is in its own sandbox: it cannot scan the resources of other apps in their sandbox.
Even if if could, it could not remove those resources.
So all it can do is check the permissions of apps, and check media files on your sdcard against a windows virus database.
I've seen the MacAfee app on my friend's phone warn about jpeg viruses. It's silly that anyone would think a windows jpeg virus could affect Android.
It's a scam, folks.
After seeing the leaked build of Windows Blue at http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/24/4...creenshots-leak-smaller-live-tiles-options-ui, it got me thinking about what I'd like to see. A video I saw had some good ideas but I know that us XDA members can do better. Said video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdqUsTAWSnY
Personally, I would like to see:
A better default e-mail app
Ability to boot straight into the desktop
More gestures
More optimization
Even faster boot times
What features would you like to see in the next version of Windows?
faster boot times is just greedy as it is my windows 8 machine booting off of an HDD side by side with a mates more powerful win 7 machine booting from SSD, my machine reaches desktop about a second after his does, and I have to go through a boot select screen and click a tile on the start screen.
Blue isn't 9.
Mail app we need yeah. I would add the music and video apps while your at it.
I dont own a touchscreen so gesture wise I dont care.
Booting straight to desktop would be nice I guess, I really dont care as I actually like the new start screen but some people of course ask for that feature anyway.
What I want to see:
Improved music and video apps, frankly, they suck. Music wise I now use "I love music" which isnt too bad but is a little rough around the edges, certainly better than default though
improved mail app (as you already said)
ability to resize the split between sideloaded metro apps
being able to run my desktop on one monitor and metro on another
my running desktop applications should be listed in the running applications sidebar on the left of the screen, that only seems to show metro applications
in the store app being able to list applications from certain developers (for example being able to look at the angry birds space entry and being able to click rovio to show all rovio apps).
While they are at it with releasing windows blue. XNA replacement please
SixSixSevenSeven said:
faster boot times is...
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There is always something faster regarding boot times. There are some Chrome books which boot in 8 seconds compared to my laptops 14. The ability to split metro apps has already been added if you check the link about the leak from the Verge. All your suggestions are very good, hopefully at least a few of then will be in Blue
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Reboot times are a total red herring. It's a waste of Microsoft's time to put a bunch of people to work shaving off another second or two. Why are people rebooting anyhow?? I never do except for updates. Sleep is faster to enter, faster to return from, doesn't require re-launching my apps, uses only trivial power, and is supported on all hardware I've seen this decade (although I did, about four years ago, encounter an NVidia driver whose preferred form of "screwing up your PC..." install process was to break sleep mode, which I fixed by rolling it back).
Now, if they want to make it so that reboots are needed less often, I'm all for that. More user-mode drivers, and/or modernize the kernel-mode driver stack to reduce how often KMDs require reboots (already much better than XP and below, but still too high). Make Windows Update better about not requiring reboot; I'm willing to close a program or even restart the desktop Explorer session (which takes moments) to avoid rebooting the whole machine.
Fix the <REDACTED> Start search. I don't understand why they took one of the best UI features of Vista, preserved it in Win7, and messed it up in Win8, but the whole segregation of "Apps", "Settings", and "Files" needs to stop, now! Launching programs is one of the very few core requirements of an OS, and the last two versions of Win8 were better at it than Win8 is (specifically, they required fewer clicks and showed more useful info at a glance). That's a travesty.
Metro apps and multi-monitor were already discussed. Instead of reiterating those, I'd like to see more capable Metro apps. Currently, they're locked down to nigh-uselessness from a get-stuff-done perspective. Consequently, I barely ever use them... but that's not good for the ecosystem, because it means that I (and people like myself) have much less incentive to develop them, too. One critical feature: the ability to launch other programs without the target being expressly designed for it.
As a Surface RT owner: remove the stupid prohibition against third-party desktop apps. Make it a hard-to-find setting if you must, but let me unlock it without needing kernel-mode hackery.
