Need some 'puter help....

msg

All computers need some maintenance - at least periodically. Dumping cache, temp files, registry sweeps and leftovers all contribute to an optimal experience and help minimize unexplained hiccups.

Grab CCleaner and Defraggler and do some default runs. This can help some, but you really need to add a couple of custom temp file location paths to CCleaner for the most thorough cleaning. Clearing old startup items, browser add-ons, old system restore points, etc. all good general tune-up tasks. Most performance problems are due to ad/mal/spyware, so have a good Antivirus product (my current preference is for Avast) and pay attention to what you're doing online, because no software is going to protect you 100%.

Malwarebytes and Spybot Search & Destroy to clean up the junk.

"Computers have a bad habit of doing exactly what you tell them to do."

tonyb

I do maintenance all the time for those obvious reasons. Just a good practice to get into. In any event, I'm currently sifting through to get some bugs worked out.

westmassguy

Glad it's working mostly for you Tony. There's a major upgrade coming end of this month. 1st anniversary for Win10

Willow

I was going to suggest replacing the battery in the keyboard and mouse if it is wireless. Oddly enough i was having some issues yesterday. Had to double click on things that don't need double clicking. A reboot worked and I'm still on win 7.

msg

msg wrote: »

Grab CCleaner and Defraggler and do some default runs. This can help some, but you really need to add a couple of custom temp file location paths to CCleaner for the most thorough cleaning.

For anyone interested, these are the two addition paths I include for CCleaner sweep. If you've never cleaned these folders, you may be surprised at how much you've collected, and how much disk space you can recover.

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp\
C:\Windows\Temp\

dee1949

.. I am in the "Windows 10 Never " camp ! I used a small app called the same to prevent Win 10 from downloading. No problems. I am on a desktop and regular laptop and see NO reason for Win 10 and all their tracking.

Nightfall

You lucked out Tony, as of yesterday Windows 10 is no longer a free upgrade.

tonyb

dee1949 wrote: »

.. I am in the "Windows 10 Never " camp ! I used a small app called the same to prevent Win 10 from downloading. No problems. I am on a desktop and regular laptop and see NO reason for Win 10 and all their tracking.

You can only hold on to that thinking for so long, soon they'll stop supporting windows 7 and you'll be forced to upgrade. Tracking is the wave of their future, like it or not.

That said, I turned off as much of the tracking as possible but who really knows right.

.....and with that said, my mouse problem hasn't completely gone away. When I use Edge to surf the internet, it works 90% of the time. If I use Explorer, only about 50% and the mouse just won't click on stuff. Even just on windows home page, that bottom tool bar won't click, side icons will though. If I hit the control/alt/del and get task manager to pop up, I use the keyboard arrows to scroll down to cancel and hit enter.....mouse functions come back.

westmassguy

Is it a USB or old PS2 Mouse? What manufacturer? Installing the manufacturers mouse software vs the out of the box generic Windows driver can help.

westmassguy

FYI, EOL for Windows 7 is Jan 14 2020

mrbigbluelight

I love Malwarebytes and CCleaner. And it is amazing how much "junk" is just sitting there in "Temp" files and "Cache" files.
I used to run CCleaner and Wise. After running CCleaner, Wise would still pick up some stuff that I would clean out. But CCleaner picks up everything now, with nothing showing in Wise, so I quit using Wise. Besides, being as paranoid as I am, when reading the "About Us" tab on Wise, it listed all the contributors to Wise and the list read like a Chinese phone book. Not saying anything bad is going on, but I just assume some government operatives are in the mix. Again, heck of a program, but I take pride in my paranoia.

The whole program of Spybot has changed over the years. Spybot Search & Destroy used to be tight, quick, and thorough. I tried it a couple of years ago, and it had turned into, for me, a "bloat monster"; slower than molasses in January.
I do run their stand alone program, "Anti-Beacon". Definitely worth a look-see.

