[Ferrari]

Hi,

I have completed Artellos' guide in the how to guides and tutorials section. It may a huge difference. I also scanned with avg, spybotsd, and ad-aware. The computer is running much much better and very smooth.

I have spoken with him in live chat and he said there are some more things that I could do to fine tune xp, but he is very busy and he said others can help with this too.

Can you give me suggestions?

Also, the computer seems to still start up very slow. I found out that the prefetch folder had been deleted, and I also found a guide how to recreate it and build it up; however, the startup is still slow. Thats how all this fine tuning talk came to be when asking Artellos about this.

EDIT: Computer seems to start up quicker now that I deleted AOL from the start up in msconfig and I also cleaned and defragged the registry with Tune Up Utilities 2009.



Thanks and I can't wait to hear from you.

Edited by JAR300, 11 February 2009 - 03:00 PM.

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Hello and welcome

Artellos has a nice guide going there

It sounds like you've kind of gone through your startup services already, but I'm sure there's more than just AOL that can be disabled. What I'm going to have you do is generate a startup log which will tell us what processes and services run when your system boots. I will run through the list and highlight various applications which I feel you can live without (as far as having them run as soon as you login).

Please follow these instructions and let me know if you have any questions.

(1) Download and install HijackThis by clicking here.
(2) Accept the license agreement
(3) Once the application opens, click on the "Open the Misc Tools section" button.
(4) Click on the "Generate StartupList log" button.
(5) The log will open in Microsoft Notepad. Click on File and then Save As. Save the file to the desktop under your name of choice --- for easy access.
(6) Flip back to this message and click on Reply.
(7) You will notice under the message field there is an area for attachments. Click on "Browse" to find the file and then on "UPLOAD" to make it available.
(8) In your message feel free to ask any questions/make comments, etc.

Good luck!

[Facedown98]

Hello and welcome

Artellos has a nice guide going there

It sounds like you've kind of gone through your startup services already, but I'm sure there's more than just AOL that can be disabled. What I'm going to have you do is generate a startup log which will tell us what processes and services run when your system boots. I will run through the list and highlight various applications which I feel you can live without (as far as having them run as soon as you login).

Please follow these instructions and let me know if you have any questions.

(1) Download and install HijackThis by clicking here.
(2) Accept the license agreement
(3) Once the application opens, click on the "Open the Misc Tools section" button.
(4) Click on the "Generate StartupList log" button.
(5) The log will open in Microsoft Notepad. Click on File and then Save As. Save the file to the desktop under your name of choice --- for easy access.
(6) Flip back to this message and click on Reply.
(7) You will notice under the message field there is an area for attachments. Click on "Browse" to find the file and then on "UPLOAD" to make it available.
(8) In your message feel free to ask any questions/make comments, etc.

Good luck!

[Ferrari]

Hi,

This is the start up applications for my laptop computer. I will also do one for my parents computer...which seems to be the slower computer at start up, but both I think could use some help. I hope that is ok.

Also, I checked the two boxes for a full list or whatever...didn't know if I needed to do that...let me know if you just want a normal or whatever.

Can you please educate me some on what I don't need? What I'm most interested in is knowing what applications are absolutely necessary and the ones that are valuable. Like ones needed for windows, or Anti-virus/SpybotSD Tea Timer. Etc.

I really would like to just be able to do this myself and not have to make a new topic everytime I notice a huge amount of icons on my taskbar at the right by the clock. Is there a way to make sure they don't reappear there? I noticed on AOL, just by my mom having to open AOL back up...the spyscanner runs at start up now and the AOL icon is back on the taskbar.

Anyways...I will put my parents computer on here next. Thank you!

Edited by Ferrari, 17 February 2009 - 10:07 PM.

[Ferrari]

Here is my parents. See the above post for mine. Thanks!

[Facedown98]

I'm sorry. Seems to be programs in the list that really don't load on startup - it's reading what you've got open right now. Please run the HijackThis utility as soon as you logon to Windows --- before you open Firefox, etc.

Remember not to make any changes with HijackThis. The only thing you are to do is what I instruct you. As a Geek-U student you will learn the power of that application before long.

[Ferrari]

Here is mine...the Dell Inspiron 6000. I will have to get my parents later tonight.

[Facedown98]

Thanks

I feel that the following processes are being started unnecessarily at startup. According to my research these processes can be removed without any harm to your system

(1) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\AppleMobileDeviceService.exe
(2) C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe
(3) C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jqs.exe
(4) C:\WINDOWS\System32\TUProgSt.exe

You don't seem to have much going on which is good. Disabling these from running at startup may not show any dramatic difference, but it's a little less weight for the system to carry.

The first process detects Apple devices such as an IPOD. I have disabled this on my computer and have seen no performance issues on the PC itself or on my IPOD.

