My mother-in-law recently bought a Compaq Presario C500 with a Celeron M
that came with Vista Basic pre-installed. Needless to say, it takes forever
to perform basic functions, like merely opening an instance of explorer. I
have the laptop in my office and am at this moment creating an image of the
system drive before I start streamlining it. I have a few questions:

1) Is there a utility that will allow me to efficiently remove Vista
deadweight? I guess something like Vista-Lite, but I'm not re-installing,
I'm streamlining. This would be the hoped for solution, but barring that...

2) Any recommendations on how to proceed (i.e., windows programs, etc.).

Any advice anyone can provide is appreciated.

Thanks,
James

Is it too late to take/send it back & get a computer without a Celeron
processor & at least 2 gigs of memory? you are only asking for problems in
this configuration. Most notebooks are NOT powerhouses anyway (slower,
lower power processers & onboard graphics) but when you strap it with a
triple whammy of Celeron/512 memory (presuming cause that is where they
usually put Vista basic) & onboard graphics you are asking for slllooowwwww!

"James Colbert" <jc2567@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:ehG9RgutIHA.3780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> My mother-in-law recently bought a Compaq Presario C500 with a Celeron M
> that came with Vista Basic pre-installed. Needless to say, it takes
> forever to perform basic functions, like merely opening an instance of
> explorer. I have the laptop in my office and am at this moment creating an
> image of the system drive before I start streamlining it. I have a few
> questions:
>
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow me to efficiently remove Vista
> deadweight? I guess something like Vista-Lite, but I'm not re-installing,
> I'm streamlining. This would be the hoped for solution, but barring
> that...
>
> 2) Any recommendations on how to proceed (i.e., windows programs, etc.).
>
> Any advice anyone can provide is appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> James

"James Colbert" <jc2567@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:ehG9RgutIHA.3780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> My mother-in-law recently bought a Compaq Presario C500 with a Celeron M
> that came with Vista Basic pre-installed. Needless to say, it takes
> forever to perform basic functions, like merely opening an instance of
> explorer. I have the laptop in my office and am at this moment creating an
> image of the system drive before I start streamlining it. I have a few
> questions:
>
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow me to efficiently remove Vista
> deadweight? I guess something like Vista-Lite, but I'm not re-installing,
> I'm streamlining. This would be the hoped for solution, but barring
> that...

You already have Vista Basic, so you're not going to trim much. Is the
computer upgradeable, memory wise? A memory upgrade can do wonders for
performance, especially if you have a minimal configuration to start with.
They're selling Dells at WalMart with 2 Gb installed. If you don't want to
open it up just yet, log in to www.crucial.com and run their system scanner
tool.

Cheers,

Earle

>
> 2) Any recommendations on how to proceed (i.e., windows programs, etc.).
>
> Any advice anyone can provide is appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> James

Hi Earl and Bob. Thanks for your responses. I agree that it is very good
advice to upgrade the RAM. This machine came with 512MB (pitiful for a visat
machine) and I am awaiting 2GB of RAM I ordered, but I was also hoping to
trim out the deadweight. Of course, the Norton stuff is the first to go, and
some of that HP advisor crap (and whatever I can safely remove), but I was
hoping for more ideas as far as unecessary Vista components. Some of it is
obvious, but if there are any 'component removal pitfalls' that I'm not
aware of, I'd like to knwo ahead of time.

Anyway, thanks again for your responses,
James



"James Colbert" <jc2567@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:ehG9RgutIHA.3780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> My mother-in-law recently bought a Compaq Presario C500 with a Celeron M
> that came with Vista Basic pre-installed. Needless to say, it takes
> forever to perform basic functions, like merely opening an instance of
> explorer. I have the laptop in my office and am at this moment creating an
> image of the system drive before I start streamlining it. I have a few
> questions:
>
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow me to efficiently remove Vista
> deadweight? I guess something like Vista-Lite, but I'm not re-installing,
> I'm streamlining. This would be the hoped for solution, but barring
> that...
>
> 2) Any recommendations on how to proceed (i.e., windows programs, etc.).
>
> Any advice anyone can provide is appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> James

Hi James,

The Celeron M is pretty old technology for today's system especially running
Vista. You definitely need more Ram, 512 just isn't going to cut it. A few
things you can do to help is first remove the free trial of MS Office 2007
and second and more importantly remove Norton. Also check Program and
Features in Control Panel and remove all the junk that Compaq puts on this
system, it's not hard to find.

