I used to think a clean install was always the answer for a slow PC

Had a client in his 70s bring in his old desktop last month, and he said 'please don't wipe it, my grandson's pictures are on there.' I spent an hour just cleaning up startup programs and running a disk check, and it ran like new. That one request made me realize how often I was taking the nuclear option without asking. How do you guys handle those 'please save the data' jobs when time is tight?

3 comments

3 Comments

ruby_grant1mo ago

Read an article last week that said like 80% of performance calls are just bloatware and startup junk... makes you wonder how many drives we wipe for no real reason. That client was lucky you listened.

schmidt.grant22d agoMost Upvoted

Twenty three startup entries from one printer is wild. I've seen old software stick around but that's a whole new level of junk. No wonder people think their computers are broken.

nathan_foster601mo ago

Yeah that stat sounds about right. I keep Autoruns from Sysinternals on my flash drive just for this. Last month I cleared 23 startup entries off one laptop before even touching the antivirus. The user thought their machine was dying but it was just some old printer software loading on boot. Always check task manager first, saves so much time.