Hey Guys,,,I just know there is several GURUS here that know exactly how to get this done,,,,

 For the longest, I have had a real issue with having to supply a pic  of whatever I have to send to a vendor and "Somehow" all my pics are in many different folders and is a ROYAL PITA to find the one I need,,!!!

 Right now, I am in a quandry with an Ebay vendor after I ordered a starter and the friggin box and the starter were both badly damaged when delivered.!!  I have taken several pics with my IPhone 14 Plus but have NO friggin idea where they are after I transfer to my PC,,,???

 Does anyone know how to "MOVE"all your pics into ONE FOLDER by Date taken,,,??

 I NEED HELP,,,!

I then take the  "NEW PHOTO" off the Desktop, give it a GOOD NAME and drag and DROP it into the related FILE.........I also have SUB FILES.. Like if you click on the GRANDKIDS file, then you see a 2018 , 2019, 2020 .. etc for years........................ if you click on the HOUSE File, you see Sub FOlders that say..  2010 bathroom ...2015 Kitchen ..2018 bedroom.. etc.. to show rebuilds/ upgrades that were done to the house.

D.I.M. (Digital Image Mover) and FastStone

The real trick to photo management is renaming the photos as soon as the computer sees them.

And, I don't mean names like Uncle Frank's Birthday Party or Trip to the Zoo; that is the best way to create more confusion and lose the photos amongst thousands.

File the photosunder one main heading/folder and have that separated in many many subfolders, by year, then month, then day.

The KeyWord Tags will do the actual finding and the year/month/day will then allow you to do something with what you found and actually "get it in your hands"

I haven't got time at the moment to expand on this any farther; but, if you do have Windows and a real computer, I can walk you through it, step by step.

If you do have Windows, go ahead and download the most recent version of FREE FastStone and get it installed and up and running and be familiarizing yourself with it.

Once you get the handle on FastStone, you will use it all the time.

OK the ONE thing you HAVE to do , is tell the program that gets the pictures from the phone into the computer to SAVE TO DESKTOP !!!

That way EVERY time you transfer picture from phone to PC they will be STORED on the desktop so YOU can see WHERE they are, easily CONFIRM you have them.

Somehow I did that 'save to desktop', years ago.on this Win10 machine .so I forget how. I have NO idea where they go on Wife's PC (Win10 as well..)

The date in the photo name is EXACT Date Taken, right down to the second.

Photo name example:

2024-07-19_160244_7DMkII_1262

Year-Month-Day_Military Time_Camera Used_Consecutive Number starting at 0001 every day.

The reason for the consecutive number is I may have fifteen photos taken during the same second and this prevents name conflicts and also lines them up in order of capture.

The KeyWord Tags are what find the photo out of hundreds of thousands.

An example of a Tag Tree - Main Tag Heading and then sub-tags many tags deep.

For example:

Agriculture > Tractor > International Harvester Tractor > Farmall Tractor > Farmall 1204 Tractor > Farmall 1204 Diesel Tractor > Farmall 1204 Diesel Row-Crop Tractor >  Farmall 1204 Diesel Row-Crop Wide-Front Tractor

I may have tens of thousands of Tractors, thousands and thousands of International Harvester Tractors, Thousands of Farmall Tractors; but, as I narrow the tree down and click on each tag heading closer to the end, the numbers get fewer and fewer.

Now, if I just tagged them all as Tractor, I would be almost as lost as not tagging them at all.

Think of a tag tree, or a folder tree for that matter, as a big major highway coming into a city.

Many roads branch off that big highway - these would be sub-tags under the main tag.

More roads branch off those roads and they would sub-tags under the aforementioned sub-tags and so forth and so on until you narrow it down to the mailbox in front of a single house.

http://https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Digital-Photo-Tools/DIM-Digital-Image-Mover.shtml" rel="nofollow - D.I.M.

http://https://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm" rel="nofollow - FastStone

http://https://www.digikam.org/" rel="nofollow - digiKam

All are totally FREE and all are Excellent; you won't find a bought and paid for application that even comes close to any of them.

