Computer question

When I first built my computer and installed Windows XP, the thing ran great. It booted up super-fast, programs ran extremely well, and it was reliable.

Well, while the computer is still very reliable (I've never gotten the blue screen of death), it has become bogged down by background processes. There were five background processes running at any particular time when I built it, but now there are almost 60. Most of them just sit and do nothing but take up memory (which I expanded from 512 MB to ~1.5 Gigs recently). It's my processor now that is having a hard time.

I know that some of it could be spyware, adware, or similar programs, but I clean that stuff off regularly. Now I have things like Spybot-SD Resident, Windows Indexing, Norton Systemworks, Norton Antivirus, and a whole host of other programs running.

Maybe it's time to upgrade (replace) the machine. I should just throw in the towel and admit that it just takes a lot more processing power to do NOTHING AT ALL than it used to.

But alternatively, are there suggestions that you folks might be able to make to set me straight on some misconceptions that I may (probably) have or to speed up the compie a bit? I am not an expert (though I try) and I don't fully understand what all the background processes do. Why do I need 11 instances of Svchost.exe running? I know they have something to do with making programs like Firefox run smoothly, but it also seems to be the one eating up the processor when Firefox is trying to do something for me.

Thanks!

I want to avoid buying a new computer. I have some ideas for building one--and I could use my copy of XP too. I want to avoid buying a machine that feeds me commercials and that comes with 40 different toolbars on all of my internet windows. XP pissed me off enough by coming with the "trial software" that it did--I noticed that almost every program on Vista is a "trial program". I await the day when "Paint" and "Minesweeper" come only as trial programs.

Try auslogics boostspeed, download the trial and shoot me a PM

Sounds like time for a wipe/reload.

The way Windows works, it collects a lot of crap. The only way to really get rid of it is with a fresh install. I usually suggest doing this annually for "normal" users, and more often for power users that are constantly installing and uinstalling things.

When I was really into hammering on my PC (about 6 or 7 years ago), I would do reloads of the OS about every 45 days. It probably didn't need to be done that often, but it's not like I had anything better to do, hahaha. My friends were amazed at how quick my system ran, even before they learned how down on specs it was (I was running an AMD K62-450 in the days of 700+ MHz PIIIs)

• 1000 on the wipe and reload the op.

I do it once a year on average. I run XP on three of the home computers and all of my work computers and vista on one home computer. Stuff just starts bogging the system down and you can spend a fortune in time trying to weed out the bad stuff or a small bit backing up the mission critical stuff and start with a fresh install.

[edit] what is up with the plus sign? I keep getting a square.

Find and download a copy of Ghost along with a boot CD.

I like BartPE or WindowsPE, but a simple DOS boot floppy with a copy of the Ghost DOS program.

Do some reading and learn how to create a Ghost image of your "perfect" system using your boot disk.

Using an image allows a relatively quick way to go back to a known, good standard versus building from scratch (which takes a full day or more)

When building the system use a CD or DVD burner to back up your data on a monthly basis along with an external USB drive.

If you haven't already, look into ways to make the system faster. Turn off unneeded peripherals so the driver's don't need to be loaded. Ensure the memory is max'd out and if the hard drive is more than 3 or 4 years old, a newer one is likely faster and less likely to fail.

On Windows, turn off all of the fancy graphics and run it as basic as possible and you'll probably see a little difference. Not running a background helps as well.

OIf course disabling any and all services that are not needed will help greatly as well.

Google is your friend when it comes to determining what service or process does what.

CCleaner is a neat little utility that can be used to clean up unnecessary files and identify processes.

Good luck!

I promise that auslogic boostspeed is pretty much awesome, it's worth a try, it cleans the registry, defrags, and a bunch of other really cool things. Another thing I loved for XP was tweakUI great power toy for the OS.

Sounds to me like you're loaded with spyware. I take a new machine, turn off all the crap that windoze has running as a service, then when I get it how I want it, screenshot the list of processes in task manager and save that. When a new process shows up, I find out where it came from and kill it and make sure it doesn't come back. Yeah, google each process and find out what it is.

We have someone with a computer issue and I didn't even utter the word, are you folks proud of me?

Get a Mac! < ducks>

Backup/Format/Reinstall

Even with a mac, I have to reinstall every few years. Of course, a PC wouldn't even last a few years. :duck:

Thanks guys! Sorry it took me so long to get back and respond to all of you. Work has kept me crazy-busy.

When I reload my OS as many of you are recommending, does this mean I have to format my HD? I will lose a lot of stuff doing that. Or are you just saying that I should just reinstall Windows?

I bought a new (huge for me) hard drive, onto which I can load anything I want. Should I format that drive and install Windows on that and use that as my new main drive and use the smaller 40 GB as a backup / slave?

