Striping an old acer aspire windows 7 machine to the minimum.

I dug up my wife's old acer aspire netbook machine and would like to use it to run a few drone programming programs in the field. It's an intel atom processor, 1.66 ghz with 1gb memory and 160 hdd running windows 7. How do I go about getting rid of anything bogging this old turd down? I'm not sure what programs I should and shouldn't leave? Basically just want google chrome and iTunes left on it. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Joey

Easiest way would be to do a fresh install of win7. Kills all the bloatware in one shot.

Ditch Windows. Run Ubuntu or the like.

Seriously, either way, wipe it clean and reinstall an OS from scratch. Removal won't work nearly as well as just a fresh load as there will be stuff left over.

If you haven't already, upgrade the memory to the max and replace the harddrive with a Solid State drive. The memory will help with web browsing and the SSD will improve performance and reliability (no spinning discs and floating heads to crash into each other).

mndsm wrote: Easiest way would be to do a fresh install of win7. Kills all the bloatware in one shot.

Wouldn't I need the original instal disc? I don't think I have it...

Joey

joey48442 wrote:

mndsm wrote: Easiest way would be to do a fresh install of win7. Kills all the bloatware in one shot.

Wouldn't I need the original instal disc? I don't think I have it... Joey

You just need AN install disc for Winblowz and use the license key on the device.

Install files are available from Microsoft here

Realistically, you'll want to put the files on a USB key to boot from, instead of a DVD (unless you have an external DVD player for the Netbook).

Create bootable USB instructions

OR

You could skip that noise and go with Ubuntu:

Seriously, it will be faster, safer and just as usable

If you have the Windows product key, which is probably on the bottom of the laptop on a sticker, you can download legit Windows 7 installation software here;

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

Google Chrome and iTunes will run on Ubuntu without issue. As others have said it is the easy button. Only drawback is some software may need you to install additional libraries to run, but if you are only running web browsing and itunes your will be golden.

Also, Ubuntu will be remarkable lighter/faster than ANY version of Windows... Especially on a older machine...

I'm not sure if running Windows applications in WINE is really going to be be "faster" than actually running Windows. I'd like to see some back to back comparisons, using Windows 7 or 10 as the benchmark, to believe this. If there isn't some suggestion to use WINE or playonlinux to get iTunes working in Ubuntu then I'm not sure what the method would be (based on a few minutes of research).

Could always look into making it a Hackintosh, which would work with iTunes and allow web browsing. Plus iTunes on a Mac works a billion times better than it ever does on Winblowz.

+1 for Linux if it'll run the software you want. Otherwise, clean-install Windows.

Thanks guys! But I'm really just trying to get the bloat off his computer. Not a new os lol. I think it's a bit to late in life for me to learn a new operating system ha ha. I'll probably just reinstall windoez.

Thanks!

Stefan wrote:

joey48442 wrote:

mndsm wrote: Easiest way would be to do a fresh install of win7. Kills all the bloatware in one shot.

Wouldn't I need the original instal disc? I don't think I have it... Joey

You just need AN install disc for Winblowz and use the license key on the device. Install files are available from Microsoft here Realistically, you'll want to put the files on a USB key to boot from, instead of a DVD (unless you have an external DVD player for the Netbook). Create bootable USB instructions OR You could skip that noise and go with Ubuntu: Seriously, it will be faster, safer and just as usable

This is all really good stuff. Iv3 rescued several dead rigs this way. I kept isos of windows in flash drives for a reason.

I'm kind of at a loss. Maybe buy a Miata?

Striping or stripping?

joey48442 wrote: Thanks guys! But I'm really just trying to get the bloat off his computer. Not a new os lol. I think it's a bit to late in life for me to learn a new operating system ha ha. I'll probably just reinstall windoez. Thanks!

Ok, I wish you the best of luck.

BTW, you know us GRM'ers we are always learning and always trying to find the best, cheapest solutions that we can implement. We also look at problems and solve them with the best solutions we can find. This is why I painted my 924 with Rustoleum and rebuilt the chassis myself even though I've never done most of that kind of work before, let alone in my own garage. Its also why I'm eliminating Windows products from my home as I'm trying to save money and improve the security of the environment.

Stefan wrote:

joey48442 wrote: Thanks guys! But I'm really just trying to get the bloat off his computer. Not a new os lol. I think it's a bit to late in life for me to learn a new operating system ha ha. I'll probably just reinstall windoez. Thanks!

Ok, I wish you the best of luck. BTW, you know us GRM'ers we are always learning and always trying to find the best, cheapest solutions that we can implement. We also look at problems and solve them with the best solutions we can find. This is why I painted my 924 with Rustoleum and rebuilt the chassis myself even though I've never done most of that kind of work before, let alone in my own garage. Its also why I'm eliminating Windows products from my home as I'm trying to save money and improve the security of the environment.

Totally understood. I just have terrible luck trying to modify anything with computers. While I like to fool with things, computer wise, I usually just end up screwing them up in a different way than they were in the first place.

On those old Acers they usually had the recovery windows on a separate hard drive partition that you would access by booting to it with some function key. It won't get you where you want to be though: bloat free. You will need a copy of windows from MS to install without bloat, and then get the drivers from Acer (which you should go get BEFORE you wipe the machine).

I used one of these for a while in the garage for my USB OBD2 reader. It was most usable with Windows XP. 7 made it slow and the constant updates made it really annoying for the occasional use in the garage.