[titan7342]

I seem to have a large amount of running processes using alot of memory in windows XP and I am not sure if they should all be there. Is there a way to get rid of some of these safely, and if so how do I know which ones to actually get rid of? Can someone please help me?

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Stop all the things you don't need to startup with your pc:

You don't need any sort of instant messenging servide to startup, but you can start it when you want it. You don't need a microsoft office toolbar to startup, but you can use it when you want to. You should let your antivirus program startup though, pretty much a need. You do want your spyware detection programs to startup, but you don't need quicktime, schedulers, volume controllers, toolbars, or anything like that. If you had the extra memory to play with then sure, but if you want pure performance, then stick to what you need. Here's some tips to better performance.

Disable as much stuff from starting with windows as possible. Check the startup folder (start, all programs, startup) and remove anything you know you don't need. Any of this stuff you disable from startup can be manually started when you want to use it. Click Start, Run, and type "msconfig" without the quotes hit enter. Click the startup tab on the top right of the window. You can disable anything in here you don't actually need too, technically you don't NEED any of it, but you should keep the antivirus programs and stuff like that running. Also the first thing you should do before any of this is find any program that is starting up and go into the options (in the program, or usually you can right click it if it is in the system tray at the bottom right of the screen and click properties or options and disable it from starting up) and disable it from starting up. Definitely should defragment your hard drive. Go to "My Computer" right click your hard drive and click "Properties" then click the "tools" tab at the top and click "defragment now" it will take awhile, especially if it hasn't been done in awhile or ever. Make sure to defrag at least once a month, but more if you install and/or uninstall programs alot, or after installing a large program. I would suggest doing that last and maybe start it and go to bed, in the morning it will be done. Run the error/disk checking tool too, before you defrag. Make sure your pagefile is a good size too. Go to "Control Panel", "system", "advanced" tab, click the "settings" button in the "visual performance" area. Click the "advanced" tab and click "change" near the bottom and change the pagefile size to 1.5-3 times the size of the amount of RAM you have. So if you have 256mb of ram, make your pagefile anywhere from 375-756mb. You will have to reboot for that to take effect. Make sure you aren't running short on hard drive space though, because the pagefile takes up that much hard drive space. A little trick to defragging your pagefile would be to set your pagefile to 0 after you have done all the adjustments to the rest of the pc and then reboot. Defragment your computer and when it's done set the pagefile to the size you want it to be (as talked about above) and reboot the computer. Fresh clean pagefile. Let me know how it works. I have all sorts of other little tweaks you can do to add performance.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Stop all the things you don't need to startup with your pc:

You don't need any sort of instant messenging servide to startup, but you can start it when you want it. You don't need a microsoft office toolbar to startup, but you can use it when you want to. You should let your antivirus program startup though, pretty much a need. You do want your spyware detection programs to startup, but you don't need quicktime, schedulers, volume controllers, toolbars, or anything like that. If you had the extra memory to play with then sure, but if you want pure performance, then stick to what you need. Here's some tips to better performance.

Disable as much stuff from starting with windows as possible. Check the startup folder (start, all programs, startup) and remove anything you know you don't need. Any of this stuff you disable from startup can be manually started when you want to use it. Click Start, Run, and type "msconfig" without the quotes hit enter. Click the startup tab on the top right of the window. You can disable anything in here you don't actually need too, technically you don't NEED any of it, but you should keep the antivirus programs and stuff like that running. Also the first thing you should do before any of this is find any program that is starting up and go into the options (in the program, or usually you can right click it if it is in the system tray at the bottom right of the screen and click properties or options and disable it from starting up) and disable it from starting up. Definitely should defragment your hard drive. Go to "My Computer" right click your hard drive and click "Properties" then click the "tools" tab at the top and click "defragment now" it will take awhile, especially if it hasn't been done in awhile or ever. Make sure to defrag at least once a month, but more if you install and/or uninstall programs alot, or after installing a large program. I would suggest doing that last and maybe start it and go to bed, in the morning it will be done. Run the error/disk checking tool too, before you defrag. Make sure your pagefile is a good size too. Go to "Control Panel", "system", "advanced" tab, click the "settings" button in the "visual performance" area. Click the "advanced" tab and click "change" near the bottom and change the pagefile size to 1.5-3 times the size of the amount of RAM you have. So if you have 256mb of ram, make your pagefile anywhere from 375-756mb. You will have to reboot for that to take effect. Make sure you aren't running short on hard drive space though, because the pagefile takes up that much hard drive space. A little trick to defragging your pagefile would be to set your pagefile to 0 after you have done all the adjustments to the rest of the pc and then reboot. Defragment your computer and when it's done set the pagefile to the size you want it to be (as talked about above) and reboot the computer. Fresh clean pagefile. Let me know how it works. I have all sorts of other little tweaks you can do to add performance.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[titan7342]

thanks it seems to have helped a little but I also seem to have some slow down when I open IE. I am using a cable connection thru a local network if that makes any difference. Any advice on that to maybe help speed things up?