 OK, Buckskin, Steve, AC and Jay,,first of all Many THANKS for helping me get this thorn out of my posterior,,,,,,I worked on this yesterday most of the day and even enlisted MS's help altho it was obvious they did NOT like what I was doing,,,anyway,,,,

 I have no idee when it started but my desktop has been overtaken by onedrive as the default receiver of all incoming data, photos etc, ect,,I tried several youtube methods and finally got a suggestion from a member from another forum to check my desktop for delivery instructions and DANG if everything incoming was being routed past desktop on to oneedrive,,,,!!! WTF,,??   Clicked on start,,,photos,,,and there ain't Chit there cause,,,cause it already gone to onedrive,,,,!! even more WTF's,,,I've always had BIG issues trying to post pics cause I could not find my pics on my desktop,,,!! Some of them were there but always the ones I wanted were in onedrive "Without My Knowledge AND consent" and you have to sign-in to access them and I did not know that little tidbit,,,,!! I have NO idee whast  the password might be but I'm gonna find out and try to transfer everything back to my desktop, then transfer to an external hard drive (1 Terabite)

 Do ya'll agree that first order of business is to "OPEN" onedrive and get everything back to my PC's hard drive, see what is in there, delete what has to go then transfer what is left to the External hard drive,,,,??

 WHEW,,,,!!

---------

There is no connection to any of that crap on any of my Windows 7 machines.

I do not have a Microsoft account, nor have I ever had need of one.

I managed to get ahold of a Linux-based password cracking software program that will dig out and obliterate any password on a Windows machine.

You would not believe how many people spend big money for a laptop that ends up gathering dust in a drawer for several years on account of they blindly followed the instructions at the beginning and created a "secure" password that they didn't write down anywhere and forgot within minutes.

It makes these people so happy when I unlock the thing and make it usable again.

I give them firm instructions to NOT create anymore passwords; but, they always do; and, I get to unlock the same machines over and over ----- people---

99% of the computer owning public have no real reason for a password nor to encrypt anything whatsoever.

As for losing photos somewhere in the wild blue yonder, D.I.M. has a backup option that saves the photos in two separate locations of your choosing; thus, from the very get go, you have two copies.

For photos that you really don't want to lose, it is best to have at least three separate hard-drives to store them on.

One hard-drive is the working one always connected to the machine.

The second hard-drive can either always be connected or plugged in on a regular schedule to have your photo collection duplicated on it.

The third hard-drive lives somewhere remote; over at Grannie's house or in the barn office.

It can be switched back and forth with hard-drive #2 to keep them both up to date.

That 3rd hard-drive is in case some drastic catastrophe destroys the first two.

There is a wonderful FREE program, Synchredible, that will take care of all this backing up on a schedule of your choosing so you won't have to remember to.

Never trust any of this "Cloud" business as they are notorious for shutting down and no way to access your photos ever again.

Any of this "subscription" stuff, you can go on E-Bay and stock up on 2nd hand hard-drives and hard-drive enclosures and better take care of it yourself for way less money.

DJ what 'browser' are you using ?

IF firefox, you CAN see all your password...well I can..

Post what you use and maybe me or someone else can get you help.

For SURE change the friggin 'default' to 'save to despktop' !!!

 Well,,,,Jay,,,finding my desktop is almost kin to finding the Holy Grail in downtown Los Angelas,,,,,,,,even looked in control  with NO DICE,,! I was aable to find a "Remote Desktop" in settings but I don't even want to open that can of worms,,,

 SO,,,where is the dang thing,,,?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Lwap--SOo" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Lwap--SOo

I can't speak for anything but Windows 7; on a Windows 7 machine, no matter where you may be, nor what you are doing, there is a little spot in the extreme bottom-right corner, just right of the Time/Date.

Mouse over that and it will pop-up a little text box "Show Desktop" and your DeskTop will appear on the screen; it won't stay there unless you click that little spot.

Also, speaking for Windows 7, DeskTop is at the very top of the folder "tree" on the left margin of every "Explorer" page.

An Explorer page is what comes up when you click that little manilla folder looking thing.

Many people use DeskTop as a dumping ground for everything --- I do not.

