OS advice

I recently purchased an Asus laptop but I am unhappy with Windows 7, I have a 64bit version of Vista Ultimate and I would like to install that instead of having 7. Would doing this affect my warranty or be in violation of the terms and conditions?

 

Well downgrading the OS shouldn't really affect your system's warranty but the question is what part of Windows 7 that you're unhappy with which makes you want to go back to Vista?

 

I'm not really clued up on how to fix problems with software, whenever I'm accessing folders such as my docs, Pictures or folders on the second partition I get a message that says "Windows explorer has stopped working! I then get a message saying "Windows explorer is restarting" and the active windows shut down and the machine goes to the desk top. I've run chkdsk in the hopoe that it would solve the problem but it hasn't. This doesn't happen with Internet Explorer, only when I'm tryingto get my personal files. My concern is that doing a fresh install of Windows 7 will just result in the same issue and my hope is that the problem won't occur with an earlier version. I realise that either installing Vista or a fresh 7 install are both extreme measures to resolve what is probably a simple problem, but I'm getting rather annoyed with the whole thing. I've tried searching for a solution to the problem, but all I seem to find is post about the problem where lots of people have said that they have the same or similar issue and no one seems to reply with a fix. Sorry for the long winded moan. )

 

Actually, your problem isn't normal at all, i'd try re-installing 7 is all else fails. There is a good chance someone here may have a clue to what the problem actually is.

 

I see, it's kinda hard to diagnose as many things can cause those kinds of errors to come up. I can assure that its not a normal feature of Windows 7 to crash so suddenly via the Windows Explorer, are you using the existing factory installation of Windows 7 on your ASUS? Can you report the amount of processes you have when the system is in idle?

I used to have an ASUS myself and the amount of bloatware they put on the system is pretty bad, after a clean install however it just flies with no slowdown. I managed to have around 35-40 processes after a clean install of Windows 7 on my previous ASUS and never had any reliability issues with it.

 

I could report the processes I have when idle, if I knew how to find out, I'm not that tech savvy. Yes I am using it pretty much as it came out of the box except for some Miocrosoft updates and removing some of the unwanted software, plus I've installed Office 2007, google earth and a program called Stellaruim

 

Ah, just press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC together and it will bring up the Task Manager. At the bottom of it will report how many processes you are running on your current session.

 

85, is it posible that a windows update has caused the problem? if so can I run 7 with out updating it?

 

Very rarely Windows Update would be a cause for your problems so I doubt it's anything to do with that. Unfortunately 85 processes is quite a lot if you haven't opened a lot of applications, to give a picture i'm running 39 opened Firefox Tabs, Steam Chat, Web Designing Software, 2 Word Documents, Photoshop with 13 images open, calculator and a FTP software at the same time along with the usual antivirus and yet the amount of processes I have is just 54...



I would probably recommend giving it a reinstall myself to give it a clean bill of health given that you encountered some strange explorer problems. If you like some advice on that then I can guide you to the right direction, do you have the ASUS model number so I could see what drivers you may need?

 

x54c, I have downloaded some drivers and I assume that a fresh install from the factory setting partition will install all the drivers. Oh well I'm in for a fun day tomorrow. I shall see what processes are running, maybe there's a few I can remove.

By the way, thank you for the help and advice, I'll keep you posted on how I get on.

 

Welcome to the http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/380681-asus-utility-bloatware-guide.html. All you ever wanted to know about Asus software but were afraid to ask.

As Hearst, said definitely not normal windows behavior, i am running windows with my libraries on another hard drive on two computers and no crashes.

Wow, Hearst, talk about little processes, even on my desktop i have more than that, ~60 out of the box on my Asus laptops, that does include some essential Asus software though (ATK package = +3 processes), bluetooth and a few other pieces of software i use that other people don't.

 

I'd go for a fresh install of Windows 7. I've never heard of that problem, and I use a Win 7 Sony at home and Win 7 Dell at work. I know Asus tends to pack its machines with a LOT of bloatware, so the problem is probably the bloatware interfering with the OS, not Windows 7 itself.

 

Asus isn't that bad for bloat actually, i mean sure there is quite a bit of it, but Sony is even worse, my G73 had 80ish processes running at startup, the Vaio i had to decrapify for a friend had over 100

 

Sony used to be really bad, but they've cleaned up their act a lot. My Vaio F has 72 processes running at startup, including those associated with Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

Hi there, there could be some programs starting automatically when Windows starts. you could try typing 'msconfig' in your run box on your start menu - and have a look in the start up tab to see what programs are running on start up. This COULD be the source of your problem.

BE CAREFUL THOUGH, SOME OF THESE PROGRAMS ARE SYSTEM PROGRAMS THAT YOUR SYSTEM NEEDS IN ORDER TO RUN, IF YOUR NOT TOO SURE YOU COULD ALWAYS GOOGLE THEIR NAMES TO SEE WHETHER THEY ARE IMPORTANT TO YOUR SYSTEM OR WHETHER THEY ARE SAFE TO STOP FROM RUNNING.

Cheers.

 

That would be a very temporary solution. Mainstream support for Vista Ultimate ends April 10, 2012.

I'd suggest that you pursue your Windows 7 issues and even consider a clean reinstall if all else fails. To rule out hardware issues, it never hurts to use a Linux live disc.

 

A fresh insatall was done, I have let it update yet but so far so good.
thanks for all the advice

 

this is becoming rather annoying, I shut the computer down on Sunday night, it the went into an installing updates mode, 52 of the little blighters, when I started it up again it started running through a horde of system updates, it never completed the install. Instead it crashed and I've had to do another fresh install, if it messes me about once more it's going back. So far I'm not impressed with Windows 7 or Asus

 

85 is normal for a new laptop with Windows 7 preinstalled, I've personally seen it on both Asus and Sony laptops. 30 is normal for a clean install alone

 

That's not normal. Seems like you've got a bad laptop, it's not Windows fault.

It can happen to anyone, with any brand, return it for a new and you'll be fine.

 

I haven't read this topic but moving to Vista wouldn't be a good idea considering that 7 is essentially Vista with a slightly tweaked UI, a few different settings that make drawing faster, and somewhat different prefetch.