[titan7342]

I tried to set the paging system to 0 and then defrag but now my cpu will not boot correctly I keep getting a message staing the my memory is low and I need to adjust it but when I get to the desk top I have no icons and no start menu. How do I fix this problem if I can't get to the start menu?

Stop all the things you don't need to startup with your pc:

You don't need any sort of instant messenging servide to startup, but you can start it when you want it.  You don't need a microsoft office toolbar to startup, but you can use it when you want to.  You should let your antivirus program startup though, pretty much a need.  You do want your spyware detection programs to startup, but you don't need quicktime, schedulers, volume controllers, toolbars, or anything like that.  If you had the extra memory to play with then sure, but if you want pure performance, then stick to what you need.  Here's some tips to better performance.

Disable as much stuff from starting with windows as possible.  Check the startup folder (start, all programs, startup) and remove anything you know you don't need.  Any of this stuff you disable from startup can be manually started when you want to use it.  Click Start, Run, and type "msconfig" without the quotes hit enter.  Click the startup tab on the top right of the window.  You can disable anything in here you don't actually need too, technically you don't NEED any of it, but you should keep the antivirus programs and stuff like that running.  Also the first thing you should do before any of this is find any program that is starting up and go into the options (in the program, or usually you can right click it if it is in the system tray at the bottom right of the screen and click properties or options and disable it from starting up) and disable it from starting up.  Definitely should defragment your hard drive.  Go to "My Computer" right click your hard drive and click "Properties" then click the "tools" tab at the top and click "defragment now" it will take awhile, especially if it hasn't been done in awhile or ever.  Make sure to defrag at least once a month, but more if you install and/or uninstall programs alot, or after installing a large program.  I would suggest doing that last and maybe start it and go to bed, in the morning it will be done.  Run the error/disk checking tool too, before you defrag.  Make sure your pagefile is a good size too.  Go to "Control Panel", "system", "advanced" tab, click the "settings" button in the "visual performance" area.  Click the "advanced" tab and click "change" near the bottom and change the pagefile size to 1.5-3 times the size of the amount of RAM you have.  So if you have 256mb of ram, make your pagefile anywhere from 375-756mb.  You will have to reboot for that to take effect.  Make sure you aren't running short on hard drive space though, because the pagefile takes up that much hard drive space.  A little trick to defragging your pagefile would be to set your pagefile to 0 after you have done all the adjustments to the rest of the pc and then reboot.  Defragment your computer and when it's done set the pagefile to the size you want it to be (as talked about above) and reboot the computer.  Fresh clean pagefile.  Let me know how it works.  I have all sorts of other little tweaks you can do to add performance.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Try booting in safe mode. Start pressing F8 right after the first screen comes up when you turn your computer on. A list of startup options will be shown, choose safe mode. Once in there if you cannot see the start button still, press the "windows" key and "r" at the same time. (hopefully you have one, it's between ctrl and alt to the left of the spacebar) type "control" and your control panel should pop up. Let me know what happens, I will help you solve this if it does not work. Also you could press ctrl+alt+del when in windows and click "file" on the top left of task manager and click "new task (run)" type "explorer.exe" without the quotes, this should load the taskbar and start button. If you can get a taskbar and start button, click Start, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Click "Restore My Computer to an earlier time" choose a time before you changed your settings and restore it. It will be back to the way it was.

Do you remember all what you did to your pc that may have caused this?

-=jonnyrotten=-

[titan7342]

Thanks but I fixed it I hade to do a repair on XP but it is fixed. While doing the repair Windows XP noticed that my pagefile system memory was set to 0 and corrected the problem.

[Yarnouth]

You could set your page file to an additional slave drive if you have one. I've found an improvement in performance myself from this. Setting it to 0 defeats it's own purpose and affects the way your system operates. Glad you managed to sort it out.

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

That sounds kind of strange, cuz I defrag my pagefile like that all the time. Well everytime I defrag the hard drive. Anyways, I'm glad to hear you have everything sorted out.

-=jonnyrotten=-