DeskTop is the top-of-the-tree "Root" folder from which all other folders lead back to.

Open an Explorer page, or whatever your version of Windows is calling it, and the folder navigation "tree" should be on the left margin of the screen.

You should see at the very top of the list the main "Root" folder, "DeskTop"

It is the great granddaddy of every folder and drive on your machine.

 Hey Buckskin,,,can't sleep either,,,???

 Well, There is a tiny icon in lower right of the Home page,, (blue box over a orange box) when my Win10 machine settles down. I mouse over it and it says COPILOT (Preview) I open it and I don't see what may be a place in which to store photos or any reference to "Desktop",,,,,?? Maybe is what MS now calls Desktop,,,?

I wonder what method #4 is ?

The Windows key is usually on the bottom row of the keyboard, on the left, between Ctrl and Alt, with what is supposed to look like a little 4-pane window.

I use Windows10 and my desktop is ALWAYS displayed. Yeah, 'cluttered' with folders and cat pix, buts it's always there.

I run 'stopwindowsupdate' and don't have any 'auto update/ change stuff' problems.

  OK,,,Using Steve's latest suggestions, I can now see my desktop,,,YEA,,,!!ALTHO,,,altho,,I can see the enormity of my real problem,,,!!  My docs, songs, photos and pretty much everything has been very ramdonly placed in many, MANY DIFFERENT folders in just as many different locations,,,,  JEEEZE,,,what a king sized CF!!!  It no small wonder that I never could find anything,,,,I know that MS had better not ask me for my opinion of this CF of a method for sensible storage. AND the hard drive in my PC is HUGE,,,,!!

 OK,,After looking thru just some of the folders, ETC, I can see a long time and VERY time consuming job to straighting out this CF of a KING sized mess.,,,!The biggest question of the day has to be,,,,Is there possibly a program available that will take like all my music from the hard drive and group in approprite folders, then photos, docs etc,,,and every thing else,,,,,??  Jeeze,,I sure hope so.

What you first need to do is quit allowing whatever to just dump things where it pleases and put this stuff where YOU want it; else, after you get it all sorted out, it is just going to continue this behavior.

I highly recommend you NOT USE the "Libraries" = My Pictures, My Music, My etc., as this is a really good way to end up with a confused mess.

I never use any of that pre-programmed stuff.

Create dedicated header folders away from all that, preferably in a different drive on a different partition --- but you may not be savvy enough yet to address that --- but you will get there.

There are free programs that will scour your machine and gather up all of what it thinks are this, that, and the other, going mostly by file type; and, for the most part, they are fairly accurate.

I would never choose any option that deletes duplicates as what a program thinks is a duplicate just might be the only copy you have.

Myself, I would set the machine to Show Hidden Files/Folders; Google how to set this as it is very basic and simple.

Then, I would go through it, folder by folder, and drag/drop everything into my newly created folders.

If you don't recognize something or don't know what it is --- LEAVE IT BE --- as it may be vital to something working or not.

Once you get all the sheep in the sheep pen, all the cows in the cow pen, and all the hogs in the hog pen, then, you can sort them closer.

I suggest before you begin this closer sorting that you now give new names to everything; probably for starters, just add to the front of whatever name it has, D__ for Document, P__ for Photo, M__ for Music, V_ for Video, KP__ for --- well, you get the idea.

Advanced Renamer is a FREE program that is fairly easy to learn and has the ability of adding this simple prefix to one or a million files at a single click so you don't have to laboriously do it one by one.

Now, with everything carrying these simple prefixes to their existing file-names, no matter what they are, your machine will sort and line them all up alphabetically; all your P__s will be grouped together; all your M__s, V__s, and D__s as well.

This way, if something gets in a wrong folder, it will stand out like a sore p  ecker.

When you download something to the machine, in most cases, it will provide ability to right then and there rename it --- this is an excellent time to add your prefix while it is fresh in your mind just what it is; you can go ahead and give it an entire new name; but, if you do nothing else, be sure and add that prefix.

In fact, I wouldn't get bogged down at the beginning with making meaningful new names, just add these simple prefixes to whatever name is already there.

