Old Windows 7 Desktop Questions

I have been using a laptop for a while already and using windows 10. I have an old windows 7 destkp bought probably 8 years ago and it uses windows 7 but its an i5 750 processor. Its an xps 8100. It only has 4gb ram and hard drive is 500gb hard drive and no ssd. I haven't touched this computer in over 1.5 years as it is in a closet.


A while back a long time ago i did a reinstall of it. However im sure i did this incorrectly because it shows 424gb free of 465gb. Thus when i did the reinstall, old files were still on the computer.


So do i need to first clean reinstall it again or is it fine using it the way it is?


The other thing is this. I have avast free antivirus, malwarebytes and also super antispyware on this computer. Thus i only need 1 and remove all of them? Or keep avast and malwarebytes? They are free version.


The thing is in my windows 10 laptop, i use windows defender only for virus protection. I checked on my windows 7 desktop and there is windows defender there. But when i click on it, i get a message that says


the program is turned off


if you would like to use this program, click here to turn it on



when i click turn it on


the program is blocked by group policy. error code 0x800704ec



I dont recall ever using windows defender on this old desktop though. So is the reason why i have this because of a virus since i didnt clean reinstall correctly due to old files still there? Or is it due to me having avast, malwarebytes and superantispyware free edition on computer? I assume delete superantispyware. But also delete avast but keep malwarebtyes?


I want to use this computer but also make sure it doesn't have any type of virus already etc. So should windows defender be my primary virus scanner? Should i have any other ones like malwarebytes? Also windows defender is basically the same as microsoft essentials right?

 

If you are smart do a clean install. This is something I have always done. You laptop will run so much better.

 

Not necessarily. A 500gb hdd after formatting comes out to 465gb.

Spoiler

"for each Gigabyte that a drive manufacturer claims, they are over reporting the amount of disk space by 73,741,824 Bytes or roughly 70.3 MB of disk space."

Thus, 500 * 70.3 = 35.1gb.

https://www.lifewire.com/drive-storage-capacities-833435

You have 41gb used. 4gb of that is probably a pagefile, plus another 4gb for hibernation file.
You may not have as much old stuff on there as you thought.

Most likely avast has disabled windows defender so that avast is the lone antivirus.

They are so out of date, I would uninstall all of them and reinstall a new antivirus of your choice.

But I agree. A fresh install always does wonders.