OT: Windows Optimization?

[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]

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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.

[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?