You can get more specific about it later.

Think of it as a big stockyards, Omaha or Chicago or Bourbon.

The truck gets unloaded into a big pen, everything all mixed up.

Guys with big walking canes and hot-sticks roughly sort out the first gate and into the stack alleys, where the real sorting begins.

Or, think of it as a big conveyor coming out of a rock quarry, with the fines dropping out, and then the #11s, and then the 8's, and 68s, and 57s, and 5s, and 3s, and ZEROs, and then Channel-Liner #2s, and finally, the Shot Rock.

That big un-sorted pile back in the quarry, under the highwall, is your subject header folder, "ROCK"; all these piles of sorted rock are your sub-folders.

Your task is not nearly so daunting as you are thinking and can be quite enjoyable once you dig in.

Getting all the PHOTOS into ONE FILE is a major accomplishment.. THen as time permits you do the SUB FILES... at least you have EVERY PHOTO in ONE AREA.

One video has this oriental guy with a huge smile saying "This changed my life"

Read through what these programs offer as you want one that will dig through the bowels of your machine and drag all this stuff out into the daylight.

I don't think any of them will sort the bolts by size; but, they will sort the bolts from the sewing machines.

You will still have to do the fine sorting manually.

Whatever you do, follow my advice about the file name prefixes to keep all this going in the right direction.

Once you get the first prefixes sorted, Document, Photo, and so on, then you can add a second prefix behind the first = P__ meaning photo, add Tra__ meaning Tractor or Tru meaning Truck to get P__Tra__ and P__Tru__ and so on.

The original file name still remains intact, just now with these sorting prefixes so they can never get mixed up again.

 Hey Buckskin,, I won't do like that oriental guy did,, but,,,,,,

 By the way,,,when do you want me to send you my hard drive,,,,,?

 By the other way,,,I still DID NOT find on my newly discovered desk top just exactly how or where to  add where to send all future incoming to MY specific folder,,,??

On Windows 7, there is what is called "Auto Play" or some such, that appears once in a while, asking what do you want to do with this file, with several choices, plus a Default, plus "Other" which lets you select somewhere else that isn't listed --- and, the option "Do This for All Files of This Type"

If you are getting this stuff through your Browser, then there should be options in your Browser tools to set this up.

If you get a Download page that appears, right there you can rename and re-direct to wherever you want things to go.

As for sending me the hard-drive, you would be surprised at how many people actually do that; in such cases, it is best to Clone the hard-drive and send me one or the other while you keep the copy.

Don't expect immediate results though, as I am about five hard-drives behind. 

 Hey Guys,,I'm still fighting this frigging issue with my IPhone not wanting to co-operate with me on placing my pics where "I" want to,,!!  On my home PC, I have had to do a "System Restore" to reset the PC to an earlier date when something,,OR Someone has changed "something" and screwed things up,,?? This has worked for me,,, ahem,,,,a few times,,,!! Does anyone know if this can be done on IPhones,,if it can,,I have not been able to find it in the IPhone settings,,,,?,?? 

 Reason is,,I have taken pics with my IPhone since this BS started and even tho I choose for them to go to my DESKTOP,,I cannot find them an hour later,,,,??????

Sorry to hear that you are still having problems with this.
 

Not to confuse the issue; but, when I read of people having such issues, it makes me so glad that I have refused to have anything later than Windows 7.

If I actually were forced into a situation where I had to get a later version, I would still keep my Windows 7 machines for daily use and for such things as transferring photos and such from other devices.

As for your situation, just to see what happens, why don't you try E-Mailing the FULL RESOLUTION photos, complete with all Exif data, to yourself, where you can then DownLoad the photos into your DownLoads folder and then move them to wherever you want them.

In fact, in your situation, where it is obvious you are having issues such that photos could be permanently lost --- E-Mail the photos to yourself as a back door back-up means.

Just make sure you are E-Mailing the big package FULL RESOLUTION photos and not some tiny down-sized for the web photo files.