There are several programs that permanently disable Windows 10 "Thanks for letting us monitor everything you do !" crud. A nice one from Major Geeks is here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_10_tracking_disable_tool.html

Remember: just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you.

tonyb

westmassguy wrote: »

Is it a USB or old PS2 Mouse? What manufacturer? Installing the manufacturers mouse software vs the out of the box generic Windows driver can help.

Have the HP mouse that came with the 'puter, not the issue. They say 2020 for W7, but who really knows....they obviously slowly just give a sh^t about it.

I'm not one of those "everyone is out to get me" people.....like Randy Quaid. Corporations are always battling with pro's about Intellectual property, so who's property is my info ? They take my info and bundle it with others and then sell it, possibly even use it against me, so why should I give it to them for free or without permission ?

msg

It kind of sounds like something is stealing the mouse focus. You can still see the mouse cursor moving around, but lose only the ability to click? Is this correct? And you are unable to click anything at all? Not just in Edge/IE.

Just to rule out some kind of add-in, I'd try Firefox and Chrome, and see if the problem persists. If it does, then it's a deeper issue. If it goes away, that indicates something in IE.

tonyb

No, not everything, which is puzzling. Lower tool bar, clicking off sites, links. Mouse still moves around and clicks on some things.

This morning I did a defragmentation and optimization in windows 10. I previously did it in 7 with no better results. So far, doing it in 10 seems to have rid the problem...so far. Even though the 'puter said all my drives were fine and OS was only 5% fragmented.

mrbiron

Sounds to me like you "spunked" up the keyboard and mouse...
At your age, i'd assumed you had better aim.


So, did i miss something? You upgraded to Win10? If so, did you do the upgrade or a clean install?

Jimbo18

Supposedly a big update to Win10 coming today, so you might experience some other issues till that's installed.

tonyb

mrbiron wrote: »

Sounds to me like you "spunked" up the keyboard and mouse...
At your age, i'd assumed you had better aim.


So, did i miss something? You upgraded to Win10? If so, did you do the upgrade or a clean install?

Upgrade....I'm not too keen on having to download 400 cd's again and lose some pics. No spunk on anything, in spite of being messy with sauce, I clean up after myself fairly well.

westmassguy

Sometimes a clean install is the best way. I did an in-place upgrade on my main workstation, and event viewer is loaded with errors. Mostly related to Media Center.
There's no files and settings transfer option for 10 either, so you'd have to backup all your files to a separate drive, then transfer them. A full/clean install for my system takes a good 10-12 hours. Transferring files, re-installing all the software I use etc..

tonyb

westmassguy wrote: »

Sometimes a clean install is the best way. I did an in-place upgrade on my main workstation, and event viewer is loaded with errors. Mostly related to Media Center.
There's no files and settings transfer option for 10 either, so you'd have to backup all your files to a separate drive, then transfer them. A full/clean install for my system takes a good 10-12 hours. Transferring files, re-installing all the software I use etc..

Yeah, I know.....but this dago ain't doin' that pal. My time is valuable, takes awhile to hunt down good veal ya know. I'd throw it out the window and go buy another before I did all that.

[Deleted User]

dee1949 wrote: »

.. I am in the "Windows 10 Never " camp ! I used a small app called the same to prevent Win 10 from downloading. No problems. I am on a desktop and regular laptop and see NO reason for Win 10 and all their tracking.

+ 1. I use Never10 which works the same way & prevents annoying Microsoft pop ups, and stops W10 being forcefully downloaded or **** up your system if you refuse. Zero resources, works a treat. I'll keep using Windows 7 as long as it's supported and stable. Heard too many bad reports about W10 to touch it. And I'm voting with my feet with Microsoft's subversive tactics.

