Thinkpads Forum

Out of the box, my 2007-83U seems to have a ton of stuff running in the background. The hard drive is often accessing when I'm not doing anything, my keystrokes sometimes take a second or two before they appear on the screen, and DVD and video replay is hiccupy.

1. Can someone recommend a good site (or thread on this forum) for disabling services? Something Thinkpad-specific would be preferable.

2. Any opinions on which preloaded software I should ditch and which I should keep? I probably should have reformatted and started from scratch, I know. I don't need much security stuff apart from a firewall and antivirus. My primary concern is with the stuff that's slowing down the computer.

So far the best improvements I have seen are from uninstalling Google Desktop and Symantec Client Security. I also deleted my SafeGuard PrivateDisk.

I am now using NOD32 for antivirus, Windows Defender for antispyware and the default Win XP firewall.

Startup, shutdown and overall speed are MUCH better.

I would take off Norton AV, and replace it with AVG or the likes of a small-footprint AV system. Next, go through all the process that are set to come up on automatic and disable the ones you don't want. You can also uninstall programs you don't want either. Next, do a defrag of your HDDand then cleanup, then again if you want. That gets rid of most of the bloat.

Do a search and you will find other threads on this subject.

HTH