As a Surface RT owner: give me drivers! The USB port is already useful, but it could be a lot more useful.
As a Surface RT owner: add support for the low-power standby core of the Tegra 3. Battery life is good already but could be better.
Integrate something like OblyTile into the Start screen. Default desktop-app tiles are ugly.
Worth asking for: multiple (virtual) desktops? I mean, it's "just another app" now, right? I hate that in 2013 I still need to use third-party utiltiies to get this feature that all other common desktop environments have.
Please don't kill off the SUA (Subsustem for Unix Applications)! At the very least, open-source it when you drop official support, so the community can introduce some long-overdue fixes. But seriously, that thing is useful. Cygwin is a nasty hack by comparison.
A virtualization environment that supports high-end graphics would be nice. There's a lot of games that run like crap on NT6 but don't run on virtual XP machines using any of Microsoft's virtualization environments. That directly contributes to the market share of third-party virtualization software. MS used to be good at this VM thing for uses other than servers...
Lots more, but this post is long enough as is. That covers most of the gripes I have at least once a week using this OS.
Most of these are from the viewpoint of an RT user, unless noted.
Critical:
Allow unsigned desktop apps
Allow third-party Metro apps (sideloading)
An alarm clock on RT
Allow metro apps to run backgrounded without requiring them to be pinned to the lock screen
WinRT lacks some major features in the API set (from what I've experienced, lack of client-side cert support for SSL, lack of decent background capabilities, and lack of VPN, though they claim to be fixing the last one)
Go back to the idea that developers create the platform and stop trying to mimic Apple by closing the ecosystem down
Desired:
Allow a hotzone for corners, instead of just a hotspot (x86, mostly)
Better mail app
Allow start screen wallpaper customization without tedious hacks
Allow fine grained tuning of which settings are synced between computers (I don't want the same wallpaper on my tablet and desktop, for example, so I have to turn off syncing all customization settings)
Open up the ARM DDK
Documentation on what features are lacking/missing on ARM Vs. x86.
The current sideloading situation works fine for me, though I agree with the rest of those. I might care more if I found Metro less useless in general.
Hmm, my Lenovo Twist cold boots in about 3 seconds. Doesn't get much better than that.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
It really doesn't, actually. The default "shut down" behavior on Win8 is to reboot the machine, and then enter hibernation right before showing the login screen. This is one of the lowest-RAM-usage points in the operation of a PC, so both entering and leaving hibernation here is extremely fast. When you "cold boot" your system, all that is happening is the power-on self test (which is very fast on modern hardware), followed by the OS resuming from the minimal hibernation image (which could easily take three seconds or possibly less with an SSD but not a ton of RAM). Bam, you're at the login prompt in what seems like no time at all!
If you want to do a true cold boot, you'll need to either disable hibernation boot (one of the easiest ways to do this is to disable hibernation entirely using "powercfg /h off", probably must be run as Admin) or you'll need to remove power while the system is running (as in, remove the power cord and remove or drain the battery without allowing it to enter sleep or hibernate). You can get an idea of the true bootup time just by rebooting the machine, but a machine built for Win8 probably won't show you the point where the "shutdown" portion switches off with the "bootup" portion; using EFI, that whole thing can be hidden.
Wouldn't electricity bills go through the roof if all 5 PC's in my household were on hibernate 24/7 365?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
mmmcfc said:
Wouldn't electricity bills go through the roof if all 5 PC's in my household were on hibernate 24/7 365?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
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They're off when they're in hibernate. Hibernate saves the state to disk then completely powers off the computer. You could literally unplug it for 5 years and it would still have the state.
Yep, hibernate's entire point is that it uses no power. However, maybe you meant sleep instead, also known as suspend-to-RAM and which does use a trickle of power. It's a small trickle, though; a PC in Sleep mode draws less than five watts (and most draw only one or two). Five PCs in sleep mode, assuming they're big, beefy, and incredibly inefficient, plus have every kind of wake-on-event (wake-on-LAN, wake-on-click, wake-on-timer, etc.) option enabled, will draw about 25W - non-trivial but less than half what a typical incadescent light bulb draws. Realistically, it would be closer to 5W, especially if some of them are laptops (which only use a portion of a watt).
