Speed up Windows 8 on netbook

[lightmaster]

I installed Windows 8 on my wife's netbook. It came with Windows 7, so from what Microsoft said, it was supposed to run Windows 8 decently cause it was made for Windows 7. After a month of using it, Windows 8 is very slow to resume from sleep, takes forever to type in log in password, and even with no programs running, it takes 15+ seconds to open My Computer. Also, Chrome is almost unusably slow: it takes 30+ seconds to load any website, esp facebook, and even after the website has loaded, it is still very slow to scroll and type.

I'd really like to avoid having to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows 7, so I was hoping to be able to do something like some registry hacks, or disable parts of the OS or something and speed it up.

Btw, she uses almost exclusively to surf on the internet, so that's my main focus.

[serman007]

several possible case of your problem is that your netbook still has required our Windows 8 or not this configuration, also check for viruses or not

[patio]

You can safely ignore the above Post...

[serman007]

why ignore???

[Allan]

why ignore???

I sent you a PM. Please read it. We are happy to help you with any problems you may have. And while we appreciate your desire to contribute to the forum, your technical knowledge is clearly not of a level to offer helpful advice to others. Thank you.

[soybean]

lightmaster, you are correct in thinking the computer should perform fairly well and perform more or less on par with how it performed with Windows 7.  But, based on your comments, I don't know why it is performing badly with Windows 8.

Have you looked in Device Manager to see whether it shows any devices as not working properly?  This is indicated by a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark inside it.  Did you download device drivers and install them after installing Windows 8?  And, have you opened Task Manager to see whether certain processes are gobbling CPU resources?

I'm wondering why you decided to install Windows 8.  You said your wife "uses [it] almost exclusively to surf on the internet".  So, why install Windows 8?  Windows 7 is a fine OS and I'm inclined to suggest you reinstall it. 

Edit: Netbooks usually come with Windows 7 Starter edition, a slim version of the OS that runs better on netbooks.  So, perhaps that netbook is a little under-powered to run Windows 8. 

[lightmaster]

lightmaster, you are correct in thinking the computer should perform fairly well and perform more or less on par with how it performed with Windows 7.  But, based on your comments, I don't know why it is performing badly with Windows 8.

Have you looked in Device Manager to see whether it shows any devices as not working properly?  This is indicated by a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark inside it.  Did you download device drivers and install them after installing Windows 8?  And, have you opened Task Manager to see whether certain processes are gobbling CPU resources?

I'm wondering why you decided to install Windows 8.  You said your wife "uses [it] almost exclusively to surf on the internet".  So, why install Windows 8?  Windows 7 is a fine OS and I'm inclined to suggest you reinstall it. 

Edit: Netbooks usually come with Windows 7 Starter edition, a slim version of the OS that runs better on netbooks.  So, perhaps that netbook is a little under-powered to run Windows 8.

Everything is installed fined in Device manager. I downloaded the latest Windows 7 drivers and installed them (no windows 8 drivers available, but the windows 7 drivers for my laptop worked fine, so figured they'd be fine for her's too.). I remember there was a reason I installed Windows 8 on her netbook, but its been on there for a while and I don't really remember now, lol. I think it was because it came with Windows 7 Starter and I wasn't too happy with it, so instead of upgrading Windows 7, I just got Windows 8 instead.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I remember Windows 8 working fine to begin with, not exactly fast and snappy, but running surprisingly good considering its a netbook. In the last month or so, its performance has degraded to the point of be almost unusable. I have check for viruses with both AVG and MBAM, with no problems at all. Even pulled her hard drive and connected it to my computer with an SATA to USB adapter and checked it for viruses using my laptop.

I'm about ready to download and install Ubuntu on and let her deal with it being Linux (she's not a big techy and doesn't like the idea of using another OS besides Windows).

[patio]

Until you run all the protection scans on that book and get a clean bill of health all at this point is guesswork...
But i agree with Soybean above.
Keep us posted.

[lightmaster]

By protective scans, you mean antivirus software? With both AVG and MBAM saying there are no viruses or threats, I'm pretty confident that the netbook is clean.