OT: Windows Optimization?

[Fyron]

How long has it been since you installed Windoze?

[Arkcon]

Imperator Fyron said:
How long has it been since you installed Windoze?

This issue is important, unfortunately. As you install programs, and delete them after trying them, they may leave garbage in your registry. Windows has to process the large file full of tailings and can slow down. The usual solution is a data file backup, low level format, Windows reinstall, then program reinstall, carefully, only what you want this time. I like to defrag at each program install. Well, at least defrag after Windows install (do Windows update first!), and then after programs are all installed.

Some less time consuming suggestions: Spybot, ver 1.3, has a function above and beyond the spyware removal of ver 1.2 and lower. You will have to poke around to activate the function, but it will remove registry entries for Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office, Windows Media Player, and others that contain, for example, your recently opened files. Lots of this stuff is stored even after you delete the program. This is how trialware insures you don't delete then reinstall the program. Remember Microsoft is very customer-oriented -- its just that the customer is the software vendor, not you.

Another program I used to clean the registry, is called RegSeeker. It may be hard to find, I think it was the old Version of something that was sold to a commercial registry cleaner company. You can also try one of the several registry cleaners, I'm always consistantly impressed with the throughness and innovation of Norton programs. 'Tho they're never ashamed to have their programs eat resources like candy.

I will be able to provide you with less and less help, I'm sad to say (I don't even know what Version of RegSeeker and who made it, for example). I dumped Windows for Linux a couple of months ago, in part for this particular reason -- the ever clogging registry.

[AgentZero]

I actually haven't reinstalled Windoze since I bought the machine 2 years ago. First thing I did when I bought the machine was format the drive and re-install WinXP to make sure there wasn't any junk on the machine I didn't want.
I've gotten a Windows optimizer program, and RegClean as well, which seems to have improved performance a fair bit, but I'm still having problems with the folders.

I think there must be a problem with Explorer.exe because when I try to shut down the computer when the folders aren't opening, it hangs for a while then pops up with a message that says 'Explorer.exe is not responding' when I click the End Now button, the Windows interface disappears, leaving only my desktop wall paper and the system hangs, forcing me to literally pull the plug on my computer, since it's equipped with a software On/Off switch as opposed to a hardware On/Off switch. Whose brilliant idea was that one?

BTW, Arkcon, can I ask a really stupid question. What does Linux acutally LOOK like? I've been looking into maybe making the switch & maybe just keeping a stripped-down Version of WinXP for gaming, but everything I've read about it seems to suggest a command line-driven interface. Which in theory I don't really have a problem with, having grown up with DOS, but practically speaking I don't have the time to learn a new operating system, and would thus be purely interested in something with a GUI of one type or another.

Honestly though, the only thing that keeps me tied to Windows is the fact that my computer is primarily a gaming machine, and I have very diverse taste in games, so switching to Linux or a Mac would sort of defeat the purpose of me owning my computer. I find it maddening that people go out and buy a computer knowing (if they have even rudimentary knowledge of PCs) that it isn't going to work the way they expect. I can't think of a single product where the same is true. Can you imagine going out and buying a car knowing that it wouldn't start in the morning sometimes, the engine would die for no apparent reason at random intervals and that whether or not the CD player, radio, air conditioning or heating would work was a hit or miss proposition? And can you imagine knowing that this was just the price of owning a car? Or when it didn't work properly, being told, 'Well, take the engine out, dismantle it, then reassmble it and put it back in and you should be OK for another few months.'? Or you could buy a different model, but you wouldn't be able to drive it on most roads. If a car maker behaved like MS, they'd either be taken to court and forced to update their standards, or be driven out of business by the competition. But PC owners are just supposed to 'deal with it'.

[Fyron]

2 years? Time to reformat and reinstall Windoze! A registry cleaner is not enough... Windoze slowly breaks itself down in many ways as it runs...

As for Linux, download and burn a Knoppix live CD and run it. Linux is definitely more than just a command line...

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

[Arkcon]

AgentZero said:
BTW, Arkcon, can I ask a really stupid question. What does Linux acutally LOOK like? I've been looking into maybe making the switch & maybe just keeping a stripped-down Version of WinXP for gaming, but everything I've read about it seems to suggest a command line-driven interface. Which in theory I don't really have a problem with, having grown up with DOS, but practically speaking I don't have the time to learn a new operating system, and would thus be purely interested in something with a GUI of one type or another.

Well, I use the Redhat Fedora Core 2 flavor of Linux. It's default desktop GUI is called Gnome, and its pretty identical to the new Win XP style desktop. Icons on the side, menu bar at the bottom. I just decided to abandon all my graphical games (Starcraft, Aliens vs Predator, Diablo). There are instructions in these forums to get SE4 to work under WinE.

I mostly used my computer to browse the internet, and I also write some letters and crunch some spreadsheet numbers occasionally. Thing is, I stopped using IE long ago, and switched to Mozilla. I lost my registration card for Microsoft Office so I switched to Open Office. I hated Windows Media player, even before the evilness that was Versions 7 and 9. So it just occured to me, why am I keeping the OS around?

[Fyron]

So it just occured to me, why am I keeping the OS around?

Precisely because you can't play most games under Linux... Wine and Winex (or whatever they changed the name to) are good as far as they go, but they are a long, long way from being a workable solution to the game issue...

[Suicide Junkie]

Just grab a $50 PC from the local used/parts shop. They're up to about P2-400's now, fully accessorized, which is plenty good for most games.

Then you can have your Games and Linux too.

[Fyron]

That defeats the purpose...

[parabolize]

Imperator Fyron said:

Precisely because you can't play most games under Linux... Wine and Winex (or whatever they changed the name to) are good as far as they go, but they are a long, long way from being a workable solution to the game issue...

Wine is still Wine. Winex is made from Wine by Transgaming. No games on Linux? Linux games list
edit: Wait are you talking about Cedega, that's just the name they made for Version 4.*. It will change again when they go to 5.

[Fyron]

parabolize said:
Wine is still Wine. Winex is made from Wine by Transgaming. No games on Linux? Linux games list
edit: Wait are you talking about Cedega, that's just the name they made for Version 4.*. It will change again when they go to 5.

Yes there are some cheap crappy games, and a few big companies have made games with native Linux builds, but the vast majority of games don't work in Linux, or run poorly in Wine and Winex (SE4 has problems from what I hear)... That list just proves my point.