Depending on the percentage of time that the PC is on anyhow and how efficient its sleep mode is, you may actually be wasting power by taking the time to turn it off, then on again (requiring restarting its programs) all the time. Entering and exiting sleep is effectively instant.
I for one would love to see custom backgrounds on the Start screen, as well as Google Talk support in the Messaging app. One of the main reasons I still have to keep a GMail tab open on Chrome, so I can receive IMs.
Also I would be pleased if they returned Google Calendar syncing after the updates a few days ago. I was very annoyed when all my Calendar events disappeared, but seems to have gotten better since I worked around that with the subscriptions feature in Outlook.
More functionality in the Metro/Modern part of the OS would also be good, but I have already seen that happening with the recent leaks.
Edit: And I also would love to see Aero Glass with Blur come back in the Desktop. Although there are a few hacks to get it working, most do not have similar functionality to Windows 8 or are buggy. The only good one imo doesn't support 32 bit.
How come my windows phone syncs with google fine. Yet windows doesnt.
Google have more sync options than EAS and contrary to MS's claim EAS is still active until june or july.
All they have done is made the mail and people apps worse not better.
Anyway. Supposedly in the blue leak IE11 now has stubs for WebGL support. If this is true then windows blue presumably has OpenGL support, possible for store apps too. OpenGL, even if it is just the ES subset, on RT has been an often demanded feature.
So many android and iOS apps are written with OpenGLES, if microsoft wanted an app rich store then it really would have made sense to support OpenGLES to allow porting of iOS and android apps to windows without having to be rewritten for DirectX11 (not a simple task in many cases).
Oh, overall they made Mail a lot better... but it pisses me off that for people who already had a working Google EAS connection, they went and disabled it. I'm holding off on updating my other devices for now. As for "more sync options than EAS", this is technically true (and the new version of Mail offers to set them up for you), but the others are not as well integrated (one protocol to provide contacts, email, calendars, and security policies).
WebGL support I'm actually kind of skeptical of; the web is a very hostile environment and video drivers are a frightening combination of high-value targets and shaky security. I'm concerned about the attack surface exposed by enabling WebGL. However, it's true that OpenGL, even just OGLES, would be a huge boon to the platform. Windows and DirectX may still rule the roost for PC games, but even there their lead is eroding. In the mobile space, OpenGL has left DirectX in the dirt.
What is the best PC Decrapifier? Something like Ccleaner, but better?
You already named it, at least for registry decrapifying.
In my opinion though the best decrapifier is not crapifying in the first place.
Or learning to do it manually. I've never met one such tool that I trusted, or that I was confident did enough good to be worth the risk of harming the system.
ericerk said:
What is the best PC Decrapifier? Something like Ccleaner, but better?
Click to expand...
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I have had good luck with System Mechanic. It has kept my xp machine usable - after 10 years! www.iolo.com
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
GoodDayToDie said:
Or learning to do it manually. I've never met one such tool that I trusted, or that I was confident did enough good to be worth the risk of harming the system.
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Is there a tutorial on this?
ericerk said:
Is there a tutorial on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep
1) go to control panel>programs and features>uninstall a program
2) find the stuff you want to remove>uninstall, follow on screen instructions.
for trash files:
Right click partition>properties>general tab>disk clean up>use it to delete everything you want.
After you;ve done these
right click the partition from which you deleted the files>properties>tools>defrag/optimize and defrag the disk.
Do this every 1-2 months and you shall have a happy relationship with your PC.
There is also a good thing to keep all stuff downloaded from the internet in the downloads folder until you can make sure you actually need it, so you can delete it all at once.
