Question best advice (not too trivial) you can give for a better use of the PC ... in terms of performance, security, productivity, usefulness, and time save

[Grealish01]

I am referring to programming and design (virtual machines and machine learning for the more experienced), but ESPECIALLY for general use (Windows, file management, notes, university study, Google / Chrome, Spotify, whatsapp, synchronization with phone). For your PC experience (in Windows), what was that thing / function that when you discovered / learned it upset your use of the PC? For utility, time saved, performance, comfort.

 

[kanewolf]

I am referring to programming and design (virtual machines and machine learning for the more experienced), but ESPECIALLY for general use (Windows, file management, notes, university study, Google / Chrome, Spotify, whatsapp, synchronization with phone). For your PC experience (in Windows), what was that thing / function that when you discovered / learned it upset your use of the PC? For utility, time saved, performance, comfort.

Best, non trivial, advice I can think of is to turn it off. By that I mean get a life that is not associated with screen time. That may mean reading books, or doing outdoor activities.

 

[Grealish01]

Best, non trivial, advice I can think of is to turn it off. By that I mean get a life that is not associated with screen time. That may mean reading books, or doing outdoor activities.

I agree, I probably spend less time on my PC than you do (I stay up to 2 hours a day), but I don't need this kind of advice, forgive me. My request was aimed at optimizing your OWN "load" of work in order to stay there as little time as possible. I apologize in case I wasn't able to explain earlier

 

[Grealish01]

I am referring to programming and design (virtual machines and machine learning for the more experienced), but ESPECIALLY for general use (Windows, file management, notes, university study, Google / Chrome, Spotify, whatsapp, synchronization with phone). For your PC experience (in Windows), what was that thing / function that when you discovered / learned it upset your use of the PC? For utility, time saved, performance, comfort.

sorry I didn't pay attention to the section in which to put this thred, can I delete it? (maybe I copy it in the appropriate section)

 

[kanewolf]

sorry I didn't pay attention to the section in which to put this thred, can I delete it? (maybe I copy it in the appropriate section)

I will move it.

 

[kanewolf]

For a technical answer, moving to solid state storage will provide the most real world difference of anything.

 

[Grealish01]

For a technical answer, moving to solid state storage will provide the most real world difference of anything.

do you mean hard drive to SSD?

 

[kanewolf]

do you mean hard drive to SSD?

Yes.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Several things off the top of my head:

• Learn how to navigate as best as you can with a keyboard. This is how I managed to "survive" using Windows 8 as my daily driver. 99% of my time in the Start menu was through keyboard interactions, and mostly just "bring up Start, type in a few letters of an app I want to launch, press enter"
  
  Also what convinced me to switch to Vista was the whole Win key + # to launch an app pinned on the task bar. It started there (although it used Quick Launch instead)
• Don't blindly click "Next" on installers. This is how you get adware, bloatware, crapware, etc.
• Don't install system software that isn't actually needed or useful to you. Examples of these are motherboard utilities and GeForce Experience.
• Don't mess with Windows settings that require elevated privileges (i.e., requires an admin level account) to change unless you're absolutely sure of what it's doing.
  • The reason is because developers aren't psychic, so they have to assume the default system configuration was used. This can be problematic if an app crashes in a weird way for you, but nobody else seems to be affected.
• While this is learned from experience, most tweaks to save time and resources you find on the internet either don't save time or resources or they take too much effort for the amount of time you would've saved. Plus see the last point.
  • Sometimes I find of them I find can be outright dangerous or make things worse. "Disable your antivirus software!" "Disable UAC!" Sure, let's shave off a fraction of a second by making our computers less secure.

 

[Grealish01]

Several things off the top of my head:

• Learn how to navigate as best as you can with a keyboard. This is how I managed to "survive" using Windows 8 as my daily driver. 99% of my time in the Start menu was through keyboard interactions, and mostly just "bring up Start, type in a few letters of an app I want to launch, press enter"
  
  Also what convinced me to switch to Vista was the whole Win key + # to launch an app pinned on the task bar. It started there (although it used Quick Launch instead)
• Don't blindly click "Next" on installers. This is how you get adware, bloatware, crapware, etc.
• Don't install system software that isn't actually needed or useful to you. Examples of these are motherboard utilities and GeForce Experience.
• Don't mess with Windows settings that require elevated privileges (i.e., requires an admin level account) to change unless you're absolutely sure of what it's doing.
  • The reason is because developers aren't psychic, so they have to assume the default system configuration was used. This can be problematic if an app crashes in a weird way for you, but nobody else seems to be affected.
• While this is learned from experience, most tweaks to save time and resources you find on the internet either don't save time or resources or they take too much effort for the amount of time you would've saved. Plus see the last point.
  • Sometimes I find of them I find can be outright dangerous or make things worse. "Disable your antivirus software!" "Disable UAC!" Sure, let's shave off a fraction of a second by making our computers less secure.

thank you very much very clear explanation. it will surely be useful to me

 

[USAFRet]

Multiple monitors.
Solid state instead of spinning hard drives.

 

[Grealish01]

Multiple monitors.
Solid state instead of spinning hard drives.

there are close to these 2 tips. I have a 980 pro and a 21: 9 34 ". anyway if you have other advice ... maybe some combination of keys on the keyboard or some useful little hack or an improper use of an app that can help you a few things ...

