Computer Thread

BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
PostIvory said:
Fellows, what do you do to establish more security? I mean, do you use VPN services or proxies? I read an article on medium https://medium.com/@ininja/no-one-knows-when-it-will-become-the-necessity-in-the-protected-connection-or-in-the-personal-id-e3c7bceae461. Is it that necessary to do all this stuff? What are your thoughts on it?
Click to expand...
I don't do anything special other than using a alternate email address, but I don't post anything of evidentiary value either. No grow pics, etc.
 
Bareback

Bareback

Well-Known Member
Cx2H

Cx2H

Well-Known Member
PostIvory said:
Fellows, what do you do to establish more security? I mean, do you use VPN services or proxies? I read an article on medium https://medium.com/@ininja/no-one-knows-when-it-will-become-the-necessity-in-the-protected-connection-or-in-the-personal-id-e3c7bceae461. Is it that necessary to do all this stuff? What are your thoughts on it?
Click to expand...
VPN is only as secure as the logs they keep.

Hide in plain sight?

Only enter information into sites that use HTTPS?

Use a trusted proxy chain?

Don't reuse passwords?

Change passwords daily, weekly, monthly?

I don't do anything that requires me to use an encrypted connection for daily web activity.
From my research you can't hide anything anymore.
 
Last edited:
neosapien

neosapien

Well-Known Member
So, I joined the dark side after 15 years. I have to use Excel and Access in the one business class. So I took my wife's old laptop and am now dual booting Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10. Holy fuck I want to shoot myself in the face. Windows is even slower than what I remember if that's even possible. It's really so frustrating. What can I do to make this piece of shit boot and run faster?
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
If you can do everything you want to do with Unbuntu I'd ditch Win10. Just got a used motherboard to replace my dying one and going to update from XP Pro to Win7. May try adding Unbuntu and get rid of Windblow$ myself.
 
Boatguy

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
neosapien said:
So, I joined the dark side after 15 years. I have to use Excel and Access in the one business class. So I took my wife's old laptop and am now dual booting Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10. Holy fuck I want to shoot myself in the face. Windows is even slower than what I remember if that's even possible. It's really so frustrating. What can I do to make this piece of shit boot and run faster?
Click to expand...
I run linux mint on my old laptop. Has good support for old software and everything almost always works after the install. If i need windows on that pc i have a pirated copy of win xp i run on virtualbox on linux.
 
neosapien

neosapien

Well-Known Member
Boatguy said:
I run linux mint on my old laptop. Has good support for old software and everything almost always works after the install. If i need windows on that pc i have a pirated copy of win xp i run on virtualbox on linux.
Click to expand...
I tried Mint several years back and thought it was decent. At that point it was basically Ubuntu with all the restricted extras already installed.

I haven't ever tried a virtual machine but looks like I might have a reason to run one. I haven't heard much in the way of wine being real good for Office 2016 so…
 
Boatguy

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
Wine sucks.
Linux mint is really the most user friendly. I have used slackware, redhat, ubuntu, mint, suse, damn small linux, and for something that works closest to windows, mint wins. Slackware is the fastest, but aside from that if its not available through slackbuilds you have to do it yourself. I cant do my own builds.
I have never tried to run anything other than win xp on virtualbox so i cant vouch for how well it works with newer os's.
If you are working on an older laptop, stick with gnome or xfce with an older distro. The new kde distro's are pretty heavy for older setups
 
Cx2H

Cx2H

Well-Known Member
neosapien said:
So, I joined the dark side after 15 years. I have to use Excel and Access in the one business class. So I took my wife's old laptop and am now dual booting Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10. Holy fuck I want to shoot myself in the face. Windows is even slower than what I remember if that's even possible. It's really so frustrating. What can I do to make this piece of shit boot and run faster?
Click to expand...
Turn off telemetry first of all. (Spy eye)

Never use edge browser. (Memory hole)

Reboot that sheet hourly. (Keep it fast.)

W10 has far to many background operations like 100+. My xp box and win7 box were speedy as hell with 17 processes max at any given time.

Make hardware profiles and turn off sheet you are not gonna use and save the profile.

'Run' menu a 'mmc' console and make a tool (snap-ins)find out what's starting in the background when windows starts.

More if needed. ;-)
 
dstroy

dstroy

Well-Known Member
neosapien said:
I tried Mint several years back and thought it was decent. At that point it was basically Ubuntu with all the restricted extras already installed.

