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Got stuck working on the FIL's (Father In Law's) 13 year old Dell this weekend. Still had the original install of Windows XP - I hadn't touched it in over 10 years. His complaint was that it was running slow...
slow
slō
adjective
1. moving or operating, or designed to do so, only at a low speed; not quick or fast.
Doesn't even begin to describe the glacial pace of this baby.
Discovery #1 - The C drive reports that compression is ON and there is less than 1 Gb available on the 110Gb HD. Rut-roh!
Discovery #2 - There are 5 full copies of Intuit's Quickbooks for a business that is no longer being handled on this PC.
Discovery #3 - SysInternal's AutoRuns reports no less than 20 toolbars (and their related garbage) are installed for IE.
Discovery #4 - My IBIL (Idiot Brother In Law) has installed 3 separate additional anti-virus apps on top of the MSSE initially installed. One from Symantec the other 2 I'd never heard of.
Sadly, I only had about 2 hours to "fix" it. With the aid of Autoruns (HIGHLY recommended for everyone's Windows toolkit) I was able to kill off the nightmare of toolbars, updating apps and crapware. Quickbooks is gone, as are the extra AV progs (as well as they can be using the standard un-install sequence).
It runs WAY faster now and has about 7 Gb available. Lucky me, I get to go back in a few weeks for round two. Wish me luck.
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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You have no idea how appropriate that strip is. As I arrived my FIL (he's in his mid 70's) told me my IBIL had tried to "frag" his HD but it wouldn't work. 
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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Frag both and on with the deathmatch 
Geek code v 3.12
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- r++>+++ y+++*
Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
I use 1TBS
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Mike Mullikin wrote: "frag" his HD
did he scream "Fire in the hole"? Maybe that missed 
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}
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Every year I am tasked to do something similar to what you mentioned, for my MIL/FIL's computer. However, they do not have THAT many AV programs installed. Wow. 
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I hope you get more than just two hours for round two.
I like a challenge as much as the next guy, but at what point does it start to make more sense to just wipe/reinstall?
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dandy72 wrote: at what point does it start to make more sense to just wipe/reinstall?
True, but that brings up an interesting question: Do the Microsoft update servers still dole out XP updates? Or did they die with XP support?
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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Unless you are paying for the enterprise extended extended support, No the updates died with XP
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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I think they only stopped writing new updates for XP; the existing ones should still be accessible through the updater.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/end-support-help[^]
as Per this I am not sure, but our parent company have bought the extend support package at $400 per PC this year so we get new Hotfixes etc
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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They do.
Also, if you're feeling a bit brave, there's a registry hack[^] that will trick MS into thinking you're running XP-POS edition (quiet in back) and still get new updates for a number of OS components in addition to all of the patches that were out when official support ended. While I agree that it's playing with fire in a lot of ways, putting a completely unpatched XP box on the net these days is more like playing with chlorine trifluoride[^]. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
modified 13-Apr-15 9:47am.
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Dan Neely wrote: They do. If you're feeling a bit brave, there's a registry hack[^] that will trick MS into thinking you're running XP-POS edition (quiet in back) and still get updates for a number of OS components.
Is this issue only with freshly installed XP boxes? I have "fixed" many XP boxes in the last 12 months and have been able to get updates to install.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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See my edit; the hack is to get patches written after the official support period ended.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: like playing with chlorine trifluoride[^]. 
Well thank you - you gave me the best piece of artistic technical report I have ever read!
John Drury Clark: It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water — with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals — steel, copper, aluminum, etc. — because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.
Geek code v 3.12
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- r++>+++ y+++*
Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
I use 1TBS
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Mike Mullikin wrote: True, but that brings up an interesting question: Do the Microsoft update servers still dole out XP updates? Or did they die with XP support?
They are still there. Just left a Pub at 22:30 having imaged, wiped and then reinstalled the till in their Bottle Shop.
It was POSReady 2009 which is Windows XP with extra sh*t to allow it to be all touch screeny and be a till for sales and the like. As I left it was installing 154 updates for POSReady 2009 and Windows XP.
Will remote in later to see where it is up to. Then back in at 08:30 to liaise with the vendor and ensure all is good.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I've just got off the phone with Mum, she says her machine is playing up. I say it's feked, but I have to go round later to take it's temperature and check the bp.
veni bibi saltavi
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Good luck. Grab a fresh copy of Autoruns[^] and toss it on a USB stick. You'll be glad you did!  
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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Mike Mullikin wrote: Good luck. Grab a fresh copy of Autoruns[^] and toss it on a USB stick. You'll be glad you did!
Have you looked a the Portable version of CCleaner? Cleans out temporary files, cleans the registry, shows you programs to uninstall that Programs and Features don't always show you and also shows you what loads and start up for Windows, IE, Firefox and Chrome.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I haven't looked at CCleaner in years... I'll check it out.
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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+1 AutoRuns is a life saver for sure...for that pesky, hard to remove malware.
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Mike Mullikin wrote: Grab a fresh copy of Autoruns[^]
And install StartupMonitor[^], with the instruction "If in doubt, just say no".
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I have complete photoshop training. But my design was so simple. I found have many great design like this[^] and like this[^]. So I have some question if anyone know.
I also want to do a great design like this too. I know photoshop but I am pore of creative design. Please anyone in here can suggest me how could I have the creative design like the link that I provide above? Do I have to read any book or attend any class?
Thank in advance for your advice.
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Some try with do*e or exessive alcohol ?
Creativity can't be learned 
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}
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Anything[^] takes a lot of practice to master.
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