Move all your data over to the big drive. Format and then install windows to the old drive.

Cool. Thanks. I think I understand. That way I don't have to switch cabling around or change the hardware configurations (slave v.s. master drive).

I also reinstall the OS once a year. I'm learning how to use nlite right now to make a fresh copy of my OS with SP3.

Also when reinstalling the OS, make sure you do not have it hooked up to the internet. Download SP3 packet and install from computer before hooking up to the internet.

You mean you don't already have a backup of your data somewhere? Price out hard drive data recovery sometime, and even that's no guarantee

Ummm Ubuntu?

Download an ISO, burn to a CD, boot from the CD and try it out. You might be suprised.

I can do everything I want to do with Ubuntu except play some games and stream Netflix. The games can be played by booting to a fairly slim XP install. Netflix works well in a virtual machine install of XP.

Word and Excel documents can be created/editied using Open Office. I think Powerpoint presentations work too. Access DBs...not so much.

Now for a big suprise, download Pupply Linux. It is about 50 Meg. In that 50MB is a full operating system with document editing, web surfing and email capabilities. It too can be run from a bootable CD or a bootable flash drive. It is amazing to see what they can squeeze into Puppy's small size, especially when you compare it to something like Vista and it's 10GB{?} minimum recommended partition size.

I keep a couple of Puppy disks at work to access XP drives with booting problems or virus/spyware infections. The built in partition editor (GParted) can create and format partitions in XP-friendly formats. It can also copy partitions from one disk to another. It isn't as full featured as Ghost but I've had luck with GParted where Ghost has failed.

Sorry for the long post. I am the geekiest of geeks...a linux fanboi.

uggg, in the time it takes for a non computer geek to configure linux he could just learn to fix XP, which he already has.

Then instead of using some program that can kinda duplicate a word document, he can just use word. Instead of searching for a generic driver that may get his scanner working he can just install the one that came with it. (replace scanner with any and all random hardware from phones to soundcards )

Leave linux to servers, people with basic computing needs who don't already have an XP license, and computer nerds who want to feel "leet"

Install your OS on the smaller drive. Put everything that doesn't install (all the things that are not adding them self to the system registry) on the other drive. That way in the future you don't have to move anything, you just wipe your XP drive and reinstall.

I agree with the data drive idea but...about 99.9% of software, installed in Windows, copies some dlls to the windows directory and has registry entries. So, you will have to re-install all applications after an XP wipe even if you install them on the non-OS drive.

Using Ghost to make a "golden image" once you've gotten everything installed and configured will get around that problem, assuming you make a new image anytime you make major config changes.

Now, as for wanting to feel "l33t" by advocating the use of linux on the desktop. Giving the live-CD of Ubuntu a test drive is the easiest method of determining hardware compatibility. If it works there it will work. If it doesn't then reboot, eject the CD and go back to XP.

I've yet to see any version of windows do that without more expert configuration than I've ever had to do to a modern linux install.

The level of dedication needed to use a modern distro of linux is no more than what is required to keep an XP (or 2k or Vista and probably 7) installation running and virus free.

rmarkc wrote: I agree with the data drive idea but...about 99.9% of software, installed in Windows, copies some dlls to the windows directory and has registry entries. So, you will have to re-install all applications after an XP wipe even if you install them on the non-OS drive. Using Ghost to make a "golden image" once you've gotten everything installed and configured will get around that problem, assuming you make a new image anytime you make major config changes. Now, as for wanting to feel "l33t" by advocating the use of linux on the desktop. Giving the live-CD of Ubuntu a test drive is the easiest method of determining hardware compatibility. If it works there it will work. If it doesn't then reboot, eject the CD and go back to XP. I've yet to see any version of windows do that without more expert configuration than I've ever had to do to a modern linux install. The level of dedication needed to use a modern distro of linux is no more than what is required to keep an XP (or 2k or Vista and probably 7) installation running and virus free.

Yeah, all most all installed software will not work after a reformat, re-install... but he has a 40 gig so all programs may as well go on the OS drive, with everything else on the other.

Yeah, the live CD is nice... I actually use it for some partition stuff at times. But my experience has been the complete opposite. Vista seems to detect and work with just about anything and everything I throw at it. If it doesn't, it talks with the internet for a few seconds and everything is good. Linux wont let me use dual monitors with out a ton of work, only offered me 3 terrible resolutions, only recognizes my scanner/printer as a scanner, doesn't recognize my sound card and had trouble with my network card.

The vast majority of problems I have on windows can be solved by going to the manufacturers website and downloading a driver, most of which come in an easy to use exe. Linux seems to be nothing but generic drivers that half work, and installing about anything seems to take googling code for the command prompt.