The second process is another Apple product. This service is "described as a zero configuration networking process that provides an automatic discovery feature for services, devices, and computers that are residing on IP based networks." (Uniblue. Click here for additional reading)

The third process is the Java Quick Starter. It's there to help load Java Applets more quickly. This process only uses about 2 MB of virtual memory so I'm not worried about it, but nevertheless, it's extra weight.

The fourth process belongs to Tune Up Utilities. It could be a service which launches a scheduled system optimization, etc. If you have not installed Tune Up Utilities, let me know, as this may be a sign of a more serious issue.

It sounds like you are familiar with how to trim processes down using msconfig --- according to Artellos' guide. If you ave questions, feel free to let me know though!


It looks like you're good on startup processes. I'm not concerned with anything else that I saw. So we have a few choices to help make you faster...

(1) You can bump of your Virtual Memory a bit. Encase you aren't familiar with it, Virtual Memory is hard disk space which acts like RAM in order help your PC process things when it needs the room. Virtual Memory is not as fast as a physical RAM stick because it has to write/read from the hard disk which is a longer process than going through RAM sticks. It doesn't hurt to bump this up a bit. It may or may not help depending on your system load.

(2) If you don't care too much for the funny Windows XP Jellybean colors on the Taskbar or the Start button, you can disable them. This gives the PC less work to do as far as building a GUI using those strange colors. Without them you would have the "Classic" interface which looks like the Task Bar and Start Button from Safe Mode. Plain and simple.

(3) Add more RAM to the system depending on your configuration.

(4) See Michael's guide to Windows XP Tweaks. Some of these will help with performance. Click here to have a look. The guide is excellent

Keep me posted. If you want to remove the jellybean Windows XP Colors, etc. Feel free to ask and I will post instructions. I don't post them automatically just because I want to know how to feel first. This is within the customizing realm, so there's no need for me to say that you MUST do this or that. It's your call.

Good luck!

[Ferrari]

Thanks, I just go to msconfig to take those out?

The fourth process belongs to Tune Up Utilities. It could be a service which launches a scheduled system optimization, etc. If you have not installed Tune Up Utilities, let me know, as this may be a sign of a more serious issue.

I installed the trial of Tune Up Utilities, so no worries. The trial just ended so I will take it off. I guess I should uninstall it in add/remove too.

I know how to do the things you mentioned at the bottom of your post, so I will take a look at all of that.

I will read Michaels guide and get back to you if I have any questions.

Also, I will want to be posting my parents start up list also. Theres is the slower one on start up. Everything else seems ok I guess. I just have a hard time knowing what is ok to check off and wants not in msconfig.

Do I just google it to find out what it is and what it does?

Thanks and I will keep in touch

Edited by Ferrari, 18 February 2009 - 11:16 PM.

[Facedown98]

Yes, remove them from the list the same way you did earlier when following Artellos' instructions.

I'm glad to see you used Tune Up Utilities at some point. That practically eliminates the possibility that the process is Malware

As far as looking up what various things do, you can perform a search for what the process is. Try to choose credible sources such as the Process Library, etc. You'll know the credible ones from the not so credible ones as you see them. Also keep an open eye for potential Malware. If the system is abnormally slow or acts strange, then it might be best to have a Malware Specialist look over the HijackThis logfile first. This will eliminate the potential for Malware to be running around on the system. The big thing to remember is that if you don't know what something is and your searches aren't helping you much... Leave it alone! Ask around a bit and get a good answer before hitting the red button.

Let me know if you have any questions

[Ferrari]

Here is my parents start up list. Thanks for the tips, I really do appreciate it. I have a few things I need to take care of today and then I'm going to take a look at Michaels guide. I enjoy fine tuning and such...it feels good.

[Ferrari]

Hi again,

When I go into msconfig and click on the startup tab the only things that have a check mark next to them are avg, zalarm, teatime, ctfmon, and Erunt. I don't know what ctfmon is, but where is the 2 apples, the tune up utilities, and java ones you mentioned? Am I not in the right place?

Also, see the previous post for my parents computers start up list.

Thanks and let me know,

[Facedown98]

Should be in the right place.

I wouldn't want to disable them as a service because you may need them --- just not at startup.

On the second list you sent I would remove...

F:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe
F:\Program Files\TuneUp Utilities 2009\MemOptimizer.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLAcsd.exe
F:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\TopSpeed\2.0\aoltsmon.exe
F:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jqs.exe
F:\WINDOWS\System32\TUProgSt.exe

You have AOL in there a couple of times, a couple of Tune Up Utilities and some Java update scheduling applications. You don't really need any of those at startup.

[Ferrari]

Thank you. I will do all that. Thanks for your help with everything.

Ferrari