Btw, +1 to those who recommended CCLeaner & Super Anti-spyware. I also recommend Advanced System Care 9 free edition which does a good job at fixing general bugs, defragging the system & fixing registry errors. Driver Booster 3 (another free bundled IObit program) does a great job at updating all your drivers in one click! Other than that, if you do regular maintenance & keep your main Firewall & AV program up to date, you shouldn't have any major issues.

warren

So, Windows 10 is the winner, I just upgraded after a multitude of problems..
Now the world is right,!

tonyb

warren wrote: »

So, Windows 10 is the winner, I just upgraded after a multitude of problems..
Now the world is right,!

See....that's what I'm talking about. I think they purposely screw you up on 7 to get everyone to upgrade to 10. In 10, it's working flawlessly, if I hit windows explorer, not so much. Explorer says I'm using too much Ram, but when I click on computer stats, I have 38% available....and I don't have boat loads of things running in the background.

msg

Haha, ah come on, Tony, there's no Microsoft conspiracy here Win7 is still running near flawlessly on most machines I see to. Problems on previously efficiently running machines are almost always third party software, add-ons, drivers, or in rare cases, BIOS related. Sometimes failing hardware. Two other issues I see are the PEBKAC, and the ID10T. Not much to be done for either of these, unfortunately, except to R&R.

Have you tried another browser yet?

tonyb

The browser for Edge works flawlessly, the one for Explorer still has hiccups with the mouse at times. Only now in 10, I get a pop up that says I'm using too much Ram, and I can't seem to figure out where. Same add on's are running in Edge, computer says I have 38% ram available. Something is running in the background on Explorer eating up Ram and I can't seem to figure it out yet....yet.

Being the impatient SOB that I am, I'll spend x amount of time figuring it out and then revert back to option 2.

Tossing it out the window, and then taking a sledge hammer to it to put it out of it's misery.

mrbiron

How much RAM do you have?
8GB should be the standard and is cheap. Anything over that is overkill for your needs.

Is Explorer like Chrome where every tab you have open is a huge RAM hog?

Jimbo18

I have had Win10 for about 6 mos. on my desktop and have had some small issues with it. Enough that I actually wished I had Win8.1 back (I used a retro start button with it).

Last night, I loaded the Win10 anniversary update. Haven't had time to play with it much yet (the computer that is), but it seemed like it was faster than before the update.

Start menu is different so it might take a little getting used to, but Chrome seemed noticeably faster loading pages.

msg

Jim, have you tried a start menu replacement with Win10 yet? I was using StartIsBack. I like the features in this one, but it'll cost ya four bucks to keep after 30 days. I try to take some time to get to know the default layout of a new OS before diving into customizing. Try to.

I like 10 okay so far, but I just hate that everyone's complicating things by oversimplifying UI's and going duplo-size on the text and layout. It's almost like an always-on Accessibility feature set. If I want a tablet layout, I'll use a tablet.

westmassguy

I upgraded to 10 when it 1st came out, and was woefully unimpressed. Made an image and went back to 7. Couple months later they had a major update, put the 10 image back on, did the upgrade, still unimpressed. Bout 2-3 months ago put 10 back on, just for ha ha's did all the updates, some tweaks, and have been using it everyday. Did this last anniversary update the other day, and I think it broke more than it fixed. Was ready to go back to the pre update 10 image, and said what the heck, installed my previous 7 image. What a difference, smooth as silk, beautiful GUI, no Toys R Us Tiles or Explorer Windows. Did all the upgrades that were due since 2-3 months ago. No annoying Win 10 upgrade BS either now, since the free upgrade date has passed. I'm not going to torture myself anymore with Win 10. I'll run 7 until 2020.
BTW, Classic Shell will give you the old Win Vista/7 Menu, and it's free. You can also have it replace the File Explorer Toolbar.

Jimbo18

Classis Shell is what I was using with Win8.1. Never had a problem with it. I held off on Win10 for about 6 mos. and kind of wish I hadn't upgraded. However I mainly use the desktop for internet and not much else, so I was too lazy to bother going back.

Sorry if this turned into a bit of a thread-jack.

westmassguy

I don't think Tony will mind. If he does, he'll just go after your family