The entire consumer oriented line of Windows 10 feels like a bad trip to a US strip mall. It's preinstalled with loads of junk you can't remove easily. For a while I spent some time putting together a small workflow to clean up Windows 10 builds for a project I was working on. If your hand is forced and you need a minimum amount of tools to get rid of as much bloat and telemetry there are two tools you need:

1) Geek Uninstaller [0] 2) O&O Shutup10 [1]

Both are free. Maybe there's better options now, but... They helped tremendously a short time ago.

[0] https://geekuninstaller.com/ [1] https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Great post. I don't use windows but my girl does. Her compi (Win 10, SSD, 8 GB Ram, i7) has become unusable slow. She does not much besides watching Movies, surfing and using Word. I installed a free reliable antivirus (Avira) when she got it. I will have to look into this problem soon.

Any further suggestion? I will definitely try your recommended programs.

I say this in all seriousness, Linux is probably a better experience if that's all she does. Give something like Ubuntu or elementary os test run with a live version and see if she's missing anything you'll either find out she needs Office specifically or it will probably work for her. Linux right now is in a great spot for people who need little customization and people who really love to tinker. If you're in the middle of that group is where friction lives. If linux won't work for you then the suggestions above are great.

Story: when my partner's several year old computer was running slowly, I convinced them to try dual booting Linux. Encountered a few problems here or there, but I could help with those. A couple years on, they wiped the old Windows partition because they weren't using it any more. Today they're still using the (now 6-7 year old) computer because it's running fast enough.

On the other hand, they ended up learning some Python and shell scripting as a result, and will probably switch to Arch Linux when the computer is eventually replaced (soon). So while your S.O. might handle Linux just fine, you also run the risk of turning them into an OS nerd. ;-)

When my daughter was a teenager, I bought her a laptop and put Debian on it, configured to mimic the Windows look-and-feel. She never noticed, until the day that she wanted to install a AAA game.

Manjaro comes OOTB with MS Office 365, and it's super easy to install, easier than Ubuntu if you're doing Nvidia drivers. I personally can't comment on how well their Office works as I avoid anything Microsoft makes, but it's an option.

> Manjaro comes OOTB with MS Office 365

Huh?

They include wrapper apps for office online. You can just use the web apps in any browser on any OS though.

The nVidia Optimus drivers are still unusable on Linux. This makes the nVidia card in the laptop a dead weight.

AMD laptops with Vega are becoming more available [0]. I'd guess, with all the positive media push around AMD, we're going to see a lot of new AMD laptops hit the market later this year into early next. I mean Intel's latest NUC even has AMD Vega in it. NVidia shot themselves in the foot with regard to a horrid Linux driver experience. In general it's fine for desktop systems but when you're forced to log out of a session to do a driver context switch on a laptop it gets old fast.

[0] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-ser...

I disagree. More likely than not the parent commenter will now be her tech support when x doesn’t work or is finicky, which is ALWAYS the case.

I disagree as well. A little while ago, my parents complained that their computer was getting too slow. I took a look and its a little old and they had Windows 10 on it. I removed it, installed Ubuntu 18.04 and since then, they have never even mentioned it.

All they do is check email, watch Netflix, and do some word documents sometimes. I had to initially show them where to find LibreOffice but other than that, they've been happy since.

Ubuntu has reached that soft spot where its perfect for anyone who is in need of a simple, easy to use computer that does not do work using some specialized software.

Disagree. I set my parents up with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS a year ago and I've only ever heard about how fast their computer is now.

In many cases you can get by with the built-in Windows Defender. I’m not sure I trust the free AV vendors, seeing as everyone is jumping on the data-hoovering bandwagon.

Windows defender goes from consistently being one of the best options to no good and then back to one of the best regularly. Generally browsing Gavin are the thing that saves you not than antivirus these days.

browsing Gavin = browsing habits?

From years of experience dealing with "slow Windows machine" complaints for family, I can tell you that in 2019 the builtin Windows antivirus is much better (performance + security wise) than any of the free services. Uninstalling Avira (and especially crap like CCleaner) will probably improve performance on its own.

Have you checked the resource monitor to see what the bottleneck might be?

Disable anti-virus, enable controlled folders. This should block common viruses. Anti-viruses programs, especially the cheaper ones, reduce IOPS while doing other tasks.

It doesn’t hurt to scan with Trend Micro’s Housecall scanner.

You can uninstall most stuff by just right-clicking it and choosing "uninstall".

This isn't true for most of the built-in apps. You can uninstall with 3rd part tools or via CLI. [0]

[0] https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/uninstall-restore-windows...

There are two categories:

1. Suggestions to use other paid microsoft products like onedrive and office 365. Apple does something similar with icloud, apple music, but microsoft is more annoying about it because they'll pop up those suggestions all over the place whereas apple will typically put this in more logical places. Overall this makes sense though, and sometimes I've used this to quickly get to one of these services (because I use all of them anyway).

2. Promoted apps from the windows store that they push in the start menu. I find this quite annoying, and I'm not aware of another OS that does it. I'm also doubtful it actually makes them that much money. It probably harms their bottom line more than it helps, which is why nobody else is doing it.

Seriously. I still run 7 on my desktop/gaming box and… at this rate I’m going to hold onto it until they pry it off my dead cold hands!

Yep, and bloatware. Restarted after a recent update and whaddayaknow? Teams suddenly starts up. Never mind the fact I never installed it.