 Hey Buckskin, YES,,I'm still trying to get this resolved and I kept thinking something maybe was wrong with my IPhone SO,, I contacted Verizon and after suffering thru 43 minutes with an automated voice,,I was finally able to reach a great LIVE "Customer Service" Lady that knew her CHIT about Apple IPhones and their inner workings. I explained my predickament and right away she seemed to know about the problem as if they were having to address it with others,,,and,,,and,,,she sure sounded like she was a LOOKER, too,,!!

  First thing ,,she opened that dreaded ICloud and lo and behold,,,right there were a great many of my photos,,,not all of them but a lot of them,,,!! most of them had been "changed" to a HEIN designate and my PC could not open them. "Sam" tried several methods to convert them back to JPEG or PNG and was not successful,but told me she would research WHY these were locked and call me back with a procedure on how to transfer ALL of my photos in one fell swoop to my Desktop instead of one by one and in a JPEG or PNG or some other format so I could view them after transferring them to desktop,,!!! Microsoft and Apple do not want you to transfer your photos OR your documents out of their frigging clouds for prolly nefarious reasons,,,,??

google ... apple photo format heic to jpg

seems there ARE several ways to do it !!

Can't tell you which is best BUT Wife's Iphone is her granddaughter's hand me down ( probably a 13 or 14 ?? )

Anyway THAT phone had her BC trip and the 'wedding' pictures. Kylie got them onto wife's PC ( win10) and they are all JPG format. I KNOW as I copied them onto a flashdrive. She connected the phone to PC using the USB cable.

so...

1) you may want to take some time and see HOW to change the phone's setting to 'save pictures as JPG' format

2) get Windows to save ALL downloaded files to the desktop

this is basic 'computer101' stuff that any kid should know how to do and take 2 minutes to FIX for you.

PNG has it's place and advantages but not for here and now.

jpeg photo files have the huge advantage of:

1. being universally accepted and any program that can recognize anything can recognize a jpeg.

2. although it may be way over your head right now, unlike many other photo formats, jpeg files have the ability to carry unlimited invisible photo information, as much and everything the camera is capable of providing and then anything and everything you or anyone else may later provide.

Such information is called Metadata and there are several different flavors of Metadata, much of it overlapping, and a tiny jpeg file is capable of containing and carrying every last bit of all this often vital information from device to device.

Some of the more important to an individual person Metadata include:

Exact Date/Time Taken --- right down to the millisecond

Exact GPS Location --- the spot where the photographer's boots were planted when the photo was snapped

Name of the Photographer --- actually the name of the camera owner that is entered into the camera - this can be changed to the actual photographer after the fact

"Comment" --- has many names - "Caption" - "Embedded Comment" - etc.

The "Comment" must be added after the fact and is extremely handy to have.

It can contain anything and everything the comment author is of a mind to type in; such as all the Who, What, When, and Where, typed in plain easy-to-read English

All of this Metadata is quite useful information to know and can be accessed and read in most any Photo Viewing/Organizing program.

Two of the most useful and thorough Photo Viewing programs are completely FREE = FastStone and XnViewMP - either program can easily access and view the above-mentioned Metadata.

Have you ever came across an old Cigar Box of photographs with nary a word written on the back; and, although this cigar box was stashed in Granny's wardrobe, you have absolutely no idea who any of the people are, nor where the photos were taken, nor who owned that 1962 Fairlane ?

Information stored within a jpeg's "Comment" is the digital solution to a lead pencil writing on the back sides of photo prints --- except that the digital comment can contain an unlimited amount of information; whereas, using a lead pencil on a 5x7 paper, you soon run out of space to write any more. 

https://www.lifewire.com/convert-heic-to-jpg-on-iphone-5295695" rel="nofollow - https://www.lifewire.com/convert-heic-to-jpg-on-iphone-5295695

some ways down...

how to save as JPGs on iphone... or similar phrasing !!!

Apple changed the 'default' settings so unless YOU change them, the phone does what APPLE says to. granddaughter shutdown 3/4s of the 'apps' on wife's phone, now gets 4-5 DAYS out of the battery !

Big issues are to CHANGE the  default 'save picture as...' setting to JPG AND to STOP phone from 'storing' pictures up in the 'cloud'.