To remove all traces of Norton...
http://service1.symantec.com/Support...05033108162039

For Office 2007 if Add/Remove doesn't work....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218


--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

"James Colbert" <jc2567@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:ehG9RgutIHA.3780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> My mother-in-law recently bought a Compaq Presario C500 with a Celeron M
> that came with Vista Basic pre-installed. Needless to say, it takes
> forever to perform basic functions, like merely opening an instance of
> explorer. I have the laptop in my office and am at this moment creating an
> image of the system drive before I start streamlining it. I have a few
> questions:
>
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow me to efficiently remove Vista
> deadweight? I guess something like Vista-Lite, but I'm not re-installing,
> I'm streamlining. This would be the hoped for solution, but barring
> that...
>
> 2) Any recommendations on how to proceed (i.e., windows programs, etc.).
>
> Any advice anyone can provide is appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> James

"SG" <sorry@nomail.com> wrote in message
news:%23uOovfvtIHA.1328@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi James,
>
> The Celeron M is pretty old technology for today's system especially
> running Vista. You definitely need more Ram, 512 just isn't going to cut
> it. A few things you can do to help is first remove the free trial of MS
> Office 2007 and second and more importantly remove Norton. Also check
> Program and Features in Control Panel and remove all the junk that Compaq
> puts on this system, it's not hard to find.
>
> To remove all traces of Norton...
> http://service1.symantec.com/Support...05033108162039
>
> For Office 2007 if Add/Remove doesn't work....
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218

Hi SG,

Thanks for the response. I especially appreciate the links. I planned on
removing both items, but nice to have tools that will remove all traces.

Thanks again,
James

You are most welcome. Also it should be against the law for any Computer
Company to sale a system like that with only 512 of RAM, ridiculous. Some of
these OEM's wonder why sales are down.

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

"James Colbert" <jc2567@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:ePk0nNwtIHA.1316@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "SG" <sorry@nomail.com> wrote in message
> news:%23uOovfvtIHA.1328@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Hi James,
>>
>> The Celeron M is pretty old technology for today's system especially
>> running Vista. You definitely need more Ram, 512 just isn't going to cut
>> it. A few things you can do to help is first remove the free trial of MS
>> Office 2007 and second and more importantly remove Norton. Also check
>> Program and Features in Control Panel and remove all the junk that Compaq
>> puts on this system, it's not hard to find.
>>
>> To remove all traces of Norton...
>> http://service1.symantec.com/Support...05033108162039
>>
>> For Office 2007 if Add/Remove doesn't work....
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218
>
> Hi SG,
>
> Thanks for the response. I especially appreciate the links. I planned on
> removing both items, but nice to have tools that will remove all traces.
>
> Thanks again,
> James
>
>

"SG" <sorry@nomail.com> wrote in message
news:eGDXvuwtIHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> You are most welcome. Also it should be against the law for any Computer
> Company to sale a system like that with only 512 of RAM, ridiculous. Some
> of these OEM's wonder why sales are down.


Agreed! An out and out rip-off!

James

"SG" <sorry@nomail.com> wrote in message
news:eGDXvuwtIHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> You are most welcome. Also it should be against the law for any Computer
> Company to sale a system like that with only 512 of RAM, ridiculous. Some
> of these OEM's wonder why sales are down.
>

But they're only complying with MICROSOFT'S recommended system
specifications.....
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...uirements.mspx
Just as this one here,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865 STILL says that 128MB RAM is
recommended to run XP - ROTFLMAO!
Everyone knows that XP runs like TREACLE with only 128 MB! And that's still
there after all these years. It seems MS just doesn't bother to update their
sites in the light of current practice...