Optimizing new thinkpad

Hey everyone,

I just purchased a Thinkpad X201, and I am assuming it came with a lot of bloatware. I was wondering if anyone knows what softwares I can get rid of, and possibly point me towards a guide for optimizing performance.

Thanks!

 

Not really a lot...I like pretty much all of the Thinkvantage software.

 

Unlike all the other brands of laptops I've owned, I find the "bloatware" that came with my X201 to actually be quite useful. The only thing I got rid of was the AV software (I think it was Norton Internet Security). I don't need that slowing down my Windows because I always use Linux when I'm on the web. That way I don't have to worry about "malware" attacks. 99.9% of that crap is written to attack Windows computers. It simply won't run under Linux.

The first thing I do with a new laptop, right after it boots, is use "services.msc" to stop and disable Windows Search. I don't need every file on my hard drive indexed for content and I don't want that program wearing out my hard drive and taking CPU cycles with its nearly constant drive accesses. If I'm looking for a file, I'll have an idea of it's name and/or file extension. I come from the days of DOS, so I can drop to the command prompt and find a file a lot faster with DOS commands. Windows is pretty clunky with certain file management tasks.

Other than the above, just the usual optimizations like occasionally deleting temporary files and defragging the HDD every week or two.

How do you like your X201? I'm really happy with mine.

 

Yeah I love it, it's a nice little laptop! I also love the old school ThinkLight

You say you use Linux when you browse, is this on your X201? How well does thinkpad support it? I really want to give Linux a try (maybe start with Ubuntu because I heard it's easier than some other distros). Do I need to install a lot of drivers?

Thanks!

 

Thinkpads have a long history of being Linux-friendly (unlike many other brands). Yes, you'll want to start with either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. I'm dual-booting Windows 7 64-bit with Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit on my X201. One problem you will run into is that if you have the "Thinkpad b/g/n" wi-fi card, it will not work properly in Linux because it's not natively supported in the kernel. It is actually a RealTek card and is Lenovo's "cheap" card. There is a driver available, but I've heard that doesn't always work well. All the Intel cards have support built into the kernel and work great. I have the Intel Advanced-N 6200 card -- no problems.

If you install the 64-bit version of Ubuntu you will have a small problem with flash video until you make a small configuration change. Instructions at this webpage:
Flash Fix for 64-bit
You can fix it in only a minute or two. It has to do with Adobe not yet having a workable 64-bit Flash player plugin for Linux.

Ubuntu starts and runs faster than Windows 7. It shuts down in about 7 seconds. It connects to the network fast and starts Firefox instantly and is a joy to use for web-browsing and comes with many useful built-in applications and thousands more are available for download and install -- all free, of course.