MLS sluggish under Windows 10

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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aclawson
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Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:28 pm

MLS sluggish under Windows 10

#1

Post by aclawson »

Does MLS feel sluggish to anybody else after Windows 10? It is working normally, but it just seems that everything takes a tad bit longer: opening new sections, switching between MLS tabs, entering data... just a general slower than before.
matthewmidgley
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Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:44 pm
Location: Leeds, England
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Re: MLS sluggish under Windows 10

#2

Post by matthewmidgley »

Different experience for me, it's delightfully quicker! Can't remember all the specs but it's approximately three years old, ran Windows 7, dual core processor and has 4GB RAM.
russellhltn
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Re: MLS sluggish under Windows 10

#3

Post by russellhltn »

It might not hurt to defragment the hard drive.
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matthewmidgley
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Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:44 pm
Location: Leeds, England
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Re: MLS sluggish under Windows 10

#4

Post by matthewmidgley »

russellhltn wrote:It might not hurt to defragment the hard drive.
Agreed. I did a scan of our drive which revealed it was quite fragmented. The system is never powered on long enough for the scheduled defragmentation to take place.
ulupoi
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Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:21 am
Location: California, USA

Re: MLS sluggish under Windows 10

#5

Post by ulupoi »

Our ward computers slowed down when we upgraded to Windows 10. Our computers are running 32-bit Windows, so our RAM use is limited. It's important to try to keep junk from running in the background. Applying the following steps brought speeds back to what they were.

Options to streamline Windows 10 on ward computers (and other maintenance that you can do in your free time)

I took a lot of the following directly from:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2971725/ ... piece.html
http://www.howtogeek.com/134620/how-to- ... up-policy/
If I have stuff copied here from other sources, I apologize in advance. I've been collecting this stuff for my own use for a while.

Step 1 of 3: Do the following from the Clerk account.

1. Disable the lock screen. Use this if you want to get rid of the lock screen and just go to the sign-in screen instead. This is totally optional, and you shouldn't do this unless you are comfortable editing the registry.
a. Make a backup of the registry.
b. Navigate to the following registry key:
c. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization
d. If you do not see the Personalization key, right-click the Windows key above it, point to New, and create a key named “Personalization”.
e. (If necessary) right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value named “NoLockScreen”.
f. Double-click the NoLockScreen value and enter a value of 1.
g. Close the registry editor.
h. To re-enable the lock screen in the future, either delete the NoLockScreen value from your registry or set it to 0.

2. Make sure that the power options are set correctly.
a. Turn off display after 10 min. Sleep after 30 min. (The time intervals are really up to you.)
b. Pressing power button puts computer to sleep.
c. Require password on waking.

Step 2 of 3: The options (below) need to be set separately in each Windows user account.

1. Show extensions for known file types. (This is important for security. Sometimes, you can detect malware this way, that is, by noticing that a file has an unexpected file extension. For example, if someone sends you a photo but the file has a .exe file extension, you’ll know not to click on it.)
a. Open Documents click on "View" tab present in Ribbon. Now click on "Options" button present at the end to open Folder Options window.
b. Now go to "View" tab and uncheck: Hide extensions for known file types

2. Disable several animations and effects to improve Windows 10 performance.
a. Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > System. Click on Advanced system settings. Click on the Advanced tab.
b. In the Performance section, click on the Settings button. It'll open another window.
c. Leave the following items checked:
1) Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
2) Enable Peek
3) Show shadows under windows
4) Show thumbnails instead of icons
5) Show window contents while dragging
6) Smooth edges of screen fonts
d. Uncheck the following:
1) Animate controls and elements inside windows
2) Animations in the taskbar
3) Fade or slide menus into view
4) Fade or slide ToolTips into view
5) Fade out menu items after clicking
6) Save taskbar thumbnail previews
7) Show shadows under mouse pointer
8) Show translucent selection rectangle
9) Slide open combo boxes
10) Smooth-scroll list boxes
11) Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop

3. Cortana. I don’t think that Cortana will be of much use on ward computers, and it can be kind of annoying. You can disable Cortana by doing the following:
a. In the taskbar, click on the search icon or search box > Click on the gear icon on the left > Slide the top option that says ‘Cortana can give you suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts, and more’ to Off.
b. Further down, see ‘Search online and include web results.’ Turn this off.

4. Turn AutoPlay off for all devices (Control panel > Autoplay).

5. Turn off OneDrive.
a. Enter the system tray (on the right side of the taskbar). Right-click the OneDrive icon and select Settings.
b. Uncheck 'Start OneDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows.'
c. Uncheck 'Let me use OneDrive to fetch any of my files on this PC.'
d. Uncheck 'Use Office to work on files with other people at the same time.'

6. Change background color to a custom color. A lot of color selections are not available in the default Windows 10 option panel. If you want more colors, do the following:
a. To open Run box: WindowsKey-r
b. To get custom colors for background: Run box: control /name Microsoft.Personalization /page pageWallpaper

7. Settings > Personalization > Colors
a. Disable Transparency on Start Menu, Taskbar and Action Center
1) Disabling transparency effects can help in improving system performance. If you don't like the transparency effect on Windows 10 Start Menu, Taskbar and new Action (Notification) Center, you can turn transparency effect off using following steps, and the Start Menu, Taskbar and Action Center will become opaque.
2) Go to Settings > Personalization > Colors. Set the option "Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent" to Off.
b. Turn on colors for title bars. Settings > Personalization > Colors > “Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar.”

