Ordered a W7J, what to do when it arrives

I just ordered an Asus W7J from MilestonePC and I'm wondering what, if anything, I have to do to prep it (remove unnecessary files, disable programs for higher battery life, etc)?

TIA.

 

Learn to use Power4Gear - that'll be your friend...... learn the stock set up and as you get more involved and know your system and your uses, you'll want to learn how to customize those settings.

Basically, try to find a good balance in your lcd brightness. I usually use 40-50% even when plugged in because I try to work in a pretty neutrally lit room. The difference in battery life between half and full brightness is quite a bit, so that's something you'll want to know what is ideal for you and not over do it - at least while on battery. Also, the cpu settings are important and with power gear installed, it takes over for the standard auto settings and you can select between performance modes and battery saving modes.... for normal use I suggest leaving it in email mode and the cpu will be limited to 800mhz - enough to do word, internet, email stuff.

I'm not a fan of Norton - you may be, but I'd remove it and use something like PC Cillin or Kaspersky - I love Kaspersky and suggest it to friends and family along with customers.

There really isn't any unneeded stuff...... Asus' updater could be removed without a problem as long as you know the site to go to in order to download new drivers and so on...

That really should be a great start.

 

Hug it.

<3 <3

 

Your best prepration is to read through the W7J Owners' Lounge thread.

 

Congrats on your purchase - I received mine from ProPortable last week and I love it. I spent the better part of the weekend customizing things - it took a little getting used to after using a huge Dell Inspiron - but I really do like it.

I was impressed with the lack of bloatware (contrary to what you will read from some reviews). I uninstalled Norton first off - I use eTrust antivirus and I find it to work very well. There really wasn't much else to remove. Nero was installed and I would have installed that if it wasn't included anyway.

ProPortable was SO helpful in my decision-making process, and I had the machine in my hands three days after placing my order.

Have fun!

 

To convert the hard drive format from FAT32 to NTFS can give you a better performance and it will take a shorter time when running a defragmentation. Another concern is to backup or transfer your data in 2nd partition from My Document, it will help you keep all your data there without lossing when the Windows have to be recoveried by a recovery cd if the Windows is corrupt or it cannot be repaired.
Cheers

 

If converting to NTFS, be sure to check: http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php
before doing it.

On the antivirus line, I use Symantec Antivirus... free, no longer supported, but updates work fine. If anyone needs it I can make it available (I believe that's legal enough). All I need with very little overhead. And I top it with Sygate Personal Firewall for good measure

On the "remove unnecessary files" / saving space note:
* delete the s_it from windows/system32/dllcache, about 700 of it, most of which will never be used (and the rest will be rebuilt in time)
* after you have the system setup the way you like it, disable / reenable system restore, to remove all the restore points created by software as you installed it. I also disable sysrestore on data (non-OS) partitions, but that's a matter of personal preference.
* periodically cleanup your <userdir>/local settings/temp and /temporary internet files (IE _never_ does it, or at least never did it when I used to use it ). Even better, use a decent browser.
* disable unnecessary winxp services (there's a lot of them which start automatically but will never be needed by the average user, task scheduler and IPsecurity are good examples), google for it i don't have a link available

and several other things that if done right will keep your winxp running neatly for years at a time but I don't have time now might write a piece of tutorial about it sometime.

 

Thanks for the great reply.

I'm not the biggest Norton fan either and will have to check out Kaspersky.

Regarding Power4Gear, does it come with it or do I buy/download it?

Definitely.

Thanks for your input!

Not sure what NTFS is, but I guess I'll learn. Thanks for the tips.

Thanks very much for the advice. Why do you suggest to delete the "s_it from windows/system32/dllcache, about 700 of it" and what exactly is that?

 

lol at my school they make you take your computer to them before setting up the wireless internet on your computer/giving you a CAT-5 cable. During that they install symantec. I went in and told them straight off that I wouldn't let them install symantec. The guy tried to convince me of it but I told him that if he installed it I'd just uninstall it. He calls his manager over (all students of course) and he asks me what I use. When I say avast he tells the guy to leave me alone, saying that if I know about it I'm probably not a high-risk user. Though he did take that opportunity to warn be against file sharing.

I haven't used bittorrent since coming here-is it safe to in a campus setting?