There's also 'issues' with how APPLE tracks you(well your phone ) based upon the default settings,but YOU can change them, 99.44% don't ,same as NOT reading the 'Terms of Use' agreements.....

II have been watching You TUbe movies on how to "DELETE 20 apps you dont need"... and how to "Delete pop-ups and suggestings you dont need"... and "how to stream line WIN 11 startup"........... lots of BULL CHIT in a new Computer.. 

( actually this is a "remanufactured computer" from a Corporate Office.. they sell on e-bay for $160. --- big processer - big memory - big storage- and WIN 11. )

soooooo

trash win11 and install win10 pro(64bit) and 'stopupdates'.

I have 'dumbed down' several PCs here over the decades.... zero issues.

'higher level of security' is of course BS.......

Apparently Southwest PCs are running Win3.11.....zero 'security' issues...

Against the whining crowd, I have had all my machines set to "No Updates" of any kind for more years than I can remember.

All our machines are 64-Bit Windows 7; some Pro and some Home Premium.

Thus far, I haven't yet found a site nor a program that I couldn't run.

If Chrome is giving you problems with Windows 7, look into some of the free Open Source browsers; they usually outperform the "name brands" and are usually very adamant about keeping things backwards compatible.

I very often see where people have all the latest greatest and all the "security measures" and they are forever more having new problems caused by a recent update.

I have yet to see where an update made things better --- often they make things worse.

Is this a Desktop or Tower ?

What brand ?

Let us know how this works out; at $160, they will soon be grabbed up.

WIN 10 is not much different. The computer i got wife a year ago and WIN 10 and i had to go thru the same DELETE- DELETE- DELETE to get rid of all the CRAP.. Now it runs GREAT and FAST. .... in fact 10 years ago when i bought the WIN 7 computers ( same retired units) ... i had to DELETE some crap then... but not as much.

 Hey Steve,,where or who did you buy that PC,,? Is it just the tower or,,,? I also been looking thru Walmart as they got many thousands of those PC;s and some even with a big monitor and keyboard for almost same money,,,

 As a result of all my issues with my Photos, I took my desk top PC to a GURU in the alien city and he told me then that I should be looking for a new PC soon,, that did not make me happy as it has a HUGE hard drive for lots of storage,(1T) ,,but lots of storage don't mean CHIT if the processor cannot access it,,,!!! I had the Guru make me a backup on a flash drive so I don't lose all my photos and docs,,,,just in case!!  In working with the lady Guru from Verizon last week, she insists there IS an issue within my IPhone with that CLOUD BS,,,!! I did follow ole Jay's link to change my IPhone camera settings to download all future photos in JPEG format. I do not want to have to change 900.000 photos manually, so she said she would get a procedure to do em all in one fell swoop,,,,I Like That,,,,and,,,and,,,she has such a sweet sounding, kinda, throaty voice,,,

arrrrrgh.. that 'guru' isn't a GOOD Guru !!!

'size of drive' has nothing to do with 'speed'. If your PC is 'slow',it can be several reasons like

1) antivirus programs are set to scan EVERY file('app' or 'program',EVERY time you run them ! This is a mega slowdown and really is NOT required ! Once a file has been scanned, providing it's never changed , there is ZERO need to scan it. Same as.. in your left front pants pocket you've got keys and a comb. There's NO way you NEED to keep checking  your pocket all day long....NOTHING has changed.....

2) several ,OK lots  , of apps are running. Usually I only have TWO programs 'up and running' aka 'minimized. Firefox..the browser and Thunderbird for email.yes,there's some windows10 stuff running( aka the system) BUT I don't have Adobe open, or eXcel open , nothing..... Simple,EASY thing to do. Press ctrl-alt-del keys, then select 'task manager'. How many 'apps' are there on your screen ? I have 3.

3)autoupdates for windows/programs/apps are enabled. If they are,they WILL slow down your computer. Some apps can go online,check for updates every hour,maybe more often. AntiVirus apps usually are defaulted to this,grrrrrr

as for the 'changing pictures extensions...

