OT: Windows Optimization?

[Fyron]

Will said:
Check virtual memory settings. If it's set to be automagically handled by Windows, that should be fine, but it could be messed up. The general rule is to have a swap file twice the size of memory (1gb in your case). Defragmenting the drive helps here too, so your disk doesn't have to jump around a lot when accessing virtual memory that is split into several sections.

Make sure to disable virtual memory _before_ doing the defragmentation, so that the drive can be defragmented as much as possible. Reenable virtual memory after it the defragmentation process is completed. This ensures an even more continuous block of HD clusters for the swap file. Also, you might consider disabling the auto-magic management. It tends to be unnecessary (assuming you have the size set to a large enough amount) and slows down the computer when Windows changes the size of the swap file all the time. You can do this by setting the minimum size to the same value as the maximum size. This will also have the advantage of locking the swap file in place, preventing it from being created in fragmented parts of the hard drive as it is resized. It will stay in the same clusters of the drive. It is critical to defragment before fixing the size of the swap file for this very reason. Having a separate drive partition for the swap file can be handy as well (assuming you fix its size).

[Arkcon]

Imperator Fyron said:
Make sure to disable virtual memory _before_ doing the defragmentation, so that the drive can be defragmented as much as possible. Reenable virtual memory after it the defragmentation process is completed. This ensures an even more continuous block of HD clusters for the swap file. Also, you might consider disabling the auto-magic management. It tends to be unnecessary (assuming you have the size set to a large enough amount) and slows down the computer when Windows changes the size of the swap file all the time. You can do this by setting the minimum size to the same value as the maximum size. This will also have the advantage of locking the swap file in place, preventing it from being created in fragmented parts of the hard drive as it is resized. It will stay in the same clusters of the drive. It is critical to defragment before fixing the size of the swap file for this very reason.

If you're into all that, you might want to drop by {here} as well. This little freeware program will defrag the (now permanant) windows swapfile. Windows tends to create it fragmented. They have other small, free, well-thought out, utilites on that site.

Having a separate drive partition for the swap file can be handy as well (assuming you fix its size).

I've heard that's not too great an idea. The separate partition helps prevent data from fragmenting the swapfile, that's true. But the drive heads really have to work overtime, reading two separate directories, zipping from file table to data part -- not so speedy. Now a separate hard drive to contain the swapfile, sure, that'll help.

[tesco samoa]

We had a really good thread on this a few years ago.

I have no time to do the search on it. Perahps some one else could and post that thread. Lots of links and such to this topic

[AgentZero]

Meanwhile, you should take a look at what's starting on windows load.
Disable everything that's not nessesary. Drivers, firewall, one antivirus, and that's about it.

I've gone into MSConfig, gone to the startup tab and disabled everything I know I don't need, but there's still an awful lot of stuff that I don't know what it is, so I'm reluctant to remove it. Does anyone know if Windows puts vital programs/drivers into that Startup section?

If you mean like McAfee and Norton, your computer is probably screwed. It's a definite no-no to have more than one antivirus program installed. If you're counting programs like Adaware/Spybot S&D, then you're okay.

Second, have you defragmented your hard drive recently?

What I meant was that I've got 3-4 anti-virus programs installed on the computer. I only have one actively running, but have used that 4 different programs to run a complete scan of the HD to be totally sure there's no viruses. Last defragged the hard drive about 3 weeks ago.

[Arkcon]

AgentZero said:
I've gone into MSConfig, gone to the startup tab and disabled everything I know I don't need, but there's still an awful lot of stuff that I don't know what it is, so I'm reluctant to remove it. Does anyone know if Windows puts vital programs/drivers into that Startup section?

Oh. I can answer this bit at least. You can try the websites {here} and {over here}. They decode for you the cryptic names of several things the Windows may try to load. They identify them as crucial, or known spyware. If a file is not on these lists, I'd search Google or ask about the filename specifically -- that's how the world finds out about new viruses.

This forum became world famous a while back as we were musing about a file called {siae3123.exe}. No one knew what it was back then, but its now known to be a trojan dropper.

[Spoo]

From the microsoft website:

If you already have antivirus software installed, but you want to install a new product from a different company, be certain to uninstall your current product before installing the new one. Leaving the previous Version installed can cause conflicts on your system.

[Instar]

Sounds primarily like a fragmentation issue. Also, like others have said, more than one AV product will really fubar things. Check programs that start on bootup, and any services you do not need. A lot of spyware will clog machine startup as well, so make sure the system is clean of all spyware.

[Ruatha]

[b
I've gone into MSConfig, gone to the startup tab and disabled everything I know I don't need, but there's still an awful lot of stuff that I don't know what it is, so I'm reluctant to remove it. Does anyone know if Windows puts vital programs/drivers into that Startup section?

You can turn everything off there.
You'll only "need" (not really but they're good) to have three things running in the start-up in msconfig.
That's the antivirus program, what program do you use (if it's for example mcafee, have all programs staring with mc... enabled)?
And perhaps the volume icon, usually "systray". (Don't think this is needed in XP though), so that would make it two items)
And a firewall if you don't have a hardware firewall.


This will mean that you won't have any special keyboard functions etc.

But you can start by turning everything off, and then if you miss something, start them one by one, or post the list of the names here and tell us what functions you are missing and we'll tell you what to enable.

When people have problems with something in the autostart, I usually tell them to disable half of the items in msconfig, then do half and halfs until the problem is isolated, you can use that way aswell to see if there is anything you miss by disabling half of the items, if you miss nothing do the other half, if something bothers you, enable half of the disabled items and so on...

I belive AgentZero has answered the defrag and antivirus issues and it's not those...

[Will]

Yeah, if he defragmented three weeks ago, then it shouldn't be a fragmentation issue, unless there's some really weird stuff going on with virtual memory... but that doesn't explain the extreme slowness of a decently fast system.

Ruatha is right about disabling most stuff in MSConfig. You can disable almost everything in the startup tab and still have a workable computer, just without some features. Basically what you won't want to disable are the AV and Firewall processes, the video drivers for the higher-end video cards (if it's an nVidia card, it will start with Nv, if it's ATI, it will start with ATI), you might have something called mobosync which is basically a hardware monitor, and other than that, everything can be ditched. If you really think something might be important, paste the name of the program file (eg. tfswcrtr.exe) into google, and see what it says about it.

Also, when you're starting up, hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and bring up the Task Manager. Go to the processes tab, and sort by CPU. Post here with the processes that are taking the most CPU time and percentage, and we should be able to help speed things up.

And, pick one AV program, ditch the rest. Uninstall all of them, re-install the one you're going to stay with. Even if you aren't running all at the same time, the definition files interfere with each other, and it's an overall bad idea. Four isn't any better than one

[AgentZero]

OK, well I cleared out everything except AV, Firewall & video drivers, but it doesn't seem to have helped much. I've also got rid of all my anti-virus programs except one.
As for the Processes, most of the time it seems to just be System Idle Processes taking up 99%, but CIDAEMON.EXE and cisvc.exe occassionally jump up to around 20%.

The biggest problem, for whatever reason, seems to be opening folders. If I launch a program from the desktop, it seems to work OK, but a lot of the time when I try opening My Computer, using the Start Menu, or opening a shortcut to a folder from the desktop, it either takes a very long time, or nothing happens at all.