 

[USAFRet]

there are close to these 2 tips. I have a 980 pro and a 21: 9 34 ". anyway if you have other advice ... maybe some combination of keys on the keyboard or some useful little hack or an improper use of an app that can help you a few things ...

Stay away from supposed "tweaks" you find online.
Stay away from "driver booster" or updater things.

 

[PC Tailor]

Stay away from supposed "tweaks" you find online.
Stay away from "driver booster" or updater things.

Can't emphasise this one enough.

Usually by chasing little "hacks" you will often just make things worse. Most things that inevitably need doing, your OS and hardware does a pretty good job at dealing with itself. Anything that tries to optimise driver updates, turn your PC into "gaming mode performance" profile, and the like should be firmly avoided and you'll find your system will be more optimised and encounter far less issues.

But overall the other key points I would always reiterate:

• Anything important should always be backed up automatically/regularly. Silly, yet still something we have to tell people on a daily basis.
• Use a cross platform password manager if you use multiple devices and have lots of accounts - the cost pays for itself in security.
• Multiple monitors and solid state drives save more time than most other things will, and it will be noticeable.
• Autohotkeys for people who repetitive run code or text and don't want to keep retyping it.
• Microsoft Windows "Tips" app in your start menu is underrated for those who don't know some of the subtler things you might be able to do with Windows.
• Get rid of junk and software you don't use, and then don't mess with anything else based on the advice given on some random website.

Sometimes the simplest and most efficient thing is to just leave some things alone - then just get the software you need that is cross platform to suit your work needs (there is a reason why Microsoft Office is the most used).

 

[USAFRet]

And always.....
Backup
Backup
Backup

Full drive backups, not "I only need whats in this folder".
That always misses some critical file.

Automated, tested, know how to recover.

 

[hotaru.hino]

One more point: never try to make software submit. This is a just an exercise in frustration. Either learn to work with the software or go find one that actually does what you want.

 

[Grealish01]

One more point: never try to make software submit. This is a just an exercise in frustration. Either learn to work with the software or go find one that actually does what you want.

what do you mean by "submit the software" I did not understand

 

[Grealish01]

Can't emphasise this one enough.

Usually by chasing little "hacks" you will often just make things worse. Most things that inevitably need doing, your OS and hardware does a pretty good job at dealing with itself. Anything that tries to optimise driver updates, turn your PC into "gaming mode performance" profile, and the like should be firmly avoided and you'll find your system will be more optimised and encounter far less issues.

But overall the other key points I would always reiterate:

• Anything important should always be backed up automatically/regularly. Silly, yet still something we have to tell people on a daily basis.
• Use a cross platform password manager if you use multiple devices and have lots of accounts - the cost pays for itself in security.
• Multiple monitors and solid state drives save more time than most other things will, and it will be noticeable.
• Autohotkeys for people who repetitive run code or text and don't want to keep retyping it.
• Microsoft Windows "Tips" app in your start menu is underrated for those who don't know some of the subtler things you might be able to do with Windows.
• Get rid of junk and software you don't use, and then don't mess with anything else based on the advice given on some random website.

Sometimes the simplest and most efficient thing is to just leave some things alone - then just get the software you need that is cross platform to suit your work needs (there is a reason why Microsoft Office is the most used).

what are those important and essential things that need to be done regularly (point 1)? or at least that we must check regularly.

 

[Grealish01]

And always.....
Backup
Backup
Backup

Full drive backups, not "I only need whats in this folder".
That always misses some critical file.

Automated, tested, know how to recover.

I am not very practical with backups, in my life I have always been a bit messed up thanks to them. do I have to backup each individual drive and all files on that drive individually? (I have 2 SSDs and a hdd, do I make 3 backups one for each drive or do I make a single one?). How often do I repeat the backup regularly? if i continually backup won't they add up in memory continuously? eg: backup of 100gb then I make another one on the same 106 files, I am 206gb, how do I manage this? can I maybe overwrite each backup with the previous one? would I have the possibility to select not only the last one, but also wanting the first, the third or the penultimate? excuse the ignorance, if I ask all these things, it is an essential topic for my work, but with which I never got along, it's time to learn how to use it properly, I lost a lot of data due to backup.

 

[USAFRet]

I am not very practical with backups, in my life I have always been a bit messed up thanks to them. do I have to backup each individual drive and all files on that drive individually? (I have 2 SSDs and a hdd, do I make 3 backups one for each drive or do I make a single one?). How often do I repeat the backup regularly? if i continually backup won't they add up in memory continuously? eg: backup of 100gb then I make another one on the same 106 files, I am 206gb, how do I manage this? can I maybe overwrite each backup with the previous one? would I have the possibility to select not only the last one, but also wanting the first, the third or the penultimate? excuse the ignorance, if I ask all these things, it is an essential topic for my work, but with which I never got along, it's time to learn how to use it properly, I lost a lot of data due to backup.

I use Macrium Reflect.

A Full Image, followed by a series of Incremental or Differential images.
An Incremental is only the differences since the previous Incremental.
A Differential image is the differences since the last Full image.

For instance, here is the last few days of backup images of my C drive:

A full Image on Feb 28, followed by a nightly Incremental.
To recover this drive, select whichever days Image. It will bring the drive to whatever state it was at that day and time.
Roll up all the incrementals and the original Full image.


Each physical drive gets its own subfolder on the NAS box:

Modified somewhat since I wrote this, but basically this:

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

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