I googled and got this ,one of several hits....

https://superuser.com/questions/1824978/is-there-a-way-to-change-multiple-file-extensions-at-once-on-windows-10" rel="nofollow - https://superuser.com/questions/1824978/is-there-a-way-to-change-multiple-file-extensions-at-once-on-windows-10

It lists 4 ways to change file extensions. In the good old dayze,it was as simple as 'C:> ren *.old *.new. The hiccup now is no 'MSDOS' on 10 or 11,though it CAN be done !

4) clean out your browser's 'history' and cookie jar !! I have firefox setup so when I press 'clear history', it deletes everything EXCEPT cookies and site settings. That way I keep all my login info and how stuff shows on the screen. maybe 2 times a year I manually go into 'cookies', sort by date, them delete any over 6 months or so. Cookies are use by each page of websites to configure themselves for your viewing pleasure. While they are small, it's the LONG list of cookies that's the problem.'they' have to search everyone to find their cookie. If you've never cleaned house, odds are you can easily have 1,000s of them !!

I'm fed up of 'gurus' saying 'need a new PC', it just show THEY do NOT know how computers are setup, operate and how to easily speed them up.....

I go to EBAY and type in "DELL OPTIPLEX SFF PC" .... in the "COMPUTER" section... and then you get thousands of hits... I try to pick a guy that has sold 2000 or more and has a 97% GOOD record... These are REPURPOSED BUSINESS COMPUTERS that some company has replaced after 3 years of their use... you have to know a little about what OPTIONS you want, but almost all of them are a good deal..

  Hey Jay,,,,read your post with interest,,so for funs,,I called up Task Manager to have a Look-see,,,,JEeeeeze it no small wonder sometimes my laptop will not get out of its own way,,,,,There are 66 Background Processes with the following being the ones eating the most ,,,, Microsoft Edge at 50.3 MB, Antimalware Service Executable at 85.1 MB, Windows Explorer at 48.3 MB, Service Host Sys Main at 42.3 MB, and Desktop Windows Manager at 32.7 MB,,!!    I DO NOT use or even like MS EDGE and use Firefox,,,?? There are 61 (sixty one)  of others but I have NO IDEA which ones to safetly delete,,,?

OK 1st  you're looking at the 2nd group, not the 'apps' list on top.

The 'apps' list will have firefox,thunderbird and task manager for me, you probably have a few more.....

If 'edge' is there, right click and delete.

 background tasks, are prgrams( or parts of them ) running but not seen. Things like auto updates, AV , housekeeping, etc. Edge might be there, if so ' disable' it.

Now if you click on the 'startup' tab, it'll show you what programs (apps) get 'launched ' or run when the computer starts up. You'll probably  see a LOT, including 'edge'. Find edge, right click, and 'disable' it. NEXT time you reboot the computer, edge will NOT run.

Sadly Windows won't,easily, allow you to DELETE MS apps BUT YOU can disable them.

If you do regular business with a company, ask to speak to their IT guy,see if he'll help you  'clean up the mess'. Maybe local high school electronics/computer teacher ? The 'kid at the computer store'  has no clue what to do,been brainwashed to believe 'need new computer' is always the answer.

Good thing is you can easily take the laptop to someone, just bring charger too.....

I know it's a painful and frustrating process,too bad I don't have a passport.

Got all my ideas from You Tube video on "windows 11 modifications"..

OH... and ONE DRIVE- THE CLOUD  was the FIRST THING to hit the DUMPSTER !  Microsoft not happy about that!

best to download 'stopupdates' and install to really PREVENT MS from trashing your new computer !!

I've actually got real, stand alone, in my machine eXcel running on this Win10 PC. Something the 'online experts' say can't be done. Also have Adobe reader and NOT the stripped down 'browser version'.... Nice to cut the cord and have programs WORK as they should .

   Hey Jay,,,opened task manager and there are just 2 apps,,,firefox at 877MB and Task Manager at 34MB,,that is all.

  Tried to delete MS EDge but only option in list that may work is "End Task",,,?? There is NO delete on list for edge,,,?

Hay DJ

check the 'startup' tab...in task manager....

