Bloatware

Jimbo, you don't need a retail copy of the OS. It will read the key from the BIOS. You can reload Windows onto your OEM computer.

But the problem with the computer that I am experiencing, is that it is a little laggy and slow at startup. Can someone give me solution on how to fix that issue?

Can you elaborate a little bit more on "a little slow and laggy". Have you timed something that seems to be taking a lot longer than expected? What make/model do you have, how much RAM, is it running an SSD drive, etc?

It's a Dell Inspiron 15 - 3552 with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. My Toshiba came with only 2 GB of RAM which I later upgraded it to 8GB and it wasn't this laggy. The Toshiba also had a 500GB hard drive. However the Dell has a Intel Pentium processor while the Toshiba has an Intel Celeron processor. The Dell is also a Quad Core whereas the Toshiba is a Dual Core. I don't really get why it is being laggy. Laggy as in slow to respond when I wake it up from sleep to put in my code to log in to the desktop.

When you put the computer to sleep, and you wake it up....how long does it take to come up to the point where you can put in your password?

pparks1 said:

Jimbo, you don't need a retail copy of the OS. It will read the key from the BIOS. You can reload Windows onto your OEM computer.

Hi there

Thanks - didn't realize that --- I have enough old keys for W7 / W8 / W8.1 from TechNet program that still work on "Upgrade" but the OEM info is useful to know

Cheers
jimbo

You have inadequate RAM. Increase that to 8 GB.

A slow startup can be due to many things, far too long to list here. It involves Windows settings and your installed Applications. Some of which may have items loading, scanning, updating, phoning home etc, during Startup.
You can configure most of this off, or defer it to later.

I would simply go through likely Applications and areas of Windows, that's about 100 checks in itself....
I do this whenever installing Applications as that keeps a constant check on things, later on it's a more tedious task.

Helmut said:

You have inadequate RAM. Increase that to 8 GB.

A slow startup can be due to many things, far too long to list here. It involves Windows settings and your installed Applications. Some of which may have items loading, scanning, updating, phoning home etc, during Startup.
You can configure most of this off, or defer it to later.

I would simply go through likely Applications and areas of Windows, that's about 100 checks in itself....
I do this whenever installing Applications as that keeps a constant check on things, later on it's a more tedious task.

This computer's RAM cannot be upgraded. It says the max RAM is 4GB. I sure wish I could upgrade the RAM on it. However I didn't know this until I bought it. I still don't understand why my Toshiba could be upgraded to 8GB of RAM when the Dell can't. It really makes no sense. Plus, why would RAM have any effect on laggy problems?

You might like some of the software, or might not. But it costs nothing to leave it in place.

Just check to see that none of it is:
1. Auto-starting when you boot or login. If so, take out the auto-start.
2. Phoning home. Look for "updater" programs running in the background. They might be started from one of the "Run" registry settings, or from Task Scheduler entries.

That's it. The junkware can sit on disk doing nothing, along side the other gigabytes of crap that accumulates. Who cares?