Re: What to save before reformatting
- From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 08:24:46 -0700
MaryL wrote:
"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uBxGVrZ9GHA.536@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yes, it will take many hours or days, and as I said, my guess is that
you'll soon find your self back in the same situation.. My advice is
not to do this, but to address the problems you have. Describe your
probelms here, and it's likely that someone can help you and you
won't have to reformat.
--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
Okay, I would like to try. I would much rather *not* reformat, but I
did post a question about this earlier without any success. There
were some suggestions, but I did not succeed. One person recommended
that I look at Event Logs, but I did not understand them.
First, the computer has gotten much slower. That could be "bloat"
because of too many programs. One problem is that some of the
programs came preinstalled, and I simply don't know if it's safe to
get rid of some of them.
No, how many programs you have installed has no effect on performance. Only
programs that are running can affect performance. Those that are just
installed can waste a little disk space if you don't use them, but there's
no other downside to having them installed.
However if you want to get rid of an installed program and you're not sure
whether it's safe, tell us its name and ask about it here.
Also you may have some of these programs running in the background and it's
very possible that one or more of those can affect performance. Here's my
standard message on this subject:
On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its Options to
see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you actually choose the
option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily
and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the
Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't
want to start automatically.
However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of running
the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell you, you
should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs you run, but
*which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no
effect on performance.
Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is
determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost
in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information
about these at http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.
Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
But the first thing anyone experiencing poor performance these days should
do is investigate the possibility of malware infestation. This is the most
common cause of such problems. I recommend that you go to Malke's Malware
Removal site at
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware and
follow the instructions there.
There are some, of course, that I can get
rid of, and that part would be simple.
Second, I get very frequent "nonresponsive program" errors where the
screen freezes and I have to use alt/ctrl/del. This brings up the
dialog box which shows
the program is nonresponsive (and a request to send a report).
That could be malware too. Even though you run SS&D and Adaware (which are
both good), they don't catch everything and you could still be infected. Try
Malke's site above, and if that doesn't help, then let us know what programs
these are.
--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
On
some occasions, I have to reboot because the 3 keys won't work. This
occurs when I am using IE or newsgroups, and it happens without any
warning. I will click on a link, and nothing happens -- then I know
the gremlin has struck again! This happens several times a day and
is really annoying. It most often happens when I click on a link
within newsgroups and sometimes when I click on a link in IE. They
are innocuous, "safe" links -- such as a link within CNN.com. After
I reboot, I can usually click on the same link and have no problem.
I am using a Compaq Presario 8000 running Win XP-Home Edition with
Service Pack 2 and updates, and I have a LinkSys wireless-G router
(2.4GB). It is a Pentium IV CPU, 2.40 GHz, 512 MB of RAM. I use AVG
for anti-virus checks. I regularly run Ad-Aware and Spy Bot. I clean
the cache daily, and sometimes more often if I have accessed bank
accounts or credit card information. The Windows Firewall is turned
on. The computer has a DVD+R/RW drive, 120GB primary hard disk, 80GB
Maxtor 7200 RPM secondary hard disk, and Iomega internal Zip 250 MB
drive. I use Sudden Link (previously Cox) Internet via cable.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
MaryL
.
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