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There are a number of such devices, each promising miraculous results. I have not purchased one. While some might suggest I have a vested interest in denying the value of these things, think of it this way: how can a simple program have any concept of what might truly be wrong with your machine, in any way beyond the standard freely-available bits of test software? AND, be able to fix it without serious human intervention? My suspicion is it checks the registry, reports a number of mistakes (like all registry cleaners do, regardless of what they find), and offer to remove them. Some purport to be able to clean out viruses. It cannot know what startup programs might be slowing you down, what broken updates you have, how your system is connected to the Internet if you are feeding through a Vonage box, whether or not your WiFi password is modified, why your screen is blank, why you are stuck at the login to Windows, if your email has been hijacked at the source, what your forgotten Skype password is, or what spyware is on your system and in each of your browsers, having hijacked your Search page, and on and on and on.

Further, if your system is not pre-configured to boot from USB, it will never even start. (And now with EUFI BIOS motherboards, the security settings are such that you have to really know what you're doing to make a PC USB bootable.) Meantime, there are dozens of free programs that you can download that do far more than any of these USB sticks can. These TV-sold gadgets offer to make it easy, and a number of online reviews have said the can fix some things, but that generally speaking, you need to contact their own support people after the fact to clean up problems they've created, and that you need to have a fair bit of computer savvy to work with the things. Some reviews even said the WinCleaner device had slowed down the tested computers.

If anyone gets one, I'm happy to use my test equipment to check it out.

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58 minutes ago, moderator-2 said:

Why in the world is this posted in "automobiles?"

Moved.  Please try and put threads in the right sections.  The section headers are pretty self explanatory.

Where did you put it?  Couldn't find it.

Anyway, it is just a "lite" version of Linux which you can download for free.  

 

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I've been running a dual boot Linux 17.2/Windows 7 system on my work computer for about a year.  There is a difference.  Linux is faster but not very user friendly, Windows is slower and very user friendly.  

The item being advertised just allows you to boot one of the earlier, smaller Linux operating systems.  You can go on line and get it for free so you are basically paying $25 for a thumb drive and some convenience.  

The new Windows 10 system is so large that it eats up a lot of CPU usage and memory just to run which makes the older computers slow.  Add in a bunch of background programs that tend to accumulate on computers and you are down to snail speed.

There are lots of cheap things that you can do to speed up an old computer.  Go on google and you can find plenty of step by step advice.  One of the easiest things to do if you have the original install disks is to copy off any files you want to keep and reinstall a clean operating system.  Cost is basically zero.

Then, you can spend money to expand the memory, get a faster hard drive etc.  By the time you upgrade everything, you can generally buy a new, faster computer with more bells and whistles for the same money.

I was helping a friend set up a scanner on an older machine a few days ago and it seemed so slow that it was painful.  However, a few years ago, they were the fastest things around.

Speed is relative.  20 years ago, I owned a small business and the computer run most of the night generating reports.  Today, a cheap laptop can do that in 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

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I have a 5-year old laptop with ample memory using an AMD A6 chip, quad-core & Windows 7. A couple of months ago I downloaded Windows 10 and my laptop runs even better with it. For older computers that are running slow, my advice is to have a trusted computer person come in and 'fine tune' it. Now if one is still running an old Pentium single core or god-forbid a Celeron CPU with 'no' memory then all bets are off. A 'trusted' computer tech would tell you right off that he/she could not help you with performance issues on that relic.

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Puppy linux is remarkably small - but it's learning curve is a little difficult. Still the best for an old laptop or netbook, especially when you are travelling and using free wi-fi. Good for checking email, totally safe bank transactions, and no viruses. Start it up with a flash drive and USB.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview and Getting Started.htm

Linux Mint still requires very few resources and for the first couple months, checking it out, I was booting and storing off a 4G flash drive. Great for security, if leaving your house, take all your personal data with you. It is a lot easier to hide a flash drive, with your personal data, than a tower, laptop or tablet. Every reviewer comments how the interface is "windows" like. Easy to learn. Packed with so many excellent applications, for things I could not find in Windows, or justify paying for a legal copy for my limited use. People all over the world are very enthusiastic about this operating system. Many are writing code as a hobby again, then dumping their creations into open source.

https://www.linuxmint.com/

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On 11/27/2016 at 6:27 AM, moderator-2 said:

Why in the world is this posted in "automobiles?"

Moved.  Please try and put threads in the right sections.  The section headers are pretty self explanatory.

My abject apologies! Meant to change forums but got interrupted in the process and had a senior moment.

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