Microsoft Windows 10 Nagware

A couple months ago, Microsoft began showing advertisements (nagware) for Windows 10 on the Windows 8 desktops.






The nagware recently arrived on Windows 7.
 




This "important" patch KB3035583 is driving the Windows 10 on-desktop promotions.  Removing KB3035583 should remove the Windows 10 promotions.  From the Microsoft website:

Update for Microsoft Windows (KB3035583)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3035583

This update enables additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications when new updates are available to the user. It applies to a computer that is running Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Before you install this update, check out the Prerequisites section.

Dell Fast Pics

PC users who run the Dell printer software, may encounter "Dell Fast Pics" popping up upon insertion of a USB stick or drive.  It monitors drives and prompts to transfer photos.  Dell's printer program monitoring drives for pictures is annoying.


Several Dell printer manuals describe the Fast Pics program.

Dell V515w Printer User's Guide by George Arellano

If you are not interested in using that program and you do not want it monitoring your drives, look for file dleamon.exe.  Either disable it from starting up or rename the file in the printer directory.
Those using Microsoft Windows 7 or earlier can look at the startup programs by running msconfig.exe
In Microsoft Windows 8 start the Task Manager and look in the Startup tab for "Printer Device Monitor" and ezprint.exe.
You may also look for file "[Windows drive]\Program Files\Dell Vnnn-Vnnn Series\dleamon.exe" and exprint.exe.

ReadyBoost Slows Down Microsoft Windows Vista

In an attempt to relieve pressure on  the hard drive of an older Microsoft Windows Vista laptop,  I formatted a one gigabyte SD card using FAT (exFAT is not available on Windows Vista).  I dropped the SD card into the slot, right-click in File Explorer and dedicated the SD card to ReadyBoost.  The laptop immediately began to feel sluggish and shutdown took many minutes whereas it had been quick.  The Windows Vista version was Home Premium.

Some exploration and looking at running processes led me to find that Windows was trying to be helpful and preparing to sync files from the laptop to the SD card.  This entailed periodically (seemingly every few minutes) starting mobsync and wmplayer.exe.  The SD card was entirely dedicated to ReadyBoost, so there was no possibility of syncing to the card.  I removed the SD card, mobsync and wmplayer stopped running, and the machine was again very responsive and shutdown was quick.

I recommend ReadyBoost when the primary drive is not speedy.  Flash memory on a SD card or USB stick, particularly when running through USB 3, will relieve pressure from the hard drive.  But be wary about doing this on machines with Windows Vista which may then start other processes and actually degrade performance.