It's in my WIN10 machine as I type !

right click on it and choose 'disable'

That IS what mine is set for.

I also just disabled 'Cortana', whatever that is....

Jay

  Well,,,Chit,,,Jay,,,,I cannot find chit today,,! There is a process named Start (2) but no option listed to disable. no Cortana either but i have seen that mentioned somewhere,,,,seems like i remember it being an assistant to onedrive,,,,?

 I'm puzzled that there is not any mention of how to disable MS edge ,,,,??

  What about those other processes I mentioned in first post ...Can any of those other hi users be safely disabled or deleted?

OK, back to square one....

 preferably from the desktop, though anywhere should work....

Press ctrl,alt, delete keys at same time . I press ctl then alt, then finally delete.

 Screen goes blue, with several options.... click on 'task manager'

when it's up, click on the 'startup' tab, you'll get maybe 10-15 programs listed...

MS Edge is probably there.

If so, move mouse to it, click left mouse button to select( it'll change colour), then right click and another options menu comes up, select 'disable'.

hopefully this will work for you....

I don't have Win11 but can't believe MS has changed this stuff in Win11....

also.....

While in Firefox, click on tools, settings, and see IF Firefox IS your default browser', If not, MAKE it the 'default' !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7cTxZ4mXos" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7cTxZ4mXos

 Well, Guys,,,I finally gave up on the laptop as it gave up this past weekend when I took it with me  down to EL Paso to help my Son. It went thru one of them FRIGGING UPDATES and then did a SLOW DOWN and just never could come back,,,!!  I did a SYSTEM RESTORE  to an earlier date and was able to restart but it is running about half speed or less,,!! I ordered a restored Dell from Walmart.com that is similar deal  to the desktop Steve ordered and is supposed to be here on Thursday.  I'm gonna try to work with a laptop for everything to see if I can do what I want and not mess with the desktop  as it is on it's last legs as well.  I just cannot get comfortable to using my smart phone for internet ,,,,,?

 As soon as I get the new Laptop dialed in ,,I'm fixing to land in the middle of microsoft about the old laptop crashing due to one of their friggin updates,,!!!!

 AND,,,AND,,,ya'll can wager your last can of   Old Milwaukee the the new laptop is going to start out with the appropriate short cuts for my photos are going to my desktop and then the approprite folder ,,,NO MORE frigging cloud BS,,,,,,!!! Hopefully same for them MS updates,,,!!

I made my own  STEVE PHOTOS and STEVE DOCS on the Desktop and loaded all my own photo off my old drive via USB drive..

In the future as you add more photos, CHECK THE LOCATION they go to... Microsoft LOVES to "suggest" or try to put them in THEIR PHOTO FOLDER and upload that to the CLOUD.

 OK,,I just received the "New To ME" restored Dell Laptop. his one was rated "Excellent, Just Like New",,,and it sure does,,

 First off,,I could not get it to locate the network i.m on for Internet,,I was finally able to use MS for access but it wants me to use MS Edge as the browser and I frigging HATE MS Edge,,,,!!

 Steve,,didnt you say you used MS Edge as Chrome was withing Edge,,,,????

Install Firefox...do not use edge or chrome  !!!

Your Internet Service provider can help  get you 'online'.

Microsoft WIN 11 was NOT HAPPY when i clicked to down load CHROME.. Got several popups saying EDGE was PRESET to be the BEST and i should NOT load CHROME....

Done and GONE..... CHROME had all my favorites stored, all my sign on info, etc... and it trasfered right to my NEW computer... I did not have to LOAD anything..   Daughter in law is an IT gal and it told her.. i was not sure that CHROME should have all that info STORED... She said they do that so you can use a phone, tablet, computer, etc.. and EVERYTHING has the same setup FOR YOU.... GUess that makes sense.

If you don't TELL the OS that Firefox IS your 'default' browser it'll use Edge,as it's preset for that.

You'll find that EVERY MS program(app)  IS the 'default' AND that 'auto update' is set as well.

It took me 2 hrs to 'configure' this Win10 machine the way I NEED it to be and it's been rock stable since. I'm sure there's a few  things that fell through the cracks but overall happy.