8. Software settings.
a. Google Chrome
1) Settings
a) Show Home button.
b) Always show bookmark bar.
c) Set Chrome as the default browser.
2) Advanced settings
a) Privacy > Enable: Send a “Do Not Track” request with your browsing traffic
b) Passwords and forms:
(1) Disable autofill.
(2) Do NOT offer to save passwords.
3) Extensions
a) Adblock
b) Web of Trust
c) VTchromizer This anti-malware extension makes it easy to right-click scan a search result (using Google’s VirusTotal engine) before opening it.
d) Make all extensions active in Incognito mode.
4) Bookmarks:
a) Google, family search, lds.org, Spanish lds.org, Korean lds.org, etc.
5) Go to choice.microsoft.com/en-us/opt-out. There, select Off for “Personalized ads wherever I use my Microsoft account” and “Personalized ads in this browser.”
6) Add icon to start menu and task bar.

b. Microsoft Edge
1) Open Edge and click on the menu icon in the far right corner (three horizontal dots). Go to Settings > View Advanced Settings.
a) Cookies: Block only third party cookies
b) Show the Home button.
c) Turn OFF: ‘Offer to save passwords' and 'Save form entries.'
d) Turn OFF 'Have Cortana assist me in Microsoft Edge.'
e) Turn OFF 'Use page prediction to speed up browsing, improve reading, and make my overall experience better.'
f) Leave ON 'Help protect me from malicious sites and downloads with SmartScreen filter'
2) Go to choice.microsoft.com/en-us/opt-out. There, select Off for “Personalized ads wherever I use my Microsoft account” and “Personalized ads in this browser.”

c. Configure Java Security
1) Start “Configure Java” desktop app to open Java Control Panel. (Type “Configure Java” into Windows search box in taskbar.)
2) Update tab:
a) Check for updates automatically.
b) Notify me before installing.
c) Update now.
3) Security tab:
a) Change to “Very High”

9. Update to the lastest version of PDF software. It is important to always keep PDF software up-to-date, as the software developers fix security problems as they arise.
a. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC: Go to: Help > Check for Updates. If you are still running an earlier version of Adobe Reader, such as Adobe Reader 11, you can get Acrobat Reader DC at this URL: https://get.adobe.com/reader/ Just be sure to uncheck the "Optional Offer" box for McAfee Security Scan Plus on the webpage.

10. Update PDF Reader security settings. You must do this separately for each user account. (This should already be done. I just have this here for reference.)
a. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC:
1) Help > Check for updates
2) Go to Edit > Preferences.
3) From the selection panel on the left, select "Security (Enhanced)." Then, change the settings on the right, as needed, to conform to the following:
a) Enable Protected Mode at startup: Make sure this is checked.
b) Protected View: Select "All files."
c) Enable enhanced security: Make sure this is checked.
d) Privileged locations: Set both boxes to NOT checked.
4) From the selection panel on the left, select "Trust Manager." Then, change the settings on the right, as needed, to conform to the following:
a) Allow opening of non-PDF file attachments with external applications: Set this box to NOT checked.
b. PDF-XChange Viewer:
1) Go to Edit > Preferences.
2) From the selection panel on the left, select "Security."
3) Now, on the right, in the two pull-down menus under "File Open and Program Launch Options," select "Prevent it" for both. When you're done, click OK.

12. Uninstall Unnecessary Modern Apps and Restore Classic Programs
a. In Windows 10, several modern (metro) apps come preinstalled and some of them keep running in background. Click on the Start button, and you will see the app tiles on the right. You can remove them from the Start menu to declutter it. You can also uninstall the apps.
b. The easiest way is to right-click on the app tile and then select “Unpin from Start” or “Uninstall.”
c. Once you uninstall unnecessary apps, those apps will no longer run in background and you'll notice improvements in overall system performance.
d. You can also put frequently used programs (e.g. Calculator, Paint, Notepad, Wordpad) into the Start menu by dragging and dropping.

13. Audit Windows 10 privacy settings. (There is some flexibility here.)
a. Go to Settings > Privacy.
1) Advertising
a) Go to Settings > Privacy > General and slide the option that says ‘Let apps use my advertising ID for experience across apps (turning this off will reset your ID)’ to Off.
2) Go to Privacy > General. Turn off the following:
a) 'Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future.'
b) 'Let websites provide locally relevant content by accessing my language list.'
3) Camera (Set to On, but changed for individual apps. Turned off for everything except Skype.)
4) Microphone (Set to On, but changed for individual apps. Turned off for everything except Skype and Voice Recorder.)
5) Speech, inking, and typing: OFF
6) Account info: OFF
7) Contacts: OFF except for “Messaging + Skype.”
8) Calendar: OFF
9) Call History: ON only for “Messaging + Skype.”
10) Email: OFF.
11) Messaging: On only for “Messaging + Skype.”
12) Radios: OFF
13) Other devices
a) Sync with Devices: OFF
b) Use trusted devices: OFF
14) Feedback & Diagnostics
a) Feedback frequency: Automatically
b) Diagnostic and usage data: Basic
15) Background apps
a) On only for: Settings, Skype Video.

Step 3 of 3: Finally, do the following from the Clerk Account
1. Run Error-checking
a. Right-click hard drive > Properties > Tools tab > Error checking > Check now
b. Check boxes for both “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.”
c. Click “Start”
d. Click “Schedule disk check”
e. Restart.

2. Defrag

3. Run a full Sophos Antivirus scan.

4. If you like, you can run additional malware scans. Malwarebytes is always an excellent choice. Some one-time scanners are free to use (Eset, Micosoft Safety Scanner, etc).

5. Create a restore point.
a. Control panel > System > System protection > System Protection tab of System Properties window > Configure restore settings > Turn on system protection, set Max Usage to 5% or so.

6. Create a System Repair Disc and a system image, if you want.
a. Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Backup and Restore (Windows 7) > Create a system image. Store the resulting system image files on DVDs or on another computer and remember its location so that it can be retrieved if needed. Make a 32-bit System Repair Disc.
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