I’ve had to uninstall Mcafee Anti-virus products several times in the last week or so. People have let their licenses expire but that doesn’t keep the the anti-virus from running in the background and using up tons of resources. And when I try to remove it the usual way, by going to Start>Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs, it won’t uninstall. One older laptop computer I fixed in the last week had both expired Mcafee and Norton running, neither of which would uninstall. The poor computer was quite beleagured. And running very sloooo-ow.

So what I did was to go to the Mcafee site and search for their uninstall program. It works quite nicely, thank you very much.

Here it is http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507

Follow Step 2, if you’ve tried Step 1 already.

What if your computer doesn’t have spyware or viruses, but it is still way too slow? This blog’s for you.

The first thing I do to speed up a computer, is clean up the hard drive. If your hard drive has no room to run swap files, this can significantly slow down your operating system. Running Disk Cleanup on a regular maintenance basis can really enhance system performance (that includes speed!).

To start, click the Start button, then All Programs, then Accessories. Among the categories listed on the Accessories, is System Tools. And within System Tools, you’ll find the one you want, Disk Cleanup.

You will be presented with a drop-down menu. Select the disk you want to clean. If you have two hard drives or your hard drive is partitioned into two or more virtual drives, you’ll want to clean up all of them.

After you select the drive, click the OK button. Disk Cleanup will analyze the drive and see how much room can be freed. Now be prepared to twiddle your thumbs, since this can be a loooooong process depending how much stuff you have on your hard drive. And you know the old adage about watched pots never boil, a watched computer process never “boils” either, so go grab a cuppa or have quality time with your significant other (the one you’ve been neglecting while going online with your so slow computer.)

After the drive is analyzed, you will be presented with a list of items to be selected for cleanup. Select them. Get them outta there.

Now you’re finished for today. Stay tuned to this blog for future posts of How to Speed up your Computer.

Get your webfeet wet, safely, with Ducktoes.

Norton slows down your computer like there’s no tomorrow, since tomorrow’s how long it takes to do anything on your computer once it’s installed.

Before you install Norton, read these user reviews on PC Magazine’s website:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2024081,00.asp#member_rating

There are effective anti-spyware and anti-virus tools that don’t hog all the resources of your computer. Read these posts from my blog to find out which ones are best (they’re also free!)

Or if you live in the Calgary area and would like Ducktoes to help you protect your computer, call 403-483-0105!! Get your webfeet wet, safely, with Ducktoes!!

I’ve seen time and time again, client computers running too slowly with Norton or McCaffee Internet Security. Computers with these programs can take an eternity to boot, an eternity to start Word or go on the Internet, an eternity and a half to restart or shut down, an until-hell-freezes-over to do almost everything. And I’ve seen Norton Anti-virus that doesn’t ever update entirely and does this inadequate updating excruciatingly slowly and ineffectively. And these programs cost money!!!! One client’s computer took 1 minute and 56 seconds to boot and 1 minute and 10 to start Word while running Norton Internet Security. I uninstalled the Norton and voila! the computer booted in 26 seconds and Word started in just 18!!!

These programs slow down the computer as much as the spyware it is suppose to prevent. See this tutorial on how to protect your computer without Norton or McCaffee. Or if you live in Calgary let Ducktoes do it for you. Call 483-0105.