There is really no magic stuff the "cleaner programs" do. And windows does it better than they do. So why not use the tools you have at your disposal?
as 6677 said, it is better to avoid getting craptose in the first place. Just be careful what you download and you shall be fine.
ericerk said:
Is there a tutorial on this?
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Certainly one should keep the list of installed programs as minimal as is possible, but over time Windows builds up problems in the registry and elsewhere that simply slow down the system. In fact, uninstalling programs often leads to the registry values not being uninstalled as well, because of poor uninstallers by the programmers. Even if the values are uninstalled, that produces gaps in the registry unless it is compacted as well. That sort of thing simply isn't efficiently handled except by a program designed for the purpose. So one can improve the system by uninstalling - but the little stuff keeps building up.
Defragmenting the hard drive also helps, and should be done periodically.
It is a poor design by Microsoft. One simple solution is to simply reformat and reinstall windows every few years, thus clearing out the registry and all Windows problems. But that can be a hassle to reinstall and re-download all the updates.
My home XP machine, at about 10 years, is the longest I've ever maintained any Windows installation without reformatting. It boots a bit slowly, but once it is up and operational it is still usable. Before I ran system mechanic (and still use it periodically) it simply could not be used. I didn't reformat the machine because it has programs (mostly games) that my son still likes, and I don't have the disks and/or install codes for them any more.
I would suggest a reformat / complete reinstall as the best possible solution.
stevedebi said:
Certainly one should keep the list of installed programs as minimal as is possible, but over time Windows builds up problems in the registry and elsewhere that simply slow down the system. In fact, uninstalling programs often leads to the registry values not being uninstalled as well, because of poor uninstallers by the programmers. Even if the values are uninstalled, that produces gaps in the registry unless it is compacted as well. That sort of thing simply isn't efficiently handled except by a program designed for the purpose. So one can improve the system by uninstalling - but the little stuff keeps building up.
Defragmenting the hard drive also helps, and should be done periodically.
It is a poor design by Microsoft. One simple solution is to simply reformat and reinstall windows every few years, thus clearing out the registry and all Windows problems. But that can be a hassle to reinstall and re-download all the updates.
My home XP machine, at about 10 years, is the longest I've ever maintained any Windows installation without reformatting. It boots a bit slowly, but once it is up and operational it is still usable. Before I ran system mechanic (and still use it periodically) it simply could not be used. I didn't reformat the machine because it has programs (mostly games) that my son still likes, and I don't have the disks and/or install codes for them any more.
I would suggest a reformat / complete reinstall as the best possible solution.
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CCleaner clears out the old registry keys in theory, otherwise one can do it manually as GoodDayToDie suggested.
Windows actually defrags as you go along now, you will generally find that manual defragging is entirely unecessary. Although if you do want to do it as piece of mind it at least wont take long (my desktop I upgraded to windows 8 on release and has still only just reached 0.1% fragmented).
SixSixSevenSeven said:
CCleaner clears out the old registry keys in theory, otherwise one can do it manually as GoodDayToDie suggested.
Windows actually defrags as you go along now, you will generally find that manual defragging is entirely unecessary. Although if you do want to do it as piece of mind it at least wont take long (my desktop I upgraded to windows 8 on release and has still only just reached 0.1% fragmented).
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It is rather difficult to clean out registry values that have no clear naming convention, just a random string of hex codes - not all programs are logical in the directory entries. So manual cleaning has never seemed that good to me.
I'm presuming that the OP is not using windows 8, which really hasn't had time to get cluttered yet. For those older windows xp and win 7 installations, I have found System Mechanic Pro to be the best program, since it has programs for optimizing as well as cleaning out. I haven't yet installed it on any of my Windows 8 machines (no need yet so far as I can tell).
I've not heard of windows automatically defragmenting the disk, do you have a link?
