Keep It Clean
About a year ago, I purchased a Dell Inspiron 9400 Notebook to use as my primary computer. I love its portability, its clear, wide-screen display, and many other things about it, but if you read my blogs regularly (or if you’ve been around me when I was using it), you’ll know that I have been much less impressed with its speed. There have been more than a few occasions when I have threatened to toss it out the window!
Last December, I uninstalled Business Contact Manager and that seemed to make a big difference – for a while at least. More recently, I re-established the habit of running the Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis. That helped too, but I still felt the computer was much too slow, considering that it has a Core 2 Duo processor and cost me in the neighbourhood of $2000 with all the upgrades I’d chosen.
Last week, when I was surfing for yet another explanation as to why my computer was so slow, I came across something about Media Direct, a Dell product that allows you to instantly access your calendar, contacts, PowerPoint presentations and multimedia files, without starting up your operating system. I knew it was on my system but after nearly a year, it hasn’t even crossed my mind to give it a try. I decided to uninstall it and that seems to have solved my problem! (she says, crossing her fingers…)
When I first ordered the computer, my son, who is a government IT professional, said that the first thing I should do after receiving it was to format it, because of all the "junk" that is typically pre-installed on new computers. I was horrified at the thought, and assured him that the only free trial included on this computer was a Norton product which I intended to use. I guess I should have listened to him!
