Computer program question

[ryangrieder]

So i have a question about my lab top. I want to wipe everything out and start fresh. I have a Dell insperion E1705 about 3-4 years old. Awhile ago I did this on my girlfriends gateway. Her lab top messed up so I did that operating system restore disk on her computer that it came with. It worked fine after that. I wanted to know is that the real way to start all over? Because it's starting to run real slow and being annoying. And also if i lost that disk, can i just buy another one from somewhere? Hers is vista, and mine is xp. I'm assuming I can't use hers because it says gateway on top of the cd. Also, she has the disk to Microsoft student 2007 or whenever. Can I put the disk in my lab top and get that program with the serial number or is it like a one time per disk? Because mine is back from Microsoft student 2005and way outdated.

And finally, is windows 7 really worth it? I have xp professional. I like it because it is easy to use. I'm use to vista because like I said my girlfriend has it on hers and vista seems nice, but is windows 7 really worth it because all of them are pretty expensive to buy now...

 

[NYreefNoob]

dell i do believe only allows their disk to be used

 

[knockout]

If your computer is older than 3 years, do not install Vista or Windows 7, both operating systems need a lot of horse power only found in newer computers...

Dell Inspirons usually ship with a recovery partition, you can try access it by hitting CTRL+F11 when you first start the computer...

Warning you MUST save/backup your data to an external disk or USB drive before you do that... it will completely wipe the computer and there is no shot a recovering your data, hope that helps.

Else find a Windows XP disk with serial number and install booting from CD

 

[guarda]

I use a version of xp pro that I tweaked with xplite. My 6 yr old vaio txn is 4 generations old and still quicker than most laptops with 7, or worse, Vista. Try to get an xp cd from a friend or download the iso from a torrent site and use the xp pro key you have. It should be on the sticker under your laptop. This is the cleanest way to do it. Burn the cd, start pc, go into bios and choose CDROM drive as first in boot order, then delete partition in the starting options. Create a new partition, format, then select the same one to install windows to. Grab the only drivers youneed from your nb mfgr site and install one by one, restrting windows after each one, just to be safe. Any questions pm me. Hope this helps

 

[Widdy]

You can rebuild your laptop in a vanilla fashion, just need to download the appropriate drivers for your particular model. Personally, vanilla builds is how I like to run my systems as factory images are proned to be filled with bloatware that bogs down system resources.

Windows 7, I like it a lot. But if XP is working fine for you, and if you want to save a few bucks; stay with XP.

 

[guarda]

Untrue.

dell i do believe only allows their disk to be used

 

[ming]

You can't use hers because those disks are really images of the computer. Installing it on yours would end up with a bunch of incorrect drivers even if you get it to work. There is sometimes a partitioned hard drive which contains the image, like D drive or something typically and the CD only is a boot loader.
If you do get windows 7 itself, you'll end up paying a high premium. I feel when the price is factored, its better to just buy a new computer if your computer is old unless you can get it for a really good price, but even then, it may still run slow on a older computer.
But if you do get Windows 7, you would first want to check the windows 7 compatibility. Microsoft has a program which you can download and it checks all your hardware compatibility. If you lost that CD, then reinstalling XP if thats what was originally on it is still possible, Dell provides the drivers on their website which the XP cd is missing.

 

[beerfish]

You should be able to order a restore disk from Dell if you don't have yours. The alternative is to buy a generic Windows disk, which will be more expensive. The only issue you may have with a generic disc is that it may not contain drivers for devices on your computer. These can be obtained from Dell's website, but if the network card driver is required, you'll need another computer and a CD or flash drive to get the drivers on to your computer.

Most versions of Office are licensed for 1 laptop and 1 desktop (technically to be used by only one person), so you'd need another copy if you plan on using them on the same network.

Windows 7 is nice, but I wouldn't install it on a 3-4 year old computer.

So to recap... get the disc from Dell (use chat support, it's faster), buy a new copy of office, and don't bother with 7 on that machine.

Hope that helps.

 

[Widdy]

My 6 yr old vaio txn is 4 generations old and still quicker than most laptops with 7, or worse, Vista.

This I gotta see for myself... if "most laptops" includes any i3/i5/i7 proc'd notebooks, I don't see how this is possible unless it's been total zombie'd.

 

[ryangrieder]

Thanks for e quick replies guys, because im currently working on my lab top now and trying to fix some things. The reason why i want to do this is because its just acting slow. When your online and scroll down, it freezes for a few seconds, or if you click my documents, sometimes it take a minute or two to open, or you have to force close it. Im guessing restarting everything would be the fastest way to clean it up...right? Or do I have other better options? Also, i may have the original disk still, I'm just not home so i cant look for it.

And another thing, I'm pretty good with computers, just not as good as some things said already like what u guarda first post, don't know what u mean by half the things. So keep it not simple, but not advance lol.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

If I were you I would do a big cleanup on it. Run Spybot and Adaware and MalawareBytes to remove any spyware. Clean out your temp folder and turn off any non essential programs that run in the background. Are you familiar with the msconfig menu? I usually go in there and manually turn off things that aren't needed to run until I want them to run.

 

[knockout]

try the cntrl+f11 when booting if it goes into the windows re-installation mode, then you dont have to buy or download a thing... if not then proceed with one of the above suggestions. you dont have to install right away, it will ask you if you want to proceed, say no or reboot to get out

 

[guarda]

Let me clarify. For arguments sake and by way of comparing apples to apples, take any factory Vaio notebook with Win7 and I can say with confidence mine will be quicker to boot, load windows, open a comparable version of excel, photoshop, etc.

This I gotta see for myself... if "most laptops" includes any i3/i5/i7 proc'd notebooks, I don't see how this is possible unless it's been total zombie'd.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Oh and yes Windows 7 is worth it if your computer can run it.

 

[guarda]

Long story short, XP is quicker than 7. Clean install is better than Dell factory restore.
Sorry if I got too technical. Us nerds sometimes have a hard time speaking in laymans terms.

 

[ryangrieder]

Chief I actually just read about that using run and I found the start up tab and there is a lot, but everything is abbreviated so I don't know whats important and what's not. It also said to go into The service tab and turn things off in there but everything is abbreviated there too so i do not want to mess anything up so i stopped.

I also read something about my registry needs to be cleaned off and to download some program? I just did that and it said it found 254 things wrong, but for the free version it can only clean 3 things and the rest needs to be done if I buy it which pissed me off...

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

The best thing to do is download regclean from download dot com. It is free.

 

[reefman]

win7 is better and faster than xp, if you have at least 2 gigs of ram. i have 4 os on my laptop(5 years old) running:
xp pro
win7 ult
osx 10.5
ubuntu 8.04
so it was easy to test diff os running on the same hardware specs.

 

[ryangrieder]

I downloaded regcure and tried that, I'll try that one one you said right now.

 

[ryangrieder]

So I did that, and no joke I think it's running slower now lol. So I think I'm going to have to try to find the disk and redue everything, that should speed it all up right? I already save everything on my external hard drive, so no worries I figure. My Dell disk, that's what has the windows xp right? Or is that whole f11 click on start up easier to do?

And how about that Microsoft word thing? That should be no issue right?