Re: What to save before reformatting


"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Okpp24e9GHA.568@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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




Thanks. I'll try Malke's program. I'm not familiar with it but will check
into it this week.

The only programs that cause this problem are newsgroups (running under OE)
and IE, but it happens several times every day and is very frustrating. I
always lose the document I was working on, in addition to not being
forwarded to the link -- I can always get back, but it is truly annoying.
In fact, this is a much bigger problem than the computer slowing down
because my computer is still faster than what I usually see in other places.
I am using Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180.... I am connected through cable
from SuddenLink (formerly Cox).

MaryL


.

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