EDIT: Nevermind, I just checked my Windows 8 and I see that microsoft has set up the defrag to run periodically. I'm not sure this was enabled in Win 7, but I had diskeeper on that installation so I would not have noticed.
stevedebi said:
It is rather difficult to clean out registry values that have no clear naming convention, just a random string of hex codes - not all programs are logical in the directory entries. So manual cleaning has never seemed that good to me.
I'm presuming that the OP is not using windows 8, which really hasn't had time to get cluttered yet. For those older windows xp and win 7 installations, I have found System Mechanic Pro to be the best program, since it has programs for optimizing as well as cleaning out. I haven't yet installed it on any of my Windows 8 machines (no need yet so far as I can tell).
I've not heard of windows automatically defragmenting the disk, do you have a link?
EDIT: Nevermind, I just checked my Windows 8 and I see that microsoft has set up the defrag to run periodically. I'm not sure this was enabled in Win 7, but I had diskeeper on that installation so I would not have noticed.
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I'm using an HP ENVY 17 w/ 4th gen intel i7 (Running 8.1)
It just feels slower, than my win 7 platforms.
It's a refurb, It was on sale from staples for 50% off. This thing: http://www.staples.com/HP-ENVY-Touc...rbished-Laptop/product_12329?cmArea=home_box1
It just feels slow... Yes I got rid of bloat, yes I keep a good eye on installed apps. Yes I have anti viruses, there are no viruses.
If you're talking about pre installed crap that comes on every pre-built system, you've got to do it manually.
If you're talking about toolbars and trial ware and junk ware and ilk, I use a combination of ADW Cleaner, Ccleaner, Combofix and Super Anti Spyware. Gets the job done. Some stuff is still manual, though.
The only legitimate excuse for an OEM-installed OS image is to boot the thing up so you're sure you don't have a lemon. You can copy the "drivers" folder (which can come under a variety of silly names) off the machine if you want to, but they're all online anyhow and often the online ones are more up-to-date. Make sure you have the license keys for any installed software that comes with the machine (the OS license key, and the Office one if relevant, are typically on stickers somewhere on the machine, though they can be elsewhere).
Once you've completed the initial bootup, shut the machine down, boot off of a DVD or flashdrive or external HDD or netboot or however you want to do it, and wipe the disk. The Windows installer, in "custom" (clean install) mode can do this. Delete all of the partitions, and either re-create them in less-stupid layout, or just let Windows create a sane partition layout for you by telling the installer to install Windows on the now-empty system drive. Once the system is set up, you'll need to install updates and software you actually want to use, but you'd probably have to do all of that anyhow. Drivers should get pulled down automatically, and for those that aren't, it should be trivial to retrieve them (the obvious exception would be if you somehow don't have working network drivers, in which case grab them off the web on another PC and transfer via USB).
Those OEM system images are pure garbage. In my experience, the first bootup of such a thing can sometimes take longer than the entire OS re-installation, including *its* first bootup! A clean install will run faster, more securely, and more stably; you will have far more resources available including disk space and RAM; you can be sure there are no unexpected programs lurking in the background to "optimize your customer experience" or similar BS. Since you already have the license keys, it won't cost you anything. Best of all, those OEM turds masquerading as software (Norton anything, WildTangent, etc.) will be gone, far faster *and* more cleanly than if you'd tried removing them without taking the nuclear option. It's the only way to be sure.
GoodDayToDie said:
The only legitimate excuse for an OEM-installed OS image is to boot the thing up so you're sure you don't have a lemon. You can copy the "drivers" folder (which can come under a variety of silly names) off the machine if you want to, but they're all online anyhow and often the online ones are more up-to-date. Make sure you have the license keys for any installed software that comes with the machine (the OS license key, and the Office one if relevant, are typically on stickers somewhere on the machine, though they can be elsewhere).