I haven't ever tried a virtual machine but looks like I might have a reason to run one. I haven't heard much in the way of wine being real good for Office 2016 so…
Click to expand...
I use VMware all the time, works great, very powerful.
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
neosapien said:
It's really so frustrating.
Click to expand...
Do you have to take the laptop to class with you and are you running the newest versions of Excel and Access? You pretty much have to have a newer machine to run WIn10 fast IME. I upgraded 2 laptops from Win7/8 and they are both too slow now to use for much of anything. I bought a refurb desktop with Win10Pro, 2TB, 16Gb ram for cheap, cheap. Maybe a refurb laptop for school with just the MS stuff on it? Maybe a clean install on your wife's laptop with just the bare bones Win10?

edit: I see you are using Office16. I know older versions don't require as much horsepower but you may be required to use 16 for your classes? I'm still using hacked versions of 2003, but they work for me.
 
Last edited:
neosapien

neosapien

Well-Known Member
BarnBuster said:
Do you have to take the laptop to class with you and are you running the newest versions of Excel and Access? You pretty much have to have a newer machine to run WIn10 fast IME. I upgraded 2 laptops from Win7/8 and they are both too slow now to use for much of anything. I bought a refurb desktop with Win10Pro, 2TB, 16Gb ram for cheap, cheap. Maybe a refurb laptop for school with just the MS stuff on it? Maybe a clean install on your wife's laptop with just the bare bones Win10?

edit: I see you are using Office16. I know older versions don't require as much horsepower but you may be required to use 16 for your classes? I'm still using hacked versions of 2003, but they work for me.
Click to expand...
The class is online. It's basically me reading the ridiculously overpriced book and teaching myself. Yeah, the class is on Microsoft Office 365, Excel and Access 2016 specifically. I got official squeaky clean copies thanks to the class. First time ever lol. The laptop really isn't that weak hardware wise. It has an Intel core i3 and 4gb of ddr3 1600. Expandable to 16gb. Apparently there's still a slot open so I can throw another stick in and see if that helps. Of course I'm also just use to Linux being able to do more with less. Maybe my shit is weak.

 
neosapien

neosapien

Well-Known Member
It's really just the startup thAt makes me want to put a bullet in my brain. I feel as though it takes 10+ minutes from the time I choose windows as the OS, to when I can actually open excel and use it. Once I can get to that point it's fine. Or at least tolerable.
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
I seriously need an upgrade from my Core2 Duo setup...
Its OK at what it can do, but it is like 3 generations behind the time.
Does a good job at running Windows 7. But it is fucking slow at processing Youtube videos.
 
Cx2H

Cx2H

Well-Known Member
neosapien said:
It's really just the startup thAt makes me want to put a bullet in my brain. I feel as though it takes 10+ minutes from the time I choose windows as the OS, to when I can actually open excel and use it. Once I can get to that point it's fine. Or at least tolerable.
Click to expand...
Have you tried 'msconfig' in the run menu box to see whats starting? Only change start up tab stuff unless you know what you are doing. #DangerZone
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I know what works for XP, Win7/8.1 at least and should work for 10 as well.

Check online for which services you can either disable or reset to manual to prevent a lot of useless stuff starting up automatically. There's lots you don't need and it frees up a lot of memory and reduces the time for boot.

A couple of Windows utilities I've used for years and install on any computer I work on for friends is AutoRuns, Process Explorer and Hardware Monitor.

With AutoRuns you can see every little process running in your machine and switch them off by unchecking a box then restarting. So much unneeded crap going on in the background. Lots of scheduled tasks can be turned off too. They really slow down boot times. Or change the times that they do their thing to one more convenient so they don't all try to do their thing at startup.

Process Explorer lets you see what programs are cycle hogs and tying up the CPU more that they should. On my wife's laptop with 8.1 she ends up with half a dozen instances of FireFox running at the same time and slows her rig right down. I start PE up first and have it going all the time so I can tell when it's time to reboot TOR. It reacts badly to some web sites and runs at 30+% CPU usage and will end up freezing. Right-click on it in PE and Kill the process easily.

Neither of those programs need an 'install'. I make a folder on my boot drive called 'Small Utilities' with a subfolder for each little program like that, copy the few files into it then make a link to the desktop so I can put it in my QuickStart list. Or leave it on the desktop and then hide the icons so my virtual desktop is tidy unlike my analog desktop. :)

Just searching for 'Speed up Win10' should have tips and tricks I don't know about as I haven't spent much time with 10 and will never run it on my old machine or any other. Had to fight to keep it off the wife's lappy.

If you can just Hibernate Win10 so it opens faster but that won't help if you're switching the OS.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Forgot Hardware Monitor. It just lets you see the temps of various hardware parts so you know if they are getting too hot and maybe causing problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top