Once you've completed the initial bootup, shut the machine down, boot off of a DVD or flashdrive or external HDD or netboot or however you want to do it, and wipe the disk. The Windows installer, in "custom" (clean install) mode can do this. Delete all of the partitions, and either re-create them in less-stupid layout, or just let Windows create a sane partition layout for you by telling the installer to install Windows on the now-empty system drive. Once the system is set up, you'll need to install updates and software you actually want to use, but you'd probably have to do all of that anyhow. Drivers should get pulled down automatically, and for those that aren't, it should be trivial to retrieve them (the obvious exception would be if you somehow don't have working network drivers, in which case grab them off the web on another PC and transfer via USB).
Those OEM system images are pure garbage. In my experience, the first bootup of such a thing can sometimes take longer than the entire OS re-installation, including *its* first bootup! A clean install will run faster, more securely, and more stably; you will have far more resources available including disk space and RAM; you can be sure there are no unexpected programs lurking in the background to "optimize your customer experience" or similar BS. Since you already have the license keys, it won't cost you anything. Best of all, those OEM turds masquerading as software (Norton anything, WildTangent, etc.) will be gone, far faster *and* more cleanly than if you'd tried removing them without taking the nuclear option. It's the only way to be sure.
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Wait... So in theory If I can find a legit version of Windows 8.1 (some RTM or straight from Microsoft) I can just reinstall it, and use my current serial? I don't have very much installed so I there's nothing really i'd need to back up, other than some Touchscreen drivers.
Yep. That serial may not work on any *other* computer (or it might; I don't know how restrictive OEM licenses are on 8.x) but it should work (again) on that one.
Worth A try.
GoodDayToDie said:
Yep. That serial may not work on any *other* computer (or it might; I don't know how restrictive OEM licenses are on 8.x) but it should work (again) on that one.
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It won't even work on my mine getting an error message:
(Same thing happens w/ 8.1)
Seriously?? Wow, lame. I've been doing that for years. I guess they don't allow the use of OEM licenses with retail copies at all anymore, even on the same hardware. I'm sure you could get them to activate it if you called them, but that's a bloody pain to need to do...
It's possible that the .WIM file (Windows IMage) in the recovery partition is a clean installer without the OEM crap (I'd be surprised, but not shocked; they could have it run a script to crapify the installation after re-installing) in which case you *should* be able to use that, but... meh. That's less convenient, for sure.
GoodDayToDie said:
Seriously?? Wow, lame. I've been doing that for years. I guess they don't allow the use of OEM licenses with retail copies at all anymore, even on the same hardware. I'm sure you could get them to activate it if you called them, but that's a bloody pain to need to do...
It's possible that the .WIM file (Windows IMage) in the recovery partition is a clean installer without the OEM crap (I'd be surprised, but not shocked; they could have it run a script to crapify the installation after re-installing) in which case you *should* be able to use that, but... meh. That's less convenient, for sure.
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I did the windows 8 reset, which took about 6 hours and just loaded up the OEM bunch of software w/ all the bloat installed. I guess I'll call Microsoft soon... Do you know of a direct number?
ericerk said:
I did the windows 8 reset, which took about 6 hours and just loaded up the OEM bunch of software w/ all the bloat installed. I guess I'll call Microsoft soon... Do you know of a direct number?
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Just go through the computer and remove the junk programs. The control panel will allow you to uninstall them. If you haven't done it yet, I'd install classic shell (or similar) to get your start menu back.
You can also use msconfig (type the WIN + R and type in the command) to remove startup programs from running.
I'm sorry, I thought you were dealing with an older machine, that is why I suggested system mechanic. A new machine can be easily cleaned up manually.
stevedebi said:
Just go through the computer and remove the junk programs. The control panel will allow you to uninstall them. If you haven't done it yet, I'd install classic shell (or similar) to get your start menu back.
You can also use msconfig (type the WIN + R and type in the command) to remove startup programs from running.
I'm sorry, I thought you were dealing with an older machine, that is why I suggested system mechanic. A new machine can be easily cleaned up manually.
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It's all good, I did that the first day I got the comp!! It just feels like like its sluggishly running.